Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1889-01-11
Colonel Quaritch, We,
II. RIDER HAGGARD,
CHAPTER /.
HAROLD QUAE1TCH MED1rATEs.


There are some things and faces which,
when fit or seen FOR the first time project
ShemS Ives upon the minds like a sun image
Oh "A sensitive plate and there remain ural-
terah!y fixed 10 take the case of a face
we may never see it again, or it may becom,
the companion of our life; but there the pict-
urp is just as we first knew it, the same smile,
tho same LOOK unaltering and unal,erable,
reminding us in the midst or change of the
absou ely riestructible nature OF every cx-
pcrience, net and aspect OF our life. For that
which las been is, since the past knows no
change AMI no corruption, but lives cternally
IL its frozen and completed self.
These are ,omewhat largo words to be bora
of a small matter, but kh,y foso up sponta-
neousiy in the mind of soidierly looking
man who was leaning, OH the particular
evening when this history opens, over gate
In an eastern country lane, staring vacantly
Ut n ripe fcld II corn.
He was a peculiar and rather battered look
ing Individual, apparently over 40 years Of
ace, and yet bearing upon him that unmiS-
taxable stamp of dignity and self respect
which, if it docs not exclusively belong to, is
yet one Of the distinguishing attributes Of
the English gentleman. In face he was ugly;
no other word can express it. BcIe were not
the long ulustaches, the almond eyes, the
a.'st ucratlc air of the colonel Of nc.ion-for
oar dreamer was a colonel. These were
aas that the truth should be so plain-repre-
ecntcl 10y somewhat scIubby, sandy colored
whisAors small but kindly blue eyes, q low,
broad forehead, with II deep line running
across it from side to side something like
that to be seen upon the bust Of Julius Caesar,
"a C1p1 II
however, he did possess, a mouth Of such
sweetness and beauty that, set as it vas above
very square and manly looking chin, it had
the air Of being iudicrousiy out of place.
"Umph,' said his Old aunt, Mrs. Massey who
had just died aud left him what she had, on
I. C occasion of her first introduction to him
ale-and-thirty years before, ''umph! Nature
JTT.ant to make pretty girl Of you, and
changed her mind after she had finished the
mouth, Well, never mind, better be a plain
man than pretty woman. There, 80 along,
boy, like your ugly face"
Nor was the old lady peculiar in this re.
speGt, for plain as tho cOuntenance of Col.
Harold Quaritch undoubtedly was, people
found something very takiH, about it when
once they got used to its rugged air and
Stern, regulated expression. What that some
thing was it would be hard to define but
perhaps the nearest approach to the truth
would be to describe it Us light of purity
which, notwithstanding the popular idea "a
the contrary, is to be found quite as often
upon the faces of men as upon those of wo
men. Any person OF diNcernment in looking
at Col. Qr2rit2h must have felt that he was
In the presence Of a good man, not q priy or
mllksop, but a man who had attained to Vir-
tue by thought and struggle that had left
their mark upon his face, a man whom il
would not he well to talnper with, aud one &c
be respected by all, and feared Of evil doors
Mon felt this, and no was popular among
those who knew him IN his service, though
not in any hail-felow-well- met kind Of way
But among women he was not popular a:
rule, they both feared and disliked him
HIS presence Jared upon the friyolity of the
hSntcr members OF their sex, who dimly
rcIlzcd that his nature was autagouistic
AM the more solid ones could not UNDERSTAND
Tim. Perhaps this was the reason why Col
Quaritch had never married. had never ever
had love affair since he was Extraordinarily
And yet it was Of woman's face that hc
was thinking Us he leaned over the gate ana
cooked at tho field Of following corn, undu
hitting like golden sea beneath the pressure
OF tho wind.
co.. Quaritch had twice in his life been at
hunham before tho present time. when Ae