text
stringlengths
2.66k
5.61k
author
int64
1
50
to the effect desired on public feeling all this author s works has excited the interest a belief that the well known talents of walter scott were in tlie previous of the author whoever he be the value of the copy right and by the of its merits entertained by the asia reasonable to conclude by tliat of the critics � all these circumstances had raised curiosity to the very of breathless expectation it was no doubt to � this large demand of interest a vigorous deep and extensive reading of men and manners of a towering commanding and every to the purpose could alone have in a conscious and ability to meet iti but notwithstanding the local application of some of the incidents the recourse had occasionally to a dialect now fast into and though appropriate enough in the scenes introduced yet scarcely to u majority of renders here the of rob has exceeded that of all and left merits to be settled with the most of of the author of such a work wc are naturally desirous to know the name and condition and it in but reasonable to endeavour to discover to whom we arc under obligation for instruction amusement on this point curiosity remains for in the advertisement to the reader wc recognize the same desire of lo expressed in the later of and which and now repeated i h � l review the thai some object exist to influence mind t i ic to tliis object wc have reason to believe i altogether with tlie merits of the work for there ia tn it as well u the other pi of the � writer every thing to admire and nothing morally or to blame neither are there can displeasure nor as in the of provoke personal but like mm u � the of the following might shelter the tint ever writer is like the celebrated only a and thai u h an apparition of a more m� well n much lie be bound to plead to charge ot in appearing again the about two years in work called he he was for the last in his present capacity as if to shift an that might be inconvenient if attach in the main the humble character of � i seems purposely assumed and in support of this disguise the credit of the appears divided with a supposed unknown its it is now about six since the author through the medium his respectable ed a parcel of papers containing outlines of this narrative with a permission or with � highly terms thai they might be given to the with such alterations ss be found suitable these were of m numerous that besides the of names and of too much to reality the work may in a great be new written several have probably crept in during course of these changes and the for the chapters have been without to date of the ts for these of course the is some others occurred in the materials hut they ai e of little id point of minute accuracy it be that the te over the i near the hamlet of had not an ago it does not become the to be ihe to out and he takes this public to thank ihe unknown � to reader will owe ihe of any amusement which he may derive from the have quoted this introduction with a view to show the displayed in leading the of the reader to some uncertain point where it is left to rest and diverted from too n� e a gaze at the nearer i as also the desire to have to himself but to the unknown and correspondent the principal share of die work motives to this ji is believed are too to its probability h tale of is unfolded in n narrative of frank the son of an eminent merchant in the city of london addressed to friend ill an a ct � and adventures a most of life his father a true of the old school h id placed the in a counting ni and at it wm usual formerly to send s firm for some years with a view to gain experience of foreign transactions acquire habits frank o have been one of those e minds are powerfully attracted by generous objects of pursuit till they lose sight of views and lor i in their pa v� ion for the of what is in tlie language of the exchange the chance accordingly the of the parent arc the of the arc deserted for the pages of the muse and the promised successor to a concern adds one to many living instances of the folly of for the of a child frank is summoned to answer for his don compliance a of inquiry is held and to no good purpose r n is when nature and genius arc opposed were of the and the of his head frank i to the mansion of an uncle in the north in the hope that time and reflection with the fi ar of in favour of one of his cousins might work that revolution in opinion which s dusky atmosphere is calculated to inspire the j rendered as as one on along a u line of road could be supposed to find it company he falls in with tlie tavern scene and the character of prudence and intelligence displayed in one of the guests at the s table are si of and entertaining description attention is kept alive throughout � the sketches seem rather histories of facts of the they who have travelled much and become acquainted with those scenes will pronounce the to be most striking as the young man drew near to the mansion of the he thus describes the he had entered and never was description more more faithfully or more sweetly conveyed approached my north for such i esteemed it with which ind
48
thought i have seemed to myself lately he said to belong to that vast band of men by the virtuous � the men called it me when i think of it i have not been conscious of it or of any wrong doing towards you whom i love more than myself yet i am one of those men i wonder if any other of them are the same sim pie creatures as i yes that s what i am i you you were a distinct type � a refined creature intended by nature to be left but i couldn t leave you alone no no she said quickly don t reproach yourself with you are not if anybody is to blame it is i i supported you in your resolve to leave and without me perhaps you wouldn t have urged him to let you go i should have just the same as to ourselves the fact of our not having entered into a legal contract is the saving feature in our union we have thereby avoid at again ed insulting as it were the solemnity of our first marriages solemnity looked at her with some surprise and grew conscious that she was not the sue of their earlier time yes she said with a little quiver in her words i have had dreadful fears a dreadful sense of my own insolence of action i have thought � that i am still his wife whose richard s good god dearest � why oh i can t explain only the thought comes to me it is your a sick fancy without reason or meaning don t let it trouble you sue sighed uneasily as a set off against such as these there had come an improvement in their pecuniary position which earlier in their experience would have made them cheerful had quite unexpectedly found good employment at his old trade almost directly he arrived the summer weather his fragile constitution and outwardly his days went on with that monotonous which is in itself so grateful after people seemed to have forgotten that he had ever shown any awkward and he daily mounted to the and of he could never enter and renewed the crumbling of windows he would never look from as if he had known no wish to do otherwise a there was this change in him � that he did not often go to any service at the churches now one thing troubled him more than any other that sue and himself had mentally travelled in opposite directions since the tragedy events which had enlarged his own views of life laws customs and had not in the same manner on sue s she was no longer the same as io the obscure in the independent days when her intellect played like lightning over and which he had at that time respected though he did not now on a particular sunday evening he came in rather late she was not at home but she soon returned when he found her silent and meditative what are you thinking of little woman he asked curiously oh i can t tell clearly i have thought that we have been selfish careless even in our courses you and i our life has been a vain attempt at self delight but self is the higher road we should the flesh � the terrible flesh � the curse of adam sue he murmured what has come over you we ought to be continually sacrificing ourselves on the altar of duty but i have always to do what has pleased me i well deserved the i have got i wish something would take the evil right out of me and all my monstrous errors and all my sinful ways sue � my own too suffering dear � there s no evil woman in you your natural instincts are perfectly healthy not quite so impassioned perhaps as i could wish but good and dear and pure and as i have often said you are absolutely the most ethereal least woman i ever knew to exist without why do you talk in such a changed way we have not been selfish except when no one could profit by our being otherwise you used to say that human nature was noble and long suffering not vile and corrupt and at last i thought you spoke truly and now you seem to take such a much lower view i want a humble heart and a mind and i have never had them yet you have been fearless both as a and as a and you deserved more admiration than i gave i was too full of narrow at that time to see it don t say that i wish my every fearless word at again and thought could be rooted out of my history � that s everything i cannot myself too much i should like to myself all over with pins and out the that s in me hush he said pressing her little face against his breast as if she were an infant it is that has brought you to this such remorse is not for you my sensitive plant but for the wicked ones of the earth � who never feel it i ought not to stay like this she murmured when she had remained in the position a long while why not it is indulgence still on the same tack but is there anything better on earth than that we should love one another yes it depends on the sort of love and yours � ours � is the wrong i won t have it sue come when do you wish our marriage to be signed in a she paused and looked up uneasily never she whispered not knowing the whole of her meaning he took the objection serenely and said nothing several minutes elapsed and he thought she had fallen asleep but he spoke softly and
45
during or directly after the close of the war and one of the most obvious duties on the continental which held its in philadelphia directly after the close of that struggle was the of an act or for the government of the vast domain thus committed to its care and disposal the responsible of this was by oa a select committee of mr of va chase of md and of r i who in due time reported a plan for the government of the western territory contemplating tbe whole rf ion included our boundaries west of the old thirteen and as far south as our st decree of north latitude territory as yet partially to the but wliich was expected to be so and embracing several of our present slave states this plan contemplated the division of this territory into seventeen state eight of them situated below the parallel of the falls of the and nine above it among other rules reported from this committee by mr foi the government of this vast region was the following tbat year of be slavery � in any of mid in in of whereof the ill have convicted lo be � having the report under consideration mr of n moved the striking out of thk i a � t he above mr bead of c the motion tbe and days being required by mr were ordered put in this form � shall the to be ont stand � and decided aa follows it mr b i ay i � y � by ay hand by j � � � o j o � � s ft no read no so the waa lost aud tbe words were struck ont lost � states aye to only three and of the members s resent fifteen for to six against mr s proposition bnt the articles of required a vote of nine states to carry a proposition and failing to receive so many this comprehensive slavery from the was the after some further was finally approved april all the but pose from in tbe in the continental in new york with of the government of the territory raising a ef which of was that committee reported an for of the territory of the united states of the � the area contemplated by mr s bill having been by the southern states claiming dominion over it bill embodied many of the provisions originally and reported by mr but some and with � ix able articles of perpetual compact tbe of them as follows � there bo in ihe � md bo to this was added prior to its passage � ti wa foi ths j of from labor or service soon after embodied in the and in this shape tbe was adopted july th by a unanimous vote and tbe ni the old articles of having proved inadequate to the creation and maintenance of a capable and efficient national or central authority a of from tbe several states was a � in philadelphia io � george washington president result of its labors was our present constitution though some mainly of tbe nature of on power were proposed by the several state assembled to pass upon that and adopted the following are all tlie of that instrument which are presumed to relate to the of slavery � we of the in order to form o more perfect union provide f r ihe the i tlie of liberty to and our do and this constitution for united stole of all l � ball h � l� fin code of a and � of j � � and shall ba lie states h may to their be determined by adding to the number of free bound to years and not i of all other duty be imposed exceeding ten dollars � ihe of he writ of not be n bon in of rebellion or the public may re no bill of or � z � be passed art iii treason the c� only war them or in to their giving aid and � art iv i l be of h bo entitled to all lie of citizens iu ko held to service or labor in state under laws thereof into another in of any law or therein be from or labor but shall bo delivered up on claim of party to whom such service or labor may b� i a new may be admitted by the union bu no new shell be formed or erected any other stale any state be formed by or more or to the the of th of tbe u w of uie tbe fame la of and ill needful rules the or property t and in be bo to pr ny of the united or of any � to every in this rt form of and each of them i and on of oc of be against be made in � thereof all tbe made or be made of be law of the land and tiie in state be bound thereby in the or laws of any stale to the ing the above are and perhaps more than all � the or the that have been on side or the as bearing upon the of slavery it will be noted word or � slavery not appear therein mr who waa a and observant member of the and who took of its daily proceedings that silence waa � the unwilling that the of the states should recognize property in bein in slaves are presumed to ho they are na � never aa property temporary history proves that it waa the belief of at t a portion of the that slavery could not long survive the final of the which was expected to and did and were slavery day banished forever from the there might indeed m some in the compact or but are none which need be or essentially modified a direct provision for the restoration
19
see that he had come only because be had to go through the form of to her certain measures to be taken at was beginning to feel the physical reaction of her struggle with the mare the fatigue which at first had her nerves now woke them to sensibility and an appealing word from her husband would have drawn her to his arms but his answer seemed to drive all the blood back to her heart i don t see why you still go through the form of consulting me about when you have always done just as you pleased there without ard to me or made no answer silenced by the of hearing the same old grievance on her lips and she too seemed struck after she had spoken by the of such the fruit of the m it doesn t of i ll do wish she went on but i could have seat my signature if that is all you came for thanks said coldly i shall remember that the next time they stood silent for a moment he with his fixed on her she with averted head twisting her riding whip t her fingers then she said suddenly we shall be late for dinner and passing into her dressing room she the door roused himself as she disappeared he exclaimed moving toward her but as he approached the door he heard her maid s voice within and turning away he went to his own room came down late to dinner with vivid and an air of ease and the manner of her en trance combined with her husband s arrival produced in their observant guests the sense of latent mr though evidently unaware of his son in law s return till they greeted each other in the drawing room was too good a card player to betray surprise and mrs herself in the delicate art of taking everything for granted but these very sharpened tlie perception of the other guests whom long practice had rendered expert in such signs � the fruit of the tree of all this was aware and conscious also that by every one but herself the suspected between the was regarded as turning merely on the question of money to the greater number of persons present there was in fact no other conceivable source of discord since every known could be adjusted by means of the universal it was this of view which bound together in the of a new the members of s world r which supplied them with their pass words and social and defended them securely against the attack of ideas the genius of history directing the of its sometimes lets the drama through a series of and then suddenly the pace into one scene the stuff of a dozen the chance meeting of and seemingly of no significance to either contained the of of which both had b un to be aware before the evening was over their short talk � the first really intimate exchange of words between them � had the effect of creating a sense of that grew in the atmosphere of the dinner table was always reluctant to take part in s � the of the tree week end dinners but as she descended the stairs thai evening she did not regret having to be present she frankly wanted to see his tone his view of life her own restored her faith in the reality and importance of au that ignored and excluded her extreme to surrounding of thought and told her as she at him between the flowers and candles of the long dinner table that he too was aware of the same effect and it flashed across her that they were unconsciously drawn together by the fact that they were the only two strangers in the room every one else had the same spoke the same language drew on the same stock of allusions used the same and measures in persons and actions between s indolent of mind and the processes of the rosy there was a difference of degree but not of kind if viewed the spectacle more it was not because he had the sense of its importance but because years of experience had him with its details and this familiarity with the world he lived in liad bred a profound contempt for any other in no way could tlie x of contact between and e been more vividly brought out than by from the currents of the fruit of the tree opinion about them seated in endurance at the foot of the table between mrs with her carefully distributed and with her reckless of pebbles seemed to as much of a stranger as herself among the people to whom his marriage had introduced him so strongly did she feel the sense of their common that it was no surprise to her when the men reappeared in the drawing room after dinner to have her host thread his way between the bridge tables straight to the comer where e sat s methods in the drawing room were as direct as in the cotton mill he always went up at once to the person he sought without preliminary waste of and on this occasion without knowing wliat had passed between himself and suspected from the appearance of both that their talk had resulted in increasing s desire to be with one to whom he could speak freely and naturally on the subject nearest his heart she l at once to question him about and the in his face showed tliat liis work was still a refuge from all that made life and unintelligible convictions had been or in him his faith in the im of his ta k remained and the firmness with which lie held to it filled with a sense of his strength s the fruit of the tree � than a haunting dream but her promise to see the
10
i had your reflections i should feel as if the charitable dress would my child and the education choke him for the matter of that � but mrs didn t know it � he had been pretty well by the dress already and as to the education even its effect might be produced in time for it was a storm of sobs and blows said mr it is not necessary to these observations the woman is discharged and son and paid you leave this house for taking my son � my son said mr emphatically repeating these two words into haunts and into society which are not to be thought of without a shudder as to the accident which miss this morning i regard that as in one great sense a happy and fortunate circumstance inasmuch as but for that occurrence i never could have known � and from your own lips too � of what you had been guilty i think the other nurse the young person here miss sobbed aloud being so much younger and necessarily influenced by paul s nurse may remain have the goodness to direct that this woman s coach is paid to � mr stopped and � to s moved towards the door with holding to her dress and crying to hen in the most pathetic manner not to go away it was a dagger in the haughty other s heart an arrow in his brain to see how the flesh and blood he could not clung to this obscure stranger and he sitting by not that he cared to whom his daughter turned or from whom turned away the swift sharp agony struck through him as he thought of what his son might do his son cried that night at all events to say poor paul had better reason for his tears than sons of that age often have for he had lost his second mother � his first so far as he knew � by a stroke as sudden as that natural which had darkened the of his life at the same blow his sister too who cried herself to sleep so mournfully had lost as good and true a friend but that is quite beside the question let us waste no words about it and son chapter vn a bird s glimpse of miss s i also of the state of miss s affections miss inhabited a dark little house that had been squeezed at some remote period of english history into a fashionable neighborhood at the west end of the town where it stood in the shade like a poor relation of the great street round the comer coldly looked down upon by mighty it was not exactly in a court and it was not exactly in a yard but it was in the of no rendered anxious and haggard bj distant double the name of this retirement where grass grew between the in the stone pavement was princess s place and in princess s place was princess s chapel with a bell where sometimes as many as five and twenty people attended service on a sunday the princess s arms was also there and much resorted to by splendid a chair was kept inside the railing before the princess s arms but it had never come out within the memory of man and on fine mornings the top of every rail there are forty as miss had often counted was decorated with a pot there was another private house besides miss s in princess s place not to mention an immense pair of gates with an immense pair of lion headed on and son then which were never opened by any chance and were lo a entrance to a indeed there was a of in the air of princess s place j and miss s bedroom which was at the back commanded a vista of where at whatever sort of work engaged were continually accompanying themselves with noises and where the most domestic and garments of and heir wives and families usually like s on the outward walls at his private house in prince ss s by a retired who had married a house keeper were let furnished to a single to wit a wooden feat ui ed blue faced major with his eyes out of his head in whom miss recognised as she herself expressed it something so truly military and between whom nod herself an occasional of newspapers and and such was through the medium of a dark servant of the major s miss was quite content to as a native without connecting him any idea whatever perhaps there never was a smaller entry and stair than the entry and staircase of miss s house p� is taken from top to bottom it was the most inconvenient httle house in england and the but then miss said what a situation i there was very daylight lo be got there in the winter no sun at the best of times air was out of the question and was walled out still miss of the situation i so said the blue faced major whose eyes were starting out of his head who in s place and who delighted to turn and son the conversation at his club whenever he could to something connected with some of the great people in the great street round the corner that he might have the satisfaction of saying they were his neighbors the dingy inhabited by miss was her own having been devised and to her by the deceased owner of the eye in the of whom a miniature portrait with a powdered head and a balanced the kettle on opposite sides of the parlor fire place the greater part of the furniture was of the powdered head and period a always and its four bow legs in somebody s way and an illuminated round the maker s name with a painted of
8
folding her white arms sparkling with gold and gems upon her swelling breast turned away her eyes if she had been less h and less stately in her cold composure she might not have had the power of him with the sense of disadvantage that penetrated through his utmost pride but she had the power and he felt it keenly he glanced round the room saw how the splendid means of al and the luxuries of dress were scattered and there and disregarded not in mere caprice and or so he thought but in a steadfast haughty disregard of costly things and felt it more and more of flowers feathers jewels and look where he would he saw riches despised poured out and made of no account the very diamonds � a marriage � that rose and fell upon her bosom seemed to to break the chain that clasped them round her neck and roll down on the floor where she might tread upon them s i and son he felt his disadvantage and he showed it solemn and strange among this wealth of color and glitter strange and constrained towards its haughty mistress whose beauty it repeated and presented all around him as in so many fragments of a mirror he was conscious of embarrassment and awkwardness nothing that to her self possession could fail to him and irritated with himself he sat down and went on in no improved humor mrs it is very necessary that there should be some understanding arrived at between us your conduct does not please me madam she merely glanced at him again and again averted her eyes but she might have spoken for an hour and expressed less i repeat mrs does not please me i have already taken occasion to request that it may be corrected i now insist upon it you chose a fitting occasion for your first remonstrance sir and you adopt a fitting manner and a fitting word for your second you insist to me madam said mr with his most ofi air of state i have made you my wife you bear my name you are associated with my position and my reputation i will not say that the world in general may be disposed to think you honored by that association but i will say that i am accustomed to insist to my and which may you be pleased to consider me she asked possibly i may think that my wife should partake � or does partake and cannot help of both characters mrs she bent her eyes upon him and set her trembling lips he saw her bosom throb and saw her face flush and turn white all this he could know and did but he could not know that one word was whispered in the deep s of her heart to keep her quiet and that the word was blind idiot rushing to a precipice he thought she stood in i we of him f you are too expensive madam said mr you and son are extravagant you waste a great deal of or what would be a great deal in the pockets of most gentlemen � in a kind of society that is useless to me and indeed that the whole is disagreeable to me i have to insist upon a total change in all these respects i know that in the novelty of possessing a of such means as fortune has placed at your disposal ladies are apt to run into a sudden extreme there has been more than enough of that extreme i beg that mrs s very different experiences may now come to the instruction of mrs still the fixed look the trembling lips the throbbing breast he face now crimson and now white and still the deep whisper speaking to her in the beating of her heart his insolence of self importance dilated as he saw this alteration in her swollen no less by her past scorn of him and his so recent feeling of disadvantage than by her present submission as he took it to be it became too mighty for his breast and burst all bounds why who could long resist his will and pleasure he had resolved to conquer her and look here you will further please madam said mr in a tone of sovereign command to understand distinctly that i am to be deferred to and obeyed that i must have a positive show and confession of deference before the world madam i am used to this i require it as my right in short i will have it i consider it no unreasonable return for the worldly advancement that has befallen you and i believe nobody will be surprised either at its being required from you or at your making it to me � to me he added with emphasis no word from her no change in her her eyes upon him i have learnt from your mother mrs said with importance what no doubt you know namely that is for her health mr has been so good � she changed suddenly her face and bosom glowed as if the red light of an angry sunset had been flung upon them not of the change and putting his own interpretation upon it mr resumed l and son mr has been ao good as to go down and � house there for a on the return of the establishment to london i take steps for its better management as i consider necessary one of these will be the engagement at if it is to be effected of a very respectable reduced person there a formerly employed in a situation of trust in my family to act as housekeeper an establishment like this presided over but mrs requires a competent head she had changed her attitude before he arrived at these words and bow sat � still looking at him burning a round and round upon
8
person who him than have him and not spend his money on himself how can trot and i do best upon our means what do you say say i interposed that i must do something go for a soldier do you mean returned my aunt alarmed or go to sea i won t hear of it you to be a we re not going to have any on the head in this family if you please sir i was about to explain that i was not desirous of introducing that mode of provision into the family when inquired if my rooms were held for any long term you come to the point my dear said my aunt they are not to be got rid of for six months at least unless they could be and that i don t believe the last man died here five people out of six would die � of course � of that woman in with the flannel i have a little ready money and i agree with you the best thing we can do is to live the term out here and get dick a bedroom hard by i thought it my duty to hint at the discomfort my aunt would sustain from living in a continual state of warfare with mrs but she disposed of that objection by declaring that on the first of she was prepared to astonish mrs for the whole remainder of her natural life i have been thinking said that if you had time the history a experience a good deal of time i am always disengaged after four or five o clock and i have time early in the in one way and another said i conscious of a little as i thought of the hours and hours i bad devoted to about town and to and fro the i have abundance of time i know you would not mind said coming to me and speaking in a low voice so full of sweet and hopeful consideration that hear it now the duties of a secretary mind my dear because continued doctor strong has acted on his intention of retiring and has come to live in london and he asked papa i know if he could recommend him me don t you think he would rather have his old pupil near him than anybody else dear said i what should i do without you you are always my good angel i told you so i never think of you in any other light answered with her pleasant laugh that one good angel meaning was enough and went on to remind me that the doctor had been used to occupy himself in his study early in the morning and in the evening � and that probably my leisure would suit his very well i was scarcely more delighted with the prospect of earning my own bread than with the hope of earning it under my old master in short acting on the advice of i sat down and wrote a letter to the doctor stating my object and to call on him next day at ten in the this i addressed to � for in that place so by t of david table to me he lived � and went and posted myself without losing a minute wherever was some agreeable token of her noiseless presence seemed inseparable from the place when i came back i found my aunt s birds hanging just as they had hung so long in the parlor window of the cottage and my easy chair my aunt s much easier chair in its position at the open window and even the round green fan which my aunt had brought away with her on to the window sill i knew who had done all this by its seeming to have quietly done itself and i should have known in a moment who had arranged my neglected books in the old order of my school days even if i had supposed to be miles away instead of seeing her busy with them and smiling at the disorder into which they had fallen my aunt was quite gracious on the subject of the thames it really did look very well with the sun upon it though not like the sea before the cottage but she could not towards the london smoke which she said everything a complete revolution in which bore a prominent part was being effected in every corner of my rooms in regard of this and i was looking on thinking how little even seemed to do with a good deal of bustle and how mu did without any bustle at all when a knock came at the door i think said turning pale it s papa he promised me that he would come i opened the door and admitted not only mr but i had not seen mr for some time i was prepared for a great change in him after what i had heard from j but his ance shocked me the personal and experience � it was not that he looked many years older though still dressed with the old scrupulous cleanliness or that there was an upon his face or that bis eyes were full and or that there was a trembling in his hand the cause of which i knew and had for some years seen at work it was not that he had lost his good looks or his old bearing a gentleman � for that he had bat the thing that struck me most was that with the evidences of his native superiority still upon him he should submit himself to that crawling of meanness the of the two natures in their relative positions s of power and mr s of dependence was a sight more painful to me than i can express if i had seen an taking command of a man i should hardly have thought
8
� and set down in a narrow angle off the strand and lighted by small lead windows which in america would strongly of days in fact we have scarcely any such buildings left s private offices were on the second floor up a small dingy staircase and the room itself was so small that it surprised me by its i could not call it dingy it was quaint rather in its atmosphere with a small open fire glowing in one comer a great desk entirely o a at forty out of keeping with the place in another a table a a number of photographs of framed and the rest books i think he for or difference between this and the average american business house but i do not think explanations are in order london is london i should be sorry if it were exactly like new york as it may yet become the and appealed to me as a fit atmosphere for a healthy business i should say here that this preliminary trip to london from level so far as was concerned was intended to accomplish three things first to give me a preliminary glimpse of london second to see that i was measured and examined for certain articles of clothing in which i was according to lacking and third to see that i attended the concert of a certain singer whose singing he thought i might enjoy it was most important that i should go because he had to go and since all that i did or could do was merely for my mill i was delighted to accompany him in many respects i wish to repeat here is one of the most delightful persons in the world he is a sort of modern beau with literary artistic and he loves order and refinement of course � things in their proper ways and places � as he loves hfe i suspect him at times of being somewhat of a in home and office matters but i am by no means sure that i am not doing him a grave injustice a more even well and soul who to get his way in some fashion or other if it takes him years to do it i never met he surely has the patience of fate and i think the true charity of a great heart now before i could be properly presented in london and elsewhere i needed a long a glimpse of london i list of things so this morning i had much to attend to since the matter of english and american money had been troubling me from the moment i reached that stage on my voyage where i began to pay for things out of my own pocket to the ship s servants i began complaining of my difficulties now i could n t figure out the tips to my own satisfaction and this irritated me i remember urging to make the whole matter clear to me which he did later he gave me a statement as to the relative value of the various pieces and what tips i should pay and how and when at hotels and country houses and this i followed here it is in leaving the hotel to morrow give the following tips maid gold i porter who looks after i outside man i if you reckon at a hotel to give d a day to the maid and the with a of i you will be doing handsomely on a visit on the supposition that they have only maids give the two maids whom you are likely to come across each when you come away on monday i am speaking of longer periods should be figured at d a day if on the other hand it is a large establishment � butler and footman � you would have to give the butler and the footman for a week end for longer periods more i cannot imagine anything more interesting than being introduced as i was by to the social character of london he was so intelligent and so very nice about it all now first he said we will get your glasses mended and then you want a bag and then some ties and and so on i have an appointment a at forty with you at your tailor s at eleven o clock where you arc to be measured for your and at eleven thirty at your s where you are to be measured for your fur coat and so on and so forth well come along we ll be off i have to smile when i think of it for i of all people am the least given to this matter of proper dressing and self and within reasonable limits represents the other extreme to him as i have said these things are exceedingly important the delicate manner in which he indicated and urged me into getting the things which would be all right without openly on them was most pleasing in england you know he would hint it is n t quite good form to wear a heavy striped tie with a frock coat � never a straight black and we never tie them in that fashion � always a simple knot my had to be striped for morning wear and my winged else i was in very bad form indeed i fell into the habit of asking what now london streets and shops as i first saw them interested me greatly i saw at once more than one would ordinarily see in new york and more high hats and � i could not tell for the � coats the were of mail men messenger boys and soldiers and all being different from what i had been accustomed to they interested me � the mail men particularly with a service cut square off at the top and the little messenger boys with their caps cocked over one ear amused
43
may again bring it under your notice that he was considering the necessity of adding a indeed i have some letters in which reference is made � if you would like to see them mr opened a drawer and taking out a bundle of letters he sought for one finding it he read a few lines and passed it across the table to then proposed that mr should write to miss asking her to come up to london to meet her cousin at his mr agreed to do this but after some further conversation in which the excellence of s feelings was evident mr was moved to advise to jump into the train and go down and see the young lady himself it is a delicate matter sir but if you run down as i advise and claiming relationship tell the young lady that you intend to settle three hundred a year upon her i venture to say you will please her more than if you fortune invited up here and settled six hundred a year mr threw himself back in his chair and a twinkle ran round the corner of his eyes and if you should ever feel inclined to call in the three hundred you so generously propose to settle on the young lady you will find that � mr finished his sentence with a laugh did not doubt that mr was right but he was a shy reserved man and felt he could not go down to and introduce himself to those two ladies mr tried to persuade him and finally the matter was mr promised to write to miss telling her of her cousin s desire to see her and asking her to send a trap to meet him at the station on monday if took the half past four train from victoria he would arrive at south water at six on saturday night went to see the last performance of on sunday he took out to dinner they dined at the the dinner was copious and expensive the wine was the but they both felt that their dinners in little had given them more pleasure hu vain fortune tried to talk to her about brown s new drama which they had just heard would follow divorce but he was unable to his thoughts from and the ladies he was going to visit to morrow evening they felt like two school fellows one of whom is leaving school the link that had bound them had snapped henceforth their ways lay separate and they were sad at parting just as school friends are sad to both of them their friendship seemed strangely there was a restlessness in their souls and yet both knew that they were not in love both felt however that things should have turned out differently the girl thought he should have finished the play he thought he ought to have married her you are not rich he said you offered to lend me money once i want to lend you some now oh yes she said with a sudden laugh five shillings wasn t it it doesn t matter what the sum was we were both very poor then and i m still poorer now all the more reason why you should allow vain fortune me to help you allow me to write you a for a hundred pounds i assure you i can afford it i think i had better not i have some things i can sell but you must not sell your things indeed you must allow me i think rd rather not i shall be all right � that is to say if ford me for brown s new piece and i think he will but if he doesn t then she said with a sweet and natural smile write to you we have been excellent friends comrades � have we not yes we have indeed and i shall never forget there is my address that will always find me next day he bade good by to the whole house � to mrs to and once more to he caught up his rug and a moment after he was driving toward victoria before he reached the railway station the last realities of the lodging house the good on the began to fade and he again lost himself in the and of the new life which chance had so unexpectedly thrust upon him like one in vain fortune he was prepared for everything anything might happen he had ceased to calculate had surrendered himself up to nature and puzzled by the of her he listened to the rattle of the train and took a vague joy in watching the white steam going out and over the rich country just beginning to into summer this house this property these ladies he wondered what they would say what he should say and in extreme regretted not having given the fuller instructions when he got out of the train a smart footman touched his hat and a fast trotting animal took him rapidly through a small red town into a fine open country the outlines of which were to grow dim in the setting light chapter vii next morning lay late in bed tempted by the of the sheets and the bright air and color of the room about half past ten he found his way into the dining room and remembering street he smiled when the butler proposed chicken on the there were a pale ham and a rich brown tongue mrs poured out a cup of coffee for him and boiled two eggs by lighting a spirit lamp beneath a pretty silver spirit apparatus that stood on the dining room table he asked after and was told she had quite recovered and was now in the flower garden seeing he had all he wanted she begged him to excuse her then his thoughts went to whom he imagined among the and
15
the bishop s and yet really they hardly see any other young men i think it is a very difficult position that of a bishop s wife lord smiled settling himself back in the comer of the wide sofa and crossing his long legs he had thought more deeply on a good many subjects than the majority of his acquaintance supposed with the consequence that he occasionally surprised his fellow by the of his observations in debate lord it may be added took his recently acquired office of hereditary with a mixture of humour and seriousness their position is an one he said and an position is inevitably a difficult one � ought to be so in my opinion but that s not to the point we were talking not about the ladies but about this little business of s so you believe lady has views and intentions i know that she has but you see lady went on returning to the name which that gentleman had rendered somewhat notorious in earlier years by a record in sport in debts in and in irresistible sweetness of temper � i want to be quite sure he is really good because the affair has not gone very far yet and it might be put a stop to � at least i hope and think it might � without making darling too dreadfully unhappy you do believe he really is good lord leaned forward and rubbed a hardly perceptible of off his left leg just above the ankle my dear con he answered you are very charming but you are a trifle embarrassing too you know the far horizon haven t you learned even at this time of day that very few men in our world are good in a good woman s sense of the word lady s smooth forehead into fine little lines dear she said you re not getting i hope me bless you no never in life he returned smiling very at her don t worry yourself under that head i quarrel with nobody and nothing not even the consequences of my past it is a very just world take it all and has been kinder to me than i deserve oh but you do nothing you � you are what � you won t think me rude � what the boys call very decent now lady spoke hurriedly her colour rising in the most engaging manner as decent as i know how you dear soul he said taking her hand in his but that makes no difference to one s knowledge of one s own ways in the past or of the ways of other men but barking neither better nor worse than the rest then lord shut his small and beautiful mouth very tight as though he would be glad to avoid further cross questioning lady s forehead remained it s dreadfully difficult when one s girls grow up she said one can be comfortable about them poor and enjoy them when they are in the nursery � even in the though are worrying they know so much about quantities of subjects which seem to me not to matter one never to them in ordinary and if one should the far horizon be to it is so easy to ask somebody to tell one and yet they manage to make me fed dreadfully uncomfortable and ignorant because i know nothing about them but when they grow � who the lord inquired i never supposed they stood in need of that process � thought they started out of the egg all finished as you might say and ran about at once like chickens no no the girls poor lady replied one does get dreadfully anxious about them really one does � specially if one has escaped something very and has been very happy � lest they should fall in love with the wrong people or lest they should be anything which one did not know beforehand and then everything should turn out dreadful i should be so miserable i don t think i could bear it i know it is wrong to say that because if one was really good one would accept whatever god sent without murmuring so i could for myself i think in any case i should earnestly try to but for the children it is so much harder if they were unhappy i should feel ashamed of having had them � as if i d done something horribly selfish because you see there can be nothing so delightful as having children she looked at lord in the most pathetic manner the comers of her mouth a shake and he took her hand and held it again touched by the sincerity of her confused utterance and the great mother love resident in her touched perhaps by the age old problem of man and maid also dear little con dear little con he said i m awfully sorry you should be worried but i m afraid we ve got to look facts in the face and it s no kindness for me to lie to you about these matters i don t pretend to say what s right or what s wrong x only say what it is we the far horizon can t make society and the ways of it all over again even to save a i don t want to seem a brute but she must just take her chance along with the rest of you marriage always has been a confounded uncertain business and will always remain so i suppose the sort of excited persons suggest to the dangers of it are a good deal worse than the disease in my opinion every woman has to take her chance every man has to take his too you know � and the chance strikes some of us as such an uncommonly poor one that upon my honour it seems safest to wash one
32
more favored brethren can do it there ought to be but one opinion as to its propriety and yet i fear the issue of this project the world is by of and who have taken to literature as in another age they would have taken to the highway � to procure an easy they write because they are too lazy to work or because they would scorn to live on the product of manual toil of genius they have mainly the � that is to say a strong to late hours hot and a profusion of gin and water though they are not particular about the water what needs above all things is from this regiment who should be taught some branch of honest industry and obliged to earn their living by it so far therefore am i from that every one who wishes cannot rush into print and joining in the general of for their to merit that i wish no man could have his book printed until he had the earned the cost thereof by labor that no one could live by until after he had practically both his ability and to earn his living in a different way i greatly fear the proposed even under the wisest will do as much harm as good by the tendency toward among thousands who never asked whether the world is likely to profit by their but only whether they may hope to profit by them if the should tend to increase the number of to the honors and rewards of it will more misery than it is likely to overcome however this is an attempt to mend the fortunes of unlucky british authors and as we americans habitually steal the productions of j and deliberately refuse them that protection to which all are justly entitled i feel myself fairly indebted to the class by the amount of my reading of their works to which in america is denied i meant to have attended the first dramatic entertainment given at house in aid of this enterprise but i did not apply for a ticket price � till too late so i took care to be in season for next time � that is tuesday evening of this week the play as before was not so bad as we seem or many sides to a character written expressly in aid of the by and performed at the town mansion of the duke of one of the most wealthy and popular of the british nobility on the former evening the queen and royal family attended with some scores of the nobility this time there was a of c but largely and the hour of was changed from to j p m the apartment devoted to the performance is a veiy fine one and the whole mansion though commonplace enough in its exterior is fitted up with ai wealth of im at carving c which can hardly be imagined the scenes were painted expressly in aid of the and admirably done the duke s private band played before and between the acts and nothing had been spared on his part to render the entertainment a pleasant one every seat was filled and at each and no expenses out a handsome sum must have been realized in aid of the benevolent enterprise the male as is well understood are all literary the ladies alone being by profession charles had the principal character � that of a though sound hearted young lord � and he played it very fairly but sits ill upon him and his best scene was one wherein he appears in disguise as a tempting the virtue of a author old was for the a young mr and seemed quite at home in the character it was better played than s the were indifferently or rather indifferently bad � and on the whole the performance was indebted for its main interest to the personal character of the i was not sorry when it was concluded after a brief interval for liberally proffered a comic mr s was given with far greater spirit the principal character � or rather the four or five principal characters � for the life of the piece is sustained by his appearance as a lawyer a servant a vigorous and active gentleman relieved of his by water cure a feeble invalid c c it is long since i saw much acting of any account but this seemed to me perfect and i am sure the raw material of a capital was put to a better use when charles took to other characters were fairly presented and the play heartily enjoyed throughout the curtain fell about half an hour past midnight amidst thb dinner tumultuous and protracted applause the company then mainly repaired to the supper room where a tempting display of luxuries and was provided for them by the of their noble host i did not venture to partake at that hour but those who did would be quite unlikely to repent of it � till morning thence they were gradually moving off to another superb apartment where the were beginning to give note of coming melody to which flying feet were eager to respond but i thought one o clock in the morning quite late enough for retiring and so came away before the first set was made up i do not doubt the dancing was maintained with spirit till broad daylight the dinner a entertainment was given on wednesday last evening by the ancient and honorable company of � this being their regular annual festival the is among the oldest and of the of london having acquired by or otherwise real estate which has been largely in value by the city s extension originally an association of actual for mutual service as well as the cultivation of good fellowship it has been gradually transformed by time s changes until now no single dealer in fish i understood
19
his like afore he was wild s a to look at to hear his face like the day of judgment the voice of him was like a s and d in folks and the words of him like coals of fire now there was a on the rock and i think she had little to do for it was place far but it seems she was and her and were very well agreed it that was in the his lane at the praying when and the by and what should the do but mock with laughter at the s he rose and at the o them and s knees at the look of him but he it was in sorrow than in anger poor thing poor thing says he and it was the he at i hear yoa and laugh he says but the lord has a shot prepared for you and at that surprising judgment david shall but ae time i shortly thereafter she was on the wi three and it was a day there a of wind her by the coats and wi her bag and baggage and it was remarked by the that she but the ae doubt this judgment had some upon but it passed again and him none the better ae day he was wi lad me t for he was a profane and there was at him an u wi his ts an een the about his lost and the hand of him held oat wi the black nails upon the finger � for he had care of the body poor man cries he the poor fool man i me he an i see the at his the conviction of guilt and in on like the deep sea he the that was in his hands � i will lift arms against the cause o says he and was as s word there was a in the beginning but the seeing him resolved him his and he went and and in north and had aye a name with honest folk that day on it was in the year and tiiat tlie bass in the hands o the da and was men the of it w� david qualified for they bad been in the bon and the gate to handle and the seasons and of them that they were � or they professors and men of comely the first of them was my the second was whom the folk oa d but whether for his name or his nature i could never hear tell to see upon this business and took me that was a by the hand had his in the loan the it s a dark loan that the has aye had an ill name since the days o james the and the played therein when the queen was on the seas and as for s house it was in the end and was little liked by some that the best the door was on the that day and me and my in was a to his trade his loom stood in the but there he sat a fat white of a man like wi a kind of a holy that me the hand ol him aye the but his een was we cried to him by his name we in the of him we shook him by the ther o service there he sat on his an the and smiled like ood be to ns says this is m i ha sat a pat or a c l t david he had said the word when to is you t says he man t i m to see ye i ia into a bit like thief he says it s the they began to crack about the bass and which of them was to get the o t and by little and little to yery ill words and in anger i mind that as my and me again he and the same expression how little he and his says he i think folk far like yon my got the bass and had to go it was remembered what way he had ta en the thing says he ye gotten the better o and i hope says he yell find at least a that ye at the bass which have since been thought remarkable expressions at last the time came for to take young this was a business he was used wi he had been a a and but so there waa he by a line an on the face it s and fewer lads were on the tap the line and for his but hung there was but the and the sea and the and flying it was a spring mom and david as he in the s the time i heard him tell of this and aye the ran upon the man it chanced ye see that np and he was of a and the at the line he this hy and outside the creature s habits he minded that ropes was things and the s and the bass hard and that feet were he would care to fa says bird t wi ye i says he the into s face and there was something in the creature s ee just the ae it and back to the rope but now it and t like a thing there never was the made that as that and it seemed to understand it s employ the rope between the of it and a o there a o fear into s heart this thing is bird thinks he his een backward in his and the day black about him if i here he it s by wi and he for the lads to pa him up and it seemed the understood about for sooner was the signal made than he let be the david his wings oat took a torn flying and dashed at s
38
t is a defect i acknowledge but my disposition never suffers me to put restraint on present feelings for the sake of a future besides we men can never hope to equal the exquisite tact and delicacy f women in a favor we can but appreciate and as a poor acknowledgment offer devoted homage rejoined the colonel in a low voice while his eye rested on the glowing in s hair miss s cheek flushed while unconsciously retreated as far as she could towards the end of the sofa yes but i am persuaded if people would take things literally as they are without ever perpetually and seeking for hidden and motives half the which daily arise might be averted observed languidly ah but if everything were taken literally where would friendship � society � be you know we are constantly having the disagreeable truth impressed upon us that this is an age of irony and profession however at times the world finds me enough on some subjects for instance i refused until yesterday to give to the report that you were engaged to lord his s visit was a very one was it not very i was amazed beyond expression when i heard of the earl s arrival at the persisted the colonel fixing his eyes on her face you could not have been more astonished than myself responded miss throwing herself back on the couch is it possible who now and then caught a word was in agony she resolved however to make a desperate to put an end to it � i exclaimed she suddenly i want to hear you know about the grand ball at park next month called on his road to and found mrs deep in the mysteries of colored lamps and why i never remember your curiosity so strongly excited about a ball before however yonder sits miss mrs s niece talking to sir and i dare say she will only be too happy to give you every detail after dinner replied turning again towards the colonel � i have not yet wished that every felicity may attend your with lord miss may i not congratulate you resumed colonel in a deep earnest voice oh certainly i when a thing is inevitable it is best policy to take everybody s congratulations in good part and not pause to one s own feelings too closely replied looking down and a most attack on her � you remember the old colonel � what cannot be cured � did you know a cousin of sir s is about to join your regiment s cheeks burned meditating a speedy retreat she gazed around when to her unspeakable consternation she beheld lord standing so close behind that he could scarcely fail to have heard her last observation she glanced again at her and beheld her occupied as ever with the colonel totally unconscious of the eyes so earnestly bent upon her arose and moved towards a table hoping thus to attract her attention and took up one of those small highly colored of scenery so frequently brought home by for the of their friends this executed print miss can give you but a very feeble conception of the sublime beauty of said lord crossing over to the table near which she stood was astonished she stole a glance at the earl s face the expression of his eye was severe yet a smile hung ou his lip and she at the self possession of his language and manner yes i feel that the of must be seen to be appreciated replied she scarcely knowing what she said as lord took e print from her hands the superfluous waters of the lake on the summit of flowing down the mountain from this � peaks of glistening ice piled one above another some thirty or forty feet high i can scarcely describe the dazzling effect of the sun s rays or the gorgeous hues which sparkle around the towering as th y gradually and slope to the fertile valley at the base of the mountain but have you never been abroad miss never ah i suppose you have been too happy � too content with home and its ties to wander in search of foreign adventure lord paused and then resumed after a brief space my tour me with more pleasing than any of my past years of travel as it was by the companionship of lord and his accomplished daughter the lady lady in painting and i understand yes her pictures are beautifully finished she studies daily from a small but choice gallery of paintings by her father at miss ei likewise possesses great talents in this delightful accomplishment does she not have you really never seen any of s exquisite drawings i will request her permission to show you her or perhaps i had better ask lady replied quickly looking round for she was growing jealous for s lord made a hasty movement had not time to ascertain whether it was one of approval or when dinner was announced and in a few seconds she found herself the spacious hall arm in arm with mr the worthy of i do not know what your opinion is miss but think our appear the reverse of enchanted with each other this evening said mr in a whisper is replied indeed i protest i never remember seeing her look more blooming than she appears to night between ourselves miss as a friend of the i regret that chattering makes one of our party hush exclaimed in a voice of entreaty as they entered the dining room bat comes it i have the honor of handing down so a said the worthy as they took their at let me see how lady has disposed of her x sir has led out my little friend continued mr in a low tone of voice meant expressly for s ear and sits next to i
41
the first hole su su smiled and her eyes were yet softer again she felt the soft hands at her throat he was good to look upon and the belt was indeed small made for a smaller man but what did it matter she could make many but the blood she asked urged on by a hope new born and growing the blood is it � are they heads ay the son of they must be very fresh else would the blood be frozen ay it is not cold and they be fresh quite fresh oh her face was warm and bright � and for me ay for thee he took hold of a comer of the hide it open and rolled the heads out before her three he whispered savagely nay four at least but she sat there they lay � the soft the old face of grinning at her with his lifted upper lip and lastly his up to its old trick drooped on his girlish cheek in a suggestive wink there they lay the flashing upon and playing over them and from each of them a circle the snow to scarlet by the fire the white crust gave way beneath the head of which rolled over like a thing alive spun around and came to rest at her feet but she did not move too sat motionless his eyes upon her once in the forest an pine dropped its load of snow and the echoes down the but neither stirred i o the son of the short day had been fast and darkness was round the camp when white trotted up toward the fire he paused to but not being driven back came closer his nose shot swiftly to the side nostrils a tremble and rising along the and straight and true he followed the sudden scent to his master s head he it at first and licked the forehead with his red tongue then he sat abruptly down pointed his nose up at the first faint star and raised the long wolf howl this brought su su to herself she glanced across at who had the russian knife and was watching her intently his face was firm and set and in it she read the law slipping back the hood of her she her neck and rose to her feet there she paused and took a long look about her at the forest at the faint stars in the sky at the camp at the snow shoes in the snow � a last long comprehensive look at life a light breeze stirred her hair from the side and for the space of one deep breath she turned her head and followed it around until she met it full faced then she thought of her children ever to be and she walked over to and said i am ready the death of the death of blood for bloody rank for rank � code ear now the death of � i i the speaker ceased or rather suspended utterance and gazed upon me with an eye of understanding i held the bottle between our eyes and the fire indicated with my thumb the depth of the draught and it over to him for was he not the many tales had he told me and long had i waited for this to speak of the things concerning for he of all men living knew these things best he back his head with a that slid swiftly into a and the shadow of a man s monstrous beneath a huge bottle wavered and danced on the frown of the cliff at our backs released his lips from the glass with a caressing and glanced up into the ghostly vault of the sky where played the wan white light of the summer it be strange he said cold like water and hot i the death of like fire to the it strength and from the it away strength it old men young and young men old to the man who is weary it him to get up go onward and to the man it him into sleep my brother was possessed of the heart of a rabbit yet did he drink of it and forthwith four of his enemies my father was like a great wolf showing his teeth to all men yet did he drink of it and was shot through the back running swiftly away it be most strange it is three star and a better than what they poison their with down there i answered sweeping my hand as it were over the yawning chasm of blackness and down to where the beach fires far below � tiny of flame which gave proportion and reality to the night sighed and shook his head wherefore i am here with thee and here he embraced the bottle and me in a look which told more than speech of his thirst nay i said the bottle in between my knees speak now of of the three star we will hold speech hereafter there be plenty and i am not wearied he the death of pleaded but the feel of it on my lips and i will speak great words of and his last days from the it away strength i and to the man un weary it him into sleep thou art wise he rejoined without anger and like all of thy brothers thou art wise waking or sleeping the three star be with thee yet never have i known thee to drink or and the while you gather to you the gold that hides in our mountains and the fish that swim in our seas and and the brothers of dig the gold for thee and net the fish and are glad to be made glad when out of thy wisdom thou it fit that the three star should wet our lips i was minded to hear of i said
21
in his to the from the year to etc published in says mr secretary hath never looked since the prince his coming out of it was thought was interested in the a course was taken to him of all and this made him discontented and as the saying is so apparently did now this being the third time that hath to blame that way his majesty to him suffered him to his place to sir who him three thousand pounds for the same and the hath made him baron of in ireland so is withdrawn from and having bought a ship of is going to new england or where hath a colony page the letters preserved among the state papers are the main authority especially those addressed to sir who desired to buy s place see the of chap i note page note � o forces in colony planting book iii note e domestic papers for and to february th the account given in the correspondence though as authority by mr has never been printed for which reason it is here given in the original from the british museum additional c ii et di la de si con per di d et et di non con di per la la era di non g in era di et di in come di la perch ne le con di et di come per i di et di non fare dove era et ii non ne ha le di con ci un non non da non so in ma la et d col i per per ne con de con le et di per la di et i mai correspondence iii february i the letter of the th february o s in the same volume g an account of the formal resignation to the king and states that the greater part of the money paid to was from his successor and that it was paid cash down and adds that this good lord will be able to live easily and quietly hereafter attributes his deception to interested letters the principal motives to settle in may be seen by the the catholic reader who has patience enough to thread his way through the of political economy of a certain sort verse in english and latin satire and an incredible number of what besides for the and good of great britain found in s golden published in the of to ireland and the comparative of thither but especially the well established value of its and the market they afforded for the produce of the colony were the most plausible reasons for settling a colony there probably there was a lurking purpose to turn the shore into a such as was contemplated by for the new england coast the fact was insisted upon that part of was equal in climate or at least in latitude to little britain in france or then too is an island and at least persuaded himself that should in hands as some of the were the grand port of fishing was to professors of the golden part third and and lord may have had the of virginia in view his son sought to have himself made governor in papers ix record office see an earlier communication on the same subject in under the date of february it is almost the only petition of the second lord that was not granted see also section xvii of the present chapter and note below i have ventured to conjecture so much on evidence not complete father white who was cordially entertained by the governor of st in of the people of as ab ob white s choice of words does not necessarily imply i suppose an actual from virginia but at least a refusal of permission to come neither nor mention this fact but as white visited st only two years after the settlement at which was made immediately from st according to and was subject to the same governor his information was doubtless correct there seems to have been another project to plant in virginia about this time unless as is rather probable we meet the same plan in another form sir pierce offered to chap l notes page note page forces in colony planting book iii note id j note ii page plant ten companies of the irish regiment into a fruitful part of america not yet inhabited to make the proposal acceptable it was stated somewhat perhaps that the major part of the officers and many of the soldiers were s p where the date is the translation quoted is that published by in the relation of the original reads et et in et et et sir edward attorney general of england in the following century gave this decision as to the said in the grant of the province of i am of opinion the same doth not give him power to do anything contrary to the laws of england this is as as the itself the general and general during the century set themselves to the task of government to authority by a series of opinions in which they make rather than explain law in the present instance was more modest than usual for he reaches a purely negative and impotent conclusion which turns into a positive one in his text of there is a collection of opinions on subjects rendered by the and general in the first half of the century in a volume at house which i have examined this collection was made or at least furnished for the use of lord before s opinion was given the english parliament had assumed power to some provisions of the as is pointed out in s examination ms at house how slowly the church of england g in the colony may be inferred from the statement made in that four have and settled beings of their own � a phrase sufficiently obscure others were sustained by voluntary papers no
11
wicked generation by op the d at length the road touched the spot called hand of all the spots on the and desolate this was the most forlorn it was so far removed from the charm which is sought in landscape by artists and view lovers as to reach a new kind of beauty a negative beauty of tragic tone the place took its name from a stone pillar which stood there a strange rude from a unknown in any local on whidi was roughly carved a hand were given of its history and some authorities stated that a cross had once formed the complete of which the present was but the stump others that the stone as it stood was entire and that it had been fixed there to mark a boundary or place of meeting anyhow whatever the origin of the there was and is something sinister or solemn according to mood in the scene amid which it stands something tending to impress the most by i think i must leave you now he remarked as they drew near to this spot i have to preach at s at six this evening and my way lies across to the right from here and you upset me somewhat too � i cannot will not say why i must go away and get strength how is it that you speak so now who has taught you such good english i have things in my troubles she said what troubles have you had she told him of the first one � the only one that related to him d was struck mute i knew nothing of this till now he next murmured why didn t you write to me when you felt your trouble coming on she did not reply and he broke the silence by adding well � you will see me again by the convert no she answered do not again come near me i will think but before we part here he stepped up to the pillar this was once a holy cross relics are not in my creed but i fear you at moments � far more than you need fear me at present and to lessen my fear put your hand upon that stone hand and swear that you will never tempt me � by your charms or ways good god � how can you ask what is so unnecessary all that is from my thought yes � but swear it half frightened gave way to his placed her hand upon the stone and swore i am sorry you are not a he continued that some should have got hold of and unsettled your mind but no more now at home at least i can pray for you and i will and who knows what may not happen i m off good bye he turned to a hunting gate in the hedge and without letting his eyes again rest upon her over and strode out across the down in the direction of s as he walked his pace showed and by and by as if by a former thought he drew from his pocket a small book between the leaves of which was folded a letter worn and soiled as from much d c the letter it was dated several months before this time and was signed by parson the letter began by expressing the writer s joy at d s and thanked him for his kindness in communicating with the parson on the subject it expressed mr s warm assurance of forgiveness for d s former conduct and his interest in the man s plans for the future he mr would much have liked to see d in the to whose he had devoted so many years of his own life and would have him to enter a college to that by of the d end but since his correspondent had possibly not cared to do this on of the delay it would have he was not the man to insist upon its importance every man must work as he could best work and in the method towards which he felt impelled by the spirit d read and this letter and seemed to himself he also read some passages from as he walked till his face assumed a calm and apparently the image of no longer troubled his mind she meanwhile had kept along the edge of the hill by which lay her nearest way home within the distance of a mile she met a solitary shepherd what is the meaning of that old stone i have passed she asked of him was it ever a holy cross cross � no not a cross tis a thing of ill omen miss it was put up in times by the relations of a who was tortured there by his hand to a post and afterwards hung the bones lie underneath they say he sold his soul to the devil and that he walks at times c he felt the mortal this unexpectedly information and left the solitary man her it was dusk when she drew near to ash and in the lane at the entrance to the hamlet she approached a girl and her lover without their observing her they were talking no secrets and the dear voice of the young woman in response to the warmer accents of the man spread into the chilly air as the one soothing thing within the du horizon full of a obscurity upon i i a nothing else for a moment the voices cheered the heart of tiu she reasoned that this interview had its origin on one side or the other in the same attraction which had been the to her own when she came close the girl turned serenely and recognized her the young man walking by the convert off in embarrassment the woman was whose interest in s her own proceedings did not explain very dearly
45
an in their mere bodily presence almost intolerable to be borne and in proportion to the estimate we form thb women of i and of real society and companionship and sympathy of feeling is the dread we entertain of association with mere animal life in its human form while nothing of this fellowship of feeling is experienced there cannot however be a greater mistake in the science of being agreeable than to suppose that conversation must be made a business of oh the misery of being against a professional one who looks from side to side until a vacant ear is found and a battery of if you will not answer and of argument if you will indeed the immense variety of from ill managed conversation are a sufficient proof of its importance in society and any one disposed to dispute this fact need only recall the many familiar instances of disappointment and which all who mix in any manner with what is called the world must have experienced from mistaken views of what is agreeable in conversation it would be vain to attempt an of the different aspects under which this peculiar kind of annoyance presents itself a few heads will be sufficient under which to range the different classes of first then we naturally think of those who have obtained the conventional of or to describe them more politely the class of whose over solicitude is to their difficulty in obtaining patient hearers these again may be into endless varieties of which a few specimens will suffice yet amongst all these even the most may be found worthy individuals i too of whose for both and are by no means entitled to distinction in the art of annoyance are tbe � those who not only ride a bat expect every hie they meet with to mount and ride the same it matters not whether their ruling subject be painting or except that minds devoted to the fine arts have generally about them some delicacy a� to the reception of their and are too alive to the it may receive to risk its introduction without some indication of a welcome still are exceptions even to this rule and nothing can be more wearisome to the or more unintelligible to the ear than the poured forth by an amateur painter without regard to the tastes or the of those around him perhaps his fellow traveller is seated on some gentle eminence drinking in the deep quiet of a summer s evening not merely from sight but sound and all with memories of the past in which no stranger could when the painter bursts upon him with his and the illusion is gone he about the breadth of the colouring his companion sees the long tall shadows of the trees reflected on the sloping with the golden sunset gleaming in between the stems and through the of the foliage and he knows not where the poetry or even the truth of this wonderful property of breadth can be the painter upon the bringing out of the distant cottage firom the wood his companion is of opinion it would be better to let it remain the women of england where it is � half hid in the retirement of the forest and sending up as it seems from the very of the silent shade its wreath of curling smoke to indicate the social scene beneath its rustic roof prepared for by the lighting of the s fire but the painter is not satisfied he calls upon his friend to observe the of the whole he must have the outline broken the thing is done his sketch is exhibited in triumph and he on with delight for he has the hills in twain and placed a group of robbers on the broken ground alas how should his companion believe or understand his thoughts are upon that scene because its sloping hills and cultivated fields and gardens and or and village church yard are like the spot where he was bom and where his father died � and he sees no mountain nor chief nor hears the rush of torrents on the breeze but his eye dwells again upon the apple tree in its spring bloom and the upon the and his ear is open to the of the wood pigeon on the boughs and the sound of voices � than all other sounds more sweet � the voices that spoke kindly of his childhood it might be supposed that if under any circumstances the society of a painter could be always welcome it would be amongst the varied scenes of a picturesque tour but even here the mind has pictures of its own and he who is perpetually telling you what to see might as well force upon you at every view the use of his and neither allow you to gaze upon nature as you wish to behold it nor as it really is women are perhaps less men to annoy � of others with pet subjects because they have less opportunity ai out any particular branch of art or study to the of others and politics that most and oi is seldom a theme with them they have however their houses and their servants and what is infinitely worse � they have themselves s accustomed to a little private admiration in a remote comer of the world they obtain a estimate of their own importance and act as if they thought no subject so interesting as that which turns upon their own experience their own peculiarities or even their own faults it does not always follow that such women admire themselves so much as the of self in their conversation would at first lead us to suppose for in upon the good qualities of others they exclaim � and why should we doubt their sincerity � how much they wish they were like the beings they they will even speak of
41
news wan the fever off ay me i was the an twas just like the picture on the the � men an an guns wan at a time out of a it were a said with feeling i ve fell out an been sick in the twice an turns my ain t no neither the pass give a twist at the end so everything shot out an they d built a bridge mud an dead over a at the head ut i lay an counted the gun the bridge their an out sagacious the fifth s head came round the corner an he threw up his an he fetched a an there he at the head of the a cork in a bottle faith thinks i to he will not thrust the bridge there will be trouble my said i was be ind that up to my stock in dust trouble by ic mt low the elephant tell on then little man i only saw the hospital end ay knocked the ashes ont of his pipe as heaved the dogs aside and went on we was escort to them three companies of ns he said was our major an onr orders was to roll np anything we come across in the an it out t other end sort o pop gun see we d rolled up a lot o lazy beggars o native followers an some supplies that was for ever ly an all the s of a dozen things what ought to ave bin at the front weeks ago an he to us you re most sweeps e for s sake e do a little now so we � s me ow we did sweep em along there was a full ment be ind us most anxious to get on they was an they on to us with the colonel s compliments and what in ell was we the way for please oh they was particular polite i so was e sent em back f or an e give us f or an we give the guns f or an they give the for an the give first class for to the native followers an on we d go again till we was stuck an the pass ud be for a mile an a we t no nor no seats to our an our coats an our was in the carts so as we might ha been by ic inventions cut up any minute an we was work that was it was on the road i i was close up at the of the column when we saw the end of the out ahead of us an i the door s open boys oo ll to the ry i then i saw is in is eye an straight on propped � beggar he an the be ind end o that old was through the dusk like a old moon made d then we all a block one o the other an right at the back o the guns there sails in a lot o silly what the was in charge of � aw y as if they was at the gardens an our men most awful the dust was that up you couldn t see your and an the more we it em on the the more their drivers an by it was at yer before you knew where you was an that s be ind end stuck in the pass good an tight an no one knew for thing we ad to do was to fight they i wasn t goin to be eat by no bull so i up my with one and on a rock an it away with my belt at every nose i saw above me then the fell back an they ad to fight to keep the rear guard an the native followers from into them an the rear by ic my lord the elephant guard ad to send down the to warn the other ment that we was blocked i the in front that the wouldn t cross the bridge an i saw about through the du t like a worm in a then our companies got tired o an begun to mark time an some goat struck up make room for r uncle after that you couldn t neither see nor breathe nor ear an there we was to the end of a elephant that don t care for tunes i sung too i couldn t do else they was the bridge in front all for the sake of the by an by a caught me by the throat an choked the sing out of me so i caught the next man i could see by the throat an choked the sing out of im what s the between being choked by an officer and being hit i asked remembering a little affair in which s honour had been injured by his lieutenant one s a lark an one s a insult said besides we was on service an no one cares what an does then s long as e gets our an don t get us unusual cut up after that we got quiet an i say that e d court martial the lot of us soon as we was out of the then we give three cheers for an three more for the an the s be ind end was in the pass so we cheered thai by ic many then they said the bridge had been strengthened an we give three cheers for the bridge but the wouldn t move a not then we cheered im again an that was comer man at all the sing songs e died on the way down began to give a lecture on the be ind ends of an e tried to keep is face for a minute but lord you couldn t do such when was the fool an whether e
39
� the and the railway and the thoughts that shake mankind she weighed his words and said slowly ah yes you allude to my father my father was a great man but i am more and more forgetting his greatness that kind of greatness is what a woman can never truly enter into i am less and less his daughter every day that goes by she walked away a few steps to the excellent mrs who as still perceived was waiting for at the of distances in the shadows at the further end of the building surely s voice had faltered and she had turned to hide a tear were he sure of that the manner which he could not would have no cold hearted meaning in it but would be only an external peculiarity of her nature she came back again did you know that my father made half the in europe including that one over there she said waving her little hand in the direction whence low were occasionally heard during the day yes how did you know miss de told me a little and i then found his name and doings were quite to me curiously enough or perhaps naturally since it a y was a main line of with his words there came through the broken windows the murmur of a train in the distance sounding clearer and more clear it was nothing to listen to yet they both listened till the increasing noise suddenly broke off into dead silence it has gone into the said have you seen the my father made the curves are said to be a triumph of science there is nothing else like it in this part of england there is not i have heard so but i have not seen it do you think it a thing more to be proud of that one s father should have made a great and railway like that than that one s remote should have built a great castle like this what could say it would have required a to decide whether his answer should depend upon his conviction or upon the family ties of such a his own family had been rather of the high old fashioned sort he himself was rather ag artist than a man of science and had his a de s not much doubt about the answer that would have risen to his from a modem point of view are no doubt things more to be proud of than castles he said though perhaps i from mere association should decide in favour of the who built the castle the serious anxiety that threw into his observation as if nothing but honest truth were available was more than the circumstance required but she herself was in such a thoughtful mood that mere politeness without conviction would after all hardly have met the case to design great f m george works he added and without the least eye to the of her parent requires no doubt a leading mind but to execute them requires of course only a following mind his reply did not altogether please her and there was a distinct reproach conveyed by her slight movement towards mrs he saw it and was grieved that he should have spoken so i am going to walk over and inspect that famous of your father s he added gently it will be a pleasant study for this afternoon she went away i am no man of the world he thought i ought to have praised hers f straight off i shall not win her respect much less her love a chapter xii did not forget what he had planned and when lunch was over he walked away through the trees the was more difficult of discovery than he had anticipated and it was only after considerable winding among green lanes whose deep were like of in miniature that he reached the slope in the distant where the began a road stretched over its crest and thence along one side of the railway cutting he there unexpectedly saw standing miss power s carriage and on drawing nearer he found it to contain herself miss de and mrs how singular exclaimed miss de gaily it is most natural said instantly in the morning two people discuss a feature in the landscape and in the afternoon each has a desire to see it from what the other has said of it therefore they accidentally meet now had distinctly heard declare that he was going to walk there how then could she say this so coolly it was with a pang at his heart that he returned to his old thought of her being possibly a finished and whatever she might be she was not a creature very stiffly by looked down on the mouth of the george the absurdity of the popular commonplace that science steam and travel must always be and hideous was proved on the spot on either slope of the deep cutting green with long grass grew drooping f young trees of ash and other varieties i their foliage almost concealing the actual railway which ran along the bottom its thin steel rails gleaming like silver threads in the depths the front of the faced with brick that had once been red was now weather stained and over in harmonious hues of rusty and at the very base appearing a little spot like a mouse hole � the s mouth the carriage was drawn up quite close to the wood and was looking down at the same time with him but he made no remark to her mrs broke the silence by saying if it were not a railway we should call it a lovely � agreed with her adding that it was so charming that he felt inclined to go down if you do perhaps miss power will order you up again as a said de you are one
45
and s owner out on his hack to a place inside the circle of the course where two bricks had been thrown he towards the brick at the lower end of the course and waited the broken link the story of the running is in the at the end of the first mile crept out of the well on the outside ready to get round the turn lay hold of the bit and spin up the straight before the others knew he had got away was sitting still perfectly happy listening to the drum drum drum of the hoofs behind and knowing that in about twenty strides would draw one deep breath and go up the last half mile like the flying as went short to take the turn and come abreast of the brick mound heard above the noise of the wind in his ears a wailing voice on the saying � god ha mercy i m done for in one stride saw the whole of the plate before him started in his saddle and gave a yell of terror the start brought the heels into sides and the scream hurt feelings he couldn t stop dead but he put out his feet and slid along for fifty yards and then very gravely and off � a shaking ter stricken lump while made a neck and neck race with up the straight and won by a short head � a bad third owner in the stand tried to think that his field glasses had gone wrong s owner waiting by the two bricks gave one deep sigh of relief and back to the plain tales from the hills stand he had won in and about fifteen thousand it was a broken link with a vengeance it broke nearly all the men concerned and nearly broke the heart of owner he went down to interview the boy lay livid and gasping with fright where he had tumbled off the sin of losing the race never seemed to strike him all he knew was that had � called him that the call was a warning and were he cut in two for it he would never get up again his nerve had gone altogether and he only asked his master to give him a good and let him go he was fit for nothing he said he got his dismissal and crept up to the white as chalk with blue lips his knees giving way under him people said nasty things in the but never he changed into took his stick and went down the road still shaking with fright and muttering over and over again � god ha mercy i m done for to the best of my knowledge and belief he spoke the truth so now you know how the broken link was run and won of course you don t believe it you would credit anything about russia s designs on india or the of the commission but a little bit of sober fact is more than you can stand beyond the pale love not caste nor sleep a broken bed i went in search of love and lost myself � proverb a man should whatever happens keep to his own caste race and breed let the white go to the white and the black to the black then whatever trouble falls is in the ordinary course of things � neither sudden alien nor unexpected this is the story of a man who stepped beyond the safe limits of decent society and paid for it heavily he knew too much in the first instance and he saw too much in the second he took too deep an interest in native life but he will never do so again deep away in the heart of the city behind s lies s which ends in a dead wall pierced by one window at the head of the is a big and the walls on either side of the are without windows neither nor approve of their women folk looking into the world if had been of their opinion he would have been a happier man to day plain tales from the hills and little would have been able to her own bread her room looked out through the window into the narrow dark where the sun never came and where the in the blue she was a widow about fifteen years old and she prayed the gods day and ni t to send her a lover for she did approve of living alone one day the man � his name was � came into s on an and after he had passed the stumbled over a big heap of cattle then he saw that the ended in a and heard a little from behind the window it was a pretty little laugh and knowing that for all practical purposes the old ni ts are good guides went forward to the window and whispered that verse of the love song of which begins � can a stand upright b the of the naked or � lover in the pretence of hit beloved f if my feet me o heart of my heart am i to being blinded hy the of f there came the � woman s from behind the grating and a little voice went on with the song at the fifth verse � can the moon tell the of her love � l the gate of heaven b and the gather or the beyond the pale they have taken my beloved and driven her with the pack to the north there are iron chains on the feet that were set on my heart call to the to make ready the voice stopped suddenly and walked out of s wondering who in the world could have the love song of so neatly next morning as he was driving to office an old woman threw a packet into his in the
39
than to attend to me what your own mother and cannot she attend to her own child yes madam but she has servants to attend to me servants yes i think so said roughly they let you fall into the water and if it hadn t been for me you would be there still but come children let us have our supper they seated themselves at the table the mother placed before each a and a wooden spoon and helped them all to boiled beans while the father cut from a loaf of brown bread the little stranger came and sat with them but ate nothing you must soon tell us who you are said mrs for we must let your mother know that you are safe my mother loves me of course said the little fellow but she has no leisure to think about me to night is she like our mother asked chariot is but ours is better mine gives me fine clothes and all the money i want said the stranger and ours gives us kisses said and mine has servants to wait on me and our dear mother waits on us herself which is much better said chariot the man and his wife listened with much amusement to this friendly dispute they were just rising from the table when a loud knocking was heard at the door and a voice inquired is this the house of the man who that is my s voice whispered the little stranger as he slipped quickly under the table and hid don t tell him i am here he called out softly in a few minutes the room was filled with fine gentlemen dressed in gorgeous suits of silk and and gold a man clad in a red velvet cloak with a great cord and about his waist looked around the room and said to a soldier who stood at the door repeat your this evening at eight o clock said the soldier as i was on duty near the queen s palace i saw this man whose name is said to be running down the street wi i a child in his arms where is that child demanded the man in red here cried the child in question as he darted from his hiding place and stood in the midst of the crowd your whole court has been looking for you for two hours your majesty i am very glad to hear it cardinal said the boy your mother is in great uneasiness said the cardinal i am sorry cardinal that she has had any anxiety on my account i hope that you will come with us now that is just as i please cardinal but i hope it will be soon your mother � i must first thank these good people for their services said the child well make haste answered the cardinal fourth the boy turned towards the poor man and said my friend i am louis xiv the king of france i thank you for what you have done for me you shall have money to pay for the education of your two sons and i will give your daughter a here is my hand to kiss then turning to the cardinal he said now i am ready let us go not in that dress said the cardinal now first observing chariot s humble sunday suit which the little king was wearing while his own clothes were drying by the fire yes certainly in this dress answered louis why not the queen will be to see you in the garb of a peasant said the cardinal say no more said the little king stamping his foot impatiently i will go to her as i am then as he passed out to the carriage which was waiting at the door he turned to chariot and said come yourself to the palace to morrow and get your clothes and you may bring mine with you word study learn to pronounce paris k w chariot w a louis loo is poems to be for other to be see the village blacksmith p the night wind p and the frost p i a sweet and low sweet and low wind of the western sea low low breathe and blow wind of the western sea over the rolling waters go come from the dying moon and blow blow him again to me while my little one while my pretty one sleeps sleep and rest sleep and rest father will come to thee soon rest rest on mother s breast father will come to thee soon father will come to his babe in the nest silver sails all out of the west under the silver moon sleep my little one sleep my pretty one sleep by alfred ii the children s hour between the dark and the daylight when the night is beginning to lower comes a pause in the day s occupations that is known as the children s hour i hear in the chamber above me the of little feet the sound of the door that is opened and voices soft and sweet from my study i see in the descending the broad hall stair grave and laughing and with golden hair a whisper and then a silence yet i know by their merry eyes they are and planning together to take me by surprise a sudden rush from the a sudden from the hall by three doors left they enter my castle wall they climb up into my o er the arms and back of my chair by henry w if i try to escape they surround me they seem to be everywhere they almost me with kisses their arms about me till i think of the bishop of in his mouse tower on the do you think blue eyed because you have the wall such an old as i am is not a match for you all i
23
bear my best having been recently bought and as yet imperfectly drained is still nor do i expect that farming � or anything else � will pay without better than i have yet been able to accord it do you not perceive said one near to me that your man there does not more than half work certainly i replied i am quite aware of it were he disposed to be efficient he would work his own land not mine you can scarcely hire any work weu done to which you cannot give personal attention newspapers by would be more than but i close with a confident assertion that good farming will pay � yes does pay � right here by new york � pay generally and pay well of course he who capital must work to disadvantage in this as in everything else and a little capital wiu go further in the far west than on the crowded but i feel certain that even could make money by farming in county if i could give my time and mind to it and that a good farmer with adequate means can in following his do as well near this city as a reasonable man could expect or wisely desire weed and as i had first engaged in political strife at the invitation of mr weed and had thus been brought very soon afterward into familiar and confidential relations with his next friend mr william h i was identified with if not thoroughly devoted to their mutual fortunes for the next fifteen or sixteen years while the in i wrote and reported imperfectly proceedings for mr weed s paper the evening journal and though i had no part in mr for governor in did whatever i could to help elect him and so at his in he had previously been state elected in but had been badly defeated by william l when first a candidate for governor in when after four years of the star was again in the in was a zealous if not very effective advocate of his election to the united states apart from politics i liked the man though not blind to his faults his natural instincts were humane and he hated slavery and all its though a seeming necessity constrained him to write in to this intensely pro slavery city a pro slavery letter which was at war with his real or at least with his subsequent convictions though of he had been an man an anti and was now thoroughly a the policy of more extensive and vigorous internal improvement had no more zealous champion by nature genial and averse to recollections of a busy life pomp ceremony and formality few public men of liis early prime were better calculated to attract and young men of his own party and holding views on most points with his yet he had faults which his accession to power soon displayed in bold relief his natural tendencies were toward a government not merely paternal but prodigal � one which in its to make every one prosperous if not rich was very likely to all in general if not in general few have favored few for more lavish than he above the suspicion of money into his own pocket he has a rooted dislike to opposing a project or bill whereby any of his attached friends are to profit and conceited as we all are i think most men exceed him in the art of concealing from others their faith in their own sagacity and mr weed was of mould and fibre � tall robust dark shrewd resolute and not over scrupulous � keen sighted though not far seeing writing slowly and with difficulty he was for twenty years the most and writer of on the american press in pecuniary matters he was generous to a fault while poor he is said to be less so since he became rich but i am no longer in a position to know i cannot doubt however that if he had never seen wall street or washington had never heard of the stock board and had lived in some yet country where is never bought nor sold his life would have been more useful and happy i was sitting beside him in his room soon after governor s election when he opened a letter from a brother which ran thus � dear weed i want to be a bank you know how to fix it do so and draw on me for whatever you may see fit yours truly weed and in an instant his face black with mingled rage and mortification my god said he i knew that my political thought me a scoundrel but i never till now supposed that my friends did he at once responded to the to this � sir i have received your letter and shall lay it before the governor elect with whom it will doubtless have the influence it deserves yours though generally in hearty accord these fast friends were not entirely so bom in comfortable circumstances and educated a gentleman had none of the poor white pr against while it was otherwise with weed whose origin training had been different my new land birth and saved me from sharing this infirmity to which the poverty and obscurity of my boy y hood might else have exposed me i was early brought into collision with both my on the subject of a law every who had been active in the political of this city was instinctively and intensely a champion of a of legal knowing well by sad experience that in its absence enormous to our damage are the rule and honest and legal the exception so in the first of our state that was au over a was introduced with my very hearty assent and active support which provided for a of here and it had made such before it attracted the serious
19
subsequent visits were always sober but in excellent taste about this time of day the two rooms were a little dark the electric lights being reserved for the more crowded hours yet there were always a few people here this evening when we entered i noticed a half dozen men and three or four young women lounging here in a preliminary way and i made out by degrees that the mistress of this place had a following of a in tlie scheme of things � that certain men and women came here for reasons of and that she would take a certain type of struggling maiden if she were good looking and ambitious and smart under her wing the girl would have to know how to dress well to be able to carry herself with an air and when money was being spent very by an admirer it might as well be spent at this three guides bar on occasion as anywhere else there was obviously an between madame g and all the young women who came in here they seemed so much at home that it was quite like a family party everybody appeared to be genial cheerful and to know everybody else to enter here was to feel as though you had lived in paris for years while we are sitting at a table a brandy and enter de b the brisk genial sympathetic french personage whose voice on the instant gave me a delightful impression of her it was the loveliest voice i have ever heard soft and musical a voice touched with both gaiety and sadness her eyes were light blue her hair brown and her manner and she seemed to have the spirit of a delightfully friendly dog or child and all the gaiety and that goes with either after i had been introduced she laughed and putting aside her and stole shook herself into a comfortable position in a corner and accepted a brandy and she was so interested for the moment exchanging and with that i had a chance to observe her keenly in a moment she turned to me and wanted to know whether i knew either of two american authors whom she knew � men of considerable knowing them both very well it surprised me to think that she knew them she seemed from the way she spoke to have been on the terms with both of them and any one by looking at her could have understood why they should have taken such an interest in her now you know that n he is very nice i was very fond of him and r he is clever don t you think i admitted at once that they were both very able men a at forty and that i was glad that she knew them she informed me that she had known mr r and mr n in london and that she had there her english which was very good indeed explained in full who i was and how long i would be in paris and that he had written her from america because he wanted her to show me some attention during my stay in paris if de b had been of a somewhat more calculating type i fancy that with her intense charm of face and manner and her intellect and voice she would have been very successful i gained the impression that she had been on the stage in some small capacity but she had been too � not really brazen enough � for the grim world in which the french rises i soon found that de b was a charming of emotion desire and refinement which had strayed into the wrong field she would have done better in literature or music or art and she seemed fitted by her moods and her understanding to be a light in any one of them or all some are so � missing by a what they would give all the world to have it is the little things that do it � the the bits the capacity for taking pains in little things that make as so many have said the difference between success and failure and it is true i shall never forget how she looked at me quite in the spirit of a gay uncertain child and how quickly she made me feel that we would get along very well together why yes she said quite easily in her soft voice i will go about with you although i would not know what is best to see but i shall be here and if you want to come for me we can see things together suddenly she reached over and took my hand and squeezed it as though to seal the bargain we had more drinks to this rather three guides sion and then de b promising to join us at the went away it was high time then to dress for dinner and so we returned to the hotel we ate a meal watching the and his lady love or his wife arrive in and dine with that and enthusiasm which is so characteristic of the french when we came out of this at half after eleven de b was anxious to return to her apartment and was anxious to give me an extra taste of the varied life of paris in order that i might be able to contrast and compare if you know where they are and see whether you like them you can tell whether you want to see any more of them � which i hope you won t said he wisely leading the way through a crowd that was for all the world like a rushing tide of the sea there are no traffic laws in paris so far as i could make out certainly have the right of way and they go like mad i have read of the authorities having
43
follows � we are informed that a marriage is likely to be arranged captain de of the royal horse only son of sir william de and only daughter of the late john power esq m p of castle dropped the paper and stared out of the window fortunately for his emotions the horse and carriage were at this moment brought to the door so that nothing in driving off to the spot at which he would be likely to learn what truth or otherwise there was in the newspaper report a from the first he doubted it and yet how should it have got there such strange like generally include a portion of truth and what this portion was he found it impossible to ess five days had elapsed since he last spoke to could anything have happened in that interval to lead the girl to smile on de reaching the castle he entered his own quarters as usual and after setting the to work walked up and down pondering how he might best see her without making the disturbing paragraph the ground of his request for an interview for if it were absolutely a such a reason would wound her pride in her own honour towards him and if it were partly true he would certainly do better in leaving her alone than in her it would simply amount to a proof that was an the explanation of whose guarded conduct towards himself lay in the fact that she wished not to commit herself in playing her game with him but all this or any of it was too a thought to entertain for an instant it the whole problem of her bearing from the beginning and was painful even when rejected as absurd in his meditation he stood still closely one of the stones of a entrance as if to discover where the old hook had entered the he heard a footstep behind him and looking round saw standing by she held a newspaper in her hand the spot was one quite hemmed in from observation a fact of which she seemed to be quite aware i have something to tell you she said some de thing important but you are so occupied with that old stone that i am obliged to wait it is not true surely he said looking at the paper no look here she said holding up the sheet it was not what he had supposed but a new one � the local rival to that which had contained the announcement and was still damp from the press she pointed and he read we are to state that there is no foundation whatever for the assertion of our contemporary that a marriage is likely to be arranged between captain de and miss power of castle pressed her hand and spoke his feelings not by language but by the more pathetic vehicle of eyes it disturbed me he said i did not believe it it astonished me s much as it disturbed you and i sent this contradiction at once how could it have got there she shook her head you have not the least knowledge not the least i wish i had it was not from any friends of de s or himself it was not his sister has ascertained beyond doubt that he knew nothing of it well now don t say any more to me about the matter i ll find out how it got into the paper not now � any future time will do i have something else to tell you i hope the news is as good as the last he said looking into her face with anxiety for though that a face was blooming it seemed full of a doubt as to how her next information would be taken oh yes it is good because everybody says so we are going to take a delightful journey my uncle as he seems and i and my aunt and perhaps if she is well enough are going to nice and other places about there to nice said rather and i must stay here why of course you must considering what you have undertaken she said looking with composure into his eyes my uncle s reason for proposing the journey just now is that he thinks the alterations will make residence here dusty and disagreeable during the spring the opportunity of going with him is too good an one for us to lose as i have never been there i wish i was going to be one of the party what do wish about it she shook her head who knows time will tell are you really glad you are going dearest � as i must call you just once said the young man gazing earnestly into her face which struck him as looking far too rosy and radiant to be consistent with ever so little regret at leaving him behind i take great interest in foreign especially to the shores of the and everybody makes a point of getting away when their house is turned out of the window but you do feel a little sadness such as i should feel if our positions were reversed i think you ought not to have asked that so she murmured we can be near each de other in spirit when our bodies are far apart can we not her tone grew softer and she drew a little closer to his side with a slightly motion as she went on may i be sure that you will not think of me when i am absent from your sight and not b me any little pleasure because you are not there to share it with me may you can you ask it as for me i shall have no pleasure to be or otherwise the only pleasure i have is as you well know in you when you are with me i am happy
45
i therefore scrambled back eastward descending the southern slopes at the same time here the seemed less f a near view op the high able and the head of a that flows came in sight which i determined to follow as far as possible hoping thus to make my way to the foot of the peak on the east side and thence across the intervening and to camp the inclination of the is quite moderate at the head and as the sun had softened the i made safe and rapid progress running and sliding and keeping up a sharp outlook for about half a mile from the head there is an where the over a sharp and is shattered into massive blocks separated by deep blue to thread my way through the slippery of this portion seemed impossible and i endeavored to avoid it by climbing off to the shoulder of the mountain but the slopes rapidly and at length fell away in sheer compelling a n to the ice fortunately the day had been warm enough to the ice so as to admit of hollows being dug in the rotten portions of the blocks thus me to pick my way with far less difficulty than i had anticipated continuing down over the and along the left was only a confident showing that the ascent of the mountain by way of this is easy provided one is armed with an ax to cut steps here and there the lower end of the was beautifully waved and barred by the edges of the ice which represent the annual and to some extent the of structure caused by the of the walls of and by separate which have been the mountains op followed by rain hail and etc small were gliding and over the melting surface with a smooth appearance in channels of pure ice � their quick movements most with the rigid invisible flow of the itself on whose back they all were riding night drew near before i reached the eastern base of the mountain and my camp lay many a rugged mile to the north but ultimate success was assured it was now only a matter of endurance and ordinary mountain craft the sunset was if possible yet more beautiful than that of the day before the landscape seemed to be fairly with purple light the peaks along the summit were in shadow but through every and pass streamed vivid soothing and their rough black angles while companies of small luminous clouds hovered above them like very angels of light darkness came on but i found my way by the of the and the peaks projected against the sky all excitement died with the light and then i was but the joyful sound of the across the lake was heard at last and soon the stars were seen reflected in the lake itself taking my bearings from these i discovered the little pine thicket in which my nest was and then i had a rest such as only a tired may enjoy after lying loose and lost for awhile i made a sunrise fire went down to the lake dashed water on my head and dipped a for tea the revival brought about by bread and tea was as complete as the exhaustion a near view of the high from excessive enjoyment and toil then i crept beneath the pine to bed the wind was frosty and the fire burned low but my sleep was none the less sound and the evening had swept far to the west before i awoke after and resting in the morning sunshine i sauntered home � that is back to the camp � bearing away toward a cluster of peaks that hold the fountain of one of the north of rush creek here i discovered a gi of beautiful lakes together in a grand toward evening i crossed the divide separating the waters from those of the and entered the basin that now holds the fountain of the stream that forms the upper this stream i traced down through its many and meadows and reaching the brink of the main at dusk a loud for the artists was answered again and again their camp fire came in sight and half an hour afterward i was with them they seemed glad to see me i had been absent only three days nevertheless though the weather was fine they had already been weighing chances as to whether i would ever return and trying to decide whether they should wait longer or begin to seek their way back to the now their curious troubles were over they packed their precious sketches and next morning we set out homeward bound and in two days entered the valley from the north by way of indian chapter v the passes sustained grandeur of the high a is i strikingly illustrated by the great height of the passes between latitude � and the lowest pass gap or of any kind cutting across the of the range as far as i have discovered feet in height above the level of the sea while the average height of all that are in use either by indians or is perhaps not less than feet and not one of these is a carriage pass farther north a carriage road has been constructed through what is known as the pass on the head waters of the and s rivers the summit of which is about feet above the sea substantial wagon roads have also been built through the and johnson passes near the head of lake over which immense quantities of freight were hauled from to the regions of before the construction of the central pacific railroad still farther north a considerable number of comparatively low passes occur some of which are accessible to wheeled and through these rugged during the exciting years of the gold the passes period long trains with foot sore cattle
28
whole however i am quite vain enough and well satisfied enough the work is rather too light and bright and sparkling it wants shade it wants to be stretched out here and there with a long chapter of sense if it could be had if not of solemn nonsense about something with the story an essay on writing a on walter scott or the history of or something that would form a contrast and bring the reader with increased delight to the and of the general style johnson we learn from the preface to lady that and was first written in the form of letters the reference here is evidently to the earlier story of which was partially in sense and and which gives it a claim to be considered the earliest of her published in its present form the story was begun says mr in november and finished in though it was not for press till after miss s settlement at in the following appeared during her life time � a sense and sensibility a novel in three by a lady london printed for the author by c temple bar and published by t jane b � sense and sensibility a in three t by the author of pride and prejudice the second edition london printed for the author by c bell yard temple bar and by t the book has since been brought out by various and in several series it forms the first volume of messrs s library edition known as the edition c to the in s standard novels is a of miss which her family believe to have been written by her brother the rev h it contains little more than the of which is very likely from the same pen the present edition is a of b in the few cases where obvious errors have crept into the text the reading of has been followed and this is indicated by the words being enclosed in square for the sale of and miss received i which seemed to her a magnificent sum in a letter to her sister dated april th t she writes no indeed i am never too busy to think of s and s i can no more forget it than a mother can forget her child the remain as they were but i will get them altered if i can i think mrs like my but cannot build on anything else she confided to her family that anne never succeeded in catching the doctor sense and sensibility the family of had been long in their estate was la e and their residence was at park in the centre of th� r property where for many generations they had lived in so respectable a as to engage the general good opinion of their acquaintance the owner of this estate was a who lived to a very advanced age and who for many years of his life had a constant and housekeeper in his but her death which happened ten years before his own produced a great alteration in his home for to imply her loss he invited and into his house the family of his nephew mr henry the legal of the estate and the person to whom he intended to it in the society of his nephew and niece and their children the old gentleman s days were comfortably spent hia attachment to them all increased the constant attention of mr and mrs henry to his wishes which proceeded not merely from interest but from goodness of heart gave him every degree of solid comfort which bis age could receive and the of the added a to his existence b by a former ma mr had bv hia present three daughters the a young man was amply for by the fortune oi his mother which had been large and half of which on him on his coming of age by his own marriage likewise which happened soon afterwards he added to his wealth to him therefore the succession to the estate was not so really important as to his for their fortune independent of what might arise to them from their father s that property could be but small their mother had and their only seven thousand pounds in his own disposal for the remaining of his first wife s fortune was also secured to her child and he had only a life in it the old gentleman died his will was and like almost every other will gave as much aa pleasure he was neither so unjust nor so ungrateful as to leave his estate from his nephew but he left it to him on such terms as destroyed half the value of the mr had wished for it more for the sake of his wife and daughters than for himself or his son but to his son and us son s son a child of four years old it was secured in such a way as to leave to himself no power of providing for those who were most dear to him and who most needed a provision by any charge on the estate or by any sale of its valuable woods the whole was tied up for the benefit of this child who in occasional visits with his father and mother at had so far gained on the of his uncle by such attractions as are by no means unusual in children of two or three years old an im perfect an earnest desire of having his own way many cunning tricks and a great deal of noise aa to all the value of all the attention which for years he had received m his and her sense and he meant to be unkind however and aa a mark of for the three girls he left them a and pounds a piece mr s disappointment was at first severe but his temper was and sanguine and he might
26
the winds with beauty and harmony as the sm e result after one has seen pines six feet in bending like gi before a gale and a wind storm in the forests ever and anon some giant falling with a crash that shakes the hills it seems astonishing that any save the lowest trees could ever have found a period sufficiently to establish themselves or once established that they should not the mountains of sooner or later have been blown down but when the storm is over and we behold the same forests tranquil again towering fresh and in erect majesty and consider what centuries of storms have fallen upon them since they were first planted � hail to break the tender lightning to and snow winds and to crush and � while the manifest result of all this wild storm culture is the glorious perfection we behold then faith in nature s is established and we cease to the violence of her most destructive or of any other storm whatsoever there are two trees in the forests that are never blown down so long as they continue in sound health these are the and the dwarf pine of the summit peaks their stiff crooked roots grip the storm beaten like claws while their cord like branches bend round offering but slight holds for winds however violent the other � the needle pine mountain pine two pine and � are never out by this agent to any destructive extent on account of their admirable and the of their growth in general the same is true of the giants of the lower the sugar pine towering aloft to a height of more than feet offers a fine mark to storm winds but it is not and its long arms swing round in the blast like of green in a brook while the silver in most places keep their ranks well together a wind in the forests in united strength the yellow or silver pine is more frequently than any other tree on the because its leaves and branches form � a larger mass in proportion to its height while in many places it is planted leaving open lanes through which storms may enter with full force because it is distributed along the lower portion of the range which was the first to be left bare on the breaking up of the ice sheet at the close of the winter the soil it is gi owing upon has been longer exposed to post and consequently is in a more crumbling decayed condition than the farther up the range and therefore offers a less secure for the roots while exploring the forest of mount i discovered the path of a strewn with thousands of pines of this species great and small had been or off by sheer force making a clean gap like that made by a snow but capable of doing this class of work are rare in the and when we have the forests from one extremity of the range to the other we are compelled to believe that they are the most beautiful on the face of the earth however we may regard the agents that have made them so there is always something deeply exciting not only in the sounds of winds in the woods which exert more or less influence over every mind but in their varied flow as manifested by the movements of the trees especially those of the by no other trees are they rendered so the mountains of and visible not even by the palms or tree to the breeze the waving of a forest of the giant is impressive and but the pines seem to me the best of winds they are mighty waving ever in tune singing and writing wind music all their long century lives little however of this noble tree waving and tree music will you see or hear in the strictly portion of the forests the whose sometimes more than equals it� height is about as rigid as the rocks on which it grows the slender lash like of the dwarf pine stream out in wavering but the and are far too to wave even in the heaviest they only shake in quick short the however and the mountain pine and some of the of the two species bow in storms with considerable scope and but it is only in the lower and middle that the meeting of winds and woods is to be seen in all its one of the most beautiful and storms i ever enjoyed in the occurred in december when i happened to be exploring one of the valleys of the the sky and the ground and the trees had been thoroughly rain washed and were dry again the day was intensely pure one of those bits of winter warm and and full of white sparkling sunshine of all the purest influences of the spring and at the same time en a wind storm in the forests with one of the most wind storms conceivable instead of out as i usually do i then chanced to be stopping at the house of a friend but when the storm began to sound i lost no time in pushing out into the woods to enjoy it for on such occasions nature has always something rare to show us and the danger to life and limb is hardly greater than one would experience crouching beneath a roof it was still early morning when i found myself fairly adrift delicious sunshine came pouring over the hills lighting the tops of the pines and setting free a steam of f ance that contrasted strangely with the wild tones of the storm the air was with pine and bright green that went flashing past in the sunlight like birds pursued but there was not the slightest nothing less pure than leaves and ripe and of withered and moss i heard trees falling
28
even to himself to find how by quick though almost degrees he lost his and of delicacy and self respect and gradually came to do that as a matter of course without the least which but a few short days before had him to the quick the first time he visited the s he felt on his way there as if every person whom he passed suspected whither he was going and on his way back again as if the whole human tide he knew well where he had come from when did he care to think of now in his first wanderings up and down the weary streets he the walk of one who had an object in his view but soon there came upon him the gait of idleness and the lounging at street comers and and biting of stray bits of straw and strolling up and down the same place and looking into the same shop windows with a miserable indifference fifty times a day at first he came out from his lodging with an sense of being observed � even by those chance by on whom he had never looked before and hundreds to one would never see again � issuing in the morning from a public house but now in his out and in he did not mind to about the door or to stand himself in careless thought beside the wooden stem studded from head to heel with on which the beer pots like so many boughs upon a tree and yet it took but five weeks to reach the lowest round of this tall ladder oh who treat of happiness and self respect innate in eveiy sphere of life and shedding light on every grain of dust in god s highway so smooth below your carriage wheels so rough beneath the tread of naked feet � yourselves in looking on the descent of men who have lived in th own esteem that there are scores of thousands breathing now and breathing thick with painful toil who in that high respect have never lived at all nor had a chance of life go ye who rest so placidly upon the bard who had been young and when he strung his harp was old and had never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging their bread go teachers of content and honest pride into the mine the mill the the depths of deepest ignorance and abyss of man s neglect and say can any plant spring up in air so foul that it the soul s bright torch as fast as it is kindled and oh ye of the nineteen year of y who appeal to human nature see that it be human � take heed it has not been transformed during your slumber and the sleep of generations into the nature of the beasts five weeks of all the twenty or thirty answers not one had come his money � even the additional stock he had raised from the disposal of his spare clothes and that was not much for clothes though dear to buy are cheap to � was fast yet what could he do at times an agony came over him in which he darted forth again though he was but newly home and returning to some place where he had been already twenty times made some new attempt to gain his end but always he was years and years too old for a cabin boy and years upon years too inexperienced to be accepted as a common seaman his dress and manner too against any such proposal as the latter and yet he was reduced to making it for even if he could have contemplated the being set down in america totally without money he had not enough left now for a passage and the poorest provisions upon the voyage it is an illustration of a very common tendency in the mind of man that all this time he never once doubted one may almost say the certainty of doing great things in the new world if he could only get there in proportion as he became more and more dejected by his present circumstances and the means of gaining america from his grasp the more he fretted himself with the conviction that that was the only place in which he could hope to achieve any high end and worried his brain with the thought that men going there in the meanwhile might anticipate him in the of those objects which were dearest to his heart he often thought of john and besides looking out for him on all occasions actually walked about london for three days together for the express purpose of meeting with him but although he failed in this and although he would not have to borrow money of him and although he john would have lent it yet still he could not bring his mind to write to pinch and inquire where he was to be found for although as we have seen he was fond of tom after his own fashion he could not endure the thought feeling so superior to tom of making him the stepping stone and of to his or being anything to him but a patron and his pride bo from the idea that it restrained him even now it might have yielded however and no doubt must have yielded soon but for a very strange and for occurrence the five weeks had quite run out and he was in a truly desperate plight when one evening having just returned to his lodging and being in the act of lighting his candle at the gas jet in the bar before up stairs to his own room his landlord called him by his name now as he had never told it to the man but had kept it to himself he was not a little startled by this and so plainly showed
8
and now said the big man he was an englishman who had just moved into the don t frighten him and we ll see what he ll do it is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity the motto of all the family is run and find out and was a true he looked at the cotton wool decided that it was not good to eat ran all round the table sat up and put his fur in order scratched himself and jumped on the boy s shoulder don t be frightened said his father that s his way of making friends he s under my chin said looked down between the boy s collar and neck at his ear and climbed down to the floor where he sat rubbing his nose good gracious said s mother and that s a wild creature i suppose he s so tame because we ve been kind to him all are like that said her husband if doesn t pick him up by the tail or try to put him in a cage he ll run in and out of the house all day long let s give him something to eat r down the they gave him a collar and neck little piece of raw meat liked it immensely and when it was finished he went out into the and sat in the sunshine and up his fur to make it dry to the roots then he felt better there are more things to find out about in this house he said to himself than all my family could find out in all their lives i shall certainly stay and find out he spent all that day over the house he nearly drowned himself in the bath put his nose into the ink on a writing table and burnt it on z the book the end of the big man s cigar for he climbed up in the big man s lap to see how writing was done at nightfall he ran into nursery to watch how lamps were lighted and when went to bed climbed up too but he was a restless companion because he had to get up and attend to every noise all through the night and find out what made it s mother and father came in the last thing to look at their boy and was awake on the pillow i don t like that said s mother he may bite the child he ll do no such thing said the father s safer with that little beast than if he had a to watch him if a snake came into the nursery now but s mother wouldn t think of anything so awful early in the morning came to early u breakfast in the riding on s shoulder and they gave him and some boiled egg and he sat on all their one after the other because every well brought up always hopes to be a house some day and have rooms to run about in and s mother she used to live in the general s house at had carefully told what to do if ever he came across white then went out into the garden to see what was to be seen it was a large garden only half cultivated w ith bushes as big as summer houses of roses lime and orange trees of and of high grass licked his lips this is a splendid hunting ground he said and his tail grew bottle at the thought of it and he up and down the garden here and there till he � he ard very sorrowful voices in a thorn it was the tailor bird and his wife they had made a beautiful nest by pulling the book two big leaves together and them up the edges with and had filled the hollow with cotton and the nest swayed to and fro as they sat on the rim and cried what is the matter asked we are very miserable said one of our babies fell out of the nest yesterday and ate him h m said that is very sad � but i am a stranger here who is and his wife only down in the nest without answering for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss � a horrid cold sound that made jump back two clear feet then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of the big black and he was five feet long from tongue to tail when he had lifted one third of himself clear of the ground he stayed to and fro exactly as a dan ion in the wind and he looked at with the wicked snake s eyes that never change their expression whatever the snake may be thinking of who is said he am the great god put his mark upon all our people when the first spread his hood to keep the sun off as he slept look and be afraid he spread out his hood more than ever and saw the spectacle mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook and eye he was afraid for the minute but it is impossible for a to stay frightened for any length of time and though had never met a live before his mother had fed him on dead ones and he knew that all a gi own s business in life was to fight and eat v knew that too and at the bottom of his cold heart he was afraid well said and his tail began to up again marks or no marks do you think it is right for you to eat out of a nest was thinking to himself and watching the least little
39
a author of the village of palaces the of m r etc with numerous text and full page illustrations drawn on the spot by c g � the illustrations by mr are charming and the book altogether a pretty one � imperial i mo cloth gilt side price s d illustrated d� � an indian by general e f of the staff corps author of reminiscences of sport in india etc with full page illustrations from original drawings made by the author and miss c g withal the book is admirably written and with numerous sketches which do credit to the artistic skill of general and miss � county gentleman vo cloth extra price s d of the home by harry a finely conceived and indeed delightful poem of the affections � i mc extra d a story of english country life by francis francis author of sporting sketches wi h pen and pencil by lake and river etc etc with illustrations on steel by john coloured by hand when it is said that it is written by the late mr francis francis and illustrated by john assurance has been given of a handsome and book � s magazine cheaper r� wn w extra price crown cloth boards price s d td one of the royal by the crown a price y d d hard held a sporting novel being a to and by sir h for cheaper edition see page crown cloth extra price j d d and the painter a romance of our time second edition with preface by john bell an clever book mr bell is often not seldom provoking but rarely dull � world it is the sort of book the description of which as very clever is at once inevitable and inadequate the theme is politics and and the treatment for the most part the streak of humorous which shows through the several of the story is both curious and pleasing in the author s method is not unlike lord s � l b s novels new uniform edition mrs s work is always well done she has a great power of distinctness and variety to her characters � cloth extra price j d each with mr smith a part of his life a work of quite extraordinary talent which will at once win for its a high place among contemporary � echo the baby s grandmother the baby s grandmother is in its way a work of genius it is long since we have read so bright and oo brilliant a novel � spectator cousins cousins is a charming story it is long since we have read a book which we can so cordially recommend to our readers � vanity fair is by great skill and greater delicacy � times troublesome daughters is delightful it with gaiety it is very original and very natural � dealing with the passions of men and women and not with the of the or the artificial of society it preserves a purity of tone and a dignity of method not too often found in the novels of the day � dick one of the best studies of humble life that has appeared for many years � academy the history of a week � to be followed by other works by the same author the standard library grown p cloth extra artistic price y d each d the by w e mr has never had a happier thought for a novel nor worked out his idea more than in this bright story it is thoroughly picturesque and sparkling � will be enjoyed by everybody who reads it and everybody ought to read it � observer the by s in every sense the is one of mr s best and most original stories � morning post � the story is told with the author s accustomed skill and with all his in � saturday review a good novel of an exciting sort it is a thoroughly book and the study of dialect is � daily telegraph the sign of pour by a the philosopher in slippers views of life and society by the author of three essays by w e the announcement of a new novel by mr is the assurance of a fresh literary treat and the reader who takes np will find it his most sanguine expectations � the play of character and the interest of the plot are maintained to the end � daily news � � a decidedly interesting book the characters are careful studies world the standard continued z a cloth extra each in london by f w robinson author of grandmother s money etc the story is written in a forcible style and the murder which the plot depends is not only contrived with skill but treated in a manner which is strikingly original � little by f w robinson little is a splendid story � spectator the of mary smith by f w robinson the of mary smith is a capital book � academy harry by mrs this book is very clever and entertaining the characters are good and every page in those touches of true and subtle observation in which mrs � pall f w robinson s prison series crown cloth extra price x d each with x the of jane female prison characters female life in prison these volumes are of general interest every variety of t of the female prisoner is described and every event of prison life is detailed in these pages the are extraordinary and interesting and many are very touching � morning post crown extra price s d d a tale of moving accidents by flood and field by r n author of old etc etc this tale of moving accidents by flood and field is from first to last unusually interesting none of captain s classical sea stories contain more exciting experiences � post picture cover s gilt s d under fourteen flags being the life
4
waiting so i parted wi my public and my � for she was dead a ready my wife was and i hadn t no and off i started a pretty long walk to this country side for i could walk for a in them days ah well here we are at the back wall put down your and your basket now old boy and i ll help you you and i ll give you the bills and then you can go on talking obeyed for he was now carried away by the rare opportunity of talking to a new listener aad was only eager to go on with his story as soon as his back was turned and he was stooping over his christian with quick exchanged the n his own bag for those in s basket s had not been printed at but were a new lot which had been sent from that very day � highly had said coming from a pen that was up to that sort of thing christian had read the first of the and they were all alike he pi to hand one to and said here old boy this over the other and so when you got into this country side what did you do do why i put up at a good public and ordered the best for i d a bit of money in my pocket and i about and they said to me if it s business you re you go to lawyer and i went and says i going along he s maybe the fine man as walked mo up and down but no such thing i ll tell you what lawyer was he stands you there and holds you away from him wi a pole three yard long he at you and says nothing till you feel like a and then he threats you to set the justice on you and then he s sorry for you and hands you money and you a and tells you you re a poor man and he ll give you a bit of advice � and you d better not be wi things belonging to the law else you ll be up in a big wheel and fly to bits and i went of a cold sweat and i wished i might never come i sight o lawyer again but he says if you keep i this neighborhood behave yourself well and i ll you i were deep enough but it s no use being deep cause you can never know the law and there s times when the deepest fellow s worst frightened yes yes there now for another and so that was all all said round and holding the brush in suspense don t you be running too quick the radical thinks i i ll no more i ve got a bit of money � i ll buy a basket and be a it s a pleasant i shall live at and see the world and pick up and get a chance penny but when i d turned into the red lion and got myself warm again wi a drop o hot something into my head thinks i you ve done finely for yourself you re a rat as has broke up your house to take a journey and show yourself to a and then it into my head i d once two as turned on one another and the little un killed the big un says i to the landlady could you tell me of a lawyer says i not very big or fine but a second size � a pig like that i can says she there s one now in the bar parlor be so kind as bring us together says i and she cries out � i think i hear her now � mr johnson and what do you think at this crisis in s story the gray clouds which had been gradually opened sufficiently to let down the sudden moonlight and show his poor battered old figure and face in the attitude and with the expression of a sure of the coming effect on his his body and neck stretched a little on one side and his brush held out with an alarming intention of tapping christian s coat sleeve at the right moment christian started to a safe distance and said it s wonderful i can t tell what to think then never do you deny old nick said with solemnity i ve believed in him more ever since who was johnson why johnson was the fine man as had walked me up and down with questions and i out with it to him then and there and he speaks me civil and says come away wi me my good fellow and he told me a deal of law and he says whether you re a or no it s no good to you but only to them as have got hold o the property if you was a twenty times over it ud be good for the law s bought you out and your life s no good only to them as have hold o the property the more you live the more they ll stick in not as they want you now says he � you re no good to any body and you might howl like a dog for and the law ud take no notice on you says johnson i m doing a kind thing by you to tell you for that s the law and if you want to know the law master you ask johnson i heard em say after as he was an at s i ve never forgot it from that day to this but i saw clear enough as if the law hadn t been again me the estate ud ha been mine but folks are fools and i ve left off talk ing
14
off o she she was away from them all she d a come in teu ahead that fourth oh that other was ridden very jealous and so old she got at the bank if there d a bin another she d ha em all a proper sure fifth ive sin run a deal nor that she run away from a field o fourteen two in a flat race once she did she worn t in form to day that s all they go each with a comforting conviction that he has won what the leader writers on bye would call a moral victory at a scene � interior of wedding guests arriving and exchanging airy as t settle down in their places in various states of self consciousness collected at door loud and sustained of feminine whispering policeman on guard at another door to people with a for seeing complete strangers married very sorry ladies but if you re not provided with tickets i can t let you in the people with a c but this is a public place isn t it policeman not feeling competent to argue the point those are my orders the people c depart to guests with pink tickets any of those seats there pink guests attempting to pass a crimson rope which bars the central passage we want to be near the altar � we can t see here in a superior manner the higher seats are set apart for parties with white tickets pink guests to one another indignantly j and after we d sent that girl a bowl too they employ themselves in picking out white guests ought properly to have been remark that it is the most managed wedding they ever saw and bitterly at to the bowl mrs who always comes early to see the people oh at a wedding there ll b a tremendous crush of course they know ev ay look the de have just come in � what a pity it is that eldest girl has such a red nose � she d be quite without it there s you see him everywhere and smiles at him horrid creature and how fat he s getting do you know who that is that s miss of the you know � looks ever so much older by daylight doesn t she i suppose she s not one of the friends by the way have you ever met him � this man the bridegroom i mean oh my dear a perfect horror ten years older than she is and one hears such stories about him in fact it was only his money that � but her people were delighted of course ah she s coming now look how the are all themselves that s the j� he look yellow best man in a whisper to bridegroom pull yourself together old you are looking so bridegroom i y too fact is those farewell are a mistake � i ll never give another mrs now the choir are going down to meet them don t you wish they d invent a new hymn for i m so tired of that one there she is i always think this is such a solemn moment don t j can you see whether it s silk or gloves the are wearing that s her father whose arm she s on they say he but he doesn t count her mother s behind with the hook nose why on earth should cry i don t know � it s all her doing she makes a pale bride doesn t she but white satin would be trying even to a beauty i hear she threw over poor young most why does that tiresome old bishop so i can t hear a word belonging to bride s family to nurse i wonder at that jane taking on herself to cry when she only came fortnight now you and me have got some claim to cr the nurse them kitchen maids can t be expected to know their place or what s required of them h in the general congratulations compliments kisses and bridegroom to best man i say dear boy i look to you to square all these you know which is his mode of the bishop and his assistant in church during the interval mrs very daring of them to be married in may isn t it i knew a girl who was married in may once � and the very first time they gave a dinner party her cook came up drunk soon after the salmon and gave her warning before everybody dreadful wasn t it i suppose you ll go on to the house and see the presents do � going oh you ve seen mine t it is handsome isn t it i was going to get her quite an ordinary one at the stores � but that was when i thought she was only going to be mrs ah there s the wedding march at last here they come bride and bridegroom pass slowly down central passage their friends at hazard several are left unnoticed with their prepared smile wasting its sweetness t the bride s brothers a young ma i rather dressed who has been standing behind mrs the whole time forces his way to the front the y m to himself she shall see me � if she has the courage to meet my eye after her conduct the bride what mr i d no idea you were in town we shall see you presently i hope s he passes on leaving the y m think of all the replies he might have made an old maid peeping in the gallery she has got in as the bridegroom s a character in she every wedding poor things � to think of all the troubles before them at a wedding i bridegroom s friends pretty wedding wasn t it bride s friends
44
once angry and audible � what apiece park ol work here is about nothing � i am quite of you to make such a difficulty of obliging in a of this sort � so kind as they are to you i take die part with grace and let us hear no more of the matter i entreat do not urge her madam said it is not ir to urge h in this manner you see she does not like to act let hei choose for herself as well as the rest of us her judgment may be quite as safely trusted do not urge her any more i am not going to urge her replied mrs sharply but i shall think her a very obstinate girl if e not do what her aunt and cousins wish her � very ungrateful indeed considering who and what she is was too angry to speak but miss looking for a moment with astonished eyes at mis and then at whose tears were beginning to show themselves immediately said with some i do not like my situation this is too hot for me � and moved away her chair to the opposite side of the table close to saying to her in a kind low whisper as she placed herself never mind my dear miss � this is a cross evening � everybody is cross and but do not let us mind them f and with pointed attention continued to talk to her and endeavour to her spirits in spite of being out of spirits herself by a look at her she prevented any farther entreaty from the theatrical board and the really good feelings by which she was almost purely governed were rapidly restoring her to all the little she had lost in s favour did not love miss but she felt very much obliged to her for her present kindness and when from taking notice of her work and wishing could work as well and g for the pattern and supposing waa now preparing for her appearance as of course she would come out n en her cousin was married proceeded to if she had heard lately from her brother at sea and said that she had quite a curiosity to see him and imagined him a very fine young man and advised to get bis picture drawn before he park vent to wa a un � she could not help admitting it to be agreeable help listening and answering with more animation than she had intended the consultation upon the play still went on and miss s was first from by tom s telling her with infinite regret that he found it absolutely impossible for him to undertake the part of in addition to the butler he had been most tr ng to make it out to be � but it not do � he must give it up but there will not be the smallest difficulty in filling it he added we have but to speak die word we may pick and choose i could name at this moment at least six young men within miles of us who are wild to be admitted into our company and there are one or two that would not disgrace us � i should not be afraid to either of the or charles tom is a very clever fellow and charles is as a man as you see anywhere so will take my horse early to and ride over to and settle with one of them while he spoke maria was looking round at in full expectation that he must oppose such an of the plan as this � so contrary to all their but said nothing after a moment s thought miss calmly replied as far as i am concerned i can have no objection to anything that yoa all think eligible have i ever seen either of the gentlemen t yes mr charles dined at my sister s one day did not he henry a quiet looking young man i remember him let him be applied to if you please for it will be less unpleasant to me than to have a perfect charles was to be the man tom repeated his resolution of going to him early on the morrow and though who had scarcely opened her lips before observed in a sarcastic manner and with a glance first at maria and then at that the would the whole neighbourhood y still held his peace and showed his feelings only by a determined gravity � park i am not to u to our said mm in an under voice to after some con j and i on tell mr that i � h� ll � m it will be veiy if t o means what i chapter it was in miss s to talk into any real forgetfulness of what had passed when die evening was she went to bed of it her still agitated by the shock of such an attack om her tom so public and so in and her spirits sinking under her unkind reflection and reproach to be called into notice in such a to hear that il was but the to something so infinitely worse to be told that she must do what was so impossible as to act and then to have the charge of and ingratitude follow i enforced with such a hint at the dependence of her situation had been too distressing at the time to make the remembrance when she was alone much less so � especially with the dread of what the morrow might produce in of the subject miss had protected her only for the time and if she were applied to again among themselves with all the that tom and maria were capable of and perhaps away what should she do she fell asleep before she could answer the question and found it quite as when she awoke
26
of course i ve to obey him more than you now mrs sighed all i have to say is that you d better get your husband to join you as soon as possible she remarked to go on playing the maiden like this � i m ashamed to see you she wrote instantly to i wash my hands of the whole matter as between you two though i should advise you to openly join each other as soon as you can � if you wish to avoid scandal he came though not till the promised title had been granted and he could call my lady people said in after years that she and her husband were very happy however that may be they had a numerous family and she became in due course first of as he had foretold the little white frock in which she had been married to him at the tender age of twelve was carefully preserved among the relics at king s court where it may still be seen by the curious � a pathetic testimony to the small count taken of the happiness of an innocent child in the social of those days which might have led but did not lead to great a group of noble when the earl died wrote him an in which she described him as the best of husbands fathers and friends and called herself his widow such is woman or rather not to give offence by so sweeping an assertion such was it was at a meeting of one of the field and clubs that the foregoing story partly told partly read from a manuscript was made to do duty for the papers on ox horns and such like that usually occupied the more serious attention of the members this club was of an and character to a degree indeed remarkable for the part of england in which it had its being � dear delightful whose are even now only just beginning to feel the shaking of the new and strange spirit without like that which entered the lonely valley of s vision and made the dry bones move where the honest clerks and people still praise the lord with one voice for his best of all possible worlds the present meeting which was to extend over two days had opened its proceedings at the museum of the town whose buildings and were to be visited by the members lunch had ended and the afternoon excursion had been about to be undertaken when the rain came down in an obstinate which revealed no sign of as the members waited they grew chilly although it was only autumn and a fire was lighted s a group of noble which threw a cheerful shine upon the coats of mail weapons and animated the and while the dead eyes of the stuffed birds � those never absent in such though murdered to out of doors � flashed as they had flashed to the rising sun above the neighbouring on the fatal morning when the was pulled which ended their little flight it was then that the historian produced his manuscript which he had prepared he said with a view to publication his delivery of the story having concluded as the speaker expressed his hope that the of the weather and the of more scientific papers would excuse any in his subject several members observed that a storm bound club could not presume to be and they were all very much obliged to him for such a curious chapter from the domestic histories of the county the president looked gloomily from the window at the descending rain and broke a short silence by saying that though the club had met there seemed little probability of its being able to visit the objects of interest set down among the the observed that they had at least a roof over their heads and they had also a second day before them a sentimental member leaning back in his chair declared that he was in no hurry to go out and that nothing would please him so much as another county story with or without manuscript the colonel added that the subject should be a lady a group of noble like the former to which a gentleman known as the spark said hear hear though these had spoken in jest a rural dean who was present observed that there was no lack of materials many indeed were the legends and traditions of gentle and noble renowned in times past in that part of england whose actions and passions were now but for men s memories buried under the brief inscription on a tomb or an entry of dates in a dry another member an old surgeon a somewhat grim though personage was quite of the speaker s opinion and felt quite sure that the memory of the reverend gentleman must abound with such curious tales of fair of their loves and hates their joys and their misfortunes their beauty and their fate the parson a trifle confused retorted that their friend the surgeon the son of a surgeon seemed to him as a man who had seen much and heard more during the long course of his own and his father s practice the member of all others most likely to be acquainted with such lore the the colonel the historian the the the two the gentleman the sentimental member the crimson the quiet gentleman the man of family the spark and several others quite agreed and begged that he would recall something of the kind the old surgeon said that though a meeting of the mid field and club was the last place at which he should have expected to be called upon in this way he had no objection and the parson said he would a group of noble come next the surgeon then reflected and decided to relate the history of a lady
45
silent chuckle it looks as if it ought to be mr under the word and groaned again my kitchen is on this floor he said you ll find brown paper in a drawer there and a bottle of on a shelf would you have the kindness to make a few and put em on it can t be kept too quiet one hum � five six you ll want six said the there s smart enough mr groaning and again for sixty friend miss repaired to the kitchen in hand found the brown paper and found the and cut out and six large when they were all lying ready on the an idea occurred to her as she was about to gather them up a i think said miss with a silent laugh he ought to have a little just a few i think the young man s tricks and manners make a claim upon his friends for a little mr s evil star showing her the box on the she climbed upon a chair and got it down and sprinkled all the with a judicious hand she then went back to mr and stuck them all on him mr uttering a sharp howl as each was put in its place there young man said the now i hope you feel pretty comfortable apparently mr did not for he cried by way of answer h how i do smart miss got his gown upon him extinguished his eyes with his cap and helped him to his bed upon which he climbed groaning business between you and me being out of the question to day young man and my time being precious said miss then make myself scarce are you comfortable now oh my eye cried mr no i ain t h� h how i do smart the last thing miss saw as she looked back before closing the room door was mr in the act of plunging and all over his bed like a or in its native element she then shut the bedroom door and all the other doors and going down stairs and emerging from the into the busy streets took for saint mary axe pressing on the road all the gaily dressed ladies whom she could see from the window and making them unconscious lay figures for while she mentally cut them out and them chapter ix two places down by the at the corner of saint mary axe and trusting to her feet and her stick within its the proceeded to the place of business of and go all there was sunny and quiet and shady and quiet hiding herself in the entry outside the glass door she could see from that post of observation the old man in his spectacles sitting writing at his desk i cried the in her head at the mr wolf at home the old man took his glasses off and mildly laid them down beside him ah is it you i thought you had given me up and so i had given up the treacherous wolf of the forest re � mutual plied but it strikes me you have come back not quite sure because the wolf and you change forms i want to ask you a question or two to find out whether you are really or really wolf may i yes yes but glanced towards the as if he thought his principal might appear there k you re afraid of the fox said miss you may all present expectations of seeing that animal me won t show himself abroad for many a day what do you mean my child t u mean replied miss sitting down beside the jew that the fox has caught a famous and that if his skin and bones are not aching and at this present instant no fox did ever ache and smart mis related what had come to pass in the the few of now she went on i particularly wish to ask yon what has taken place here since i left the wolf here because i have an idea about the size of a marble rolling about in my little first and foremost are you and ox or are yon either upon your solemn word and honour the old man shook his head secondly isn t both and co t the old man answered with a reluctant nod my idea exclaimed miss is now about the size of an orange but before it gets any bigger welcome back dear the little creature folded her arms about the old man s neck with great earnestness and kissed him i humbly beg your forgiveness i am truly sorry i ought to have had more faith in you but what could i suppose when you said nothing for yourself you know i don t mean to offer that as a justification but what could i suppose when you were a silent party to all he said it did look bad now didn t it it looked so bad responded the old man with gravity that i will straightway tell you what an impression it wrought upon me i was hateful in mine own eyes i was hateful to myself in being so hateful to the and to you but more than that and worse than that and to pass out far and broad beyond myself � i reflected that evening sitting alone in my garden on the that i was doing to my ancient faith and race i clearly reflected for the first time � that in bending my neck to the yoke i was willing to wear i bent the unwilling necks of the whole people for it is not in christian countries with the jews as with other men say this is a bad greek but there are good this is a bad but there are good not so with the jews men find the bad among us easily among what are
8
his hand in his bosom as if to seize a hidden weapon awaited his approach well said sir daniel how is it to be do ye make war upon the fallen i made no war upon your life replied the lad i was your true friend until ye sought for mine but ye have sought for it nay � self defence replied the knight and now boy the news of this battle and the presence of yon crooked devil here in mine own wood have broken dick s revenge me beyond all help i go to for thence with what i can carry and to begin life again in or france ye may not go to said dick how may not asked the knight look ye sir daniel this is my marriage mom said dick and yon sun that is to rise will make the brightest day that ever shone for me your life is � doubly for my father s death and your own to me ward but i myself have done amiss i have brought about men s deaths and upon this glad day i will be neither judge nor an ye were the devil i would not lay a hand on you an ye were the devil ye might go where ye will for me seek god s forgiveness mine ye have freely but to go on to is different i carry arms for york and i will suffer no spy within their lines hold it then for certain if ye set one foot before another i will my voice and call the nearest post to seize you ye mock me said sir daniel i have no safety out of i care no more returned richard i let you go east west or south north i will not is shut against you go and seek not to return for once ye are gone i will warn every post about this army and there will be so shrewd a watch upon all that once again were ye the very devil ye would find it ruin to make the essay si the arrow ye doom me said sir daniel gloomily i doom you not returned if it so please you to set your against mine come on and though i fear it be to my party i will take the challenge openly and fully fight you with mine own single strength and call for none to help me so shall i my father with a perfect conscience ay said sir daniel y have a long sword against my dagger i rely upon heaven only answered dick casting his sword some way behind him on the snow now if your ill fate bids you come and under the pleasure of the almighty i make myself bold to feed your bones to i did but try you returned the knight with an uneasy semblance of a laugh would not your blood go then ere it be too late replied in five minutes i will call the post i do perceive that i am too long suffering had but our places been reversed i should have been bound hand and foot some minutes past well i will go replied sir daniel when we next meet it shall repent you that ye were so harsh and with these words the knight turned and began to move off under the trees dick watched him with strangely mingled feelings as he went swiftly and and ever and again turning a wicked eye upon dick s the lad who had spared him and whom he still suspected there was upon one side of where he went a thicket strongly with green ivy and even in its winter state to the eye all o� a sudden a bow sounded like a note of music an arrow flew and with a great choked cry of a and anger the knight of threw up his hands and fell forward in the snow dick bounded to his side and raised him his face desperately worked his whole body was shaken by is the arrow black he gasped it is black replied dick gravely and then before he could add one word a desperate of pain shook the wounded man from head to foot so that his body leaped in dick s supporting arms and with the extremity of that pang his spirit fled in silence the young man laid him back gently on the snow and prayed for that unprepared and guilty spirit and as he prayed the sun came up at a bound and the began in the ivy when he rose to his feet he found another man upon his knees but a few steps behind him and still with uncovered head he waited until that prayer also should be over it took long the man with his head bowed and his face covered with his hands prayed like one in a great disorder or distress of mind and by the bow that the black lay beside him dick judged that he was no other than the who had laid sir daniel low at length he also rose and showed the countenance of richard he said very gravely i heard you ye took the better part and i took the worse and there lays the clay of mine enemy pray for me and he wrung him by the hand sir said richard i will pray for you indeed though how i may prevail i not but if ye have so long pursued revenge and find it now of such a sorry ye were it not well to pardon others � he is dead poor i i would have spared and for sir daniel here lies his body but for the priest if i might prevail i would have you let him go a flash came into the eyes of nay he said the devil is still strong within me but be at rest the black arrow � the
38
the human mind not only do we fail to see ourselves as others see us but we have not the faintest conception of ourselves as we are an incident which might have proved to me how shallow was the depth of my supposed feeling and that it was nothing more than a strong sex desire was this one night about twelve a message to the republic stated that on a branch extension of one of the car lines about seven or eight miles from the city a had just been committed three entering a lone owl car which ran from the city to a small village had shot and killed the conductor and fired on the a young girl who had been on board the only passenger had escaped by the front door and had not since been heard of � or so the message stated as i happened to be in the office at the time the story was assigned to me by good luck i managed to catch a twelve o clock car and arrived at the end of the line at twelve forty where i learned that the body of the dead man had been transferred to his home at some point farther out and that a of male of the region had already been organized and were now helping the police to search this country round for the when i asked about the girl who had been on board one of the men at the bam exclaimed sure she s a chapter l all love contain an element of the i presume but to each how very important i will pass mine over with what i have already said save this that each little in her costume however slight in her or the way she looked or walked amid new all seemed to re the perfection that i had discovered and was so fortunate as to possess she gave me her photograph which i framed in silver and hung in my room i begged for a lock of her hair and finding a bit of blue ribbon that i knew belonged to her that she would not allow me to visit at where she taught being about this new relationship but on several sundays when she was at her home up the state i visited this glorious region by her presence and tried to decide for myself just where she lived and her sacred rooms a little later an or state fair was held in the enormous building at and olive streets and here when the were first on and later when the gay veiled began a sort of roman harvest rejoicing winding up with a great parade and ball i saw more of her than ever before it was during this time in a letter that she confessed that she loved me before this however seeing that i made no progress in any other way being allowed no intimacy beyond an occasional stolen kiss i had proposed to her and been accepted with a kind of morbid i had had to ask her in the most definite way and be formally accepted as her husband thereafter i my last cent to purchase a diamond ring at secured through a friend on the b e and then indeed i felt myself set up in the world as one who was destined to tread the conventional and peaceful ways of the majority a book about myself yet in spite of my profound i was still able to beauty in other women and be moved by it the attractions and which draw us away from one and to another are beginning to be more clearly understood in these days and to our more formal notions of and order but even at that time this in myself might have taught me to look with suspicion on my own emotions i think i did imagine that i was a scoundrel in after other women when i was so deeply involved with this one but i told myself that i must be peculiarly in this way that all men were not so that i myself should and probably would hold myself in check eventually etc all of which merely proves how and non self understanding can be the processes of the human mind not only do we fail to see ourselves as others see us but we have not the faintest conception of ourselves as we really are an incident which might have proved to me how shallow was the depth of my supposed feeling and that it was nothing more than a strong sex desire was this one night about twelve a message to the republic stated that on a branch extension of one of the car lines about seven or eight miles from the city a murder had just been committed three entering a lone car which ran from the city to a small village had shot and killed the conductor and fired on the a young girl who had been on board the only passenger had escaped by the front door and had not since been heard of � or so the message stated as i happened to be in the office at the time the story was assigned to me by good luck i managed to catch a twelve o clock car and arrived at the end of the line at twelve forty where i learned that the body of the dead man had been transferred to his home at some point farther out and that a of male of the region had already been organized and were now helping the police to search this country round for the when i asked about the girl who had been on board one of the men at the bam exclaimed sure she s a chapter l all love contain an element of the ridiculous i presume but to each how very important i will pass mine over with what
43
that his attachment to her was robust enough to bear the test and to that test she was determined to submit him she consented to an engagement on one condition that he was to take a long voyage if he returned in the same mind she would be sufficiently sure of his constancy to marry him as soon as he wished if he did not her would be amply justified there was very little sentiment about she took a practical and philosophical view of the marriage union as became a of i like you peter she told him frankly sl e yon have many that yon to me bnt i don t feel that i can depend npon yon at present and from what i know of yon i fear it is only too probable that absence and the attractive society of a passenger ship may lead yon to discover that yon have mistaken the depth of the feeling yon entertain for me bnt look here he had if yon re afraid of that why do yon make me go because she had replied with her admirable common sense because if my fears should prove to be unhappily only too i shall at least have made the discovery before it is too late and in spite of all his peter had to go sought to reconcile him to this necessity by pointing out the advantages of travel the effect it would have upon his mind and the opportunities a long sea voyage afforded for regular and study on the lines she had already out for him but despite these he went away in low spirits when the moment came for parting even the strong s � � minded was seized with a kind of something tells me peter she said that the ordeal will prove too much for you in spite of your good resolutions you will sooner or later be drawn into some which will make you forget me i know you so well peter i wish you could show a little more confidence in me he had answered in a wounded tone since i met you i have ceased to be the butterfly i was but as you seem to doubt me it may relieve your mind if i promise faithfully that while i am away from you i will never under any allow myself to the limits of the most ordinary civility toward any woman with whom i may be brought in contact i swear it are you satisfied now perhaps he had a secret that a time might come when this oath would prove a restraint upon his fancy and it certainly had an immediate and most effect upon had gone out to had seen something of the country during his stay si e in the colony and was now as we have seen on his return and during the whole time his oath to his great credit had been literally and faithfully kept during the voyage out he had been too persistently to be inclined to with sentiment but in his subsequent wanderings he had avoided or rather escaped all intercourse with any ladies who might by any possibility his to whose image consequently still held possession of his heart in case he should feel himself wavering at any time he had been careful to provide with a in the shape of a photograph the mere sight of which would be instantly effectual but somehow since he had been on board the the occasions on which he had been driven to refer to this photograph had been growing more and more frequent while at the same time he had a consciousness that it took an longer time to work he brought it out now and studied it attentively it was the likeness of a girl without any great pretensions to beauty with dark ll hair rolled neatly back from a massive brow that shone with penetrating eyes whose was generally tempered by folding glasses a large firm mouth and a square chin altogether the face of a young woman who would stand no trifling he put it back respectfully in his pocket but the impulse to go across and drop in an accidental fashion into a vacant seat near one of those two girls was still he was feeling so dull he had got such a very little way into the history of civilization a work which he was reading rather for s satisfaction than his own and there was such a lot more of it might he not allow himself a brief holiday and the long weary morning with a little cheerful conversation it was most unlikely strict etiquette being by general consent suspended on board ship that either young lady would resent a remark � at all events he could but try but then his oath � rash and voluntary oath to � what of that he had not it was true himself from ordinary civility but could he be sure of keeping r l always within those bounds if the was once established he had reasons for doubting this very seriously and besides had not more than hinted in her last letter that as a reward for his fidelity she might join the ship at with her mother and so put an earlier end to his term of he could not be too careful after holding out so long it would be madness to his precautions now no he would resist these like a modem though in the latter s case the were not actually on board and even then the hero had to be lashed to the mast but felt confident notwithstanding that he would prove at least as as the greek he was not a strong minded man but he had one quality which is almost as valuable a against temptation as strength of mind � namely timidity his love for his was by a considerable dash of awe and
44
as to make the attention which seemed only paid her because she was appear a compliment to or to allow her to derive encouragement from a preference only given her because her real situation was unknown but that it was so had not only been declared by s eyes at the time but was declared over again the next morning more openly for at her particular desire lady set her down in street on the chance of seeing alone to tell her bow happy she was the chance proved a lucky one for a message from mrs soon after she arrived carried mrs away my dear friend cried as soon as they were i themselves i come to talk to you of my happiness could any thing be so flattering as mrs s way of treating me yesterday so exceeding as she was i you know how i dreaded the thoughts of seeing her but the very moment i was introduced there was such an in her behaviour as really should seem to say she had quite took a fancy to me now was not it so t you saw it and was not you quite struck with it she was certainly very civil to you civil � did you see nothing but only � i saw a vast deal more such kindness as fell to the share of nobody but me � no pride no and your sister just the same � all sweetness and wished to talk of some thing else but still pressed her to own that she had reason for her happiness and was obliged to go on undoubtedly if they had known your engagement said she nothing could be more flattering than their treatment of you � but as that was not the case i guessed you would say so replied quickly � but there was no reason in the world why mis o m � m if k � mi � i w ton as ba � it win an well aad i ma ad cf it all bent bnt lady l not look it i be id to hm j� v in have bees ae to ne in the i � heaven what i should have done friendship tried to make a her own but it seemed to satisfy for she replied � indeed i am convinced of n rd me and next to edward s love it is the greatest comfort i have poor edward i but now there is one good we shall be able to meet and meet pretty often for lady mi i s delighted with mrs da wood so we shall be a good deal in street i say and edward q ends half his time with his sister � be lady and will visit now � and mrs and your sister were both so good to say more than once should always be glad to see me tbey are such charming women i � i am sure if ever you tell your sister what i think of her you cannot speak too high would not give her any encouragement to hope that she tell her sister continued � i am sure i should have seen it in a moment if mn had took a dislike to me if she had only made me a formal courtesy for instance without saying a word and never after had took any notice of me and never looked � i me in a pleasant way � you know what i mean � if i had in forbidding sort way i should have sense and gave it all up in despair i could not have stood il for where she a es dislike i know it is most violent prevented from making any reply to this civil triumph by the door s being thrown open the servant s announcing mr and edward s immediately walking in it was a very awkward moment and the countenance of each showed that it was sa they ill looked exceedingly foolish and edward seemed to have as great an inclination to walk out of the room again as to advance farther into it the in its form which they would each have been most anxious to avoid had fallen on them they were not only all three together but were together without the relief of any other person the ladies recovered themselves it was not s business to put herself forward and the appearance of secrecy must still be kept up she could therefore only look her tenderness and after slightly addressing him said no more but had more to do and so anxious was she for his sake and her own to do it well that she forced herself a moment s recollection to welcome with a look and manner that were almost easy and almost open and another struggle another effort still improved them she would not allow the presence of nor the consciousness of some injustice towards herself to her from saying that she was happy to see him and that she had very much regretted being from home when he called before in street she would not be frightened from paying him those attentions which as a friend and almost a relation were his due by the observant eyes of though she soon perceived them to be narrowly watching her her manners gave some re assurance to edward and he had courage enough to sit down but his embarrassment still exceeded that of the ladies in a proportion which the case rendered reasonable though his sex might make it rare for his heart had not the indifference of s nor could his conscience have quite the ease of s with a and settled air seemed determined to make do contribution to the comfort of the others and would not say a word and almost every thing that and proceeded from who was obliged to all the about her mother s health their
26
i j u m bloody loi s t people of se all do e r hook een the born with shoulders � particulars of his history � died one day � to his memory way my j i m � d j on the de of great beautiful on my chap iv ir professors for their love of a set o on fire and out the pro an joke but not american students very much add ted to burning down reminds me of a od nothing at all to the two societies in the r e and m es little boys � students famous aw two at the tavern who had just got allowance of spending out in a supper � got and d r for n b � r churchyard � to grim aw a cow feeding on a grave � who knows but the cow may have been eating up the one of my ancestors me melancholy for fifteen and blind bet and opinions minutes � man planting � wondered how he could plant them so straight � method of catching � and all whether it would not be a good notion to ring their noses as we do pigs � to propose it to the american agricultural society � get a perhaps � commencement � students give a ball and supper � company from new york philadelphia and great contest which spoke the best english � in their demand for � gave the preference to ra on � gave them a long on the nature of a goose s � students cant dance � always set off with the wrong foot foremost � s opinion on that subject � sir the first man who ever turned out his toes in dancing � great favourite with queen on that account � sir walter � good story about his smoking � his descent into new � dr � miss � earthquake at priest v op esq s baron of � � � cardinal � pope � tom � tom and tom the � n b students got drank as usual chap v left � country finely with sheep and hay � saw a man riding alone in a why the deuce didn t the ride in a chair fellow must be a fool � particular account of the construction of carts and � saw a large flock of � concluded there must be a dead horse in the neighbourhood � country remarkable for � won t let the horses die in anecdote of a jury of � stopped to give the horses good looking man came up and asked me if i had seen his wife heavens i thought i how strange it is that this virtuous man should ask me about his wife � story of and � stage driver took a � set down all the people as old house � and opinions had moss t n the built in the � place than old men s � story about that � of words h ne not write his own name � state of literature in this country � philosophical inquiry o� why the americans are so inferior to the of and shore ditch and why they do not eat on sundays reflections about any thing r chap vi built above the head of to encourage commerce � capital of the state � only wants a castle a bay a mountain a a and a to bear a strong resemblance to the bay of � court sitting � fat chief used to get asleep d the bench after dinner � gave judgment i like s wife from his re s learned of e and � of esq minded me of justice deciding by a throw of a die and of tbe of the holy bottle � attempted to kiss the � my ears till they rung like our theatre bell � girl had lost one tooth � all the american ladies and have bad teeth � a s opinion on the matter � state fine place to see the jump whether jump up by an impulse of the tail or whether they up from the bottom by the of their noses � link of the latter opinion � too � s nose capital for � learnt that at school � went to a ball � negro principal n b people of america have no but females � origin of the phrase � fiddle of your � reasons why men fiddle better than the women � expedient of the who were expert at the bow � waiter at the city tavern � good story of his � nothing to the purpose � never mind � fill up my book like � make it sell � saw a get into the stage followed by his dog n b this town remarkable for vol i whim and opinions dogs and � ent � good story from joe miller � to a of butter pensive meditations on a � make a book as clear as a whistle � op lot lam staff esq no v � saturday march from mt elbow chair the following letter of my friend appears to have been written some time subsequent to the one already published were i to judge from its contents i should suppose it was suggested by the splendid review of the twenty fifth of last november when a pair of colours was presented at the city hall to the of and when a huge dinner was devoured by our in the ho remembrance of the of this city i am happy to find that the spirit of military which in our city has attracted the attention of a stranger of s sagacity by military i mean that spirited in the size of a hat the length of a feather and the finery of a sword belt loo whim and opinions letter from rub a to n al the military at the gate
48
your love to me i do care for in a different way i remember all we said to each other i know how he thought of me as the one promise of his life he was given to me that i might make his lot less hard and i have forsaken him and � she has been deceived � she who trusted me more than any one i cannot marry you i cannot take a good for myself that has been wrung out of their misery it is not the force that ought to rule us � this that we feel for each other it would me away from all that my past life has made dear and mill ok thb holy to me i can t set out on a fresh life and forget that i must go back to it and cling to it else i shall feel as if there were nothing firm beneath my feet good god said too and grasping her arm you how can you go back without marrying me you don t know what will be said dearest you see nothing as it really is yes i do but they will believe me i will confess wiu believe me � she will forgive you and � and � oh some good will come by to the right dear dear let me go i� don t drag me into deeper remorse my whole soul has never consented � it does not consent now let go her arm and sank back on his chair half stunned by despairing rage he was silent a few moments not looking at her while her eyes were turned towards him in alarm at this sudden change at last he said still without looking at her � go � then � leave me � don t torture me any longer � i can t bear it involuntarily she leaned to wards him and put out her hand to touch his but he shrank from it as if it had been burning iron and said again � le e me was not conscious of a decision as she turned away from t� it gloomy averted face and walked out of the room it was like an action that a forgotten intention what came after a sense of stairs descended as if in a dream � of � of a chaise and horses standing � then a street and a turning into another street where a stage coach was standing taking in passengers � and the darting thought that that coach would take her away perhaps towards home but she could ask nothing yet she only got into the coach home � where her mother and brother were � � the scene of her very cares and trials � was the haven towards which her mind tended � the where sacred relics lay � where she would be rescued from more falling the thought of was like a horrible throbbing pain which yet as such pains do seemed to urge all other thoughts into activity but among her thoughts what others t ould say and think of her conduct was hardly present love and deep pity and anguish left no room for that the coach was taking her to york � farther away from home but she did not learn that until she was set down in the old city at midnight it was no matter she could sleep there and start home the next day she had her purse in the mill on the her pocket all her money in it � a bank note and a sovereign she had kept it in her pocket from after going out to make purchases the day before yesterday did she lie down in the gloomy bedroom of the old inn that night with her will bent on the path of penitent sacrifice the great struggles oi life are not so easy as that the great problems of are not so clear in the darkness of that night she saw s turned towards her in passionate misery she lived through again all the tremulous delights of his presence with her that made existence an easy floating in a stream of joy instead of a quiet resolved endurance and effort the love she had came back upon her with a cruel charm she felt herself opening her arms to receive it once more and then it seemed to slip away and and vanish leaving only the dying sound of a deep thrilling voice that said gone � for ever gone i book seventh the final rescue chapter l the to the mill between four and five o clock on the afternoon of the fifth day from that on which and had left st s tom was standing on the gravel walk outside the old house at mill he was master there now he had half fulfilled his other s dying wish and by years of steady self government and energetic work he had brought himself near to the of more than the old respectability which had been the proud inheritance of the and but tom s ce as he stood in the hot still sunshine of that summer afternoon had no gladness no triumph b it his mouth wore its bitterest expression his severe brow its hardest and deepest fold as he drew down his hat over his eyes to shelter them from the sun and thrusting his hands deep into his began to walk up and down the no news of his sister had been heard since bob had come back in the steamer from and put an end to all improbable of an accident on the water by stating that he had seen her land from a vessel with mr guest would the next news be that she was or what probably that she was not married tom s mind was set to the expectation of the worst that could happen � not
14
all the � he believed in a god like all the ignorant people but before mr came i had a very clever a mr � he was a he said and a great friend of a person named and he told me all about the he even showed me the enlarged drawing of an as seen through the � a curious thing with a sort of cord running through it � something like the picture of a man s ribs in my book � and he explained to me that it was a combination of such things that made and it puzzled me very much because i thought there must be a beginning even to these and i could not imagine how such a little object as a first could think out a plan by itself and create worlds with people bigger than itself on them but he was a very funny man � mr i mean � he used to say that nothing was everything and everything was nothing he said this so often and laughed so much over it that i was afraid he was going quite mad so i used to avoid the subject altogether now you have come i am sure you can make it clear to me so that i shall understand properly because it is very interesting don t you think to know exactly where the is and what it s doing slowly and with an uncomfortable sense of professor rallied his scattered forces you ask to know what no one knows � he said harshly � that there is a first cause of things is evident � but where it is and where it came from is an mystery it is in all probability now absorbed in its own extended forces � all we know is that it works or has worked and that we see its results in the universe around us s face darkened with disappointment you call it a first cause � he said � and are you really quite sure the first cause is an no one can be sure of anything in such matters � answered the professor his brows � we can only form a guess from what we are enabled to discover in natural science a strange smile half half flashed in the boy s eyes oh then you only guess at the as other people guess at a god he said � no one is sure about anything well i think it is very silly to settle upon an as the cause of anything it seems to me much more natural and likely that it should be a person a person with brain and thought and feeling and memory you see an under the has no head or any place where it could grow a brain � it is just a thing like two knotted together and in the works of nature there is nothing of that description which thinks out a universe for itself � if there were it would rule us all but here the professor rose up in all his strength and swung a heavy ram of explicit fact against the child s argument and as a matter of positive truth and certainty do rule us � he interrupted with some excitement � the of disease which breed death � the which work storm and earthquake the which penetrate the il e brain and produce thought � the moving in a state of transition which cause change both in the development of worlds and the progress of man � good heavens � i could go on quoting hundreds of instances which prove beyond a doubt that we are entirely governed by the movement and of � but you are too young to understand � you could never grasp the advanced scientific doctrines of the day � it is ridiculous to discuss them with a boy like you i don t think it is ridiculous � said placidly � because you see i am rather an unhappy sort of boy i think a good deal if i were happy i might not think mr says there are lots of boys who never think at all and that they get on much better than i do but when one can t help thinking what is one to do oh dear and he heaved a profound sigh � i did hope you would be able to clear up all my difficulties for me the professor rubbed his great hands together cracked his and awkwardly but was otherwise silent you know went on � it doesn t make you care very much about living if you there s no good in it and that you are only the smallest possible of the results of an which didn t care and didn t know what it was about when it started making things i should be ever so happier if i thought it was a person who knew what he was doing pf e are supposed to know what we are doing even in very small trifles and if we don know we are considered quite silly and useless so it does seem rather funny to me that we should decide that all the beautiful work of the universe is done by a thing that hasn t any notion what it is about it would be much easier to understand i think if the scientific people could agree that the first cause was a person who knew still the professor was silent a person who knew continued the boy thoughtfully � would have ideas and if he were a good person they would all be grand and beautiful ideas and if he were an eternal person he would be new and still more wonderful things so we should not be surprised at knowing he had made millions and millions of stars and and if he were good himself he would never quite destroy anything that had good
33
bright one of whom if not two have declared themselves favorable to slavery while the remaining two but dimly represent the spirit of liberty now rising in the free states and demanding that there shall no longer be slavery in the land the bill reported to the by this committee was passed by a vote of to was sent at once io the house of representatives where on the motion of mr a southern member it was laid on the table without any intention of taking it up again by to the house of representatives passed its own bill for a form of government in and sent it to the it was then that made his speech were we to judge of him entirely by this we should say he is imperious impatient of opposition to speeches an j w his plans a man of the world whose moral standard no higher than the law of the country he was evidently a good deal offended at the summary manner in which the house of representatives disposed of a bill from which he looked for a complete settlement of the long and violent slavery agitation in his opinion the integrity of the union and in which he bad borne so conspicuous a part that be well might have raised the cry that he had again saved it with him there is a e to keep down his resentment at their or rather his contempt for he charges them and indeed all with ignorance not that mr supported his motion on the very grounds that had been urged against the bill in the where the discussion of it may have been sufficiently heard by tlie members of the house nor does he conceal his feelings toward such of his brother as opposed the bill for on them he some of his hardest and most blows we do not intend by these remarks to the effort of compared with those of other on the same occasion nor to convey the idea that it was wanting in ability by no means � for in point of fact although mr does not profess to deal in the mysteries of slavery � it was quite superior to those that we have especially brought to the notice of our readers as a composition it is the is easier as an argument it is more regularly built and than theirs in fine according to the generally received notion of strength he is stronger than they are has greater power of explaining and his meaning they utter sentiments so very adverse to all our notions of justice � so entirely to the truths that we have pronounced self evident that what they say is at once cast aside without producing any mischievous results but it is not so with while he opinions as mischievous as theirs he so them that they often find not only transient harbor but are likely to be looked on as the opinions that ought to be always entertained indeed we should fear that they might prevail were not popular improvement slowly but constantly and certainly their area and bringing closer together the walls that are finally to crush them we hear ver and a ua the f speeches on slavery constitution these words are in the mouth of every they form the and of every speech about slavery whether in or out of and even large political have not failed to employ them but they are for the most part without any very definite meaning we do not remember to have seen them so explained as mr explains them or so lightly thought of as he seems to think of them so indeed do we consider his remarks that had they been drawn from him by any unlocked for � n or sudden excitement we should in that find his excuse but they were not for his speech bears every mark of having been deliberately considered after calling the rash of slavery at the south and the of it at the north and saying that the war between them and the bill was a war of � that they do not desire any thing that would the country and restore feelings to its sections he then proceeds they have represented the bill to be a compromise of principle and have employed the cant that principle cannot be although the constitution itself was but a compromise of principle and the of mutual concession between the different members of the as if not content with this he returns to the charge and says that same spirit that mutual deference and concession are again rendered indispensable by our condition we are now about to apply the constitution to a region larger than the old thirteen states when the union was founded under such circumstances when i hear a man set up for himself a higher standard of morality and virtue than that of the fathers of the republic and say that he can agree to no compromise or to use the cant of the time that principle cannot be i think of the poet s exclamation � for a forty parson power to chant thy praise not a man came oat of the that framed the constitution who had not objections to some part of it it was a com promise and the same feeling which governed in its formation is and ever will be indispensable to its preservation that the constitution was what washington said it was � the result of a spirit of and of mutual deference and w are no to call m the speeches en slavery name of washington is here introduced by mr who associates his expressions as now quoted with his own that the father of his country may seem to have used or given his sanction to the sentiment of mr but a spirit of � mutual deference and are by no means the same as mr s compromise of
37
fair fame here in the latter you lose it this marriage has to be in either case by the first mr escapes free by the second he suffers with me said quietly that i know and am prepared for was s answer and companionship in misfortune is pleasant she returned if you are really set on this absurd bit of you shall smart for it mon i am not disposed to be made the and sent into the wilderness carrying your sins as well as my own we will go together i am ready said sternly to give up to give up that i may save t the ghost of the past she laughed in a mocking kind of way yon were not such a lover to me she said i do not think you would have given up me for any such high morality at least i know that mr � my husband then � and the seventh did not you i did not give you up till i knew you said while i believed in you i would have gone down into hell for you to have died for you would have been easy and i for you she said suddenly changing her tone for i loved you � loved you faithfully � loved you as i never loved before nor have since i had to deceive you bad as i was how could i tell my sad story to a man so young as you were then with all your illusions unbroken it would have killed you i loved you my darling and you loved me will not the memory of that love soften you i want only the opportunity to be good i am i the ghost of the past not bad at heart � i never was i have been the victim of a cruel fate and the sport of circumstances but i was never really vicious help me to redeem myself and to make s life blessed as i can and will make it he will never know i will be so good to him help me for old times sake she spoke with inconceivable passion her words flowed like a stream of fiery and as she uttered her last appeal she knelt on the sands at his feet and took his hand in both of hers carrying it to her lips lovely in her passion graceful in her with the eloquence of despair in her voice and manner with the wonderful of her nature shining in her eyes and drawing out the very heart of her she was at this moment as dangerous to s resolve as she had formerly been to his soul her appeal was one which touches every true man to help her to be good � to help her to the ghost of the past redeem herself � to lift her from the mire where as she said a cruel fate h d cast her and where he himself had helped to fling her and set her among the shining ranks of the if he would not if for the shadowy of he failed to do the real good laid before him to do genuine tears came into her eyes her painted lips quivered with a genuine emotion put his hand over his eyes he was trembling like a leaf for the task was very hard it cannot be he said with a sob for her sake and his i must not a boat drifted noiselessly round the and and sprang on shore god in heaven what does this mean cried dashing up the beach to seize by the throat stood where she was and as if in a dream i the of the past started to her feet she read her doom in s face now and as if in stone and she knew that the game was lost i was an old play with my former lover she said in her hard harsh voice � the man who me when i was s wife tears had passed since this bolt fell from the blue and shattered the lives of all concerned how often the summer had faded into the autumn and the autumn had died into winter since then and what had wrought out their course to the end � s lifeless body cast up by the tide how drowned whether by accident or design no one ever knew � the beautiful woman by whom had been wrought all this woe dead of misery and want like so much drift wood on the ghost of the past the shores of time and disease � and her mother like dim of their former selves wandering through the world banished like adam from the paradise where he had lived with love and walked with � all the roses dead all the sunlight gone � what a term of � what a blank life was to the three remaining the two who had found their rest in the grave were happier than those who still lived beneath the sky sorrow shame futile despair and as futile repentance � what an of that bitter harvest of youthful folly ought i to have him said often to herself but never asked his heart ought i to have concealed it cost all it had it was better than a life of deception the white washing of and the association of and with the wife of � the widow of the of san i the ghost of the past long parted they met again one winter moonlight night in the at rome this place of death and ruin filled with the memories of love joy glory and all buried deep in the past it was the fitting place for them to meet and it was the fitting time � night for day winter for summer the pale moon which threw black fantastic shadows on a ruin for the glorious sun which had touched all
45
summer such was the state of ai airs in the month of july and had just reached her year when the society of the village received an addition in the brother and sister of mrs grant a mr and miss the children of her mother by a second marriage they were young people of fortune the son had a good estate in the daughter twenty thousand pounds as children their sister had always been very fond of them but as her own marriage had been soon followed by the death of their common parent which left them to the care of a brother of their father of whom mrs grant knew nothing she liad scarcely seen them since in their uncle i park house they had found a kind home admiral and mrs though agreeing in nothing else were united in affection for these children or at least were no further adverse in their feelings than that each had their favorite to whom they showed the greatest fondness of the two the admiral delighted in the boy mrs on the girl and it was the lady s death which now obliged her after some months further trial at her uncle s house to find another home admiral was a man of vicious conduct who chose instead of retaining his niece to bring his mistress under his own roof and to this mrs grant was indebted for her sister s proposal of coming to her � a measure quite as welcome on one side as it could be expedient on the other for mrs grant having by this time run through the usual resources of ladies in the country without a family of children � having more than filled her favorite sitting room with pretty furniture and made a choice collection of plants and poultry � was very much in want of some variety at home the arrival therefore of a sister whom she had always loved and now hoped to retain with her as long as she remained single was highly agreeable and her chief anxiety was lest should not satisfy the habits of a young woman who had been mostly used to london miss was not entirely free from similar apprehensions though they arose principally from doubts of her sister s style of living and tone of society and it was not till after she had tried in vain to persuade her brother to settle with her at ld park i own country house that she could to hazard herself among her other relations to any thing like a of or of society henry had a great dislike he could not hia sister in an article of such importance but he escorted her with the utmost into and as readily engaged to fetch her away again at half an hour s notice whenever she were weary of the place the meeting was very satisfactory on each side miss found a sister without or a sister s husband who looked tbe gentleman and a house and well fitted up and mrs grant received in those whom sha hoped to love better than ever a young man and woman of very was remarkably pretty henry though not handsome had air and countenance the man of both were lively ai d pleasant and mrs grant immediately gave them credit for everything else she was delighted with each but mary wan her dearest object and having never been able ta glory in beauty of her own she thoroughly enjoyed the power of being proud of her a she had not waited her arrival to look out for a suitable match for her she bad fixed on tom the eldest son of a was not too good for a girl of twenty pounds with all the elegance and which mrs grant foresaw in her and being a warm hearted woman mary had not been three hours in tbe house before � be told her what she had planned park miss was glad to find a family of such consequence so very near them and not at all displeased either at her sister s early care or the choice it had fallen on matrimony was her object provided she could marry well and having seen mr in town she knew that objection could no more be made to his person than to his situation in life while she treated it as a joke therefore she did not forget to think of it seriously the scheme was soon repeated to henry and now added mrs grant i have thought of something to make it quite complete i should dearly love to settle you both in this country and therefore henry you shall marry the youngest miss � a nice handsome good accomplished girl who will make you very happy henry bowed and thanked her my dear sister said mary if you can persuade him into anything of the sort it will be a fresh matter of delight to me to find myself allied to anybody so clever and i shall only regret that you have not half a dozen daughters to dispose of if you can persuade henry to marry you must have the address of a all that english abilities can do has been tried already i have three very particular friends who have been all dying for him in their turn and the pains which they their mothers very clever women as well as my dear aunt and myself have taken to reason or trick him into marrying is inconceivable he is the most horrible that can be imagined if your miss do not i to their hearts broke let them avoid my dear brother i will not believe this of i am sure you are too good you will be kinder than mary you will allow for the doubts of youth and i am of a cautious temper and unwilling to risk my happiness in a hurry nobody can think more highly of
26
magistrate they how ever like a true mob did their best to help along public affairs their governor incessantly by him on with and and then his fiery spirit with reproaches and like a knot of sunday managing an unlucky devil of a so that may be said to have been kept either on a worry or a hand gallop throughout the whole of his administration new york chap vii containing divers fearful accounts of border wars and the of the moss of with the rise of the great council of the east and the decline of william the it was asserted by the wise men of ancient times who were intimately acquainted with these matters that at the gate of s palace lay two huge the one filled with blessings the other with misfortunes and it verily seems as if the latter had been completely and left to the unlucky province of among the many internal and external causes of tion the incessant of the upon his were continually adding fuel to the temper of william the numerous accounts of these may still be found among the records of the times for the on the were especially careful to their vigilance and zeal by striving who should send home the most frequent and of complaints as your faithful servant is running with complaints to the parlour of all the petty and of the kitchen all these tale bearings were listened to with great wrath by the passionate and his subjects who were to the full as eager to hear and to believe these frontier as are my fellow citizens to swallow those amusing stories with which our papers are daily filled about british at sea on shore spanish in the promised land of and above all internal plots and we are told by the good in his life of that the terrible defeat of the in was first mentioned in the shop of a at the history of whereupon with the customary of his tribe he ran up into to have the first telling of the story and threw the whole into consternation not being able however to his tale the unlucky was put upon the wheel and whirled about as a reward for his trouble until he was by the arrival of other evidence such was the manner in which busy and of fearful news were treated in whereas in our more enlightened country we support whole herds of for no other purpose than to gratify a public appetite for news and any man who can up a full sounding story of a plot or conspiracy may command his own price for it i have known two or three of these tales of terror to be bought up by government for the sovereign people to amuse themselves withal which goes further to prove what i have before asserted that your enlightened people love to be miserable far be it from me to however that our worthy ancestors indulged in on the contrary they were daily suffering a repetition of cruel wrongs not one of which but was a sufficient reason according to the of national dignity and honour for throwing the whole universe into hostility and confusion oh ye powers into what indignation did every one of these throw the philosophic william letter after letter protest after protest after pro from among a multitude of bitter still on record i select a few of the most and leave my readers to judge if oar ancestors were not in getting into a very passion on the occasion jane some of have taken a ont of the or common and shot it op out of hate or other prejudice causing it to starve for in the july the english did drive the s out of the of into daily with new york i bad latin worse english and hideous low i dutch were exhausted in rain upon the inexorable and the four and twenty letters of the which excepting his champion the sturdy van composed the only standing army he had at his � command were never off duty throughout the whole of his administration nor did the remain a whit behind his patron the gallant in his fiery zeal but like a faithful champion and of the public safety on the arrival of every fresh article of news he was sure to sound his trumpet from the with most disastrous notes throwing the people into violent and disturbing their rest at all times and sea sons which caused him to be held in very great regard the public and him as we do for reasons that have just been mentioned j i am well aware of the perils that me in this part of my history while with curious hands but pious heart among the remains of former days anxious to draw the honey of wisdom i may fare somewhat like that worthy who in with the of a dead lion drew a swarm of bees about his ears thus while the many of the or yankee tribe it is ten chances � to one but i offend the morbid of certain of their unreasonable descendants who may fly out and raise such a about this unlucky head of mine that i i fm reproaches blows beating the people with all disgrace that thej could i imagine may the english of have violently out loose a horse of the honored s that stood bound npon the common or j may the s horses npon the s f ground were driven away by them of and and the j beaten with and sticks again they sold a young belonging to the which had on the s land has col state p p history of shall need the tough hide of an or an to protect me from their should such be the case i should deeply and sincerely not my misfortune in giving offence but the wrong headed of an
48
with pride as he down his tail feathers glanced over the smooth of his shoulder and into stand at attention a little who had been on a low bluff cocked up his ears and tail and across the to join the he was the lowest of his caste � not that the best of are good for much but this one was peculiarly low being half a beggar half a criminal � a up of village rubbish heaps desperately timid or wildly bold hungry and full of cunning that never did him any good he said shaking himself as he landed may the red destroy the dogs of this village i have three for each upon me and all because i looked � only looked mark you � at an old shoe in a cow can i eat mud he scratched himself under his left ear i heard said the in a voice like a blunt saw going through a thick board � i heard there was a new born in that same shoe to hear is one thing to know is another said the who had a very fair knowledge the of picked up by listening to men round the village fires of an evening quite true so to make sure i took care of that while the dogs were busy elsewhere they were very busy said the well i must not go to the village hunting for scraps yet awhile and so there truly was a blind in that shoe it is here said the over his at his full a small thing but acceptable now that charity is dead in the world the world is iron in these days the then his restless eye caught the least possible ripple on the water and he went on quickly life is hard for us all and i doubt not that even our excellent master the pride of the and the envy of the river � a liar a and a were all out of the same r said the to nobody in particular for he was rather a fine sort of a liar on his own account when he took the trouble yes the envy of the river the repeated raising his voice even he i doubt not finds that since the bridge has been built good food is more scarce but on the other hand though i would by no means say this to his the second book noble face he is so wise and so virtuous � as i alas am not � when the owns he is gray how black must the be muttered the he could not see what was coming that his food never fails and in consequence � there was a soft grating sound as though a boat had just touched in water the spun round quickly and faced it is always best to face the creature he had been talking about it was a twenty four foot in what looked like plate studded and and the yellow points of his upper teeth just overhanging his beautifully lower jaw it was the blunt of older than any man in the village who had given his name to the village the demon of the ford before the railway bridge came � murderer man and local in one he lay with his chin in the keeping his place by an almost invisible rippling of his tail and well the knew that one stroke of that same tail in the water could carry the up the bank with the rush of a met protector of the poor he the at every word a voice was heard and we came in the hopes of sweet conversation my presumption while waiting here led me indeed to speak of thee it is my hope that nothing was overheard now the had spoken just to be listened to for he knew flattery was the best way of getting things to eat and the knew that the had spoken for this end and the knew that the knew and the knew that the knew that the knew and so they were all very contented together the old brute pushed and panted and up the bank respect the aged and and all the time his little eyes burned like coals under the heavy eyelids on the top of his head as he his barrel body along between his legs then he settled down and accustomed as the was to his ways he could not help starting for the time when he saw how exactly the a log adrift on the bar he had even taken pains to lie at the exact angle a naturally log would make with the water having regard to the current of the season at the time and place all this was the second book only a matter of habit of course because the had come ashore for pleasure but a is never quite full and if the had been deceived by the likeness he would not have lived to over it my child i heard nothing said the shutting one eye the water was in my ears and also i was faint with hunger since the railway bridge was built my people at my village have ceased to love me and that is breaking my heart ah shame said the so noble a heart too but men are all alike to my mind nay there are very great differences indeed the answered gently some are as lean as boat poles others again are fat as young � dogs never would i men they are of all fashions but the long years have shown me that one with another they are very good men women and children � i have no fault to find with them and remember child he who the world is by the world flattery is worse than an empty tin can in the belly but that which we have just heard is wisdom said
39
after surrounding and searching the whole place they could discover no trace of either saw or in fact with the exception of themselves there was no one either natural or supernatural visible they then returned frank martin and the to the house and had scarcely sat down when it was heard again within ten yards of them another examination of the premises took place but with equal success now however while standing on the forth they heard the in a little hollow about a hundred and fifty yards below them which was completely exposed to their view but could see nobody a party of them immediately went down to ascertain u possible what this singular noise and invisible labour could mean but on arriving at the spot they heard the to which were now added and the driving of nails upon the forth above whilst those who stood on the forth continued to hear it in the hollow on comparing notes they resolved to send down to s for frank martin a distance of only about eighty or ninety yards he was soon on the spot and without a moment s hesitation solved the tis the said he i see them and busy they are but what are they frank they are a child s coffin he replied they have the body already made an they re now the lid together that night the child certainly died and the story goes that on the second evening afterwards the car e enter who was called upon to make the coffin a table out from thomas s house to the forth as a temporary bench and it is said that the and necessary for the completion of his task were precisely the same which had been heard the evening but one before � neither more nor less i remember the death of the child myself and the making of its coffin but i think the story of the supernatural carpenter was not heard in the village for some months after its frank had every appearance of a about him at the time i saw him he might be about thirty four years oi age but i do not think from the of his frame and health that and the has been alive for several years lie was an object considerable interest and curiosity and often have i been present when he was pointed out to strangers as the man that could see the good people with respect to his solution of the supernatural noise that is easily accounted for this superstition of the coffin making is a common one and to a man like him mind was ir with it the illness of the child would naturally suggest the probability of its death which ho ly is with the and agents to be found in hia unhappy malady a legend of what irish man woman or child has not heard of our renowned the great and glorious fin m not one from cape clear to the giant s nor from that back again to cape clear and by the way speaking of the giant s brings me at once to the beginning of my story well it so happened that fin and his gigantic relatives were all working at the in order to make a bridge or what was still better a good stout road across to scotland when fin who was very fond of his wife took it into his head that he would go home and see how the poor woman got on in his absence to be sure fin was a true and so the sorrow thing in life brought him back only to see that she was snug and comfortable and above all things that she got her rest well at night for he knew that the poor woman when he was with her used to be subject to nightly and that kept him very anxious decent man striving to keep her up to the good spirits and health that she had when they were first married so accordingly he pulled up a fir tree and after off the roots and branches made a walking stick of it and set out on his way to or rather fin lived at this time on the very tip top of hill which faces a cousin of its own called that rises up half hill on the opposite side � east east by south as the sailors say when they wish to puzzle a now the truth is for it must come out that honest fin s affection for his wife though cordial enough in itself was by no ot t � aa s the real cause of a legend of his journey home there was at that time another giant named � some say he was irish and some say he was scotch � but whether scotch or irish sorrow doubt of it but he was a no other giant of the day could stand before him and such was his strength that when well vexed he could give a stamp that shook the country about him the fame and name of him went far and near and nothing in the shape of a man it was said had any chance with him in a fight whether the story is true or not i cannot say but the report went that by one blow of his fists he a and kept it in his pocket in t he shape of a to show to all his when they were about to fight him undoubtedly he had given every giant in ireland a considerable beating fin m himself and he swore by the solemn contents of s that he would never rest night or day winter or summer till he would serve fin with the same if he could catch him fin however who no doubt was the cock of the walk on his own had a strong to meet a
50
b c a d sc f r s see ami s books little guides and ancient m a b sc ll b see s library wood j a e see of wood j dan cr t a edition is also published wood w m a scholar of college oxford and j e r e d m g a history of the civil war in the united states with an introduction by h with maps and plans tv x s d net see s book w the poems of with introduction and notes by c fellow of new oxford in four v i m net see also little library w and t sec little library b m a fellow of s college cambridge see i library j c to day z m mt german for repetition td wrong m of in the university of the earl of illustrated vo s d net a edition is also published to and a book of english gardens with illustrations in colour fir net a b modern with a map and a portrait x r net a edition i also published the poems of william shakespeare with an introduction and notes i � w r sc ha library y w� b an of irish and cr sow jf td the complete edition d my lar d a published ye m the american cotton a study of and cr s d ti er ij d what do know concerning fc fi si u d ancient cities general editor b c a d sc f r s cr s d net by b c a d sc f r s illustrated by e h new by t m a f s a illustrated by j c ll d f s a illustrated by m g by by e m a m d illustrated by e h by alfred by e h new so messrs s catalogue s books the general editor j charles ll d f s a a series of dealing with branches of english comprehensive and popular as well as accurate and vo j net by the right rev o s b third edition remains op thb in england by b c a d sc f rs with numerous illustrations and plans old books of thb by m a and henry with coloured and other illustrations art by f f s a with numerous and plans and by r ll d illustrated op saints wall with numerous illustrations and plans thb royal op england by j c ll d f s a illustrated thb and by j illustrated by j bloom books the by w a a easy by illustrated v s easy stories english history by e m author of makers of europe cr vo u easy m arranged by w s beard second loo without answers i j with answers w easy aiid by w b a fifth edition m business books on cr j net a series of volumes dealing with all the most important aspects of commercial and financial activity the volumes are intended to treat separately all the considerable and forms of business and to explain accurately and clearly what they do and how they do it some are illustrated the first volumes are � by g de h ports and by by e r thb stock by second edition thb business op by a j thb industry lighting and power by a g b sc thb industry its history science practice and by david m i n a thb money market by f the business side op by a g l m a law in business by h a thb industry by l baker f i c f c s thb industry stone and by � a the business of by g at law illustrated trade by g civil by t m c e illustrated the iron trade by j illustrated and by f w the cotton industry and trade by s j dean of the faculty of commerce in the university of illustrated general literature by j b bury m a a series of of by english and foreign scholars op translated by f j d d and � w d my v� ful net by and m vo d tut thb history op by c net by js tut the op by john s net s bible the general editor j h burn b d f r s e a series of on the books of the bible which will be of service to the general reader in the practical and study of the sacred text each book is provided with a full and clear section in which is stated what is known or respecting the date and occasion of the composition of the book and any other particulars that may help to its meaning as a whole the is divided into sections of a convenient length corresponding as far as possible with the divisions of the church the translation of the version is printed in full such as are deemed necessary being placed in thb op st by h w m a is d m� t thb op st paul thb to thb by a w robin � on m a second edition v is net by a w d d it d net thb op st paul thb to thb by c r d d d second edition net s general editor j h thb op english christianity � m a with map cr ye d by arthur m a w thb kingdom op and by m a b sc ll b cr y d thb op thb book its literary and aspects by j d d second edition cr vo s d by w e d d two p v� ax net each with map op st paul thb to thb by g h m a it d net library the burn b d f r s e by f b h a cr
17
have admired him as much as we all do his little would only have him to you the more but if you would like to hear my fellow partner spoken of i should refer you to the family is a subject he s very strong upon if you never heard him i was prevented from the compliment if i should have done so in any case by the entrance of now ushered in by mr she was not quite so self possessed as usual i thought and had evidently undergone anxiety and fatigue but her earnest cordiality and her quiet beauty shone with the lustre for it i saw watch her while she greeted us and he reminded me of an ugly and rebellious watching a good spirit in the meanwhile some slight sign passed between mr and and unobserved except by me went out don t wait said mr with his hand upon the ruler in his breast stood erect before the door most contemplating one of his fellow men and that man his employer what are you waiting for said did you hear me tell you not to wait yes replied the immovable mr then why do you wait said because i � in short choose replied mr with a burst s cheeks lost colour and an still faintly tinged by his red them he looked at mr attentively with his whole face breathing short and quick in every feature you are a dissipated fellow as all the world knows he said with an effort at a smile and i am afraid you oblige me to get rid of you go along i talk to you presently if there is a scoundrel on this earth said mr suddenly breaking out again with the utmost vehemence with whom i have already talked too much that scoundrel s name is � fell back as if he had been struck or stung looking slowly round upon us with the darkest and expression that his face could wear he said in a lower voice this is a conspiracy i you have met here by appointment you are playing with my clerk are you now take m m the personal and experience care you make nothing of this we understand each other you and me there s no love between us you were always a with a proud stomach from your first coming here and you envy me my rise do you none of your plots against me i you you be off i talk to you presently mr said i there is a sudden change in this fellow in more respects than the extraordinary one of his speaking the truth in one particular which me that he is brought to bay deal with him as he deserves you are a precious set of people ain t you said in the same low voice and breaking out into a heat which he wiped from his forehead with his long lean hand to buy over my clerk who is the very of society � as you yourself were you know it before anyone had charity on you � to me with his lies miss you had better stop this or i stop your husband shorter than will be pleasant to you i won t know your story for nothing old lady miss if you have any love for your father you had better not join that gang i ruin him if you do now come i have got some of you under the think twice before it goes over you think twice you if you don t want to be crushed i recommend you to take yourself and be talked to presently you fool while there s time to retreat where s mother he said suddenly appearing to notice with alarm the absence of and pulling down the bell rope fine doings in a person s own house mrs is here sir said returning with that worthy mother of a worthy son i have taken the liberty of making myself known to her who are you to make yourself known retorted and what do you want here i am the agent and friend of mr sir said in a composed business like way and i have a power of attorney from him in my pocket to act for him in all matters the old ass has drunk himself into a state of said turning than before and it has been got from him by fraud something has been got from him by fraud i know returned quietly and so do you mr we will refer that question if you please to mr � mrs began with an anxious gesture you hold your tongue mother he returned j least said mended but my will you hold your tongue mother and leave it to me though i had long known that his was false and all liis and hollow i had had no adequate conception of the extent of his until i now saw him with his mask the suddenness with which he dropped it when he perceived that it was useless to him the malice insolence and hatred he revealed the with which he even at this moment in the evil he had done � all this time being desperate too and at his wits end for the means of getting the better of us � though perfectly consistent with tlie of david i had of him at first took even me by surprise who had known him so long and him so heartily i say nothing of the look he conferred on me as he stood us one after another for i had always understood that he hated me and i remembered the marks of my hand upon his cheek but when his eyes passed on to and i saw the rage with which he felt his power over her slipping away and the exhibition in their disappointment of the odious passions that had
8
i broken broken undo nonsense and he looked at it in piteous how can it be broken it does hurt when i touch it it hurt i know all about iu i broke mine ago fell off a oh how unfortunate i am i but i will go to all the same can have it mended there as well m too will go t bed tliat is where you will go iii go to blades the old man a al to his whom t had brought around and stout fellow a took of by the legs and the left and him up stairs t and and deposited him i ri m bed he began to and that made him more tbey cut hi coat and put in a loose and � after a considerable delay the surgeon came and set arm and behold this ardent spirit he and fretted and his cure and oh be was so and passive fortitude be did not know what it meant it was two days after accident he was lying on his back by cursing lis evil fate and soul out of its prison when suddenly he heard a cheerful three to came a and he ushered into the sick room tbe the man himself in lied with great surprise and joy oh thi is kind to come and see your poor in hell ah cried you see i know what it is i have been chained down by the arm and the leg and all � it is tiresome tiresome it is � it is � oh dear heaven bless you for coming la la la besides i am come on business all the better i have nothing to do � tbat is what me � but to eat my own heart go to well my lad since you are in that humour cheer up for i bring you a job and a tough one � it has puzzled me what is it what is it well do you know a house and a family called do i know white w chapter xix � a for � no not for you for � before i find to to f came in that he had broken i oh oh i dear � our poor if poor had seen the pale faces and heard the faltering accents it have lt d to hia arm almost this hand the dropped so coolly among them it was a long while ere be j could recover from it enough to read the rest of the i i rode over to t and found him on his back want of to do i told him the whole he the bum i have his i we k be at to clear off mid make acquaintance with ah your they al as the latter part of this letter seemed to require a j the wrote a polite note and sent to leave it the at lodgings but the all mi down and wrote kind and pitying and soothing letter to need i say these letters fell upon like white lie next week called on the she received him alone they talked about madame tlie next day he dined with the whole party and the s manners were the opposite of wliat the had but she had a strong prejudice in m favour had her feelings been the other way his would have her it amused her if people s hearts are with you that for their heads i in common with them all she admired his and manly since he very day for a week with the walked with the young ladies and when after work he came over in the used to examine him and out such descriptions of and such heroism and simplicity mixed as made the evening pa on these occasions the young fixed their eyes oa him and drank in his character as well as his narrative io which were fewer i s than in any thing of the sort you ever read thus they made acquaintance and learned to know and esteem him said to her mother � tell me are there many such men in the world he is charming replied the old somewhat vaguely he is a man of crystal he never says a word he does not mean why said have you not observed he always means more than he says and does more i wish i was like him sighed no i thank you said the hastily he is a man a thorough man he would make an intolerable woman a fine life if one had a parcel of women about one all out their real minds every moment and never matters mamma what a horrid picture cried said the you are the favourite j think white lies ob no i you are tbe favourite ton know ll i am and d � but he opened the with you never with me c in and the tjie k ui tbe l he would be glad to speak to yon h a mil come h how droll he is fancy his for a like that be is like nobody el e don t go how he would � my dear i no more dare him than if i was one of his soldiers well go to your officer he comes i was just going to tell you to ask him wliat has pi posed about i will try mamma but indeed i hope be will for what else can he want me for the first salutation there was a certain hesitation about which bad never a trace of in to put him at ease and at the same time please her she began � has our been able to suggest any what don t you know tliat have been acting ail along upon bis ko indeed and yon have not told us what he advised i you why of not � they were
9
out his hand i am grateful sir that you have restored to me my name and rank he said in a voice of emotion but i can never be sufficiently grateful for your kindness when i was a poor and unknown wanderer i do not believe a word of all this rubbish broke out before lord could reply and i shall not submit to be robbed of my rights in this manner i shall go to law over it you will do no such thing sir retorted the old lord in a stern tone which the fiery anger of the young man this is a family matter and must be settled here not a word must be breathed outside these walls why so demanded because the father of that lad was a dwarf said pointing to do you think for a moment that i will let you take this matter before the house of lords and permit the secret of our family to be known never you will abandon all claims to my title and estate and receive instead a yearly income to be fixed by me and if i refuse you dare not refuse replied in a quiet tone if you did question the rights of your cousin and shame our family by betraying the secret of the dwarf s the dwarf s chamber chamber you would gain nothing but the proofs which make the heir are too strong to be show him the papers and let him decide at once what course he to take turned sullenly towards who spread out the papers for his inspection the first said he is a of the birth of a dwarf given by my dr in the next a confession by walter stating that he took the dwarf from here by order of my lord and disposed of him to one george a commonly known as the third is a statement by stating that he received the dwarf from and called him from that paper so often referred to here is also the of s marriage at the church of st martin in with commonly known as the fair again the of birth date of now known as and finally an sworn by that is the son of the dwarf you will see mr that not a link is missing and that our friend is really and truly the of your lord could not deny that the proofs were plain enough and stood sullenly looking at his successful rival madam clapped her hands with glee at the solution of the mystery which had perplexed for so long and then the latter spoke how is it that took away my father from this place he said looking at lord with eager curiosity the old man flushed with shame and he hung his head before the gaze of his that was my fault he said in a low voice and one for which i must ask your pardon your father the dwarf s chamber was my eldest son but when he was pronounced a dwarf i could not bear the idea that he should succeed to the title and estates which were his nor did i think it wise that he should be kept in the dwarf s chamber lest he should be discovered by accident and in after years on learning the truth might insist on his rights i therefore gave him to to take away and this was done i did not intend to lose sight of him but disappeared and i could not trace him then my second son s father was born and i thought myself sure of a successor but he was killed and my sin was brought home to me for then there was no one but to inherit i tried to find out what had become of the dwarf but could not discover a trace of him then you appeared and when you told your story i thought that the dwarf father you mentioned might be my son aided by i went to work and learned all you have heard but the truth might have remained had not the landlady of the arms brought to dr her brother s confession that was why mistress sally was in this study on that night yes said dr taking up the story she did not guess the truth being in ignorance of your story but the question you put to her on that day made her fearful of keeping the confession of her brother any longer so she brought it to me it was then that lord and myself knew that you were none other than the heir but you told me that was dead said reproachfully yes at the request of lord said rather you must forgive me for that i did not want you to know the truth till i had proved you said quickly had you been a an i might have held my peace but when i saw you so clever so well bred so handsome in a word so the dwarf s chamber well fitted to be my heir i determined to you in your position i have he added looking steadily at his but it was for the honour of the family and you must forgive me held out his hand too delighted at his good fortune to bear malice at such a moment i do forgive you and also he said heartily i would indeed be ungrateful did i withhold forgiveness after all your kindness to me the old lord took the lad s hand and placed it in that of this perhaps will seal your forgiveness he said with a smile cast one look of hatred on the lovers and fled from the room pursued by the mocking laughter of the dwarf chapter xxi an important communication about two years after the events heretofore recorded � as continued to call him � had occasion to write to his grandfather who was
12
among the mountains a truly magnificent pile which had i majesty considers and been placed at their disposal for the by one of the of the king s subjects � and there as soon as in waiting and every other sort of and would to leave them alone together the royal wife came to her royal husband and asked to be allowed to speak a few words on the subject of their marriage for the fir and last time said she with a straight glance from the cold moonlight mystery of her eyes beautiful at all times her beauty was doubly by the attitude and expression she unconsciously assumed as she made the request and the prince studying her and features could not but regard himself as in some respects rather particularly favoured by the political and social machinery which had succeeded in persuading so fair a creature to resign herself to the doubtful destiny of a throne she had laid aside her magnificent robes of ivory satin and cloth of gold � and appeared before him in loose of floating white with her rich hair and rippling to her knees may i speak she murmured and her voice trembled most assuredly � he replied half smiling � you me too much honour by the permission as he spoke he bowed profoundly but she raising her eyes fixed them full upon him with a strange look of mingled pride and pain do not she said let us play at let us be honest with each other for to night at least all our life together must from henceforth be more or less of a but let us for to night be as true man and true woman and frankly face the position into which we have been thrust not by ourselves but by others profoundly astonished the prince was silent he had not thought this girl of nineteen possessed any force of character or any intellectual power of reasoning he had judged her as no doubt glad to become a great princess and a possible future queen and he had not given her credit for any finer or higher feeling you know � she continued � you must surely know � here despite the strong restraint she put upon i power herself her voice broke and her slight figure swayed in its white as if about to fall she looked at hint with a sense of rising tears in her throat � tears of which she was ashamed � for she was full of a passionate emotion too strong for weeping � a contempt of herself and of him too great for mere was he so much of a man in the slow thick of his brain she thought as to have no instinctive perception of her utter misery he hastened to her and tried to take her hands but she drew herself away from him and sank down in a chair as if exhausted you are tired he said kindly � the tedious � the still more tedious congratulations � and the journey from the capital to this place have been too much for your strength you must rest it is not that � she answered � not that i not tired � but � but � i cannot say my prayers tonight till you know my whole heart a curious reverence and pity moved him all day long he had been in a state of irritation � he himself for having consented to marry this girl without loving her � he had himself inwardly as a liar and when he had sworn his marriage vows before god whereas if he truly believed in such vows taken were mere � � and now she herself a young thing tenderly brought up like a tropical flower in the hot house atmosphere of court life yet had such a pure deep consciousness of god in her that she actually could not pray with the slightest of a secret on her soul he waited i have my faith to you before god s altar to day she said speaking more steadily � because after long and earnest thought i saw that there was no other way of satisfying the two nations to which we belong and the friendly relations between them there is no woman of royal birth � so it has been pointed out to me � who is so suitable from a political point of view to be your wife as i it is for the sake ot your throne and country that you must marry � and i ask god to forgive me if i have done wrong in his sights t majesty considers and by wedding you simply for duty s sake my father your father and all who are connected with our two families desire our union and have assured me that it is right and good for me to give up my life to yours all women s lives must be to the laws made by men � or so it seems to me � i cannot expect to escape from the general doom to my sex i therefore accept the destiny which me to you as a piece of human property for possession and command � i accept it freely but i will not say gladly because that would not be true for i do not lo e you � i cannot love you i want you to know and to feel it that you may not ask from me what i cannot give there were no tears in her eyes she looked at him and he in his turn met her gaze fully � his face had a little and a shadow of pained regret and darkened his handsome features you love else he asked softly she rose from her chair and confronted him a glow of passionate pride flushing her cheeks and brow no she said � i would not be a traitor
33
himself never knows it much less do others give him room give him impulse he reaches down to the infinite with that so imprisoned soul of his and can do miracles if need be it is one of the truths that great men abound though in the unknown state nay as above hinted our greatest being also by nature our are perhaps those that remain unknown philosopher took comfort in this belief when from all and and and stationary he could hear nothing but the infinite chattering and of the life of scott of commonplace become ambitious and in the infinite stir of motion and of din which should have been silence all seemed into one and the stern almost desired taxes on knowledge to it a little � he comforted himself we say by the belief that thought did still exist in germany that thinking men each in his own corner were verily doing their work though in a silent latent manner walter scott as a latent walter had never amused all men for a score of years in the course of centuries and or gained and lost say a hundred thousand pounds sterling by literature but he might have been a happy and by no means a useless � nay who knows at bottom whether not a still walter however that was not his fortune the genius of rather a singular age � an age at once destitute of faith and terrified at with little know ledge of its with many sorrows to bear or front and on the whole with a life to lead in these new circumstances � had said to himself what man shall be the temporary or were it but the spiritual of thia my poor singular age to solace its dead and manifold sorrows a little so had the genius said looking over all the world what man and found him walking the dusty outer parliament house of with his advocate gown on his back and exclaimed tha is he the of the border proved to be a well from which flowed one of the rivers which in due time pass into prose the old life of men for us it is a mighty word not as dead tradition but as a palpable presence the past stood before us there they were the rugged old fighting des � s � men in their simplicity and strength with their heart their their stout self help in their iron leather jack boots in their of manner and costume there as they looked and lived it was like a new discovered continent in literature for the new century a bright el � or else some fat land of and paradise of to the opening nineteenth century in its languor and nothing could have been most unexpected most refreshing and behold our new el our fat where one can enjoy and do nothing it was the time for such a new literature and tliis walter scott was the man for it the lays the the and of lake and followed in quick succession with ever profit and praise how many thousands of guineas were paid down for each new lay how many thousands of copies fifty and more sometimes were printed off then and subsequently what renown and there was all is recorded in these seven volumes which will be valuable in literary it is a history brilliant remarkable the outlines of which are known to all the reader shall recall it or conceive it no blaze in his fancy is likely to mount higher than the reality did at this middle period of his life therefore scott enriched with with new official and rich in money rich in presents himself as a man in the full career of success health wealth and wit to guide them as his proverb says all these three are his the field is open for him and victory there his own faculty his own self itself � the highest that can befall a man wide circle of friends personal loving admirers warmth of domestic joys vouchsafed to all that can true of the life of scott down among them light of radiance and renown given only to a few who would not call scott happy but the happiest circumstance of all is as we said above that scott had in himself a right healthy soul rendering him little dependent on outward circumstances things showed themselves to him not in or borrowed light or gloom but as they were endeavor lay in him and endurance in due measure and clear vision of what was to be endeavored after were one to preach a sermon on health as really were worth doing scott ought to be the text theories are true in the way of logic and then in the way of practice they prove true or else not true but here is the grand experiment do they turn out well what boots it that a man s creed is the wisest that his system of principles is the if when set to work the life of him does nothing but jar and fret itself into holes they are in that were it in nothing else these principles of his openly convicted of � only shall we say to be rejected as and to the dogs we say not that but we do say that ill health of body or of mind is defeat is battle in a good or in a bad cause with bad success that health alone is victory let all men if they can manage it contrive to be healthy he who in what cause sinks into pain and disease let him take thought of it let him know well that it is not good he has arrived at yet but surely evil � may or may not be on the way towards good scott s showed itself in all things and nowhere more than in this the way
37
you live how do you come here have you sold no friend lady of mine i rather think yes turned away from him towards the window and sat looking out at the wall sir said society itself and me and i sell society i perceive you have acquaintance with another lady also handsome a strong spirit let us see how do they call her he received no answer but could easily discern that he had hit the mark yes he went on that handsome lady and strong spirit addresses me in the street and i am not insensible i respond that handsome lady and strong spirit does me the favor to remark in full confidence i have my curiosity and i have my you are not more than ordinarily honorable perhaps i announce myself madam little a gentleman from the birth and a gentleman to the death but not more than ordinarily honorable i despise such a weak thereupon she is pleased to compliment the difference between you and the rest is she answers that you say so for she knows society i accept her congratulations with gallantry and politeness politeness and little are inseparable from my character she then makes a proposition which is in effect that she has seen us much together that it appears to her that i am for the passing time the cat of the house the friend of the family that her curiosity and her awaken the fancy to be acquainted with their movements to know the manner of their life how the fair is beloved how the fair is cherished and so on she is not rich but offers such and such little for the little cares and of such services and i graciously � to do everything graciously is a part of my character � consent to accept them yes so goes the world it is the mode though s back was turned while he spoke and to the end of the interview he kept those glittering eyes of his that were too near together upon him and evidently saw in the very carriage of the head as he passed with his from to of what he said that he was saying nothing which did not already know the pair he said lighting a third with a sound as if his breath could blow her away charming but for it was not well of the fair to make mysteries of letters from old lovers in her on the mountain that her husband might not see them no no that was not well the was mistaken there i earnestly hope cried arthur aloud that may not be long gone for this man s presence the room aye but he ll here and everywhere said with an look and snap of his fingers he always has he always will stretching his body out on the only three chairs in the room besides that on which sat he sang himself on the breast as the gallant personage of the song who passes by this road so late de la who passes by this road so late always gay sing the refrain pig you could sing it once in another jail sing it or by every saint who was to death i ll be and and then some people who are not dead yet had better have been along with them of all the king s knights tis the flower de la of all the king s knights tis the flower always gay partly in his old habit of submission partly because his not doing it might injure his benefactor and partly because he would as soon do it as anything else took up the refrain this time laughed and fell to smoking with his eyes shut possibly another quarter of an elapsed before mr s little step was heard upon the stairs but the interval seemed to long his step was attended by another step and when opened the door he admitted mr and mr the latter was no sooner visible than rushed at him and embraced him how do you find yourself sir said mr flint as soon as he could himself which he struggled to do with very little ceremony thank you no i don t want any more this was in reference to another menace of affection from his recovered friend well arthur you remember what i said to you about sleeping dogs and missing ones it s come true you see he was as as ever to all appearance and nodded his head in a way as he looked round the room and this is the prison for debt said mr you have brought your pigs to a very indifferent market arthur if arthur had patience had not he took his little with fierce by the two of his coat and cried to the devil with the market to the devil with the pigs and to the devil with the pig driver now give me the answer to my letter if you can make it convenient to let go a moment sir returned mr i ll first hand mr arthur a little note that i have for him he did so it was in his mother s writing on a slip of paper and contained only these words i hope it is enough that you have ruined yourself rest contented without more ruin is my messenger and representative your affectionate m c read this twice in silence and then tore it to pieces in the meanwhile stepped into a chair and sat himself on the back with his feet upon the seat now beau he said w r hen he had closely watched the note to its destruction the answer to my letter mrs did not write it mr her hands being cramped and she thinking it as well to send it by me mr this out of himself unwillingly and she sends her compliments and says she doesn t on
8
wife of the above were dead and buried and thai alexander and infant children of the were also dead and buried and that the dark flat wilderness beyond churchyard with and and gates with scattered cattle feeding the and that the low leaden was the river and that the distant savage which the wind was rushing was the sea and that the bundle of growing afraid of it all beginning to cry was hold your noise cried a terrible voice as a started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch keep you little devil ov i ll cut your throat a fearful man all in coarse grey with a great his leg a man with no hat and with broken shoes ad with an old rag tied round his head a man ad been soaked in water and smothered in mud � by stones and cut by and stung by ne ties and torn by who and shivered and growled and whose teeth in his e� d aa he me by the o don t tut my throat sir i pleaded iu terror don t do it air � said the man quick said i my tell as sir once mi sir show us where you the place i pointed to where lid tie pint � village lay flat � the trees and a mile fi om the church the man after looking at me for a moment turned i � down and emptied my pockets there waa in them but a piece of bread when the came to itself � for he was ho sudden and that he made it go head over heels before e the st under my � when the came to itself i say i was heated on a high trembling while he ate the bread � w tou young dog said tlie man his lips what fat cheeks you ha got i believe they were fat though i was at that time for my years and strong i l me if i couldn t eat em said the man i a threatening of his head and if i han t i a mind to tl i my that he wouldn t i ud held to the oa which he me to keep myself npon it partly to now then here said the man your mother there i he started made a short run and stopped looked over his shoulder there sir i timidly explained also that s my mother said he coming back and ia that your mother yes sir said i him too late of this he muttered then considering who d ye live with � you re kindly let to live whidi i han t made up my mind about my sir � mrs joe � e d joe the sir blacksmith eh said ho and looked down ai bis leg after darkly looking at his leg and at me several he came closer to my took i i arms and me back as far as he could that his eyes looked most powerfully dow mine and mine looked most helplessly up into i now here he the question whether you re to be let to live you know what i file ia yes sir � and you know what is yes sir after each question he me over a little bo as to give mo a greater sense of danger ot me a file he me again an rag me b ha ms q � l both to me he me again or i ll heart and liver oat he me again was frightened and so giddy that i � j to him with both hands and said if you il i please to let me p air per � i t bo sick and perhaps i attend gave me a most dip and roll so r the church jumped over its own he held ine by the arms in an position e top of the stone and went on in these fearful you bring mc to morrow morning early that file them you bring the lot to me at that battery over yonder you do it and yoa never t� say a word or e to make a sign concerning having seen such a person as me or any person i ver and you shall be let to live y ou fail or yoa from my words in any no matter how � ill it is and your heart and your liver shall he tore and ate now i ain t alone as you may ik i am there s a young man hid with me in lip with which young m m i am a angel i yoimg hears the words i speak that young n has a secret way to himself of getting at a and at his heart and at his liver it is in for a i to attempt to hide himself m that young man a may lock his door may be warm in bed may � i up may draw the clothes over hia head may himself comfortable and safe hut that young ii will softly creep and creep his way to mm a ii him open i tm a keeping that man � � � d with � i it to that young mi off of inside now do you say i said that i would get liim the file and i wc get him what broken bits of food i could and i wc come to him at the battery early in the morning say lord strike you dead if you don t said i said so and he took me down now he you remember what and you remember that young ma you get home good night sir i faltered much of that said he glancing about him oi the cold wet flat i wish i was a or a at same time he hia shuddering
8
child and that s a spoilt one is he not very delicate inquired i noticed a pretty but very fragile looking boy looking out of the window of the dining room when we arrived that s him yes he is fragile enough no wonder when he with grown up people and has a bottle of wine all to himself how shocking i exclaimed what sort of wine oh i don t know it puts one out of patience even to look at him though of course it is his father s fault and how old is this terrible gentleman inquired mr carelessly seven � though he might be seventy from his old fashioned ways i meant his father oh he � well i m sure i don t know he looks as brown and withered and taking his manners into account as rough as a what do you call em � things you have at � a however are sweet inside observed that s just what mr says his notion is that ill health makes the man but that he has a kind heart but there as i once ventured to tell him perhaps mr you want to get some of mr s in which case you will be disappointed since every single one of them will go to little that was very frank and like yourself observed mt with gentle approval but who is mt no one to speak of a friend of mr w va a from a thorn in the same house with him a man of good and breeding but who has thrown all the chances of life away and himself it you have known such cases yourself dare say mr yes the word was snapped out sullenly like the closing of a spring lock to the ears of his visitor the tone seemed only to express contempt in sympathy with her own for all such ne wells but knew that the conversation had somehow become distasteful to her father as usual therefore she instantly came to his relief what is it this mr has done which is so dreadful p she inquired it was natural to her to feel pity for persons in misfortune even when rather than indignation and a desire for further well instead of entering a profession like every other young man in his position the poor creature took to writing � writing stories but if he didn t write other people s names on said laughing which would be a very wicked sort of story why should he not there is no harm in it my dear young lady of course there is no harm in it said mrs gravely � that is as an amusement but as i was just now remarking about painting had the happiness to find your father agreed with me the calling of letters is not one to be undertaken seriously by � well i don t say gentlemen because i don t wish to be personal and this young man apart from i pursuit is very � by persons who have been bom to better things what do you say mr my dear madam it is unnecessary for me to say anything you have expressed my own sentiments in the happiest manner it must be however that a man may do what he likes so long as he remains single the evil is when a woman attempts to gain a position for herself by any other means save those which are in accordance with common and � the fitness of things we shall have the pleasure of seeing you at the table i conclude p for mrs had risen to go oh certainly i then i shall have the honour of introducing you to the professor i he is the hills just now in pursuit t p v a n o � r a i in a inn aa under my wing and with a pleasant nod that would have been somewhat familiar but that it was by a certain and swan like movement which her on momentous occasions mrs swam out of the room a very remarkable woman observed mr when the door had closed behind her but my dear papa said hesitatingly she did not strike me as being � quite a lady she didn t she was my and a d xi n t find a descent fault where there is no pretence i confined myself to saying she was remarkable she is a woman of character and has already been of the greatest use to us by giving us the du pays you think it was wrong of me to her brains and especially to lead her to believe she had made such a favourable impression on us p yet she came here to ours and to produce that veiy impression do you suppose she really came to give me a you may take my word for it she has forgotten all about it and in that case i am glad it was or we should perhaps have made acquaintance with it in the form of some at the table chapter vi � a descent it was soon made known to the guests at the that the honourable george and his daughter would honour the with their presence but what was by no means so certain and was among the great powers with considerable energy and bitterness was where were they to sit from the very earliest ages this question has always been a supreme one and very much to my content for when i read of the eminent specimens of humanity who have made a point of this matter of and behold living ones concerning themselves about it and reflect that i myself don t care one button where i sit provided the chair is comfortable and not in a draught i cannot but experience some sensation of superiority to my mind there are few things so curious as to
25
no more the first captain was so as to be unable to give a for a boom jaw to a carpenter so utterly helpless was he that he was unable to order a sailor to throw a few of salt water on the s deck for twelve days at anchor under an overhead sun the deck lay dry it was a new deck it cost me one hundred and thirty five dollars to it the second captain was angry he was the of the born angry papa is always angry was the description given him by his half breed son the third captain was so crooked that he couldn t hide behind a the truth was not in him common honesty was not in him and he was as far away from fair play and square dealing as he was from his proper course when he nearly wrecked the on the it was at in the that i discharged my third and last captain and took up again the of amateur i had it once before under my first captain who out of san jumped the so over the that i really had to find out what was doing it was fairly easy to find out for we had a run of twenty one hundred miles before us i knew nothing of but after several hours of reading up and half an hour s practice with the i was able to find the s latitude by observation and her by the simple method known as equal this is not a correct method it is not even a safe method but my captain was attempting to by it and he was the only one on board who should have been able to tell me that it was a method to be i brought the to but the conditions favored me the sun was in northern and nearly overhead the legitimate sight method of the i had not heard of � yes i had heard of it my first captain mentioned it vaguely but after one or two attempts at practice of it he mentioned it no more i had time in the to compare my with two other two weeks previous the amateur at in i had asked my captain to compare our with the on the american the this he told me he had done � of course he had done nothing of the famous road the sort and he told me that the difference he had ascertained was only a small of a second he told it to me with finely joy and with words of praise for my splendid time keeper i repeat it now with words of praise for his splendid and for behold fourteen days later the of the in i compared the with the one on the an steamer and that mine was thirty one seconds fast now thirty one seconds of time converted into arc equals seven and miles that is to say if i were sailing west in the night time and my position according to my dead reckoning from my afternoon sight was shown to be seven miles off the land why at that very moment i would be crashing on the next i my with captain s captain the gives the time to firing a gun signal at twelve noon three times a week according to his mine was seconds fast which is to say that sailing west i should be crashing on the when i thought i was fifteen miles off from it i by thirty one seconds from the total of my s losing error and sailed away for in the new resolved when around the land on dark nights to bear in mind the other seven miles i might be out according to captain s instrument lay some six hundred miles west from the and it was my belief that while covering that distance i could quite easily knock into my head sufficient to get me there well i got there but listen first to my troubles is easy i shall always contend that but when a man is taking three engines and a wife around the world and is writing hard every day to keep the engines supplied with and the wife with pearls and he hasn t much time left in which to study also it is bound to be easier to study said science ashore where the amateur latitude and are in a house whose position never than it is to study on a boat that is rushing along day and night toward land that one is trying to find and which he is liable to find at a moment when he least expects it to begin with there are the and the setting of the courses we sailed from on saturday afternoon june and it took us till after dark to run the narrow ridden passage between the islands of and the open ocean lay before me there was nothing in the way with the exception of a miserable little island that persisted in up through the sea some twenty miles to the west � just where i wanted to go of course it seemed quite simple to avoid it by a course that would pass it eight or ten miles to the north it was a black night and we were running before the wind the man at the wheel must be told what direction to steer in order to miss but what direction i turned me to the books true course i lighted upon the very thing what i wanted was the true course i read eagerly on the true course is the angle made with the by a straight line on the drawn to connect the ship s position with the place bound to just what i wanted the s position was at the western entrance of the passage between and the immediate place she was bound to was a place
21
the time her spirited revolt against the of its rigid is very natural abbey they met by and as bad arrived nearly five minutes before her friend her first address was my dearest creature what can have made ou so late i have been waiting for you at least this age have ou indeed i am ver sorry for it but really i thought i was in very good time it is but just one i hope you have not been here long oh these ten ages at least i am sure i have been here this half hour but now let us go and sit down at the other end of the room and enjoy i have a hundred things to say to you in the first place i was so afraid it would rain this morning just as i wanted to set off it looked very shower and that would have thrown me into agonies do you know i saw the prettiest you can imagine in a shop window in street just now � ver like ours only with instead of green i quite longed for it but my dearest what have ou been doing with all this morning have ou gone on with yes i have been reading it ever since i woke and i am got to the black veil are ou indeed how delightful oh i would not tell vou what is behind the black veil for the world are not ou wild to know oh es quite what can it be but do not tell me i would not be told upon an account i know street a famous short street in bath devoted to shops and stores it was built in the color of wild that is nearly red or red tinged with orange this is the of miss s time the modem word ribbon would have appeared as oddly to her as does to us mysteries of l by mrs ann published in a romance whose popularity was at its height at the of this century but which finds only occasional readers now chapters from jane it must be a skeleton i am sure it is s skeleton ob i am delighted with the book i should like to spend mj whole life in reading it i assure you if it had not been to meet you i would not have come away from it for all the world dear creature how much i am obliged to you and when you have finished we will read the italian together and i have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for ou have you indeed how glad i am what are they all � i will read you their names directly here they are in m pocket book castle of mysterious of the black forests midnight bell orphan of the and horrid mysteries those will last us some time yes well but are they all horrid are sure they are all horrid yes quite sure for a particular friend of mine � a miss � a sweet girl one of the sweetest creatures in the world has read ever one of them wish vou knew miss vou would be delighted with her she is herself the sweetest cloak you can conceive i think her as beautiful as an angel and i am so vexed with the men for not her i them all about it them do you them for not admiring her yes that i do there is nothing i would not do for those who are really mj i have no notion of loving people by it is not mj nature my are s excessively strong i told captain hunt at one of our this winter that there is this to im said for the s which enchanted the girls of the last century � that these horrors when founded on the model of mrs s were well and free from inherent moral and license of tone � miss abbey if he was to me all night i would not dance with him unless he would allow miss to be as beautiful as an angel the men think us incapable of real friendship you know and i am determined to show them the difference now if i were to hear anybody speak of you i should fire up in a moment but that is not at all likely for you are just the kind of girl to be a great favorite with the men oh dear cried how can you say so i know you very well vou have so much animation which is exactly what miss wants for i must confess there is something about her oh i must tell you that just after we parted yesterday i saw a man looking at you so i am sure he is in love with you colored and again laughed it is very true upon ray honor but i see how it is you are indifferent to everybody s admiration except that of one gentleman who shall be nameless na i cannot blame ou � speaking more seriously � our feelings are understood where the heart is attached i know very well how httle one can be pleased with the attention of any else everything is so so uninteresting that does not relate to the beloved object i can perfectly comprehend your feelings � but you should not persuade me that i think so much about mr for perhaps i may never see him again not see him again m dearest creature do not talk of it am sure u would be miserable if you thought so no indeed i should not i do not pretend to a that i was not ver much pleased with him but while i have to read i feel as if nobody could make me miserable oh the dreadful black veil mv dear i am sure there must be s
26
statement in wo must agree with k ch l when he says that to attempt to reconcile the statement of concerning with would w to do the too much honour he wished to place mary in and therefore times and were to late to his � l h l t t in und r� � i s � im i s � � i s � iu d x t i s l d op � c a fixed point for the date of of nor an t of the occasion which led to liis born si it then � it justly he said � no other why should been at can bo given hy wc have ly no that was his s of the op � tub n hm nt of the narrative the arrival of mary as r iti on account of being by tiie r are built n on it lu of of brought to by the there i no room for the in the inn and they are ii to nt up with the accommodation a where i� delivered of her hut the child who � t being in � o humble an im highly in heaven a announce the of the to who are guarding their in the fields bv night and din el i to the child in the a of heavenly ho t t of io next ap ears to after which they and find the child ii t � the a ii go i n la and of the r of according to the mary on an a to lo bo as ihey the begins to make now now joyous and upon inquiry tliat � a once in t the two ho xxv � he two before her the one weeping the i e according lo one explanation the two portions l ii one of whom tho advent of jf iu set il j t ie j to t ie r j or i ie according to another the two were the jews who should n je and tlie who should t soon however still without the city � as appears from the and of several � mary is seized with the of child bearing and joseph brings her into a ea e by the road side i e l by a cloud of light nature pausing in of the event she brings hei child into the world and after her delivery is found by women to her still a virgin j the nd of the of in a cave was known to and to who in order to il with account in that ho was laid in a a d within the cave many modem � at ct it � m � r t ri ti i in n t i s t y t sue s t l ta g c oi i fi of � n prefer lo cave in tlie sense of for of in a v� to prophecy in iti ihe iv al in like for the that on the day child from the cave into the stable was worshipped by oxen aiid the the de c to t� i et in several between and the women who � at the birth are forgotten but ihey are in the i il that ii th y ed at the cave and liad kindled a fire of tim host appeared to if n c take the t� attending tlie of by in a c many � occur i it may i i in be to t an lion tim mo t t � ii er ii to make known i but il ni il known that in tlie ih city of it is tlie who give ttie ot the new bom of the i and in the future of no trace c� any at ia to be found tlie object of tliat waa not to ve a intimation of tlie fact for if failed in h ts t wo n that aim to an n i upon the we mu t also with him the e m� ns and that d by this a to and thi ir belief tim narrative however of this frame of mind neither it n any abiding ui n men to the whole tenor of to have had not to but exclusively lo the and the of tlie birth of ae too but aa before tne latter aim waa not and former by itself like every mere empty display is object unworthy of god so that i in an presents no lo the of tor f to t wc add those already which oppose the in the c of � in it is easy to tliat to this also refuge has s � in a natural explanation results of attempts at a natural certainly rude thus n the ai � � n� from c who carried a light t eye of and the of tlie the merry tones rf a accompanying tlie messenger woven lu � l l c do k t sm u l la t s i the s a more and matter of who met with a l o� in a who ho ie to mc told her to the of of n of david not n on in the hy a in air � � li nay is not in re � it n t n tin in ik ir stall u of l ie a s n� u li ht and move to and fro they take it fur a of of ir ly t and tiiat which at il thi y ly fl to be the an l interpretation of t i� then now cr the th t t represent as spoken n on the ac mary s expectation that she birth to the mc t i i im en h d to the a i r to the of in their thin a ia the most t
14
our citizens upon all other classes are be conceived is there any one thing in the crystal palace of so much importance or that would have been so interesting to so many people as a collection of indian corn from every state in the union showing at a glance all the varieties grown both in plants and ears from the feet high of the valley to the little dwarf of it is of no use to repeat that stale falsehood want of room for an excuse for this outrageous neglect because hundreds of feet of bare walls are too palpable a contradiction of such an assertion could be found for an ordinary for every day seen fire engines for common brass cannon and oft gun carriages and but are these one and au of one part as much importance or interest to visitors as would be a stalk of growing cotton in fall bloom and bearing how many of the visitors to this of industry ever saw that product of an american farmer s industry a stalk of growing sugar cane with what delight thousands would gaze at it and it is not too late perhaps now if the had half the desire to do honor to those who cultivate the soil that they have to court the favor of men whose trade is in blood guns swords and powder or who work in marble precious and fine linen in foreign countries there would be no clap trap about the announcement of an arrival of indian com and very superior seed wheat fi om john smith s farm in and no need of the of a and officers of the custom to receive and take care of a collection of american farm i yet in such a collection those who by industry and grow for the of those who do not even know the meaning of the word might learn lessons never tu be forgotten for they might learn bow to of the boil ill improve the quality of their seed and make two blades grow � where hut one grew before it ia not yet too late to remedy this great and total neglect of the most important branch of american industry give an invitation to farmers to send in ot every choice kind of seed plants and valuable farm productions and let them be carefully arranged so as to the varied productions of different states and then there will he an agricultural department worthy the name in an exhibition of industry the of which seem to have forgotten that the productions of the soil are the base of all wealth and that mechanical industry is of but little use when the soil and its are neglected or treated as though they were not considered of any importance to the rest of the community note � we believe a articles were added to his after the above was � written but not to change its general fi om to plenty this chapter is given aa a to e of all the rare and devices you gather but do not forget to also of all ihe important of the soil the great exhibition t e who witnessed the london exhibition of and examined the of there must be struck � the difference which exists between that and this in our city in at least one particular there the raw material was exhibited in both its crude and dressed and portions were selected at the various stages of perfection in which its progress or alteration could be made manifest the whole process of manufacture was thus exhibited at a glance and the mind not only became aware of what the article was made from but it became impressed with the improvement the skill and the taste which mark our own times here however this is rarely to be witnessed the fine article is exhibited without the course material in the of iron and steel the ore or native source from which it is obtained might with advantage he placed in position so that the crystal palace might be a school of knowledge as well as a theatre of admiration this remark applies with especial force to the exhibition of glass and the contrast between the raw materials an the beautiful is startling but it is not here visible who says johnson speaking of glass when he saw the first sand by a casual of heat melted into a form rugged with and clouded with would have imagined that in this lump lay concealed so many of life as would in time constitute a great of the happiness of this world v the formation of vessels or the art itself into two branches � that of as it is commonly termed and that of china ware there is not so much in the materials employed in each branch as in the manner of treating them the material for being and thus more approaching in its nature to glass it is curious to see hy the articles ef how these two branches have by rival nations the excellence of the british department being in the articles of or common household ware while the taste and skill of ti have been devoted to the perfection of tlie show of these articles lies chiefly with these two nations for the of ware on this are few aud not of a high degree of perfection it cannot be said to bo an art although and the other new england states as well as new york furnish an abundance of very pure materials the wealth to exists here perhaps but tha skill to execute is jet a nor is this absence of to our people if we put aside the chinese there are but nations who can to any first england then france and lastly of is an art half � half mechanical transferred from china to which by right it belonged it has been as an
19
long evenings when was busy with knitting work and her father told long and spirited stories of his early experiences along the coast and among the business cares began to fret this and as suddenly as ho ho went away again on a misty morning thai promised rain he was very sorry when he said good by to she was crying as be left and a great wave of tbe of poured itself e he should see her again that was certain be that he spirit away to climate and half his thought as he stood hesitating thai last on the little beach the next he was in the boat and pushing out from shore george looked aa and ruddy and weather beaten as his daughter and like some frost bitten flower that tries to lift itself when morning comes and it feels the of the sun the tough witli his pet doctrines and angry could hare no idea of the loneliness of his wife and daughter all these years on his folly island and yet how much tliey had been saved of useless and of petty tyranny from narrow souls i had a bitter of all as he leaned back against the side of the boat and slowly out into the bay while seemed to retreat into tlie fog and slowly disappear his thoughts flew before him to his office to his clerks and accounts he thought of his wealth which buying him nothing of ue friends who were no friends al all for tbe k or i ho had away some who might have been near strangely impatient of familiarity and on the against mockery or he was tlie true king of folly not this work worn be had been a and a more selfish man these many years george was watching eagerly as if he hail been waiting for this chance to s to him alone � you seem to a kind of solitary ho c� with his customary frankness i expect it never your thought that t would be to married yes i thought about it once some years ago answered seriously � was you well twas better soon nor late if it to be tlie sage my mind has been on s case was a master on an i was dreadful set against of her go though i call to mind there was a likely chap as found her out an made to hind an try to court her i drove him i tell you an him under when i caught him afterward out a an he took the hint did n t know what or wm to pay i mj liked to him no r� � he was very apt to be silent you expected him to � and presently the king resumed i te been thinking that ought to sort o up she pines for her mother they was a sight o company for each other now i s pose you t take no sort o fancy for her in o time i to got more hard cash away folks expects an you should your own way i a cousin o mine a widow woman to keep the house an you an the need n t only summer here i take it e got some means found himself smiling at this pathetic appeal and was ashamed of himself directly and turned to i m afraid i n t think of it be answered suppose � � � lor no said george sadly his she ain t gift no sign that i be � r see her take to no as she has to you i thought you might an i or you thought the island was a place t would do no harm to speak they were on their way to john s island where was to take uie s boat to the main land found his fog bound way by some mysterious instinct and at journey s ends the friends parted with little show of or emotion yet there was much expression in s grasp of his hand thought and both men turned more once as the boats separated to give a kindly glance backward people are not brought together in this world for nothing and r had no idea of tlie confusion tliat his theories and his manner of life had brought into tlie well affairs of john was of curiosity about the visit but he little satisfaction � � was the on these b some ten years ago be proclaimed an a bom lady her mother s folks was ministers over to the winter was gone when ed a letter in a yellow envelope ess li k e in iti appearance of r the king or folly i of wrote to say that had been hoping to get strength enough to thank him for the generous box which had sent he had both his imagination and memory to supply the minor wants and fancies of the dot was steadily failing in health and the cousin had already been summoned to take care of her and to manage the keeping the king wrote a hand as if he had used a fish hook instead of a pen and he told the truth about his sad affairs with simple only sent a message of thanks and an assurance that she liked to think of s being in the fall be would soon send him a small one morning opened a which lay upon his desk and found this sake the shell meeting house which looked sadly trivial and astray he entirely confused by its unexpected he did not to meet the eyes of an office boy who stood near was an uncomfortable feeling in his throat but m a letter from the and read it slowly without a understanding of the words � dear friend poor � i was very for all that you sent in the box � i take such
40
evenings are i i returned to what they were than a new the novelty was in their being lively yet how i strong the impression that only a few weeks will give ill have been feeling as if we had never lived so before i i suppose i am graver than other people said ii the evenings do not appear long to me i love to hear m my talk of the west indies i could listen to him for an hour together it me more than many other have done � but then i am unlike other people v i dare say why should you dare say smiling � do yoa want to be told tliat you are only unlike other people in being more wise and but when did you or any body ever get a compliment from me go to my father if you want to be he will satisfy you ask your what he thinks and you will hear compliments enough and though they may be chiefly on your person you must put up with it and trust to his seeing as much beauty of mind in time such language was so new to that it quite her your thinks you very pretty dear � and that is the long and the short of the matter any body but myself would have made something more of it and any body but you would resent that you had not been thought very pretty before but the truth is that your uncle never did admire you till now � and now he does your complexion is so improved � and you have gained so much countenance � and your figure � nay do not turn away about it � it is but an uncle if you can not bear an uncle s admiration what is to become of you you must really begin to yourself to the idea of worth looking at yoa must try not to mind grow up into a pretty woman oh don t talk so don t talk no cried dis by more feelings than he was aware of but seeing t she was distressed he had done with the subject and y added more seriously � your uncle is disposed to be pleased with you in every and i only wish you would talk to him more yoa of those who are too silent in the evening circle but i do talk to him more than i used i am sure i did not you hear me ask him about the slave trade i did � and was in hopes the question would be wed up by others it would have pleased your uncle to of farther and i longed to do it � but there was such a dead ence and while my cousins were sitting by without a word or seeming at all interested in the subject did not like � i thought it would appear as if i wanted set myself off at their expense by showing a curiosity id pleasure in his information which he must wish hia ni daughters to feel miss was very right in what she said of yon e other day � that you seemed almost as fearful of and praise as other women were of neglect we were king of you at the and those were her words le has great i know nobody who characters better for so young a woman it is she certainly understands you better than you i understood by the greater part of those who have known n so long and with regard to some others i can ve from occasional lively hints the � ns of the moment that she could define many as ac did not delicacy forbid it i wonder what she of my father she must admire him as a fine man with most like dignified con tent manners but perhaps having seen him so seldom i reserve may be a little repulsive could they be much ther i feel sure of their liking each other he joy � and she has talents to f powers i wish they met more frequently i hope h does not suppose there is any dislike on his side she must know herself too secure of the regard of all the rest of you said with half a sigh to have such apprehension and sir thomas s wishing just at first to be only with his family is so very natural that she can argue nothing from that after a little while i dare say we shall be meeting again in the same sort of way allowing for the of the time of year this is the first october that she has passed in the country since her infancy i do not call or the country and november is a still more serious month and i can see that mrs grant is very anxious for her not finding dull as winter comes on could have said a great deal but it was safer to say nothing and leave untouched all miss s resources her accomplishments her spirits her importance her friends lest it should betray her into any observations seemingly miss s kind opinion of herself deserved at least a grateful forbearance and she to talk of something else to morrow i think my uncle at and you and mr too we shall be quite a small party at home i hope my uncle may continue to like mr worth that is impossible he must like him less after to morrow s visit for we shall be ye hours in his com i should dread the stupidity of the day if there were not a greater evil to follow � the impression it must leave on sir thomas he cannot much longer deceive himself i am sorry for them all and would give something that and maria had never met in this quarter indeed disappointment was impending over sir
26
and uncle cleaned up as had ordained but the boys little no sooner were the furnished than tom and long jack who had been exploring the inside of a with a lantern snatched them away loaded up the and some small painted and the boat overboard into what regarded as an exceedingly rough sea they be drowned why the s loaded like a freight car he cried we be back said long jack an in case you not be for us we lay into you both if the s i � captains courageous the up on the crest of a wave and just when it seemed impossible that she could avoid against the s side slid over the ridge and was swallowed up in the damp dusk take here an keep steady said dan passing the of a bell that hung just behind the rang for he felt two lives depended on him but in the cabin in the log book did not look like a murderer and when he went to supper he even smiled at the anxious this ain t no weather said dan why you an me could set they ve only gone out jest far so s not to foul our cable they don t need no bell cling kept it up varied with occasional rub a for another half hour there was a and a alongside and dan to the hooks of the tackle long jack and tom arrived on deck together it seemed one half the north atlantic at their backs and the followed them in the air landing with a clatter captains courageous said tom as he you do yet the pleasure your company to the said long jack the water from his boots as he like an elephant and stuck an oil arm into s face we do be to honor the second half our presence and off they all four rolled to supper where stuffed himself to the brim on fish and and fell fast asleep just as produced from a a lovely model of the his first boat and was going to show the ropes never even his fingers as pushed him into his it must be a sad thing � a very sad thing said watching the boy s face for his mother and his father who think he is dead to lose a child � to lose a out o this said dan go aft and finish your game with uncle tell i stand s watch ef he don t keen he s played ver good boy said slipping out of his boots and disappearing into the black i captains courageous shadows of the lower he make good man i no see he is any so mad as your he says eh at v dan chuckled but the chuckle ended in a it was thick weather outside with a rising wind and the elder men stretched their watches the hours struck clear in the cabin the bows and with the seas the stove pipe and as the spray caught it and the boys slept on while long jack tom and uncle each in turn aft to look at the wheel forward to see that the anchor held or to out a little more cable against with a glance at the dim anchor light between each round chapter iv to find the first half at breakfast the door drawn to a crack and every square inch of the singing its own tune the black bulk of the cook balanced behind the tiny over the glare of the stove and the pots and in the pierced wooden board before it and to each plunge up and up the climbed yearning and and quivering and then with a clear like came down into the seas he could hear the bows cut and and there was a pause ere the divided waters came down on the deck above like a of followed the sound of the cable in the hole a and of the a a and a kick and the ive we here gathered herself together to repeat the motions now ashore he heard long jack say io captains courageous ing ye ve an ye must do in any weather here we re well clear of the fleet an we ve no � an that s a good night all he passed like a big snake from the table to his and began to smoke tom followed his example uncle with fought his way up the ladder to stand his watch and the cook set for the second half it came out of its as the others had entered theirs with a shake and a it ate till it could eat no more and then filled his pipe with some terrible tobacco himself between the post and a forward cocked his feet up on the table and smiled tender and indolent smiles at the smoke dan lay at length in his with a gaudy gilt stopped whose tunes went up and down with the of the we re here the cook his shoulders against the where he kept the dan was fond of potatoes with one eye on the stove in event of too much water finding its way down the pipe and the general smell and were past all description considered affairs wondered that i captains courageous he was not sick and crawled into his again as the and safest place while dan struck up i don t want to play in your yard as accurately as the wild allowed how long is this for asked of till she get a little quiet and we can row to perhaps to night perhaps two days more you do not like eh at v i should have been crazy sick a week ago but it does n t seem to upset me now � much that is because we make you these days if i was you when i come to i
39
proved the ruin of the the one ship that had rid out the in safety now she beheld across her course the the tops filled with exhausted happily the approach of the was gradual and the time employed to advantage and lines were thrown into the tops of the friendly wreck the approach of danger was transformed into a means of safety and before the ships struck the men from the s main and which went immediately by the board in the collision were already on eight years of trouble in the s decks those from the were next rescued and the settled gradually into a position alongside her neighbour against which she beat all night with violence out of the crew of the forty three had perished of the four hundred and fifty on board the only one the night of the i th was still notable for a howling tempest and extraordinary floods of rain it was feared the t ould scarce to endure the of the seas among the the fate of those on board the awoke keen anxiety and on the beach of and the other officers of his on that of watched all night the morning of the th displayed a scene of rarely equalled the high and dry the and the partly piled on the and herself sunk to the gun deck no sail afloat and the beach heaped high with the of ships and the wreck of mountain forests already before the day the chief of had gallantly ventured forth by boat through the fury of the seas and had sue the in communicating with the admiral already or as soon after as the dawn permitted rescue lines were and the were with difficulty and danger begun to be brought to shore and soon the cheerful spirit of the admiral added a new feature to the scene surrounded as he was by the of two wrecked ships he the band of the and the bay was suddenly with the strains of hail during a great part of the day the work of rescue was continued with many instances of courage and devotion and for a long time succeeding the almost inexhaustible harvest of the beach was to be in the first employment the earned the gratitude of friend and foe in the second they surprised all by an unexpected virtue that of honesty the greatness of the disaster and the magnitude of the treasure now rolling at their feet may perhaps have roused in their an emotion too serious for the rule of or perhaps that was for the moment sails that twelve strong could scarce drag from the water great guns one of years of trouble in which was rolled by the sea on the body of a man the only native slain in all the an infinite wealth of rope and wood of tools and weapons tossed upon the beach yet i have never heard that much was stolen and beyond question much was very honestly returned on both accounts for the saving of life and the restoration of property the government of the united states showed themselves generous in reward a fine boat was presented to and rings watches and money were on all who had assisted the also gave money at the rate as i receive the tale of three dollars a head for every german saved the obligation was in this instance deep those with whom they were at war had saved the german blue at the venture of their lives was besides far from and i can only explain the figure by supposing it was paid from his own pocket in one case at least it was refused i have saved three said the i will make you a present of the three the of the american and german the were now cast still in a temper together on the beach the discipline of the americans was loose the crew of the had earned a character for in other ports and recourse was had to and indeed extraordinary measures the town was divided in two to which the different were confined had his quarter and any seaman a challenge was to be shot dead any tavern keeper who sold spirits to an american sailor was to have his tavern broken and his stock destroyed many of the were german and having these but necessary dispositions wonders grinning to himself over his despatch how far these americans will go in their assumption of over such as they were the measures were successful the mass of was kept in peace and at last in peace out of the islands returned to on the th to find the the sole of thirteen sail he thanked his men and in particular the en eight years of trouble in in a speech of unusual feeling and beauty of which one who was present remarked to another as they left the ship this has been a means of grace nor did he forget to thank and compliment the admiral and i cannot deny myself the pleasure of from s reply some generous and engaging words my dear captain he wrote your kind note received you went out splendidly and we all felt from our hearts for you and our cheers came with sincerity and admiration for the able manner in which you handled your ship we could not have been if it had been one of our ships for in a time like that i can say truly with old j that blood is thicker than water one more trait will serve to build up the image of this typical sea officer a tiny the captain dear to myself from the memories of a six months lived out upon the high seas the fury of that tempest which had piled with the harbour of found a refuge in and arrived at last in the port with a welcome and cargo the of pigs
38
formed for them in another country � remote and private where shut up together with little society on one side no affection on the other no judgment it ma be reasonably supposed that their became their mutual punishment mrs s removal from was the great comfort of sir thomas s life his opinion of her had been sinking from the day of his return from in ever transaction tc from that period in their intercourse in business or in chat she had been losing ground in his esteem and convincing him that either time had done her much dis service or that he had over her sense and borne with her manners before he had felt her as an evil which was so much the worse as there seemed no chance of its ceasing but with life she seemed a part of himself that must be borne forever to be relieved from her therefore was so great a felicity that had she not left bitter behind her might have been danger of his learning almost to approve the evil which produced such a good park she was regretted by no one at she had never been able to attach even those she loved best and since mrs s her temper had been in a state of such irritation as to make her everywhere not even had tears for aunt � not even when she was gone forever that escaped better than maria was owing in some measure to a favorable difference of disposition and circumstance but in a greater to her having been less the darling of that very aunt less flattered and less spoilt her and had held but a second place she had been always used to think herself a little inferior to maria her temper was naturally the easiest of the two her feelings though quick were more and education had not given her so very a degree of self consequence she had submitted the best to the disappointment in after the first bitterness of the conviction of being was over she had been tolerably soon in a fair of not thinking of him again and when the acquaintance was renewed in town and mr rush worth s house became s object she had had the merit of withdrawing herself from it and of choosing that time to pay a visit to her other friends in order to secure herself from being again too much attracted this had been her motive in going to her cousins mr s convenience had had nothing to do with it she had been allowing his attentions some time but with very little idea of ever accepting him and had not her sister s conduct burst forth as it did and her increased dread of her father and of home on that event � imagining its certain consequence to herself would be greater severity and restraint � made her hastily resolve on avoiding such immediate horrors at all risks it is probable that mr would never have succeeded she had not with any worse feelings than those of selfish alarm it had appeared to her from the only to be done maria s guilt had in need s folly henry d ruined by early and bad domestic example indulged in tlie of a vanity a little too long once it had by an opening and led him into he way of happiness could he have been satisfied with the conquest of one amiable woman s affections could he have found sufficient exultation in the reluctance in working himself into the esteem and tenderness of price there would have been every probability of success and felicity for him his affection had done something her influence over him had given him some influence over her would he have deserved more there can be no doubt that more would have been obtained especially when that marriage had taken place which would have given him the assistance of her conscience in her first inclination and brought them often together would he have and must have been his reward � and a reward very voluntarily bestowed � within a reasonable period from s marrying mary had he done as he intended and as he knew he ought b going down to after his return from he might have been deciding his own happy destiny but he was pressed to stay for mrs s party his staying was made of flattering consequence and he was to meet mrs there curiosity and were both engaged and the temptation of immediate pleasure was too strong for a mind unused to make an sacrifice to right he resolved to his journey resolved that writing should answer the purpose of it or that its purpose was unimportant � and stayed he saw mrs was received by her with a coldness which ought to have been repulsive and have established apparent indifference between them forever but he was he could not bear to be thrown off by the woman whose park smiles had been so wholly at his command he must exert himself to subdue so proud a of resentment it was anger on s account he must get the better of it and make mrs maria again in her treatment of himself in this spirit he began the attack and by animated perseverance had soon re established the sort of familiar intercourse � of gallantly � of which bounded his views but in over the discretion which though beginning in anger might have saved them both he had put himself in the power of feelings on her side more strong than he had supposed she loved him there was no withdrawing attentions dear to her he was entangled by his own vanity with as little excuse of love as possible and without the smallest of mind towards her cousin to keep the from a knowledge of what was passing became his first object secrecy could not have been more desirable for mrs
26
an intelligent calculation by the reader may very well take the place of a tedious chronicle by the writer moreover the same monotony did not hang over every part of our story these very four months were enough to one of our characters and through him by subtle and positive links to every man and every woman who fills any considerable position in this ct romance therefore our story us from the meadows round to a massive building glaring red brick with white stone corners these colors and their contrast relieve the stately mass of some of that which the castles of antiquity but enough remains to strike some awe into the two round towers flank the principal entrance on one side of the hand tower is a small house constructed in the same style as the grand pile the castle is massive and grand this its is massive and tiny like the doing his little bit of bull � like a tremendous thick dwarf now no more there is one to all this gloomy grandeur a rich httle flower garden whose frame of turf goes smiling up to the very angle of the frowning fortress as some few happy lakes in the world wash the very foot of the mountains that hem them from this green spot a few flowers look up with bright and wondering eyes at the great over their heads and to the spectator of both these sparks of color at the castle foot are dazzling and charming they are like and pink in some uncouth ancient setting between the central towers is a sharp arch filled by a huge oak it is never too late to mend of the same shape and size which for security or ornament is closely studded with large nails a man with keys at his like the ancient opens the huge door to you with slight effort so well is it you slip under a porch into an enclosed yard the great door almost of itself and now it depends upon the man whether you ever see the vain idle and objectionable world again passing into the interior of the vast building you find yourself in an extensive aisle traversed at right angles by another of similar dimensions the whole in form of a cross in the centre of each aisle is an iron staircase so narrow that two people cannot pass and so light and open that it merely ornaments not the view of the aisle those make two springs the first takes them to the level of two on the first floor here there is a space of about a yard whence the staircase rises to the second and highest floor this gives three all studded with doors opening on small separate apartments whereof anon nearly all the inmates of this grim palace wear a costume and disguise one feature of which is a cap of coarse materials with a to it which the features all but the chin and the eyes which last peep in a very droll way through two holes cut for that purpose they are distinguished by a courteous manner to strangers whom they never fail to salute in passing with apparent cordiality indeed we fear we shall never meet in the busy world with such uniform as in this and similar it arises from two causes one is that here strangers are welcome from their another that politeness is a part of the education of the place which besides its other uses is an school of morals religion grammar writing and with the exception of its halls and the building is almost entirely divided into an immense number of the small apartments noticed above these are homely inside but exquisitely clean the furniture and fixed none of which is superfluous can be briefly described a consisting of the side walls of the apartment polished steel are fixed in these walls two on each side the apartment at an elevation of about two feet and a half the s bark has two stout steel hooks at each end these are into the and so he lies across his abode a deal table the size of a pocket handkerchief also a deal a so contrived that turned to the right it sends a small stream into a copper basin and to the left into a dose stool at some distance a small gas pipe tipped with polished brass in one angle of the wall a sort of or open cupboard on whose shelves a bright plate a knife and fork and a wooden spoon in a drawer of this yellow soap and a comb and brush a grating down low for hot air to come in if it likes and another up high for foul air to go out if it chooses on the wall a large containing rules for the tenant s direction and smaller containing from scripture the propriety of returning after food c a slate and a couple of knee guards used in the room and that is all but the deal furniture is so clean you might eat off it the walls are snow the copper basin and the brass gas pipe glitter like red gold and pale gold and the bed hooks like silver hot from the furnace altogether it is inviting at first sight to one of these snowy snug was now ushered an acquaintance of ours tom robinson a brief must dispose of it is never too late to mend when he left us he went to the where he remained until the an interval of a month he was tried direct evidence was strong against him and he defended himself with so ingenuity and of intellect that the could not doubt his of hand and morals too he was found guilty identified as a notorious thief and condemned to twelve months im and ten years he returned to the county for a few days and then was
9
was morally and in respect of all action thin very thin indeed and just when i was touching the lowest deep of this unpleasant but no doubt depth of self when i was becoming literally out by the heavy weight of my own enter unto me mrs she the emerged from the glass doors of the and beaming dear me now mr she exclaimed this is what i really do call a piece of luck i have been so wishing all the morning i had some lady friend to talk it all over with and you see i have nothing but acquaintances here and i never can get over the feeling it isn t very suitable to be intimate with the people you just meet travelling you see you don t really know anything about them nor how they live and how many servants they keep and how they behave at home it s so easy for anybody to look respectable on the continent and re so afraid if you take to them it may make afterwards aren t you all of which certainly did not come very much under the head of adventurous and vigorous living failing other female acquaintances of well position good mrs took me i was to the modest position of the safe she gossip to that of the maiden aunt for a moment the eternal masculine in me � for the eternal masculine does exist just as actually as the eternal feminine though it happens at the present time not to have so fashionable a as the latter � arose in revolt but in my present condition of self it only for a moment had fallen very low in my own estimation i was almost willing to regard myself as the nothing better than an example of and you have always taken such a kind interest in our dear young people she continued that i know you will be pleased to hear everything is so con settled she confronted me her worthy with smiles but unfortunately the searching morning light did not suit my present companion as well as the scarlet figure that had been my late inspiration and torment mrs s appearance invariably suggested the thought that she was wearing out her last year s sunday gown the present example of that economical habit was green enriched by steel and ornaments in the region of the waist where they took the form of strings of bearing an to full dress her grey hair smoothly on the brow was in hue from the too lavish application of some it was moreover surmounted by a lace and ribbon cap in form and colour curiously resembling a egg what remained to her of her raised to a permanently surprised height pushed her forehead up into innumerable lines i found it impossible to dislike mrs she was too perfectly simple and genuine a being yet to me just now she proved for the tone of her profoundly the voice her comfortable and somewhat figure even the last few words she had spoken recalled irresistibly to my mind that mysterious the monthly nurse whom to my terror i meet at the which the house of my excellent little married sister unable to my mind of this association of ideas i answered mrs slightly at random i am delighted to hear it i am to understand you then that they are both doing very well oh very well mrs replied with indeed mr between ourselves i think s a very fortunate girl for has really being doing better than could have been expected the phrase was a little astonishing but i retained my presence of mind good news upon good news i exclaimed this is capital so it is and i am sure i feel very thankful and so does mr her eyebrows still higher for of course we ve had our at times mr you see we lost our dear little boy as an infant so she s our only child the tenderness of the maternal passion found quite moving expression in mrs s homely countenance i o the and being so remarkable and gifted as she is we have sometimes wondered whether we ought to let things go on often and often since we ve been here mr s woke me in the night to talk about it � specially since mrs ms came and we couldn t help seeing what an interest mr took in mr s a dreadfully poor when he has anything on his mind i am sure if i ve asked him once i ve asked him a dozen times � my dear what does make you so restless and he always answers � s marriage mamma s marriage it s not too late yet to interfere she must not be permitted to throw herself away a most proper sentiment on the part of your husband i said i am so pleased to know you think that for sometimes i have been afraid mr was inclined to place his hopes too high and that it wouldn t bring a blessing you see there s a great deal said about not taking too much thought in the bible and � i it is because i don t understand very quickly � these new do explain a great many of those difficulties in the they tell me � but sometimes i was frightened lest we should be asking too much for here mrs placed herself in a chair hers was not the style of figure which can be described the i i as gracefully permitting its possessor to sit down i cannot pretend that mrs was classic in her attitudes she invariably sat up her smiles had rather beneath the disturbing influences of criticism � now they shone forth again dear me she exclaimed how pleasant it is to have a little chat i though i don t know that i ought to be so confidential
32
for a month did him more good than all the medicine he took and that being by the sea always makes him feel young again now i cannot help thinking it a pity that he does not live entirely by the sea i do think he had better leave entirely and fix at do not you anne do not you agree with me that it is the best thing he could do both for himself and mrs she has cousins here you know and many acquaintance which would make it cheerful for her and i am sure she would be glad to get to a place where she could have medical attendance at hand in case of his having another indeed i think it quite melancholy to have such excellent � � � persuasion i people as dr and mrs who have been doing good all their lives wearing out their last days in a place like where excepting our family they seem shut out from all the world i wish his friends would propose it to him i really think they ought and as to a there could be no difficulty at his time of life and with his character my only doubt is whether anything could persuade him to leave his parish he is so very strict and scrupulous in his notions over scrupulous i must say do not you think anne it is being do not you think it is quite a mistaken point of conscience when a clergyman sacrifices his health for the sake of duties which may be just as well performed by another person and at too only seventeen miles oft he would be near enough to hear if people thought there was anything to complain of anne smiled more than once to herself during this speech and entered into the subject as ready to do good by entering into the feelings of a young lady as of a young man though here it was good of a lower standard for what could be offered but general acquiescence she said all that was reasonable and proper on the business felt the claims of dr to repose as she ought saw how very desirable it was that he should have some active respectable young man as a resident and was even courteous enough to hint at the advantage of such resident s being married i wish said very well pleased with her companion i wish lady lived at and were intimate with dr i have always heard of lady as a woman of the greatest influence with everybody i always look upon her as able to persuade a person to anything i am afraid of her as told you before quite afraid of persuasion her because she is so very clever but i respect her and wish we had such a neighbour at anne was amused by s manner of being grateful and amused also that the course of events and the new interests of s views should have placed her friend at all in favour with any of the family she had only time however for a general answer and a wish that such another woman were at before all subjects suddenly ceased on seeing and captain coming towards them they came also for a stroll till breakfast was likely to be ready but immediately afterwards that she had something to procure at a shop invited them all to go back with her into the town they were all at her disposal when they came to the steps leading upwards from the beach a gentleman at the same moment preparing to come down politely drew back and stopped to give them way they ascended and passed him and as they passed anne s face caught his eye and he looked at her with a degree of earnest admiration which she could not be insensible of she was looking remarkably well her very regular very pretty features having the bloom and freshness of youth restored by the fine wind which had been blowing on her complexion and by the animation of eye which it had also produced it was evident that the gentleman completely a gentleman in manner admired her exceedingly captain looked round at her instantly in a way which his noticing of it he gave her a momentary glance a glance of brightness which seemed to say that man is struck with you and even i at this moment see something like anne again after attending through her business and about a little longer they returned to the inn persuasion and anne in passing afterwards quickly from her own chamber to their dining room had nearly run against the very same gentleman as he came out of an adjoining apartment she had before him to be a stranger like themselves and determined that a well looking groom who was strolling about near the two as they came back should be his servant both master and man being in mourning assisted the idea it was now proved that he belonged to the same inn as themselves and this second meeting short as it was also proved again by the gentleman s looks that he thought hers very lovely and by the readiness and propriety of his apologies that he was a man of exceedingly good manners he seemed about thirty and though not handsome had an agreeable person anne felt that she should like to know who he was they had nearly done breakfast when the sound of a carriage almost the first they had heard since entering drew half the party to the window it was a gentleman s carriage a but only coming round from the stable yard to the front door somebody must be going away it was driven by a servant in mourning the word made charles jump up that he might compare it with his own the servant in mourning roused anne s curiosity and the whole six were
26
i will you on the plain or by the saw edged rock if i do not throw away that child and follow the road of which i have told you you can scarcely mistake it go on showing no fear and � stay let that blanket hang open in front it is not the custom of these women to wear their garments wrapped so closely groaned but she obeyed chapter the pass of the like wild beasts escaping from a pen that red eyed gasping mob rushed and staggered to the edge of the water and plunging their heads into it with hoarse and cries drank and drank and drank indeed several lost their lives there for some filled themselves so full that their were and some were thrust into the river by the cattle or those pressing behind them to be carried away by the swift stream just at the mouth of the pass laden with the child was pushed down by those who followed and doubtless would have been trampled to death had not one of s men desiring to clear the way or perhaps moved to pity at her plight dragged her to her feet again but when he had done this he did not let her go but held her staring at her beauty with greedy eyes here is a rock rabbit whom i shall keep for a wife he cried i would rather take her than twenty fat oxen now s heart nearly stood still with terror water water she moaned let me drink i pray you do not fear i will take you to drink my pretty went on the man still staring at her then losing command of herself screamed and the pass of the struggled and the sound of her cries reached the ears of who was standing close at hand what is this he asked of the man nothing bull head except that i have taken a woman whom i wish for a wife because she is so fair van let his eyes rest upon her but for all his thoughts were given to her who sat aloft five hundred feet above his head and feeling their glance s blood in her veins yes she is fair he answered but she is a married woman and i will have no among my people let her go and take a girl if you will for van did not wish that the few men who remained with him should themselves just then with women and children since they were needed to look after the cattle maid or wife i choose this one and no other said the man then black whose sullen temper could not brook to be crossed broke into a blaze of rage do you dare to me he shouted with an awful oath let her go dog or i will kill you at this the man who knew his master hold of who ran away though it was not until she reached the water that she noticed a white ring round her arm where his grip had rubbed the paint off the skin beneath strangely enough van saw the ring and at that distance it for an ivory ornament such as women often wear above the elbow still more strangely its white colour made him think again of the white woman who sat aloft yonder and he turned his face upwards forgetting all about the black girl with the child thrusting herself through the crowd ran on for a while till she was clear of the worst of it then terrified swallow though she was she could resist the temptation of the water no longer for her mouth and throat felt dry and rough climbing down to the edge of the river she drank under the shelter of a rock and when she had satisfied some of her thirst she poured water into the mouth of the child dipping its little body into the stream whereon it seemed to increase before her eyes like a dry that is left out in the rain while she tended the child thus and just as it began to find its senses and to wail feebly she chanced to look up and to her terror saw that man from whom she had escaped walking along the bank searching for her happy was it for that the rock under which she was crouched hid her for the man stood for thirty seconds or more within two paces so that she was obliged to plunge the body of the boy under water to its crying then as it happened the caught sight of another woman and infant more than a hundred yards away and ran off towards them the half choked child upon her back climbed the bank hiding the white mark upon her arm beneath the blanket and taking such shelter as she could behind stones or cattle or knots of people who their thirst appeased were hastening to escape she slipped across the shoulder of the slope now she was out of sight of and his men and for the first time for many a day began to breathe freely for a while she crept on round the flank of the mountain then at the best of her speed she struck across the plain straight for the saw edged rock ten miles away which marked the entrance to the pass over the range from time to time looked behind her but none followed her nor search as she would could she discover the pass of the any trace of who she began to fear must have come to some harm one thing she could see however � the corpse set on high in the chair of rock and by the side of it a black dot that she knew to be twice she turned round and gazed at it but the second time the dot had become almost although it still was there long
18
he knows nothing whatever now you said way i figure it is this and i can by the book because i ve talked to a lot of doctors and that ought to know and the way i see it is that it s a good thing to get rid of the saloon bnt th ought to let a fellow have beer and light observed what isn t generally realized is that it s a to the rights of per liberty now take this for instance the king of � i think it was � yes it was � in march i a he issued a against public of live stock the had stood for without the slightest con but when this came out they or it may have been but it just goes to show the dangers of the rights of that s it � no one got a right to personal liberty � aid jones just the same want to forget is a mighty good thing for the working classes keeps em from wasting their and lowering yes that s so but the trouble is the manner of insisted didn t under the right system now if i d been running the thing d n by lu have it so that the waa and then we could have taken care of the workman � kept him from � and yet not we interfered with the rights � with the personal liberty � of fellows like ourselves they their heads looked at one and stated that s so that would be the the thing that me is that a lot of these will take to si � l more violently and groaned that s so there is a danger of that oh say i got hold of a swell new receipt for home made beer the other day you take � let me tell you mine to do is to jones insisted i ve got the receipt that does the begged oh say tell you the story � but f ink went cm resolutely you take and save the shells peas and pour six of water on a of shells and boil the mixture till � mrs turned toward them with yearning sweetness hastened to finish even his best and she said gaily dinner is served was a good deal of friendly argument among the men as to should go in last and while they were crossing the bad from the living room to the dining room made them by thundering if i can t sit next to and hold her hand under the table i won t play � vm goin home in the dining room they stood embarrassed mrs fluttered now let me oh i was going to have some nice hand painted place cards for you but � ob let me see mr you t there hie dinner was in the best style of women s art the was served in and everything but the invincible chicken resembled � l� e d n by ii the men found it bard to to the was an art unknown on and the of offices and of had do but the of the was violent each oi the men still had a number of in things to say about and now that each had a in his dinner partner he burst out i found a place where i can get all the i want at t a � did you read about this that went and paid a thou band dollars for cases of red ye that proved to be ing but water seems this fellow was standing on the and fellow comes up to him � they say there s a whole of stuff being it what i say what a lot of folks d xi t � bout and then you get all this awful poison wood and everything � course i in it m in but i don t propose to have anybody telling me i got to think and do no american ever stand for that but all that it was rather in bad taste for jones � and he not recognized as one of the wits of the � to say in fact the whole thing about it this it isn t the cost it s the not till the one required tc ic bad been dealt with did become general it was often and y said of that can get away with why be can pull a raw one in mixed company and ao the ladies their heads off but me if i crack out s just the least bit off i get the for now ted them by to mis youngest of the women i managed to s out of d n by and say yoa and me across the street when tbe aren t got with a awful to tell tbe women ed and was stirred to like say folks i wished i dared show you a book i borrowed now george i the ideal mrs warned him this bo a� the it s some kind of u report about � about customs in the seas and what it doesn t say it s a book you can t lend it to you ue insisted sounds jones announced say i heard a good one tbe other day about a and their wives and in the best accent he resolutely carried the good one to a ending ed it but the the back into cautious reality had recently been on a lecture tour among the small towns and he chuckled awful good to get back to i certainly been seeing some i mean � course the folks are the best on earth but those main street are slow and you fellows can t hardly a te what it means to be here with a bunch of live you bet i jones they re the best folks aa earth those small town folks but
42
i what is your opinion i i always come to you to know what i am to think of public my dear tom cried his aunt soon aa yon lot ui are not i si to join m in a robber shall � seal and to him to the added in a we to duke a mo b quite k but cannot ve time to sit down became td her and i and dr grant just do and aw job know bet half i be most t� replied be and with it the greatest c bat that i am this moment to dance come � � n� � g her hand do be any v the dance will be was led os willingly though it was for her to feel gratitude towards her as he certainly did between the selfishness of another person and his own a pretty modest request upon my i he indignantly exclaimed as they w ed away to want to nail me to a card table for the next two hours with herself and dr grant who are always quarrelling and that old woman who knows no more of than of i wish my good aunt would be a little less busy and to ask me in such a way too without ceremony before them all so as to leave no possibility of a is what i dislike most particularly it raises my more than any thing to have the pretence of being asked of ber given a choice and at the same time addressed in such a way as to oblige one to do the very thing � whatever it be if i had not luckily thought of standing up with you i could not have got out of it it is a great deal too bad but when my aunt has got a fancy in her head nothing can tt q her park chapter xiii ths john this new friend had not to him habits of fashion and and being the younger son of a lord with a tolerable independence and sir thomas would probably have his introduction at by no means mr s acquaintance with him had begun it where they had spent ten days together in society and the friendship if friendship it might be called had been proved and by mr s being invited to take in his way whenever he and by his promising to come and he did come than had been expected in consequence of the breaking up of a large party assembled for gaiety at the house as er friend which he had left to join he came on the wings of disappointment aud with his head fuu of acting for it had been a theatrical and the play in which he had borne a part was two days of representation when the sudden death cf one of the nearest connections of the family had destroyed scheme and dispersed the to be so near so near fame so near the long paragraph in of the private at the seat of the right hon lord in which would of course have the whole party for at least a i and being so near to lose it all was an injury to be keenly felt and mr could talk of nothing else and its theatre with its and dresses and jokes was his never failing subject and to boast of the past his only consolation happily for him a love of the theatre is so general an for acting so strong among young people that he could hardly out talk the interest of his hearers from the first casting of the parts to the it was all and there were few who did not wish to have been a par concerned or would have to try their i � park the had been and was to have been count a and not at all to mj and a one as i would not accept again but i wm to make no difficulties lord and the duke had the only two worth playing i reached and thou to m it was impossible to take i know i was aim that he should hare so mi his te ha was no more equal to the � a little man always after the ten it bare injured the piece materially bat j was f ea ui ted to make no difficulties sir the duke not equal to but that was because sir wanted the part himself it was certainly in the best hands of the two i was to see sir a stick luckily the strength of the piece did not upon him our was and the duke was very great by many and upon the it would certain have gone off wonderfully it was a hard case upon my word i do think you wore very much to be pitied � were the kind of listening sympathy it is not worth complaining about but to be sure the poor old could not have died at a w time and it is impossible to help wishing the news could have been suppressed for just the three days we wanted it was but three days and being only a grandmother and all happening two hundred miles o i think there would have been no great and i know bat lord who i suppose is one of the most correct men in england would not hear of it an after piece instead of a comedy said mr lovers vows were at an end and lord and lady left to act my grandmother by themselves well the may comfort and perhaps between friends he b an to tremble for his credit and his lungs in the baron and was not sorry to withdraw and to make you amends i think we must raise a little theatre at and ask you to be our manager r � the t the did end with for die to
26
procession and dancing on each than in the members being solely women in men s clubs such were though less uncommon but either the natural of the softer sex or a sarcastic attitude on the part of male relatives had such women s clubs as remained if any other did of this their glory and the maiden the club of alone lived to the local it had walked for hundreds of years if not as benefit club as of some sort and it walked still the ones were all dressed in white gowns � sl gay from old style days when cheerfulness and may time were � days before the habit of taking long views had reduced emotions to a monotonous average their first exhibition of themselves was in a march of two and two round the parish ideal and real slightly as the sun lit up their figures against the green hedges and house fronts for though the whole troop wore white garments no two were alike among them some approached pure some had a some worn by the older characters which had possibly lain by folded for many a year inclined to a tint and to a style in addition to the distinction of a white frock every woman and girl carried in her right hand a willow and in her left a bunch of white flowers the of the former and the selection of the latter had been an operation of personal care there were a few middle aged and even elderly women in the train their silver hair and wrinkled faces by time and trouble having almost a grotesque certainly a pathetic appearance in such a situation in a true view perhaps there was more to be gathered and told of each anxious and experienced one to whom the years were drawing nigh when she should say i have no pleasure in them than of her comrades but let the elder be passed over here for those under whose the life quick and warm the young girls formed indeed the majority of the band and their heads of luxuriant hair reflected in the sunshine every tone of gold and black and brown some had beautiful eyes others a beautiful ii op the d nose others a beautiful mouth and figure few if any had all a of arranging their lips in this crude exposure to public scrutiny an inability to balance their heads and to self consciousness from their features was apparent in them and showed that they were genuine country girls to many eyes and as each and all of them were warmed without by the sim so each had a private little for her soul to in some dream some affection some at least some remote and distant hope which though perhaps starving to nothing still lived on as hopes will thus they were all cheerful and many of them merry they came round by the pure drop inn and were turning out of the high road to pass through a gate into the meadows when one of the women said � the lord a lord why if there isn t thy father riding in a carriage a young member of the band turned her head at the exclamation she was a fine and handsome girl � not than some others possibly � but her mouth and large innocent eyes added eloquence to colour and shape she wore a red ribbon in her hair and was the only one of the white company who could boast of such a pronounced as she looked round was seen moving along the road in a chaise belonging to the pure drop driven by a headed with her gown sleeves rolled above her elbows this was the servant of that establishment who in her part of turned groom and at times leaning back and with his eyes closed was waving his hand above his head and singing in a slow � i ve got a t family vault at � and f in lead there tlie except the girl called the maiden � in whom a slow heat seemed to rise at the sense that her father was making himself foolish in their eyes he s tired that s all she said hastily and he has got a lift home because our own horse has to rest to day bless thy simplicity said her companions he s got his market look here i won t walk another inch with you if you say any jokes about him cried and the colour upon her cheeks spread over her face and neck in a moment her eyes grew moist and her glance drooped to the ground perceiving that they had really pained her they said no more and order again prevailed s pride would not allow her to turn her head again to learn what her father s meaning was if he had any and thus she moved on with the whole body to the where there was to be dancing on the green by the time the spot was reached she had recovered her and tapped her neighbour with her and talked as usual at this time of her life was a mere vessel of emotion by experience the dialect was on her tongue to some extent despite the village school the characteristic of that dialect for this district being the rendered by the syllable ur probably as rich an utterance as any to be found in speech the up deep red mouth to which this syllable was native had hardly as yet settled into its definite shape and her lower lip had a way of thrusting the middle of her top one upward when they closed together after a word phases of her childhood in her aspect still as she walked along to day for all her handsome you could sometimes see her twelfth year in her cheeks or her ninth sparkling from her eyes and even her
45
had swept between him and the object that he gazed at but � as it always did � the aspect of his marvellous friend made as hopeful as if he had never hoped in vain fear not said his heart even as if the great face were whispering him fear not he will come more years sped swiftly and away still dwelt in his native valley and was now a man of middle age by degrees he had become known among the people now as heretofore he labored for his bread and was the same simple hearted man that he had always been but he had thought and felt so much he had given so many of the best hours of his life to hopes for some great good to mankind that it seemed as though he had been talking with the angels and had a portion of their the great stone face wisdom unawares it was visible in the calm and of his daily life the quiet stream of which had made a wide green margin all along its course not a day passed by that the world was not the better because this man humble as he was had lived he never stepped aside from his own path yet would always reach a blessing to his neighbor almost involuntarily too he had become a preacher the pure and high simplicity of his thought which as one of its took shape in the good deeds that dropped silently from his hand flowed also forth in speech he uttered truths that wrought upon and the lives of those who heard him his it may be never suspected that their own neighbor and familiar friend was more than an ordinary man least of all did himself suspect it but inevitably as the murmur of a came thoughts out of his mouth that no other human lips had spoken when the people s minds had had a little time to cool they were ready enough to acknowledge their mistake in imagining a between general blood and thunder s and the on the mountain side but now again there were reports and many in the newspapers that the likeness of the great stone face had appeared upon the broad shoulders of a certain eminent he like mr and old blood and thunder was a native of the valley but had left it in his early days and taken up the trades of law and politics instead of the rich man s wealth and the warrior s sword he had but a tongue and it was than both together so wonderfully eloquent the great stone face was he that whatever he might choose to say his had no choice hut to him wrong looked like right and right like wrong for when it pleased him he could make a kind of illuminated fog with his mere and the natural daylight with it his tongue indeed was a magic instrument sometimes it like the thunder sometimes it like the sweetest music it was the blast of war � the song of peace and it seemed to have a heart in it when there was no such matter in good truth he was a wondrous man and when his tongue had acquired him all other imaginable success � when it had been heard in halls of state and in the courts of princes and � after it had made him known all over the world even as a voice crying from shore to shore � it finally persuaded his countrymen to select him for the before this time � indeed as soon as he began to grow celebrated � his admirers had found out the resemblance between him and the great stone face and so much were they struck by it that throughout the country this distinguished gentleman was known by tlie name of old stony the phrase was considered as giving a highly favorable aspect to his political prospects for as is likewise the case with the nobody ever becomes president without taking a name other than his own while his friends were doing their best to make him president old stony as he was called set out on a visit to the valley where he was bom of course he had no other object than to shake hands with his and neither nor cared about any effect which his progress through the country might have upon the great stone face the election magnificent preparations were made to receive the illustrious a of set forth to meet him at the boundary line of the state and all the people left their business and gathered along the to see him pass among these was though more than once disappointed as we have seen he had such a hopeful and confiding nature that he was always ready to believe in whatever seemed beautiful and good he kept his heart continually open and thus was sure to catch the blessing from on high when it should come so now again as as ever he went forth to behold the likeness of the great stone face the came along the road with a great of hoofs and a mighty cloud of dust which rose up so dense and high that the of the mountain side was completely hidden from s eyes all the great men of the neighborhood were there on horseback officers in uniform the member of the of the county the of newspapers and many a farmer too had mounted his patient with his sunday coat upon his back it really was a very brilliant spectacle especially as there were numerous over the on some of which were gorgeous portraits of the illustrious and the great stone face smiling familiarly at one another like two brothers if the pictures were to be trusted the mutual resemblance it must be confessed was marvellous we must not forget to mention that there was a band of music which made
35
t been any happier i m sorry i wish now for my own peace of mind that i hadn t done it don t say that she going over in her mind all that had been between them this was such a testimony to their real union � their real spiritual it s all right it doesn t make any difference you ve been very good to me i wouldn t have been satisfied to have you lose your fortune it t be that way i ve been a lot better satisfied as it is it s been hard but dear ever is hard at times she paused no he said it wasn t right tlie thing wasn t worked out i ht from the start but that wasn t your fault i m sorry i wanted to tell you that i m glad i m here to do it don t talk that way please don t she pleaded it s all right you needn t be sorry there s nothing to be sorry for you have always been so good to me why when i think � she stopped for it was hard for her to speak she was choking with affection i and sympathy she pressed his hands she was recall i ing the he took for her in his i generous treatment of all the long ago tokens i of love and kindness well i ve told you now and i feel better you re a good woman and tt kind to come to me this way i loved you i love you now i want to tell you that it seems strange but you re the only woman i ever did love truly we should never have parted caught her breath it was the one thing she l z i c had waited for all these years � this testimony it was the one thing that could make everything right � this confession of spiritual if not material union now she could happily now die so oh she exclaimed with a sob and pressed his hand he returned the pressure there was a little silence then he spoke again how are the two he asked oh they re lovely she answered entering upon a detailed description of their he listened comfortably for her voice was soothing to him her whole personality was grateful to him when it came time for her to go he seemed desirous of keeping her going i can stay just as well as not she volunteered i ll take a room i can send a note out to mrs it will be all r ht you needn t do that he said but she could see that he wanted her that he did not want to be lone from that time on until the hour of his death she was not out of the hotel q l chapter the end came after four days during which was by his bedside constantly the nurse in charge welcomed her at first as a relief and company but the physician was inclined to object ever was stubborn death j touch of grim humor if i m dying i ought to be allowed to die in my own way smiled at the man s courage he had never seen anything like it before there were cards of sympathy calls of inquiry notices in the newspaper robert saw an item in the and decided to go to called with her husband and they were admitted to s room for a few minutes after had gone to hers had little to say the nurse them that he was not to be talked to much when they were gone said to has changed a good deal he made no other comment mrs was on the atlantic three days out from new york the afternoon died he had been meditating whether anything more could be done for but he could not make up his mind about it certainly it was useless to leave her more money she did not want it he had been wondering where was and how near her actual arrival might be when he was seized with a tremendous of pain before relief could be administered in the shape of an he was dead it developed afterward that it was not the trouble which killed him but a of a major blood vessel in the brain d l who had been strongly wrought up by watching i and worrying beside herself with grief he had � been a part of her thought and feeling so long that it seemed now as though a part of herself had died she j had loved him as she had fancied she could never love j any one and he had always shown that he cared for her � at least in some degree she could not feel the j tion that expresses itself in tears � only a dull ache a which seemed to make her insensible to pain he looked so strong � her � flying there still in death his expression was defiant determined peaceful word had come from mrs that she would arrive on the wednesday following it was decided to hold the body learned from mr that it was to be transferred to where the paces had a vault because of the arrival of various members of the family withdrew to her own home she could do nothing more the final ceremonies presented a peculiar on the of existence it was arranged with mrs by wire that the body should be transferred to s residence and the funeral held from there robert who arrived the night died s husband mr and three other citizens of were selected as pall and her husband came from and her husband from the house was full to overflowing with citizens who either sincerely wished or felt it expedient to call because of the fact that and his family were
43
he determined to ascertain one solution of the difficulty lay plain before him he could go away another presented itself but it was preposterous of all the women he knew was the least affected by him in the way that a man she liked him he knew but if he could read women at all and he thought he could she liked him only as a friend and had not a of sentiment about him he was easy then as to the point mrs had raised but had he the right to subject to gossip this was the main thing that troubled him he was half angry with himself that it kept rising in liis mind he determined to find out what her aunt oi it and decided that he could let that direct his course his conscience once or the o e presented itself whether it were possible that could care for him he banished it resolutely when he reached the he found that miss was sick so the virtuous plan he had formed fell through he was trying to fancy himself sorry but when came out on the in a dainty blue gown which fell about her girlish figure and seated with unconscious grace in the easy chair he pushed up for her he knew that he was glad to have her all to himself they fell to talking about her aunt i am dreadfully uneasy about her the girl said once or twice of late she has had something like fainting and the last one was very alarming you don t know what she has been to me she looked up at him with a silent appeal for sympathy which made his heart beat she is the only mother i ever knew and she is all i have in the world her voice faltered and she turned away her head a tear stole down her cheek and dropped in her lap i am so glad you like each other i hear you are engaged she said suddenly he was startled it in so with the thought in his mind at the moment no i am not but i would like to be he came near saying a great deal more but the girl s eyes were fixed on him so innocently that he for a moment hesitated he felt it would be folly if not to go further just then there was a step on the walk and the young man had seen dr came up the steps he was a handsome man stout well dressed and well satisfied could have consigned him and all his class to a distant and he came up the steps cheerily and began talking at once he was so glad to see and had he heard lately from dr � such a fine type of the old country doctor etc no said he had not heard lately his manner the mistress of the had at the man s condescension and he rose to go he said casually to as he shook hands how did yon hear the piece of news you mentioned mrs told me you must tell me all about it i will sometime i hope you will be very happy she said earnestly you deserve to be her eyes were very soft no i do not said almost angrily i am not at all what you suppose me to be i will not allow you to say such things of yourself she said smiling i will not stand my friends being abused even by themselves felt his courage her beauty her sincerity her tenderness her innocence her sweetness thrilled him he turned back to her abruptly i hope you will always think that of me he said earnestly i promise to try to deserve it gk od by good by don t forget me she held out her hand took it and held it for a second never he said looking her straight in the eyes gk od by and with a muttered good by to dr who stood with wide open eyes gazing at him he turned and went down the steps i don t like that man said the young doctor this speech sealed his fate don t i do said half her thoughts were far from the young physician at that moment and when they returned to him she knew that she would never marry him a half hour later he knew it the next morning received a note from saying he had left for his home when he bade mrs good by that evening she looked as if she were really sorry that he was going she walked with him down the toward where his carriage awaited him and thought she had never looked sweeter he had never had a � at least since he was a college boy � and a little of the old feeling came to him he lingered a little but just then mrs came out of the door near him for a moment could almost have fancied he was back on the at gates s her around had turned back the dial a dozen years just what brought it about perhaps no one of the in the little drama could have told but from this time the relations between the two ladies whom left at the hotel that summer night somehow changed not outwardly for they still sat and talked together but they were both conscious of a difference they rather with each other after that mrs set it down to a simple cause mrs was in love with and he had not addressed her of this she was satisfied yet she was a little mrs hardly defined the reason to herself she simply shut up on the side toward mrs and barred her out a strange thing was that she and miss became great friends they took to riding together walking together and seeing a great deal of each
46
with the bold and confident character of his whole scheme he seems to have regarded his enterprise almost as an act of to the country and the attempt to arrest it as somewhat in the light of insult and persecution you have read to very little purpose he says in a letter to his daughter during the of the trial if you have not remarked that such things happen in all was there in greece or rome a man of virtue and independence and supposed to possess great talents who was not the object of and persecution incidents of the trial and again i want an independent and witness to my conduct and to that of the government the scenes which have passed and about to be will exceed all reasonable and will hereafter be deemed unless by very high authority these are curious revelations of feeling in contrast with the upon the trial judge � whose opinions in this case were like all the other of his with the calm and impartial spirit of justice itself and for their legal and depth � did not escape some from the side of the government as well as this of tlie prisoner but the country has not failed to render full honour to tlie purity as well as the wisdom of the mind which guided the of this celebrated trial we come now to present some of the leading features of the case far as s in it may be of interest in doing this i shall make a few from his speeches by no means to fatigue the reader with a detail either of the facts or the law of the case which indeed may only be properly understood by a reference to the trial itself but as obtained by his labours in this trial a large increase of popularity both at the bar and with the it will not be considered as to the subject before us to from the report of it such passages or incidents as may be of the counsel whose name has become so connected with it the trial was remarkable for the with which it was on both sides almost in the first stage of its progress the court was obliged to comment upon the temper displayed by an application was made by col for a to the of the united states with a requiring him to a letter which he had received from gen dated october and also to produce copies of certain orders which had been issued by the government relative to the arrest this application was resisted on one ground amongst others that the or of the papers referred to was not shown � the in the case being that the said letter may be material to the defence a long debate ensued an argument mb said in the course of this debate � we do not deny thai a may bo issued to summon the president and that he if as to that process as any other citizen i shall show that the is not a process of right but that the application is addressed to the of the court � mb � this is admitted mb � i thank you for the admission you have mc from the unnecessary trouble of so much of my argument the question then is by what circumstances should that discretion be controlled should it be by the mere wish of the prisoner if so it in vain that the court possesses any discretion on the subject the prisoner has but to ask and have consider this wide and bold doctrine on the ground of would you summon any private individual from the remotest part of the united states to produce a paper on the mere wish of the prisoner without the paper and showing how it bore on his defence if you would you put the pursuits and the peace of every individual in the united states at the mercy of the prisoner s caprice and this argument from inconvenience an attitude of most awful and alarming importance when you extend it to a case like this before the court a prisoner has seldom any cordial for the government by which he is for a crime the truth is he feels himself in a state of war with that government and the more desperate his case the more ardent will bo his spirit of revenge would you expose the offices of state to be at the mere pleasure of a prisoner who if he feels that he must fall would for nothing more anxiously than to grace his fall and make his ruin glorious by dragging down with him the bright and splendid edifice of the government sir if has the right at his mere wish to call one paper from tiie government he has the same right to call any other and so one after another might every document and secret of state however delicate our foreign relations might be and however the disclosure to the honour and prosperity of the country it is much to be wished that a rule could be devised which while it would protect the rights of the prisoner should also protect the public offices from being and i an argument il w think there is such a rule it is this by requiring that the who calls for a paper should show that the paper applies to his case and is requisite for his defence when he shall have done this i hold that he is entitled to call for any paper it will then rest with the president of the united states the officer appointed by the people to watch over the national safety to say whether that safety will be by the paper c c again sir i have never seen or heard of an instance of this process being required to bring forward any paper but where such a paper was in its
29
he is safe he is quite safe mark my words he will never more be heard of the lawyer listened gloomily he did not like his friend s feverish manner you seem pretty sure of him said he and for your sake i hope you may be right if it came to a trial your name might appear i am quite sure of him replied i have grounds for certainty that i cannot share with anyone but there is one thing on which you may advise me i have � i have received a letter and i am at a loss whether i should show it to the police i should like to leave it in your hands you would judge wisely i am sure i have so great a trust in you incident of the letter you fear i suppose that it might lead to his detection asked the lawyer no said the other i cannot say that i care what becomes of i am quite done with him i was thinking of my own character which this hateful business has rather exposed awhile he was surprised at his friend s selfishness and yet relieved by it well said he at last let me see the letter the letter was written in an odd upright hand and signed edward and it signified briefly enough that the writer s benefactor dr whom he had long so repaid for a thousand need labour under no alarm for his safety as ho had means of escape on which he placed a sure dependence the lawyer liked this letter well enough it put a better colour on the intimacy than he had looked for and he blamed himself for some of his past suspicions have you the envelope he asked i burned it replied before i thought what i was but it bore no the note was handed in dr and mb shall i keep this and sleep upon it asked i wish you to judge for me entirely was the reply i have lost confidence in myself well i shall consider returned the lawyer and now one word more it was who dictated the terms in your wiu about that disappearance the doctor seemed seized with a of he shut his mouth tight and nodded i knew it said he meant to murder you you haye had a fine escape i have had what is far more to the purpose returned the doctor solemnly i haye had a lesson � o god what a lesson i have had and he covered his face for a moment with his hands on his way out the lawyer stopped and had a word or two with by the by said he there was a letter handed in to day what was the messenger like but was positive nothing had come except by post and only by that he added this news sent o� f the visitor with his fears incident op the letter renewed plainly the letter had come by the door possibly indeed it had been written in the cabinet and if that were so it be differently judged and handled with the more caution the as he went were crying themselves hoarse along the special edition shocking murder of an m p that was the funeral of one friend and and he could not help a certain apprehension lest the good name of another should be sucked down in the of the scandal it was at least a decision that he had to make and self as he was by habit he began to cherish a longing for advice it was not to be had directly but perhaps he thought it might be for presently after he sat on one side of his own hearth with mr guest his head clerk upon the other and between at a nicely calculated distance from the fire a bottle of a particular old wine that had long dwelt in the foundations of his house the fog still slept on the wing above the drowned city where the lamps like dr and mr and through the and of these fallen clouds the procession of the town s life was still rolling in through the great with a sound as of a mighty wind but the room was gay with in the bottle the were long ago resolved the imperial had softened with time as the colour grows richer in stained windows and the glow of hot autumn on was ready to be set free and to the of london the lawyer melted there was no man from whom he kept fewer secrets than mr guest and he was not always sure that he kept as many as he meant guest had often been on business to the doctor s he knew he could scarce haye failed to hear of mr s familiarity about the house he might draw conclusions was it not as well then that he should see a letter which put that mystery to rights and above all since guest being a great student and critic of handwriting would consider the step natural and obliging the clerk besides was a man of counsel he would scarce read so strange a document without dropping a remark and by incident op the letter that remark mr might shape his future course this is a sad business about sir he said sir indeed it has a great deal of public feeling returned guest the man of course was mad i should like to hear your views on that replied i have a document here in his handwriting it is between ourselves for i scarce know what to do about it it is an ugly business at the best but there it is quite in your way a murderer s guest s eyes brightened and he sat down at once and studied it with passion no sir he said not mad but it is an odd hand and by
38
suffered more he felt poor and wanted to earn money in some way the dog fish season had half sound the would opened and he was actually preparing to go into the business of catching them dock had promised him the use of a � for he could not afford to buy one � and he had taken s old lines and repaired them for use mr fail field groaned and sighed all day long while he worked upon his fishing lines and his he could not tell who had stolen his money and in his hatred of his nephew he still persisted in suspecting him there was no and he could do nothing but believe that was the thief it was useless to say anything or do anything for was so popular that justice could not be had the lines the and the bait were all ready and the old man carried them down to the where dock had left the along the shore of this part of cape ann there is a succession of rocky extending out into the sea between these are the stretching in from bluff to bluff as they have been fashioned by the mighty waves which roll in from the open ocean on these sandy shores the chant their solemn melody all day and all night long and break of fortune ob with pitch and swell upon the jagged rocks that form the on the road but a few rods from mr s and near one of these was the house of dock where his family had always lived even when he was in new york the end of the curved round so as to leave a portion of the water behind it protected from the force of the sea thus forming a sheltered landing place off this point lay the flag and on the rocks where the usually embarked were several and among them dock s which mr was to use across the end of the a few rods from the extreme point was a natural chasm in the rocks through which the water flowed at high tide it was about ten feet wide and rather more than this in depth across it a plank had been placed for the convenience of and others on the next which terminated in s point was the new summer residence of mr he had made a landing pier which was available at half tide but kept his boat at the old half round the world because the place was sheltered from the violence of the north east winds and it was less than half a mile across to the house where he usually took in his passengers mr went down to the and put his fishing gear on board he did it as a man goes to a funeral he had been a in his younger days but it was a bitter necessity in his view which now compelled him to resume it when he was old and stiff while he was the bait and lines in the dock came down to see him he had laid aside his suit of black and now wore a full seaman s well squire have you heard anything from your money yet demanded dock as he seated himself on a rock not a thing and tain t likely i ever shall replied mr with a most distressing expression on his face haven t you any idea what has become of it not the grain in the world it s gone and that s all i know about it i did think took it and i t got done so yet of fortune or what made you think he took it asked dock with no little interest manifested on his ugly face well he come to the house when i wan t in though i was close hy and see him go in he went up garret and got a little saw mill he made i went up to the and was just goin to see where he was hut i stopped a minute in the kitchen to tell my wife she was the wood and went out afore i see him a little while the fire out and that my money was gone s most eighteen and it stands to reason he don t want no little saw mill to play with of course he don t added dock he said that he wanted to show it to the but what does a city like her about a saw mill and on em t been near it that shows how much they care about it said dock who was evidently prepared to the old man s philosophy i can t help set the house and then took the money continued mr half bound the world the current explanation of the cause of the fire my wife tain t so because the boy has all the money lie wants and don t have no occasion to steal but t no more of the of money than he has of and he throws it away as reckless as a sailor he comes home from a cape horn v y ge a i know he does if he had to earn it he wouldn t be quite so free with it hates me f i am his uncle and never did nothing but take good of his money for him � he hates me like destruction and that s what makes me think he done it he s a bad boy if he is go n to the church folks will find him out one of these days and then they ll know i told the truth about him a could anybody else have taken the money that s the p int not s i know on � least ways nobody but you and mat you don t think i took it� do you i t been able to think so replied
36
gay dresses must be exchanged for a widow s weeds she was furious with a fate that had played such a trick upon her even her tears were more those of anger than of sorrow though in her fashion she mourned him truly dick came to console her he came very soon already he had been at the war office and mastered the points of s tale which as though unwillingly he told to leaving her to put upon it what construction she chose it is nonsense she said angrily for in her heart she did not believe it at all poor would never have got into any silly mess with a savage of course it is nonsense he answered taking her cue but it is not a question of morality it s a question of wisdom by mixing himself up with these women he brought about the murder of the whole lot and the utter failure of his mission in a way it is as well for him that he is gone poor dear fellow for he had completely done for himself well it doesn t matter now no she answered heavily it doesn t matter now yet when dick as a relative although of the other political party was consulted by the secretary of state and lord before the former gave those answers in the house he talked somewhat differently the tone indeed of a man of the world of the facts he said he knew little more than they did but of course poor had his weaknesses like other men and he smiled as though at amusing recollections and the desert was a lonely place and this described mai of tbe spirit one of the women as young and beautiful who could say and what did it matter and so forth but the secretary of state an austere man who did not like to see his schemes wrecked and himself attacked on account of such weaknesses thought that it mattered a great deal hence the tone of his answers in the house for it never occurred to him or indeed to lord that a relation would have said as much as dick did unless he was very sure of his ground in fact they were certain that he was putting forward the best version of the truth and of s character that was possible under the circumstances who would wish they reflected to throw a darker shade upon the reputation of a dead man than he was absolutely forced to do by the pressure of sure and certain knowledge as for mrs when she was assured that this dreadful news was and that her only son was indeed dead she said merely in the ancient words the lord gave and the lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the lord and stumbled to the bed whence she never rose again here a second stroke fell upon her but still for many weeks she lived on in a half conscious state it was during this time that left the house saying that her room was wanted by the nurses and went into comfortable rooms of her own in brook street the fact was of course that she could no longer endure this atmosphere of sickness it wag to her nature the sound of her poor mother in breathing as she passed her door tore her nerves the shadow of advancing death oppressed her spirits which already were low enough so she went and set up a manage of her own as a young widow had a right to do as for mrs by degrees she sank into complete and so died making no sign a week before reached england she was buried in by the side of the husband who had treated her so ill in life it was a little before this that an event occurred which indirectly lessened s material disappointment and consoled lord for the death of that for his own reasons had grieved and disappointed him much to the astonishment of all the world on one fine autumn morning presented him with a singularly healthy son this one should do exclaimed the doctor in triumph while lord kissed it fondly but when they had left the room together his wife bade the nurse show her the child and after she too had kissed it said sadly poor little lamb i fear you will have no more luck than the rest how should you with such a father she added in german as for dick with the exception of the birth of this to him child which now stood between him and the wealth his fortunes seemed to wax as those of his rival and vanished he was a clever man with an agreeable manner and a certain gift of shallow but rather amusing speech the kind of speech that and even for the moment but behind which there is neither thought nor power these graces soon made him acceptable to that dreary and middle class institution the house of where entertainment of any sort is so rare and precious a thing thus it happened that before long he came to be a rising man one with a future moreover on one or two occasions when he addressed the house upon some matter he was fortunate enough to impress the public with the idea that he possessed a business ability that in fact was no part of his mental which impression was strengthened by a rather clever article mostly extracted from works of reference however that he published in one of the leading the result was that soon dick found himself a of several sound and one or two but for the while prosperous companies which in the le of tbe spirit to say nothing of the salary that he received from lord who also paid for his shares furnished him with a clear of over � i oo a year thus was
18
their country s dear bought rights away and plead for in the face of day with taint our poisoned youth and lend a lie the confidence of truth � � � � � ah what it that from slavery far i drew the breath of life in english air was early taught a s right to prize and the tale of henry s if the conqueror receives the chain and flattery when arms are vain � � � � � � samuel by numbers here from shame or censure free all crimes are safe but hated poverty this only this the rigid law this only this the muse the sober at a d cloak wakes from his dream and labours for a joke with air the silken gaze and turn the varied a thousand ways of all the that the distressed sure the most bitter is a scornful jest fate never wounds more deep the generous heart than when a s insult points the dart has heaven reserved in pity to the poor no waste or shore no secret island in the boundless main no peaceful desert yet by spain quick let us rise the happy seats explore and bear oppression s insolence no more this mournful truth is everywhere confessed slow rises worth by poverty depressed but here more slow where all are slaves to gold where looks are and smiles are sold where won by by implored the groom the of his lord the rise and fall of from the vanity of human us in full flown dignity see stand law in his voice and fortune in his hand to him the church the realm their powers through him the rays of shine turned by his nod the stream of honour flows his smile alone security still to new heights his restless wishes tower claim leads to claim and power advances power till conquest ceased to please and rights submitted left him none to seize � the english poets at length his sovereign � the train of state mark the keen glance and watch the sign to hate where er he turns he meets a stranger s eye his scorn him and his followers fly now drops at once the pride of awful state the golden the glittering plate the palace the luxurious board the army and the lord with age with cares with oppressed he seeks the refuge of rest grief disease remembered folly and his last sighs reproach the faith of kings speak thou whose thoughts at humble peace shall s wealth with s end be thine or st thou now with safer pride content the wisest justice on the banks of for why did near the of fate on weak foundations raise the enormous weight why but to sink beneath misfortune s blow with louder ruin to the below the true objects of desire from tht vanity of human where then shall hope and fear their objects find must dull suspense corrupt the mind must helpless man in ignorance roll down the torrent of his fate must no dislike alarm no wishes rise no cries the of the skies cease yet remain which heaven may hear nor deem religion vain still raise for good the voice but leave to heaven the measure and the choice safe in his power whose eyes discern afar the secret of a prayer samuel johnson his aid in his rest secure whatever he gives he gives the best yet when the sense of sacred presence fires and strong devotion to the skies pour forth thy for a mind obedient passions and a will resigned for love which scarce man can fill for patience sovereign o er ill for faith that panting for a happier seat counts death kind nature s signal of retreat these goods for man the laws of heaven these goods he who the power to gain with these celestial wisdom the mind and makes the happiness she does not find spoken at the opening of the lane theatre when learning s triumph o er her barbarous foes first reared the stage immortal shakespeare rose each change of many colour d life he drew exhausted worlds and then imagined new existence saw him her bounded reign and panting time toiled after him in vain his powerful strokes truth impressed and passion the breast then came instructed from the school to please in method and invent by rule his patience and laborious art by regular approach assailed the heart cold approbation gave the lingering for those who not censure scarce could praise a mortal bom he met the general doom but left like egypt s kings a lasting tomb the wits of charles found easier ways to fame nor wished for s art or shakespeare s flame the english poets themselves they studied as they felt they writ was plot was wit vice always found a sympathetic friend they pleased their age and did not aim to mend yet like these to lasting praise and proudly hoped to in future days their cause was general their were strong their slaves were willing and their reign was long till shame regained the post that sense betrayed and virtue called oblivion to her aid then crushed by rules and weakened as refined for years the power of tragedy declined from bard to bard the caution crept till roared whilst passion slept yet still did virtue the stage to tread philosophy remained though nature fled but forced at length her ancient reign to quit she saw great lay the ghost of wit folly hailed the joyful day and and song confirmed her sway but who the coming changes can and mark the future periods of the stage perhaps if skill could distant times explore new new yet remain in store perhaps where has and hamlet died on flying cars new may ride perhaps for who can guess th effects of chance here hunt may box or may dance hard is his lot
45
more or less and to the is adored by a girl who has coarse brothers or by a solitary woman who would like to be a in good works beyond her own means simply because he seems to them the of refinement and of public usefulness what wonder then that in society such as i have told you it was a long while ago a zealous clergyman aged thirty three called forth all the little that belong to the divine necessity of loving in the miss with their seven or eight and their no less than in miss with her youthful bloom and her ample cannon curls but mr has entered the room and the strange light from the golden sky falling on his light brown hair which is brushed high up round his head makes it look almost like an his eyes too shine with unwonted brilliancy this evening they were not remarkable eyes but they accorded completely in their changing light with the changing expression of his person which indicated the character often in a sang at once mild and irritable gentle and indolent and resolute self and except that the lips had something of the compressed look which is s repentance often the sign of a struggle to keep the and that the complexion was rather pallid giving the idea of imperfect health mr s face in repose was that of an ordinary and it seemed difficult to refer a certain air of distinction about him to anything in particular unless it were his delicate hands and well feet it was a great to the mind that a parson who would take tea with and make friends of vulgar women like the should have so much the air of a gentleman and be so little like the footed mr of to whom he so closely in doctrine and this want of correspondence between the and the creed had excited no less surprise in the larger town of where mr had formerly held a for of the two other low in the neighborhood one was a of fi and complexion and the other a man of aspect with black hair and a of limp � in fact the sort of thin you mi ht expect in men who distributed the of the society and introduced hymns into the church mr shook hands with mrs bowed with rather a pr x air to the other ladies and seated himself in the large horse hair which had been drawn forward for him while the ladies ceased from their work and fixed their eyes on him awaiting the news he had to tell t m it seems he began in a low and tone need a lesson of patience there has been wrong in my thought or action about this evening lecture i have been too much bent on doing good to after my own plan � too on my own wisdom mr tr an paused he was straggling inward � the are come back then has mr given way i has succeeded � were the eager questions of three ladies at once yes the town is in an uproar as we were sitting in mr s drawing room we heard a loud cheering and presently mr the clerk at the bank who had been waiting at the red lion to hear the result came to let us know ho said had been making n speech to the mob out the window they were drink to the people and in great letters � down with the down with cant the had a hideous of me being tripped up and pitched head out of the pulpit good old mr would insist on sending me round in the carriage he thought i should not be safe from the mob but i got down at the � the row was evidently by before be set out he made sure of succeeding mr s utterance had been letting rather louder and more rapid in the course of this speech and he now added in the energetic which both in and out of the pulpit continually with his more notes � but his triumph will e a short one if he thinks he can me by or threats he has mistaken the man he has to deal with mr and his will find themselves after all mr has been false to his own conscience in this business he knows as well as i do that he is throwing away the souls of the people by leaving things as they are in the parish but i shall appeal to the bishop � i am confident of his sympathy � the bishop will be coming shortly i suppose said miss to hold a confirmation yes but i shall write to him at and lay the � se before him scenes of life indeed i must hurry now for i have many matters to attend to you ladies been kindly helping me with your labors i see continued mr politely glancing at the canvas covered books as he rose from his seat then turning to mary our library is really getting on i think you and your sister have quite a heavy task of distribution now poor felt it very hard to bear that mr did not turn towards her too if he knew how much she entered into his feelings about the lecture and the interest she took in the library well perhaps it was her lot to be overlooked � and it might be a token of mercy even a good man might not always know the heart that was most with him but the next moment poor mary had a pang when mr turned to miss and the expression of his face melted into that beaming timidity with which a man almost always addresses a pretty woman i have to thank you too miss for me so well in your visits to joseph the old man
14
hate though as a fallen angel with his heavenly brightness pure fame in an cause and here is a new book for my evening s � a history of the war till the close of the year with the heads of thirteen distinguished officers engraved on copper plate a plague upon their heads we desire not to see them till they grin at us from the balcony before the fixed on as the heads of how bloody minded the make a old man what next an on the horrid of when that blood was shed � the first that the british soldier ever drew from the of our countrymen � we turned sick at heart and do so still as often as they make it anew from among the stones in king street the pool that we saw that night has swelled into a lake � english blood and american � no all british all blood of my brethren and here come old down tears shame on me since half of them are shed for who are not now even the women are thrusting their white hands into the war and come out in this very paper with proposals to form a society � the lady of washington at their head � for clothing the continental they will strip off their stiff to cover the ragged and then in the ranks themselves what have we here s turned into rhyme and here some verses against the king in which the leaves a blank for the name of george as if his might yet him to the such after years of rebellion is the heart s reverence for the lord s in the next column we have scripture in a against his sacred majesty what would our great have said to that they never laughed at god s word though they cut off a king s head yes it was for us to prove how goes hand in hand with and all other vices come in the train now a days men commit robbery and for the mere luxury of wickedness as this advertisement three hundred pounds reward for the detection of the who stole and destroyed the cushions and pulpit of the street and old south churches was it a crime i can scarcely think our temples since the king ceased to be prayed for but it is not temples only that they rob here a man offers a thousand dollars � a thousand dollars in continental rags � for the recovery of his stolen and other articles of clothing horse are old news innumerable now is the day when every beggar on horse back and is not the whole land like a beggar on horse back riding post to the devil ha here is a murder too a woman slain at midnight by an unknown and found cold stiff and bloody in her bed let the hue and cry follow hard after the man in the uniform of blue and who last went by that way my life on it he is the these whom we see proclaimed in every column � proof that the are as false to their stars and as to the holy � they bring the crimes of a rebel camp into a soil well suited to them the bosom of a people without the heart that kept them virtuous � their king here down a whole column with official seal and here comes a by whose authority ah the united states � these thirteen little assembled in that one grand their and what the import a general fast by heaven for once the have wisely yea let a people kneel down in and ashes from end to end from border to border of their wasted country well may they fast where there is no food and cry aloud for whatever remnant of god s mercy their sins may not have exhausted we too will fast even at a rebel summons pray others as they will there shall be at least an old man kneeling for the righteous cause lord put down the god save the king peace to the good old tory one of our objects has been to without softening a single prejudice proper to the character which we assumed that the old news americans who clung to the losing side in the revolution were men greatly to be pitied and often worthy of our sympathy it would be difficult to say whose lot was most lamentable that of the active who gave up their for a from the british roll and their native land for a cold reception in their home or the passive ones who remained behind to endure the coldness of former friends and the public as despised citizens under a government which they in justice to the old gentleman who has favored us with his discontented we must remark that the state of the country so far as can be gathered from these papers was of dismal for the tendencies of rule it was in the of that day to mistake the temporary evils of a change for permanent diseases of the system which that change was to establish a revolution or anything that social order may opportunities for the individual display of eminent virtues but its effects are to general morality most people are so constituted that they can be virtuous only in a certain routine and an irregular course of public them one great source of disorder was the multitude of troops who were continually returning home after terms of service just long enough to give them a to occupations neither citizens nor soldiers they were very liable to become almost all our impressions in regard to this period are unpleasant whether referring to the state of civil society or to the character of the contest which especially where native americans were opposed to each other was with the deadly hatred old news of enemies it is
35
soft little fool she said why should you ask me to forgive you i might as fairly ask you to forgive me � that i keep my shape and show no wasting anne rose from her chair and hurried to her sister s side sinking upon her knees there to kiss her hand sister she said one could never dream that you could need pardon � i love you so � that all you do it seems to me must be right � whatsoever it might be drew her fair hands away and clasped them on the top of her head proudly as if she crowned herself thereby her great and splendid eyes setting themselves upon her sister s face all that i do she said slowly and with the steadfast high of an self � ail a lady of quality that i do right � f or me i make it so by doing it do u think that i am conquered by the laws that other women and before because they dare not break them though they long to do so am my own law � and the law of some others it was by this time the first month of the summer and to night there was again a ball at which the beauty was to all eyes but twas of greater import than the one she had previously it being to the majority of the heir to an old name and estate who had been early and was highly connected counting indeed among the members of his family the duke of who was one of the richest and most envied in great britain his being of the oldest his numerous estates the most splendid and beautiful and the long history of his family full of heroic deeds this nobleman was also a distant to the earl of at this ball for the first time for months sir john appeared again he did not arrive on the gay scene until an hour somewhat late but there was one who had seen him early though no human soul had known of the event in the rambling ill cared for grounds of hall there was an old rose garden which had once been the pride and pleasure of some a lady of quality lady of the house though this had been long ago and now it was but a lonely wilderness where roses only grew because the dead lady had loved them in her loneliness and and anne had tended them and with their own hands planted and during their childhood and young maiden days but of late years even they seemed to have forgotten it having become discouraged perchance � having no to do the work and the weeds and so running riot there were high hedges and winding paths overgrown and run wild the stronger rose bushes grew in tangled masses flinging forth their rich among the weeds such as were more delicate struggling to live among them became more frail and scant season by season a careless foot would have trodden them beneath it as their branches grew long and in the grass but for many months no foot had trodden there at all and it was a place deserted in the centre was an ancient broken was in these days in the midst of a sort of thicket where a bold of the finest red roses and their rich color in the sun and though the place had been so long for gotten and it was not the custom for it to be visited about this broken the a lady of quality grass was a little trodden and on the morning of the young heir s coming of age stood there in the glowing sunlight as if waiting this was no less than mistress herself she was clad in a morning gown of white which seemed to make of her more than ever a tall creature less a woman than a conquering goddess � and she had piled the dial with scarlet red roses which she was choosing to into a massive wreath or crown for some purpose best known to herself her head seemed and more splendidly held on high even than was its common wont but upon these roses her eyes were downcast and were curiously smiling as also was her ripe lip whose scarlet the blossoms with but poorly it was a smile like this perhaps which mistress feared and trembled before for twas not a tender smile nor a melting one if she was waiting she did not wait long nor to be sure would she have long waited if she had been kept by any daring this was not her way twas not a who came soon stepping hurriedly with light feet upon the grass as though he feared the sound which might be made if he had trodden upon the gravel it was sir john who came toward her in his riding costume he came and stood before her on the other side ii a lady of quality of the dial and made her a bow so low that a quick eye might have thought twas almost mocking his feather sweeping the ground caught a fallen rose which clung to it his beauty when he stood upright seemed to defy the very s self and all the morning world but mistress did not lift her eyes but kept them upon her roses and went on weaving why did you choose to come she asked why did you choose to keep the in answer to my message he replied to her at this she lifted her great shining eyes and fixed them full upon him i wished she said to see what you would say � more to see you than to hear and i he i came she held up her white hand with a rose in it as though a queen should lift a you came she answered
13
me the two men i had had received forty the poet dollars each per month i was the work of both for thirty dollars per month this employer worked me nearly to death a man may love but too many will him toward that particular diet and so with me too much work me i did not wish ever to see work again i fled from work i became a tramp begging my way from door to door wandering over the united states and bloody in and i had been bom in the working class and i was now at the age of eighteen beneath the point at which i had started i was down in the cellar of society down in the depths of misery about which it is neither nice nor proper to speak i was in the pit the abyss the human the and the house of our civilization this is the part of the edifice of society that society chooses to lack of space me here to it and i shall say only that the things i there saw gave me a terrible scare the author reflected and decided that it was better to sell brains than muscle then began a frantic pursuit of knowledge i returned to and opened the books while thus myself to become a brain merchant it was inevitable that i should into there i foimd in a certain class of books the simple i had already worked out for myself other and greater minds before i was bom had worked out all that i had thought and a vast deal more i discovered that i was a the were inasmuch as they struggled to overthrow the society of the present and out of the material to build the society of the future i too the cry for justice was a and a i joined the groups of working class and intellectual and for the first time came into intelligent living here i found keen and brilliant wits for here i met strong and alert withal handed s of the working class too wide in christianity for any congregation of professors broken on the wheel of university to the ruling class and flung out because they were quick with knowledge which they strove to apply to the affairs of mankind here i foimd also warm faith in the human sweetness of and � all the splendid things of the spirit here life was clean and alive here life itself became wonderful and glorious and i was glad to be alive i was in touch with at souls who exalted flesh and spirit over dollars and cents and to whom the thin wail of the starved child meant more than all the pomp and circumstance of commercial and world empire all about me were of i ur and heroism of effort and my days and nights were sunshine and all fire and dew with before my ever burning and blazing the holy christ v the warm human long suffering and but to be rescued and saved at the last as a rain merchant i was a success society opened its to me i entered right in on the parlor floor and my proceeded rapidly i sat to dinner with the masters of society and with the wives and daughters of the masters of society the women were beautifully i admit but to my surprise i discovered that they were of the same clay as the poet all the rest of the women i had known down below in the cellar the colonel s lady and o were sisters under their skins � and gowns it was not this however so much as their that shocked me it is true these beautifully beautiful women sweet little and dear little but in spite of their the dominant key of the life they lived was and they were so selfish they assisted in all kinds of sweet little and informed one of the fact while all the time the food they ate and the beautiful clothes they wore were bought out of stained with the blood of child labor and labor and of itself when i mentioned such facts expecting in my innocence that these sisters of o would at once strip os their blood and jewels they became excited and angry and read me about the lack of the drink and the innate that caused all the misery in society s cellar when i mentioned that i couldn t quite see that it was the lack of the and the of a half starved child of six that made it work twelve hours every night in a southern cotton mill these sisters of o attacked my private life and called me an � as though that settled the argument nor did i fare better with the masters themselves i had expected to find men who were clean noble and alive whose were clean noble and alive i went out amongst the men who sat in the high places the the the business men the professors and the i ate meat with them drank wine with them with them and studied them it is true s the cry for justice i found many that were dean and but with exceptions they were not alive i do believe i could count the exceptions on the of my two hands where they were not alive with with life they were merely the dead � dean and noble like well preserved but not alive in this connection i may especially mention the i met the men who live up to that ideal the pursuit of i met men who the name of the prince of peace in their against war and who put in the hands of with which to shoot down in their own i met men with indignation at the of prize fighting and who at the same time were parties to the of food that killed
21
he came back was at his heels was a shock headed awkward lad with an uncommonly wide mouth very red cheeks a turned up nose and certainly the most expression of face i ever saw he stopped short at the door on seeing a stranger in his hand a perfectly round old hat without any of a brim and resting himself now on one leg and now on the other and changing them constantly stood in the doorway looking into the with the most extraordinary i ever beheld i entertained a feeling towards the boy that minute for i felt that he was the comedy of the s life a long way wasn t it said ihe little old man why then it was a stretch master returned w the old curiosity shop did you find the house easily why then not over and above easy master said of course you have come back hungry why then i do consider myself rather so master was the answer the lad had a remarkable manner of standing sideways as he spoke and thrusting his head forward over his shoulder as if he could not get at his voice without that accompanying action i think he have amused one anywhere but the child s exquisite enjoyment of his and the relief it was to find that there was something she associated with merriment in a place that appeared so to her were quite irresistible it was a great point too that himself was flattered by the sensation he created and after several efforts to preserve his gravity into a loud roar and so stood with his mouth wide open and his eyes nearly shut laughing violently the old man had again into his former abstraction and took no notice of what passed but i remarked that when her laugh was over the child s bright eyes were tears called forth by the fulness of heart with which she welcomed her uncouth favourite after the little anxiety of the night as for himself whose laugh had been all the time one of that sort which very little change into a cry he carried a large of bread and meat and a of beer into a comer and applied himself to of them with great ah said the old man turning to me with a sigh as if i had spoken to him but that moment you don t know what you say when you tell me that i don t consider her you must not attach too great weight to a remark founded on first appearances my said i no returned the old man thoughtfully no come hither the little girl hastened from her seat and put her arm about his neck do i love thee said he do i love thee or no the child only answered by her caresses and laid her head upon his breast why dost thou b said the grandfather pressing her closer to him and glancing towards me is it because thou ths old curiosity shop know st i love thee and dost not like that i should seem to doubt it by my question well well � then let us say i love thee dearly indeed indeed you do replied the child witli great earnestness knows you do who in his bread and meat had been two thirds of his knife at every with the coolness of a stopped short in his operations on being thus appealed to and nobody isn t such a fool as to say he doesn t after which he himself for further conversation by taking a most prodigious at one bite she is poor now said the old man patting the child s cheek but i say again the time is coming when she shall be rich it has been a long time coming but it must come at last a very long time but it surely must come it has come to other men who do nothing but waste and riot when wiu it come to me i am very happy as i am gi said the child returned the old man thou dost not know � how should st thou then he muttered again between his teeth the time must come i am very sure it must it will be all the better for coming late and then he sighed and fell into his former musing state and still holding the child between his knees appeared to be insensible to everything around him by this time it wanted but a few minutes of midnight and i rose to go which recalled him to himself one moment sir he said now � near midnight and you still here get home get home and be true to your time in the morning for there s work to do good night there bid him good night and let him be good night said the child her eyes lighting up with merriment and kindness good night miss returned the boy and thank this gentleman interposed the old man but for whose care i might have lost my little g l to night no no master said that won t do that won t what do you mean cried the old man i d have found her master said i d have found her i d bet that i d find her if she above ground i would as quick as anybody master ha ha ha the old curiosity shop once more opening his mouth and shutting his eyes and laughing like a gradually backed to the door and roared himself out free of the room the boy was not slow in taking his departure when he had gone and the child was occupied in the table the old man said i haven t seemed to thank you sir enough for what you have done to night but i do thank you humbly and heartily and so does she and her thanks are better worth
8
their head found their way to him and the of his confinement by their talk one t tell of a wedding another of a market another of a day s hunting no one came empty handed so that and never had so the great a variety in their one brought a piece of bear s flesh another a bag of chestnut flour another a basket o grapes or a goat cheese or a fowl or a few eggs meanwhile when he had come in from his day s work at his loom or carved wood or read a chapter in the bible and took to wood carving too and helped to make up his store of toys for the spring fair he also gave the children lessons in reading and writing and towards the end of winter when he was pretty nearly well he had quite a little school of s and young girls and lads whom he gladly instructed in short so happily and swiftly did this winter pass that all were sorry when it broke up and was well enough to prepare to his wanderings he started in the first place for la tour little what dangers and there awaited him � xvi in better come hack in the and take a wife cried as she stood at her cottage door with her infant in her arms watching him depart i don t know that any one would have me replied he cheerfully oh nonsense i any one would have � shame for shame i won t hear another word more i good bye i well don t walk too fast especially up hill for of consequences remember you re not very strong yet i � he doesn t hear me i do believe added she lowering her after m after him what a pace he is going at i cheerily walked on to where he bade farewell to various friends and then he proceeded to la tour keenly alive to the beauty of the spring and the delight of exercise in the open air but he was not very strong yet and he found it necessary to his pace before he reached the end of his six mile stage his mind was full of thick coming memories of the stirring scenes that had occurred in that valley in the old times and he prayed to god in his heart that they might never be revived having reached la tour he went to the s house to bid him adieu and not finding him at home he left a message for him and then crossed the little street to a shop immediately opposite to buy a new handkerchief while he was choosing one the woman of the shop suddenly plucked off his hat he looked up at her with surprise and seeing no advantage to himself to be derived from the the ment coolly put it on again the woman who was a roman catholic remarked you d better have submitted and may get into trouble for this why could not you pull off your hat for manners if for nothing better when the host was being carried by the priest saw you i am sure out of the corner of his eye and you know the laws require as well as within thirty yards distance to i was not aware the host was passing said nor did i remember the law and looking out of the shop door he saw a priest and two or three little boys forming rather a poor apology for a procession going down the street he concluded his purchase and left la tour without any further delay and had proceeded about half a mile on his road when he heard himself called to from behind and the next minute a couple of came up and roughly him he mildly inquired the reason of their him they replied you will soon learn that of the magistrate our business is only to take m prison yon before him however we know very well that you are the profane fellow who kept your hat on just now before the host well � ray journey will only be an hour delayed said don t be too sure of that said the other our magistrate may put a spoke in your wheel that shall hinder it from rolling on for some time to come however it is not our business to speak to you and they walked on in silence a few boys and gradually collecting into a little body guard around them when entered the presence of the magistrate he found himself confronted by the shop woman of la tour and by two of the youths who had made up the procession these all bore witness against him that he had kept on his hat and the shop woman alleged in addition that when she out of humanity removed it for him he immediately replaced it and expressed no for his or otherwise the magistrate demanded his name place and occupation and find t tb � ing that he house to house � this is evidently a malignant fellow said he to his clerk and i t think it any honour to la tour to have been his nor to to have supplied his education � therefore my opinion is that we shall do the community at large good service by committing mr to the prison of for the term of three months that is a hard sentence sir said how am i to be maintained there without food or money thirty miles away from my nearest friends people should think of those matters before they commit replied the magistrate you may let your friends if you have any know of your position all the of and many in la tour are my said the knows me well i recognise no such title as said the magistrate though i know who you mean to you must
2
and so arrange the circumstances that he can hardly escape their toils sometimes they appear in court as witnesses against him and swear the crime directly upon him a single legal work contains a list of one hundred cases in which men were hung for crimes which they were afterward proved entirely innocent of and for every such case there have doubtless been many wherein unwilling to take life where there was a possibility of innocence have given the prisoner the benefit of a very faint doubt and him had the penalty been im death by human law they would have convicted notwithstanding the e possibility of his innocence since any future in his favor through the of witnesses the clearing up of circumstances or the confession of the actual would at once lead to his and to an earnest effort by the community to repay him for his and suffering but choke the prisoner to death and any development in his favor is too late next year may prove him innocent beyond or doubt but of what avail is that to the victim over whose grave the young grass is growing and thus through the inexorable character of the death hundreds of the innocent suffer an and death while of thousands of the guilty escape any punishment by human law it a sympathy for the � we ought ever to be merciful toward the sinful and guilty remembering our own and ought to regard with a compassion those whom crime has doomed to suffer but the criminal is not a hero nor a martyr and should not be made to resemble one a crowd of ten to fifty thousand persons witnessing the of the law s just penalty on an and half of them sobbing and crying from sympathy for his fate is not a wholesome spectacle � far otherwise the impression it makes is not that of the majesty and divine of law � the and of justice thousands are hoping praying that a pardon may yet come � some will accuse the of cruelty and hardness of heart in it while this furnace of sighs is at red heat this tempest of sobs in full career the is swung off � a few faint many shudder more feel an acute shock of pain while the great mass to take a general drink some of them swearing that this hanging was a great shame � that the man did not really deserve hints toward it do you fancy the greater have and will profit by the intended lesson � but i do not care to pile argument on argument consideration on consideration in opposition to the in this day and section of putting men to death in cold blood by human law it seems to me a most and practice indeed the recent of our own with most if not all of the free states whereby are henceforth to take place in private or in the presence of a few select witnesses only seem clearly to admit the fact they certainly imply that are of no use as examples � that they rather tend to make than to reform those already when i see any business or and in dark lanes and little by streets which observation i conclude that those who follow such business feel at least doubtful of its utility and they may argue that it is a necessary evil but they can hardly put faith in their own logic when i see the bright array of many colored which formerly filled the post of honor in every tip top hotel now away into some and finally down into a dark out of the sight and knowledge of all but those who especially seek them i say good for so much one and they will be � where they should be � out of sight and reach altogether � so when i see the gallows once the of some swelling eminence the of ten thousand eyes the observed of all and hiding itself from public view in jail yards shutting itself up in i say you have taken the right road go ahead one more drive and your detested is out of the sight of civilized man for ever land land reform the rights of man � his natural rights as man � have become in our day the theme of general and earnest discussion we find little of this in the world s early ages and their enduring monuments � in or or � in or the so called of ancient or more modern limited only since met the crisis of our struggle with those brief vigorous essays which brought the whole philosophy of government into the strong clear sunlight of common sense � only since the truths so into the declaration of our independence � have the rights of man been considered and discussed and when and the continental proclaimed in tones to which the world however unwilling has been compelled to listen that all men are created equal and that among the rights with which their creator has endowed them are those of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness they uttered truths of whose fullest import even they were not clearly conscious and whose ultimate influences on human well being and destiny no man can even yet conceive let us consider their bearings on the newly agitated land question � on the right of man to the soil the earth s surface undoubtedly contains good land enough to give to every family in existence a farm of ample dimensions even though all the or portions of the globe were left utterly but of the one thousand millions of human beings who are supposed to be in existence what proportion j y o p hints toward to any soil except that with which their lifeless bodies are finally covered what proportion are at liberty to obey god s command six days shalt thou
19
told you that i would give you a lower berth sir i can give you one now i have just got a message that the person who had lower two will not want it hold on then i ll take that lower called the man who had spoken before over the crowd i spoke for it first no you won t said the captain who went on writing the man pushed his way in angrily a big self fellow he was evidently from his first what s that i did i say i was here before that man got here and asked you for a lower berth and you said they were all taken the captain stopped and looked at him my dear sir i know you did but this gentleman has a lady along � x tp � i how the captain made christmas but the fellow was angry i don t care he said i engaged the berth and i know my rights i mean to have that lower berth or i ll see which is bigger you or mr just then a lady who had come out on the steps spoke to the captain about her seat in the car he turned to her my dear madam you are all right just go in there and take your seat anywhere when i come in i will fix everything go straight into that car and don t come out in this cold air any more the lady went back and the old fellow said nick go in there and seat that lady if you have to turn every man out of his seat then as the porter went in he turned back to his friend now my dear sir you don t mean that you d be the first man to give up your berth this gentleman has his sick wife with him and has been ordered to take her south immediately and she s going to have a lower berth if i turn every man in that car out and if you were mr himself i d tell you the same thing the man fell back baffled and and we all enjoyed it still i was without a berth so with some i began captain he turned to me oh you want to go to new yes to spend christmas any chance for me he looked how the captain made at his watch my dear young sir he said go into the car and take a seat and v do the best i can with you i went in not at all sure that i should get a berth this of course was only a part of what went on but the crowd had gotten into a good humor and was joking and i had fallen into the same spirit the first person i looked for when i entered the car was of course the sick woman i soon picked her out a sweet frail looking lady with that fatal transparent hue of skin and fine complexion she was all up although the car was very warm every seat was either occupied or piled high with bags well the train started and in a little while the captain came in and the way that old fellow straightened things out was a revelation he took charge of the car and ran it as if he had been the captain of a boat at first some of the passengers were inclined to but in a little while they gave in as for me i had gotten an upper berth and felt satisfied when i up next morning however we were only a hundred and fifty miles from washington and were standing still the next day was christmas and every passenger on the train except the sick lady and her husband and the captain had an engagement for christmas dinner how the captain made somewhere a thousand miles away there had been an accident on the road the train which was coming north had jumped the track at a and torn a part of it away two or three of the had been hurt there was no chance of getting by for several hours more it was a blue party that assembled in the dressing room and more than one cursed his luck one man was talking of the company i was feeling pretty gloomy myself when the captain came in well gentlemen christmas gift it s a fine morning you must go out and taste it he said in a cheery voice which made me feel and better at once and which brought a response from every man in the dressing room asked promptly how long we should be there can t tell you sir but some little time several there was a groan you ll have time to go over the battle field said the captain still cheerily we are close to the field of one of the bitterest battles of the war and then he proceeded to tell us about it briefly he said in answer to a question that he had been in it on which side captain asked sir with some surprise in his voice on which side � on our side sir of course we decided to go over the field and after breakfast we did r how the captain made the captain walked with us over the ground and showed us the lines of attack and defence pointed out where the heaviest fighting was done and gave a account of the whole campaign it was the only battle field i had ever been over and i was so much interested that when i got home i read up the campaign and that set me to reading up on the whole subject of the war we walked back over the hills and i never enjoyed a walk more i felt as if i had got new strength from the cold air the old fellow
46
jane fifty guineas at a tavern and bow often you were on the point of hanging yourself restrained only as some ill natured upon poor old has it by the want of a tree within some miles of the city charles knight and bis companions passed through about nine this morning later than it used to be uncle henry and i had a glimpse of his handsome face looking all health and good humor i wonder when you will come and see us i know what i rather upon but shall say nothing we think uncle henry in excellent looks look at him this moment and think so too if you have not done it before and we have the great comfort of seeing decided improvement in uncle charles both as to health spirits and appearance and they are each of them so agreeable in their different way and so well that their visit is thorough enjoyment uncle henry writes very superior sermons you and i must try to get hold of one or two and put them into our novels it would be a fine help to a volume and we could make our heroine read it aloud on a sunday evening just as well as in the is made to read the history of the demon in the ruins of st though i believe on recollection is the reader by the bye my dear e i am quite concerned for the loss your mother in her letter two chapters and a half to be missing is monstrous it is well that i have not been at lately and therefore cannot be suspected of them two strong twigs and a half towards a nest of my own would a of au ten have been something i do not think however that any of that sort would be very useful to me what should i do with your strong manly vigorous sketches full of variety and glow how could i possibly join them on to the little bit two inches wide of ivory on which i work with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labor you will hear from uncle henry how well is she seems perfectly recovered ben was here on saturday to ask uncle charles and me to dine with them to morrow but i was forced to decline it as the walk is beyond my strength though i am otherwise very well and this is not a season for donkey carriages and as we do not like to spare uncle charles he has declined it too tuesday ah ah mr e i doubt your seeing uncle henry at to day the weather will prevent your expecting him i think tell your father with aunt s love and mine that the are extremely good and tell him also � tell him what you will no don t tell him what you will but tell him that him to make joseph hall pay his rent if he can you must not be tired of reading the word uncle for i have not done with it uncle charles thanks your mother for her letter it was a great pleasure to him to know that the parcel was received and gave so much satisfaction and he her to be so good as to give three shillings for him to dame which shall be allowed for in the payment of her debt here a of jane adieu amiable i hope well y yours j i cannot tell how soon she was aware of the serious nature of her malady by god s mercy it was not attended with much suffering so that she was able to tell her friends as in the foregoing letter and perhaps sometimes to persuade herself that excepting want of strength she was otherwise very well but the progress of the disease became more and more manifest as the year advanced the usual walk was at first and then and air was sought in a donkey carriage gradually too her habits of activity within the house ceased and she was obliged to lie down much the sitting room contained only one sofa which was frequently occupied by her mother who was more than seventy years old jane would never use it even in her mother s absence but she contrived a sort of couch for herself with two or three chairs and was pleased to say that this arrangement was more comfortable to her than a real sofa her reasons for this might have been left to be guessed but for the of a little niece which obliged her to explain that if she herself had shown any inclination to use the sofa her mother might have being on it so much as was good for her it is certain however that the mind did not share in this decay of the bodily strength persuasion was not finished before the middle of a of jane august in that year and the manner in which it was then completed affords proof that neither the critical nor the powers of the author were at all the hook had heen to an end in july and the re engagement of the hero and heroine effected in a totally different manner in a scene laid at admiral s lodgings her performance did not satisfy her she thought it tame and flat and was desirous of producing something this weighed upon her mind the more so on account of the weak state of her healthy so that one night she retired to rest in very low spirits but such depression was little in accordance with her nature and was soon shaken off the next morning she awoke to more cheerful views and brighter the sense of power revived and imagination resumed its course she the condemned chapter and wrote two others entirely different in its stead the result is that we possess the visit of the party to bath
26
like the previous question in if my worthy cousin be somewhat over as a he the of his character by a considerate coolness in religious matters he himself upon being a high but is not the most of places of worship and very seldom himself to get into a dispute upon points of faith if mr the in the family ever in drawing him into this field as he occasionally has the address to do is sure to fly the course he gets puzzled with scripture names and makes some odd mistakes between peter and paul and then generally turns the parson over to his wife who he says has an astonishing memory he is somewhat distinguished as a of blooded horses and ever since the celebrated race between and henry has taken to this occupation with a renewed zeal as a matter affecting the reputation of the state it is delightful to hear him upon the value importance and patriotic bearing of this employment and to listen to all his lore touching the mystery of horse craft he has some fine in training which are committed to the care of a old negro named who in his reverence for the occupation is the perfect shadow of his master he and frank hold grave and momentous upon the affairs of the stable in such a sagacious strain of equal debate that it would puzzle a spectator to tell which was the leading member in the thinks he a country gentleman knows a great deal more upon the subject than his master and their frequent intercourse has a familiarity in the old negro which is almost fatal to s the old man feels himself to maintain his positions according to the form and sometimes with a violence of that his master to abandon his ground purely out of faint gets a little by s but generally turns it off in a laugh i was in the stable with him a few mornings after my arrival when he ventured to with the venerable groom upon a professional point but the terminated in its customary way who you up master frank to tell me how to that ere when i as good as nursed you on my knee well tie up your tongue you old replied frank as he walked out of the stable and cease growling since you will have it your own way � and then as we left the old man s presence he added with an affectionate chuckle � sl faithful old cur too that at me out of pure honesty he has not many years left and it does no harm to humor him f chapter family portraits whilst frank himself with his and through life upon the current of his humor his dame my excellent cousin takes charge of the household affairs as one who has a reputation to stake upon her tion she has made it a perfect science and great is her fame in the thereof those who have visited swallow barn will long remember the morning stir of which the murmurs arose even unto the chambers and fell upon the ears of the � the dry rubbing of floors and even the of the same until they were like ice � and the grinding of � and the of ducks and chickens and and all the concert of homely sounds and then her i do not wish to be counted extravagant but a small regiment might march in upon her without disappointment and i would put them for excellence and variety against any thing that ever was served upon moreover all things go like clock work she rises with the lark and an early vigor into the whole household and yet she is a thin woman to look upon and a feeble with a sallow complexion and a pair of animated black eyes which impart a portion of fire to a countenance otherwise from the paths family portraits worn across it in the frequent travel of a low country but although her life has been somewhat by such my cousin is too spirited a woman to give up to them for she is in her constitution and considers herself a fall match for any reasonable in the world indeed i have sometimes thought that she took more pride ih her craft than becomes a christian woman she is even a little vain glorious for to say nothing of her skill in she has occasionally brought down upon her head the sober of her husband by her faith in the of certain in cases of but there is no reasoning against her experience she can the cases � and men may say what they choose about its being contrary to reason and all that � it is their way i but seeing is believing � nine of water in the hollow of the hand from the spring for three mornings before sunrise and a cup of strong with will break an try it when you will in short as frank says will die in that creed i am occasionally up early enough to be witness to her morning which to my mind is rather enforced against the of her numerous family both white and black she is in the habit of preparing some death for them in a small and it to the whole in succession who swallow the dose with a most ineffectual effort at and gallop off with faces all and every thing at swallow barn that falls within the of my cousin is a pattern of industry in fact i consider her the very of the american system for with her the protection of is even more of a passion than a principle every here and there over the estate may be family portraits seen rising in humble guise above the the rude of a log cabin where all the day the plaintive moaning of the spinning wheel rises upon the breeze
29
any way mr told him his usual dignity that he had honored the last bill received from the of the institution where miss strange was and that under ordinary circumstances another would arrive in a few days what did you intend to do with such a bill inquired growing hot under the collar i presume the natural course would be to send it to you knowing that i probably would not have a cent to meet it with that is hardly my business said mr besides excuse me are you not soon to be married it was difficult to keep from taking that old man by the hair that certainly is not your business said with spirit if you receive any bills for me hereafter you will oblige by them to mr who now has charge of my affairs it would have been less painful to the old lawyer had him was a former jo miss clerk who had of late taken quite a number of his best customers from him between the men there were the most bitter feelings turned several colors as he heard the news and his enemy was well fearing however that the bills for s might get lost between the rival offices mr was told to send word to the principal of the change in and he had also to be informed of the entire scheme by which was made to believe herself the of some unknown with the wisdom of a true lawyer mr did not look in the least surprised nor give one wink of either during the somewhat novel explanation let me see said please tell me my exact balance he had drawn very little so far and mr was able to inform him a second later that he had in the second national bank to his credit and then of course he added there are the you know all of them easily at any time nodded and said he had forgotten the exact amount of the latter when he heard that it was he came very near fainting in his surprise he had never dreamed of such a sum and wondered as he walked out whether he could really be worth so much to anybody as the seemed to think he went into an adjacent wine room and drank something to steady his nerves the liquor gave him confidence it went directly to his of self esteem in half an hour he had come to think good i that the value mr had set on him was on the whole rather low strolling across square he met who stopped him with an but by no means familiar smile i forgot to ask you said the lawyer how much i am to pay out on account of the lady who is attending the boarding school the lady exclaimed oh you mean the child that is a matter which i leave entirely to her teachers there is to be no limit whatever the disgusted mr could not bear to have the office triumph over his without striking back in some way thus far he had kept the secret of s real friend from every one not entitled to know his only questionable conduct toward had been letting mr into the exact condition of the young man s and him when his property reached its last gasp now he began to fear that the influence which his late had in the household would result in taking the whole of the s legal business out of his hands and conveying it into those of his hated rival with this alarm upon him he called on mr and revealed and after some urging all that he knew of the matter of the young girl the was unquestionably interested he heard the story with the utmost attention how did you happen to come to me with this he asked when he had the whole of it in his possession why you brought me to the notice of the miss and i knew you were high in his good will and confidence this is a matter that you ought to know now that the engagement of his daughter to mr is announced mr looked very thoughtful you know of nothing else between them he said come do not hesitate to tell me if you do i do not know of anything answered the lawyer but is it likely you understand the world yes yes i understand was the quick reply leave this matter entirely to me mr if you mention it to another soul it will spoil everything the lawyer promised and hoped mr would continue to be his friend with mr he said mr had withdrawn his business from him on account of his action in not him when his funds were getting low according to mr s request the promised to do all he could and the lawyer departed half convinced that he would have done about as well to remain away strange exclaimed aloud when he was alone again strange good god chapter xx miss a wedding tour is supposed to be a necessity in circles that expect to be dignified by he name of fashionable it may be to europe and t may be to a nearer point but it must be to some place at a distance from the homes of the happy couple to settle down in the house where they tire to live immediately after the ceremony that them is to the last degree and yet the son of judge and the daughter of did exactly this thing the time for the wedding was set with surprising suddenness to begin with the engagement it will be remembered was entered into with the on the part of the lady that she was to be allowed to name the day after he found himself in possession of a comfortable fortune paid in advance was not in the least haste to deliver the goods
1
stirred to that he had or so he deemed long ago forgotten and still musing he almost mechanically went on with the wild was not the sea made for the free land for courts and chains alone t � here we are slaves but on the waves love and liberty are our own this will never do he exclaimed leaping from his bed i am becoming a mere with advancing age power he went to the window and looked out it was about six o clock in the morning � the sun was shining brightly into his room before him lay the sea calm as a lake and clear sparkling as a diamond � not a boat was in sight � not a single white sail on the distant horizon and in the freshness and stillness of the breaking day the world looked but just newly created how we fret and in our little span of life he murmured a few years hence and for us all the troubles which we make for ourselves will be ended but the sun and the sea will shine on just the same � and love the power on earth will still govern mankind when and kings and are no more his thoughts were destined to bear quick the morning deepened into noon � and at that hour a sealed brought by a sailor who gave no name and who departed as soon as he had delivered his packet was handed to the king it was from the crown prince and ran briefly thus � at your command sir and by my own desire i have left the country over which you hold your sovereign dominion whither i travel and how is my own affair i shall return no more till the nation demands my service � whereof i shall doubtless hear should such a ever arise i leave you to deal with the situation as seems best to your good pleasure and that of the government � but the life god has given me can only be lived once and to him alone am i responsible for it i am resolved therefore to live it to my own liking � in honesty faith and freedom in accordance with this determination my wife as in her sworn bound goes with me for one moment the king stood and astounded a cloud of anger darkened his brows up the document in his hand he was about to fling it from him in a fury what this mere boy and girl had baffled the authority of a king anon his anger cooled � his countenance cleared the paper out he read its contents again � then smiled a fair well has something of me in him after all he said he is not entirely his mother he has a heart � a will and a conscience all three generally lacking to sons of kings let me be honest with myself if he had given way to me i should have despised him � but for love s sake he has opposed me and by my soul � i respect him chapter the king s rumour we are told has a million tongues and i they were soon all at work out the news of the crown prince s mysterious departure each tongue told a different story and none of the stories no information was to be obtained at court there nothing was said but that the prince the formal ceremony of a public departure had privately set sail in his own for his projected tour round the world nobody believed this and the general impression soon gained ground that the young man had fallen into disgrace with his royal parents and had been sent away for a time till he should recognize the of his youthful sent away you understand said the society to avoid further scandal th prince s younger brothers and were often plied with questions by their but knowing nothing and truly caring less they could give no explanation neither king nor queen spoke a word on the subject and sir de astonished and perplexed beyond measure as he was at this turn in affairs dared not put any questions even to his friend professor von who as soon as the news of the prince s departure was known resolutely declined to speak so he said on what did not concern him gradually however this excitement partially subsided to give place to other forms of social commotion which beginning in trifles swiftly expanded to larger and more serious development the first of these was the sudden rise of a newspaper which had for many years with the greatest difficulty in opposition to the many journals governed by david it happened in this manner the king s several leading articles written in favour of a settlement in the country had appeared constantly in s largest and most widely newspaper and the last of these leaders had concluded with the assertion that though his majesty the king had at first refused the portion of crown lands needed by the society for building he had now graciously re considered the situation and had been pleased to his previous decision the very next morning the rival daily had leaped into by merely two the settlement statement by his majesty the king and there plainly set forth was the royal and refusal to grant the lands required because of the earnest petition of our loving subjects against the said grant � and till our loving subjects objections were removed the lands would be withheld this public announcement signed by the king in person created the most extraordinary sensation throughout the whole country it was the one topic at every social meeting it was the one subject of every sermon and in every pulpit and lifting up his harsh voice in the cathedral itself addressed an enormous congregation one sunday morning on the matter and the king the queen
33
yesterday had mind and begging him to send men in search of her through the gardens and park and inquire if she had been seen at the and if she were not found or heard of in this way to lose no time in dragging the waters round the god forbid it should be so but we shall be the easier for having searched where lo to mr eh but i d ha worked for day all the o my life than should ha happened lo the good gardener in deep distress strode away to the stables that he might send the on through tho park mr s next thought was to search the she might be haunting the scene of captain s death he went hastily over � mound looked round large tree followed every winding of the walks in reality ha had little hope of finding her there but the bare possibility oft for a the fatal conviction that body wo aid be in the scenes of life when the had searched in he lo border of the little stream that bounded one side of the grounds the stream was everywhere hidden among ti and there was one where ic was and deeper than elsewhere � would be more likely lo lo that spot than to the pool he hurried along with strained eyes his imagination continually creating what be dreaded there is white behind that overhanging bough his knees tremble under liim be seems lo sec part of her di caught on a branch and her dear dead o god give strength to thy creature on whom laid tliis great agony he is nearly up to the bough and the white is moving it is a dial its win s and flies away screaming lie hardly knows whether it is a relief or a thai she is rot there the conviction that she is dead presses its cold weight upon him none tlie less as be reached the great pool in front of the he saw mr with a group of men already there for the dreadful search which could only his vague despair by a definite for the gardener in his restless anxiety had been unable to tliis until other means of search had vain the pool was not now with among the water lilies it looked black and under tbe sombre sky as if its cold depths held all the murdered hope and joy of s life thoughts of the aad consequences for others as well es himself were crowding on his mind the blinds and were all closed in front of the and it was not likely sir be aware from him the s would be held shortly would be for and then it would be inevitable that the should all chapter at twelve o clock when all search and inquiry had been in vain and the was expected every moment mr could no longer the hard duty of revealing this fresh calamity to sir who must otherwise have it discovered to him abruptly the was sealed in his dressing room where the dark window curtains were drawn so as to admit only a sombre light it was the first lime mr had had an interview with him this morning and he lo see how a single day and night of grief aged the line old man the lines in his brow and his mouth were deepened his complexion dull and withered there was a swollen ridge under eyes and the eyes themselves which used cast so keen a glance on the present had the vacant expression which tells that vision is no longer a sense but a memory he held out his hand lo who pressed it and sat down beside him in silence sir s heart began lo swell at this sympathy roll in the boyhood felt c t drops down his tears he had shed for if his tongue to the roof of his mouth he could not speak first ho must wait until sir said something which might lead on to the words that mast be spoken at last the mastered himself enough to m weak � god help me i did n t think anything would mo in way but i d built everything mr s love story on that lad perhaps i ye been wrong in not my she lost one of her sons a little while i ve been proud and we can hardly learn and tenderness t except by suffering god sees we are in need of suffering for it is falling more and more on us we have a new trouble this � and with her delicate health � i am afraid to think what turn the agitation may have s she poor d r little god only knows how she is we are unable to find her when mrs sharp went up to her room this morning it was empty had not been in bed her hat and cloak were gone i have had made for her everywhere � in the house and garden in the park and � in the water ko one has seen her since went up to light her fire at o clock in the evening while mr vas speaking sir s which on recovered some of their old and some sudden emotion as at a new thought rapidly already agitated the shadow of a dark cloud over the waves when the came he laid his hand on mr s arm and said in n lower voice � did that poor thing love she did after these words struggling between his reluctance to a yet deeper wound on and his determination that no injustice should be done to sir s were fixed on him la inquiry and his own sunk towards the ground while be tried to find the words that would tell the truth least cruelly yon must not have any wrong thoughts about i he at length i
14
mostly them men are good in a boat north away yonder � you hear him tune up in a minute � is tom man o war s man he was on the old � first of our navy he says to go the horn he never talks of much else when he sings but he has fair luck there what did i tell you a melodious stole across the water from the northern heard something about somebody s hands and feet being cold and then bring forth the see where them meet i the clouds are thick around their heads the mists around their feet full boat said dan with a chuckle if he gives us o captain it s full captains courageous the continued and to thee o most earnestly i pray that they shall never bury me in church or gray double game for tom he tell you all about the old to morrow see that blue behind him he s my uncle � s own brother � an ef there s any bad luck loose on the banks she fetch up uncle sure look how tender he s i lay my and share he s the only man stung up to day � an he s stung up good what sting him said getting interested mostly sometimes art sometimes an yes he s stung up from his elbows down that man s luck s perfectly we take a o the an em in is it true what you told me jest now that you never done a hand s turn o work in all your born life must feel kinder awful don t it i m going to try to work anyway captains courageous � � replied stoutly only it s all dead new lay a o that tackle then behind ye at a rope and long iron hook dangling from one of the stays of the while dan pulled down another that ran from something he called a as drew alongside in his loaded the smiled a brilliant smile that learned to know well later and with a short handled fork began to throw fish into the pen on deck two hundred and thirty one he shouted give him the hook said dan and ran it into s hands he slipped it through a of rope at the s bow caught dan s tackle it to the and into the pull shouted dan and pulled astonished to how easily the rose hold on she don t nest in the dan laughed and held on for the boat lay in the air above his head lower away dan shouted and as lowered dan swayed the light boat with one hand till it landed just behind captains courageous the they don t weigh empty was right smart fer a passenger there s more trick to it in a sea way ah ha said holding out a brown hand you are some pretty well now this time last night the fish they fish for you now you fish for fish eh at i m � i m ever so grateful stammered and his unfortunate hand stole to his pocket once more but he remembered that he had no money to offer when he knew better the mere thought of the mistake he might have made would cover him with hot uneasy in his there is no to be thankful for to me said how shall i leave you all around the banks i now you are a � eh at he bent backward and forward stiffly from the to get the out of himself i have not cleaned boat to day too busy they struck on my son clean for me moved forward at once here was something he could do for the man who had saved his life captains courageous dan threw him a and he leaned over the up the but with great good will out the they slide in them said dan em an lay em down never let a foot board jam ye may want her bad some day here s long jack a stream of glittering fish flew into the pen from a alongside you take the tackle i fix the tables clear s boat long jack s on the top of her looked up from his at the bottom of another just above his head jest like the puzzle boxes ain t � they said dan as the one boat dropped into the other takes to ut like a duck to water said long jack a long man bending to and fro exactly as had done in the cabin growled up the and they could hear him his pencil wan an forty nine an a half � bad luck to ye said long jack i m to fill your captains courageous slate ut for a bad catch the has me came another alongside and more fish shot into the pen two hundred and three let s look at the passenger the speaker was even larger than the man and his face was made curious by a purple cut running from his left eye to the right corner of his mouth not knowing what else to do each as it came down pulled out the foot boards and laid them in the tom of the boat he s caught on good said the man who was tom watching him there are two ways o everything one s fashion � any end first an a slippery over all � an the other s � what we did on the old i dan interrupted brushing into the knot of men with a long board on legs out o here tom an leave me fix the tables he one end of the board into two in the kicked out the leg and just in time to avoid a swinging blow from man o war s man captains courageous an they did that on the too see said
39
suppose i should let you be here if you were not but ah i don t like to think what i might have been driven to do in the end if i had had to give up all faith in you i nearly lost it several times and i am sure aunt hopes to get her own way even now but you won t let her you do believe in me now i can t help it she said simply though i don t understand it all yet nor i for that matter but so long as you me through everything nothing can part us again can it � nothing shall and if papa once came to you shall you be at the academy to night we are going gave me a ticket i h n t intended to in which the turns than once it because you see when they haven t hung you it isn t a particularly pleasant way to spend the evening but i will go now and continued if by any chance i can t bring you together to night i shall insist on taking papa to see you to morrow and aunt may say just whatever she chooses we are going to be happy again after all you will see how weu everything will go now wished the waiter would look another way so that he might gain possession of s hand which lay so near him but the waiter who possibly carried a heart under his dress shirt kept a eye upon them and his chin had a contemptuous twist if it never goes worse than this was saying and at that moment mrs swept into the refreshment room with the manner of a queen followed by the colonel looking as if he would very much rather not have come while felt that after all the waiter s eye had its advantages rose and stood upon his defence mrs drew one of the light chairs up to the table and sat down while the waiter drew near she was evidently in an extremely bad temper which was not improved by the necessity of ordering a cup of before she could get rid of the waiter and open fire well mr she began do you think this is behaviour on your part i have done nothing to my knowledge mrs he replied stiffly our meeting here was a fallen idol quite an accident and colonel himself asked md to take charge of your niece took you for else growled the colonel you knew there must be some mistake and you made no effort to your father he has only been home two days and you deceive him already papa pleaded i hadn t seen for so long and then he saved my life jove you know said the colonel in an to his sister she s right there mrs was not to be it was too bad this should have turned up just when her plans seemed about to succeed he may have saved her life she said i was not there but even if he did he had no right to presume upon it we won t detain you here any longer mr mrs scarcely returned his farewell and the colonel did so with a that cost him a secret effort the young fellow might be as as possible but he thought his sister was rather hard on him however he had made a mess of it and concluded to hold his tongue till he saw his way more clearly but cared little believed in him loved him still sooner or later things would come right he could wait now as he came out into the passage again and passed the the hall was with a military spectacle brilliant and so that the might be enchanted by it � the musical ride of the household in which the turns than once but he was in no mood to be by it just then the vast hall seemed too to contain his happiness he had to seek the open air and the crowded streets he walked fast and hard for a great joy like a great grief demands action of some sort and got back to st john s wood by a long round some time before it was necessary to begin to dress for the after a fashion he had already dined somewhere though he probably could not have said what his dinner consisted of and so there was nothing to do now but sit in his and build castles in the air most people would not have thought his prospects particularly hopeful his reputation as a painter had certainly fallen off he had bills to meet and no notion where to turn for money but he had shaken off the hideous image that was all his confidence and courage and immediately his horizon had brightened what did he care for the p st now it had not divided him from his darling she was true to him and he would win her yet so he dreamed as the dusk drew on and the clock in the struck eight and then nine in half an hour or so he would begin to dress it was unusually dark for the time he thought so dark that he could not see the clock and could scarcely believe it was no more than nine just then a church clock began to strike � it took a long time surely to strike nine he counted the strokes twelve he lit a candle to himself and then saw something which struck consternation and despair into his soul above the clock rose the too familiar a fallen countenance bland and beaming as ever of the thing he bad fondly believed to be smothered in the black mud of the canal how had it burst the of its bag and returned thus out of the depths to confound him it
44
or draw any of those conclusions or feel any of that displeasure which maria had been half prepared for park thus much was settled who had been out all the morning knew anything of the matter hut when he entered the drawing room before dinner the of discussion was high between tom maria and mr and mr stepped forward with great alacrity to tell him the agreeable news we have got a play said he it is to be lovers vows and i am to be count and am to come in first with a blue dress and a pink satin cloak and afterwards am to have another fine fancy suit by way of a shooting dress i do not know how i shall like it s eyes followed and her heart beat for him as she heard this speech and saw his look and felt what his sensations must be lovers vows in a tone of the greatest amazement was his only reply to mr and he turned towards his brother and sisters as if hardly doubting a contradiction yes cried mr after all our and difficulties we find there is nothing that will suit us altogether so well nothing so as lovers vows the wonder is that it should not have been thought of before my stupidity was abominable for here we have all the advantage of what i saw at and it is so useful to have anything of a model we have cast almost every part but what do you do for women said gravely and looking at maria maria blushed in spite of herself as she answered i take the part which lady park was to have done and with a bolder eye miss is to be i should not have thought it the sort of play to be so easily filled up with ms replied turning away to the fire where sat his mother aunt and and himself with a look of great vexation mr rush worth followed him to say i come in three times and have two and forty speeches that s something is not it but i do not much like the idea of being so fine i shall hardly know myself in a blue dress and a pink satin could not answer him in a few minutes mr was called out of the room to satisfy some doubts of the carpenter and being accompanied by mr and followed soon afterwards by mr almost immediately took the opportunity of saying i cannot before mr speak what i feel as to this play without reflecting on his friends at but i must now my dear maria tell you that i think it exceedingly unfit for private representation and that i hope you will give it up i cannot but suppose you will when you have read it carefully over read only the first act aloud to either your mother or aunt and see how you can approve it it will not be necessary to send you to your father s judgment i am convinced we see things very cried maria i am perfectly acquainted with the play i assure you and with a very few and so forth which will be made o� i can see nothing objectionable in it and i am not the only young woman you find who thinks it very fit for private representation i am sorry for it was his answer but in this matter it is you who are to lead you must set the example k others have it is your place to put them right and show them what true delicacy is in all points of decorum your conduct must be law to the rest of the party this picture of her consequence had some effect for no one loved better to lead than maria and with far more good humor she answered i am much obliged to you you mean very well i am sure but i still think you see things too strongly and i really cannot undertake ta au the rest upon a subject of this kind there would be the greatest i think do you imagine that i could have such an idea in my head no let your conduct be the only say that on examining the part you feel yourself unequal to it that you find it requiring more exertion and confidence than you can be supposed to have say this with firmness and it will be quite enough all who can distinguish will understand your motive the play will be given up and your delicacy honored as it ought do not act anything improper my dear said lady sir thomas would not like it ring the bell i must have my dinner to be sure is dressed by this time i am madam said that sir thomas would not like iv there my dear do jou hear what says k i were to decline the part said maria with renewed zeal would certainly take it what cried if she knew your reasons oh she might think the difference between us � the difference in our situations � that she need not be so scrupulous as i might feel necessary i am sure she would argue so no you must excuse me i cannot my consent it is too far settled everybody would be so disappointed tom would be quite angry and if we are so very nice we shall never act anything i was just going to say the very same thing said mrs if every play is to be objected to you will act nothing and the preparations will be all so much money thrown away and i am sure that would be a to us all i do not know the play but as maria says if there is anything a little too warm and it is so with most of them it can be easily left out we must not be over precise as
26
but say ye master that we ve done wrong in leaving our wives and children to fish for themselves it seemed hard at first and you were weak master and stayed with your father but after all he has money and could pay for attendance whereas our wives and little ones have none ourselves will be in straits to get our living if the kingdom be delayed in its coming for what good are except along the sea coast or where there is a lake or a river and here there isn t enough water for a to swim in our wives and our children are better off than we are for they ll be getting to fish for them and will stand at the doors at waiting for the boats to return praying that the weren t let down in vain but we aren t as sure of the kingdom as we were of a great take of fishes in when the wind was favourable to fishing not that we d have you think our faith be failing us we be as firm as ever we were as john and james will be telling you and peter interrupting them again reminded joseph that if they lacked faith the promised kingdom would not come it was faith that us john said pushing peter aside and the promises he made us that we might hear the trumpets of the and announcing the kingdom at any moment of the day or night and making himself the of the five john told joseph and i the brook that now looked upon the arrival of the kingdom as a very secondary matter and his own death as one of much greater import he says that he ll have to give his blood to the earth and his flesh to the birds of the air else none will believe his teaching he says that god demands a victim and looks upon him as the victim but if that be so the world will get his teaching and we shall get nothing for we know his teaching of old as peter has told you james interrupted there be no water here not a spring nor a nothing in which a fish could live we re in a desert without boats or which would be of no use to us nor am i it but if he gives himself as a victim how shall we get back to he now talks not of these matters to us but of his father only and of doing his father s will he seems to have forgotten us and everything else but his father and his father s will and we cannot make him understand when we try that we shall want money that money will be wanting to get us back to nor does he hear us when we say our and our boats may have passed into other hands we know not what is come over him he s a changed man a lamb as long as you re agreeing with him but at a word of contradiction he s all claws and teeth the walk is a long one and the taxes will be collected by the time we get back if the kingdom don t come and sore of foot i ll be sitting in a desolate house without wife or children or fire in the hearth but we have faith they all cried out together and having followed so far we ll follow him to the end but we are glad james said that you ve come for you ll see and tell him that we would like to have a word from him as to when we may expect the kingdom and a word too as to what it will be like whether there ll be rivers and lakes well with fish in it and whether our chairs shall be set peter on the master s right hand to be sure we are all agreed as to the brook that but you remember master our mother how she took aside and said that myself and john were to be on his left with one below us peter began to raise his voice and his shoulders he declared that his brother must sit on left you remember master f i remember joseph interrupted that the master answered you all saying that every chair had been made and and before the world was you can t have forgotten peter this saying that every one would find a chair according to his measure yes master he did say something like that i m far from saying we d all sit equally easy in the same chairs and if the chairs were before the world was all i can say is that there seems to have been a lack of foresight for how could god himself know what our would be like years upon years before they came into being about that we will speak later but now point out the house of the to us where joseph asked you see yon house james replied and they went forward together meeting on the way thither several and many and these accompanied joseph and to the door telling them the while that had driven them out of the house it is a main struggle that is going by in him philip said and so we left him being afraid of his looks isn t that so and they all and nodded saying yes we were afraid of his looks it was then that the opened the door and joseph remembering his promise to his father laid his hand on shoulder i may not enter he said i have come thus far but may not go into the house but do you go in and tell him that in spirit i am with him on these words passed into the house leaving joseph in the centre of a small crowd
15