The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1881-08-09
THE MAGIC EMERALD.

..Shadows tonight
Have struck more terror TO the soul ~ I:i.hanl,
Than could the substance of thousand soldiers
1.-The magic emerald. did you say.
Mr.. Langton? Dear me, how very
interesting!"
Ibid you never hear of it before,
Lady Matilda? thought that every
body knew that old story"
20, one doesn't always hear things,
you know. But tell me, what does
the magic emerald doy
Lady Matilda's companion, with a
little sigh of resignation, settled his
back more comfortably against the
roots of the enormous oak under
which he was lying. He was a long.
lean, wrinkled man, with a skin
burned by long exposure TO tropic
suns, to the tint of the autumn leaves
that lay about him. He would have
been a noticeable figure anywhere,
but he was particularly so amid his
present surroundings He was the
kind of man one would nave rather
expected to meet in an Arabian desert
or on the wilds of the pampas than
amid this quiet English landscape;
and his dress, which was compro-
mise between civilized requirements
and tropic ease. tended to increase the
natural strangeness of his aspect.
Stephen Langton, like all men of
any strength of character at all, had
his friends and his enemies, and their
estimates of him differed as much as
peoples estimates Of their acquaint-
ances do differ. But on one point
they were unanimous; Langton was
"queer." That verdict had been pro-
nounced on him very early in life. and
had stuck to him ever since. In the
cradle, in the nursery, at school, he
had differed from all other babies,
from all other children, from all other
schoolboys. His regimental COM
panions in the 2OOth had accepted and
confirmed the designation Of his nurse
and his schoolmates. He took no in
terest in any of the things in which
the British subaltern most delighted
He did not bet, he never touched a
card, he did not brag about his proves
to the fair sex. suspect that it was
that last mentioned trait that most
exercised the minds Of his messmates.
What could you make Of fellow who
seemed as anxious to avoid the bland
ishments of the prettiest girls of
garrison town as though they had
been as faded and as dull as the lady
whose commonplaces bored him to
death on this glorious autumn after
noon? And Stephen Langton was
worth pretty girls smile, and might
have had his choice in most bathrooms.
Independently of the advantages of
handsome face and figure, his expec-
tations were thrice as great as those of
any other man in the 2OOth. But
Nellie Despard, of Portsmouth, and
other Nellys and Fannys innumerahle.
all of them pretty and some Of them
rich, retired in turn from the assault
Of that impregnable fortress. Stephen
Langton was not marrying man.
and Sir Charles Grandson himself
not more ignorant of the verb "to
firt. He especially disliked any
allusion to his martial achievements
and if he had left the regiment with
the "Rogues March in his ears,
could not have been more unwilling
to talk of his campaigning days.
But he had done good service in his
time and in many a village on the
wild northwest border of HindOstan
the name of Langton Sahib, the
'Feringhee boy-devil,' is whispered to
this day by white-haired men, who
with what a rod of iron he
ruled the district in the days of the
rebellion. But somber as were the
tints of his characters it
had lights as we'll as shadows. Many
a man who was louder-tongued in
sympathy lacked the depths of real
tenderness that lay under that hard
exterior. 1t is q great tribute to the
sterling worth Of a man who makes
but few friends when the few who
know him most thoroughly are loudest
in their praises. There were those
who could tell of deeds of quiet heroic
selfsacri6ce done by this silent and
sardonic man on sea and battle field,
for duty and for friendships sake. |
Everybody knew at whose cost the
children of poor Jack Naseby were
being fed and educated, and how
nobly the promise whispered in the
ear Of the dying comrade had been
fulfilled. And when poor little Tom
kins, the soap-boilers son, came that
awful cropper over the Derby. and