Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-07-27
From Tinsley's Magazine1
THE MAGIC EMERALD.
S Shadows tonight

ssShadows tonight
Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard
Than could the substance of ten thousand soldiers"
"The magic emerald, did you say,
Mr.. Langdon Dear me, how very in
teresting p
sDid you never hear of it before,
Lady Matilda? I thought everybody
knew that old story"
ooh, one doesn't always hear things,
you know. But tell me, what does the
magic emerald do ?"
Lady Matilda's companion, with lit
tie 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 skin burned by long ex-
posure to tropic suns, to the tint of the
autumn leaves that lay about him. He
would have been noticeable figure any
where, but he was particularly so amid
his present surroundings. He was the
kind of a man one would have expected
rather to meet III an Arabian desert or
on the wilds of the pampas than amid
this quiet English landscape; and his
dress, which was compromise between
civilized requirements and tropical ease,
tended to increase the natural strange
ness of his aspect.
Stephen Langton, like all men of any
strength of character at all, had his
friends and his enemies, and their esti-
mates of him differed as much as peo-
pies estimates of their acquaintance do
differ. But on one point they were
unanimous; Langton was "queer."
That verdict had been pronounced on
him very early i'll 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 regi-
mental companions in the 200th had &C
cepted and confirmed the designation of
his nurse and his schoolmates. He took
no interest 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 a fellow who seemed as
anxious to avoid the Establishments of
the prettiest girls of garrison town as
though they had been as faded and dull
as the lady whose conlmOn-places bored
him to death on this glorious autumn
afternoon? And Stephen Langton was
worth a pretty girls smile, and might
have had his choice in most bathrooms.
II dependently of the advantages of
Ia. adsome face and figure, his expecta-
TORS were thrice as great as any other
man in the 200th. But Nelly Despard,
of Portsmouth, and Nelly Despard, of
Chatham, and other Nellys and Fannys
innumerable, 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
was not more ignorant of the verb s'to
hirt." He especially disliked any al
fusion to his martial achievement; and
if he had left his regiment with the
ssRogue's March " in his ears. he
could not not have been more unwilling to
talk of his campaigning days. But he
had done good service in his time, and
In many village on the wild northwest
border of Rindostan the name of Lang
ton Sahil, the F'eringhee boy devil, is
whispered to this day by white-haired
men, who remember with what a rod Of
iron he ruled the district in the days OF
the rebellion. But somber as were the
prevailing tints of his character, it had
lights as well as shadows. Many man
who was louder-tongued In sympathy
lacked the depths of real tenderness that
lay under that hard exterior. 1t is a
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 self-sacrifce done by this silent
and sardonic man on sea and battlefield,
for duty and for friendships sake
Everybody knew at whose cost the chill
dren of poor Jack Naseby were being fed
and educated, end how nobly the prom
Use whispered in the ear of the dying
comrade had been fulfilled. And when
Door old TomBins, the soap-boiler's son,
came that awful cropper over the Derby,
and saw nothing before him but to sell
out and retire to an eternity of soap
boiling under the eyes of an indignant
father. it was Lapgton who set him right
and tided him over that disastrous time.
But still, in spite of such stories as
these, of which his friends would tell you
many, the ordinary verdict regarding
Stephen Langton was that he was a
queer, aAo ouO SoucIdl 1upIOooIOA Ac
made on most people was the reverse OF
favorable.
On his accession to his fortune he had
behaved in fashion totally different
from what had been expected of him, and
Langton Hall had never for month to-
gether been empty of guests. His liber-
ality in this respect did not arise from
any modification of his own peculiarities,
but was solely due to the influence of his
sister. Miss Bertha Langton, to whom,
report said, he was passionately at.