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thoughts drawn from acute observation which the value of the book tenor rather ten times fold his theme is vine culture in europe his object is to use the long experience of the old world in this branch of science for the promotion of vine culture in america thus like a true master he makes his narrative pleasant to attract readers his description of vine culture in europe minute accurate and valuable and the application of his suggestions to our own methods of this growing branch of home industry he leaves to the sagacity of the reader to use or to improve upon � � there is probably no person better in this country to write upon this subject � m post besides a summary of useful information concerning the produce of the the present book contains an extremely pleasant sketch of travel with reflections of much interest and observations of considerable originality affording a picture of a certain phase of french life unknown and unseen by ordinary it is tall of that kind of entertaining reading which sir philip trifles handled and congenial fancy over descriptions of the scenery the of local customs the luxurious the genial atmosphere the incense of summer the incense of fruit time the village and and of all the happy not yet rendered unhappy by and � round table a more entertaining volume on a practical subject has not yet been written mr shows such a hearty delight in his that the most indifferent reader can not escape the while all his irrepressible play of humor his flashes of personal tastes and prejudices his occasional of character and customs leave untouched the sharp clear perception and shrewd common sense which form the of the book � y s travel and adventure in the territory of russian america now to the united states � and in various other parts of the north pacific by map and illustrations crown vo cloth this agreeable book of travel and adventure � � the purchase of by the united states government has awakened a lively interest in that region and whatever relates to its natural features its inhabitants its existing state and its possible resources comes to us with the two fold charm of novelty and material interest mr was able to take with him the requisite for breaking ground in that new and in many respects rough and quarter as the results in the clearly written and cleverly volume before us testify � � all that is most and striking in his narrative in his experiences of life in the lately territory and in the estimate which his pictures of its physical aspects and of its people encourage us to draw for the future � saturday brothers list of new books the student s old testament his tory the old testament history from the creation to the return of the jews from by wm smith ll d with maps and large mo cloth uniform with the student s new testament history the history of the jews is here told in a better manner than in any other work of the same and all the results of the deep and accurate inquiries into that history are with the narrative it is indeed a popular though grave and learned on the old testament a taking the form of regular historical writing and written with force and clearness � boston in the preparation of the text it is evident that great care has been taken to render the work one that while and the and claims of should be suitable for the characteristic criticism and of the age it is an excellent of nearly all the valuable matter that criticism historical and have accumulated round the old testament word of god � � j the student s new testament history the new testament history with an introduction connecting the history of the old and new by william smith ll d classical in the university of london with maps and large mo pages cloth a valuable and cheap of accurate information drawn the most recent results of � those who have read the new testament only in a fashion or in the method in which it is arranged in our version will find a new light cast upon it by the study of the book in its order and with such helps as dr smith has here presented � n� philadelphia sabbath school teachers and the more advanced pupils of sabbath schools as well as intelligent private students of the will find this a and � h s poems miles o the poetical works of charles g miles o consisting of poems and which have not heretofore been collected together with a sketch and notes by robert b portrait on steel crown vo cloth his poetry will not be soon neglected or forgotten there is a charm about his verses which must make them ever welcome tenderness sentiment aud humor abound in them the absence of malice or bitterness is characteristic of the writer s whole nature � � few can read the poems without can read them without interest � x herald mrs hale s woman s record or sketches of all distinguished women from the creation to the present time arranged in four with from female writers of each era by mrs s j hale illustrated with more than portraits engraved by j a new edition with additions yo cloth nearly ready ing also a practical i ting the happy mean between the excess and the total of the old he has given to us a series of just such sensible suggestive and talks about writing and english language as one would expect from a man of bis great experience as a speaker writer and teacher this after all is precisely what american students need upon the whole the book has these great merits it is a growth and not a it is iv sincere lively clear practical finally instead	25
you into dreadful trouble you don t seem to think of all that � mr but think of it you think too much altogether � said almost � it vexed him to that this boy of barely eleven years was actually older and more in mind than himself a man of seven and twenty � you are always thinking yes � agreed gravely but then there s so much to think about in this world isn t there to this volunteered no answer he sat gazing at the dish of rosy apples in front of him with a brooding frown � and presently laid one little cold trembling hand on his arm but i shall never forget you � he said pausing before the name � you know you said i might call you sometimes you so have been very good to me � you are the youngest i have ever had � and the kindest � and though i can t keep all the lessons in my head i can keep the kindness i can indeed he looked so small and fragile as he spoke his sensitive little face a quiver with emotion and his soft eyes full of wistful affection and appeal that was much inclined to give him a hearty kiss just as he would have kissed a pretty baby but he remembered in time all the dry of so called wisdom that had been packed into that little curly head � all the profound of dead and philosophers that were stored in the recesses of that young mind � and he reflected with an odd sense of humorous pity that it would never do to kiss such a learned little man so he gave him a couple of pleasant on the shoulder instead and answered � a right i know only just think now and again of what i ve said to you and when you re getting puzzled and dazed like over your books go into the fresh air and never mind the lessons � and if you get a for it well � all i can say is a is better than a sickness health s the thing going � a far sight better than wealth at that moment the too too of the came ringing towards them in a gay echo and he started up by jove i must be off miss now if it isn t like your impudence mr � said miss appearing at the doorway with her strong bare arms dusty with the flour of the she had just been making to be calling me upon my word i don t know what the gentlemen are coming to � here she and in spite of her fifty two years as nothing dropped more than the money due for the breakfast into her hand and kissed her on the cheek � he had no scruples about kissing her oh no not at all � though he had about kissing � really they seem to be quite reckless nowadays � it was very different i dew assure you when i was a oh no it wasn t i assure you laughed with a of her voice and manner � it was just the same and always will be the same to the crack of doom men will always be devils � and women � angels good bye i good bye sir a pleasant journey to you i l and miss up and down under her rose covered porch after precisely the same fashion in which the greatest ladies of the land make their dip salutation to � hope to see you here again some day sir i hope so too he answered cheerily waving one hand while he grasped his with the other and walked with a swinging stride down the village street followed by to the pack o cards inn where the coach had just arrived it was a picturesque turn out with its four strong sleek horses its passengers all rendered more or less bright faced by the freshness of the morning air its white coachman and its jolly guard who blew the horn more for the pleasure of blowing it than anything else � and surveyed it in a kind of sober rapture you are glad to go mr � he said � you must be glad to go yes i am glad in one way � replied but i m sorry in another i m sorry to leave you � i should like to be living here for awhile just to keep you out of harm s way would you looked at him but i am never in the way of harm � nothing ever happens to me of any particular sort you know one day is just like another well good bye and having given over his to the coach guard laid both his hands on the boy s fragile shoulders when you get home tell your father it was i who took you out with me this morning to see me off and that if he wants to question me about it he knows where a letter will find me take all the blame remember good bye my dear � and � and � god bless you s lip quivered and the smile he managed to force was very suggestive of tears good bye he said faintly too too too too the guard on his shining horn � and climbed up to his place on the top of the coach the red faced driver bent a severe eye on certain village children that were standing about with admiration at himself and his now then out of the way there followed a general and the horses started too too too up the village street they galloped merrily in the cheerful sunlight their blown back by the dancing breeze good bye good bye shouted once more waving his straw hat to the solitary small figure left standing in	33
and else it is for except himself and one of his brothers who was to accompany him part of the way none of the family slept the exhibited deep sorrow and although he made a show of firmness felt now that the crisis was at hand nearly incapable of parting with the boy the conversation of their friends and the cheering effects of the enabled d by the poor scholar them to his loss better than they otherwise would have done and the hope of seeing him one day an ordained priest more than either to them when the night was nearly half spent the mother took a candle and privately withdrew to the room in which the boy slept the youth was fair and interesting to look upon � the locks of his white forehead were divided yet there was on his otherwise open brow a shade of sorrow produced by the coming separation which even sleep could not the mother held the candle gently towards hia face it with one hand lest the light might suddenly awake him she then his long and affectionately whilst the tears fell in showers from her cheeks there you lie she softly sobbed ont in irish the sweet pulse of your mother s heart the flower of our flock the pride of our eyes and the music of our hearth an how can i part you my son sure when i look at your mild face and think that you re the world on your head to rise us oat of our poverty isn t my heart d by tbe scholar a we ll have t jou i goin out or io at or abroad your voice won t be in mj ears nor your eye upon me an thin to of what you may suffer in a land if head on what breast will it lie or who will bind he ribbon of comfort the i taken from a sketch called the irish b the sa a thia � the ia the head the by a very formal serious process called the head this is done b a ribbon the puts round the repeating during the a certain prayer or charm from which the operation ia to derive whole the is performed in the first instance to that its are separated by disease or to speak more plainly that the bones of the head are absolutely opened and that as a natural the head must be much larger than the patient is in a state of health the of the first is marked npon a ribbon after � she the charm that b io remove the and measures the again in order to by a comparison of ths two that the have been closed the charm successful and the removed it is about but be that aa it may the writer of this has the operation performed in such a way aa to � the must aye to detect any appearance d by the pi round it or wipe your fair brow in oh blessed � hunger sickness and sorrow may come you you ll he far from your own an from them thai loves you this melancholy picture was too much for the tenderness of the mother she eat down beside the bed rested her face t her open hand and wept in but bitter grief at this moment his father who probably suspected the cause of lier absence came in and perceived her distress said he in irish also is my son asleep she looked op with streaming eyes as he spoke and replied to him in a manner so exquisitely affecting when the circumstances of the boy and the tender made by the mother are considered � that in point of fact no certainly no irish heart � could withstand it there is an old irish melody in pathos simplicity and beauty � named in irish tha ma s na me � or in english i am asleep and don t me the position of the boy the of the old melody to flash into the mother s d by the poor heart � he simply pointed to as the words in a low melodious murmur but one full of from her lips the old sacred association � for it was one which she had sung for him a thousand times � until warned to by his deepened the tenderness of her heart and id with difficulty whilst held over the candle to gratify the father s heart by a sight of him i was him before my eye she said god knows but it may be the last we ll ever see him our own roof i i can t part him from my then how can i he replied wasn t he my right hand in every th ing when was he from me ever since he took a man s work upon him and when he d finish his own task for the day how kindly he d begin an help mine no it goes to my heart to let him go away upon a plan and i wish he hadn t taken the notion into his head at all it s not too late maybe replied his mother i think it wouldn t be hard to him off of d by i the it the s own heart ie him to lave q he has borrow upon his face where he lies the father looked at the expression of affectionate melancholy which shaded his features as he slept and the perception of the boy s internal against his own domestic in his first determination powerfully touched his heart said he i know the he won t give it up and t would be a pity � maybe a sin � to put him from it let the child get fair play and his if he fails he can come back to us an our	50
nay and perchance to bring him to the block and he pat the paper in his own bosom said a prayer over the dead man and set forth again through the woods his fatigue and weakness increased his ears sang his steps faltered his mind at intervals failed him so low had he been brought by loss of blood doubtless he made many from his true path but at last he came out upon the high road not very far from hamlet a rough voice bid him stand stand repeated dick by the mass but i am nearer falling and he suited the action to the word and fell au his length upon the road two men came forth oat of the thicket each in t the black green forest with bow and quiver and sword why lawless said the younger of the two it is young ay this will be as good as bread to john all returned the other though faith he bath been to the wars here is a tear in his that must a cost him many a good of blood and here added is a hole in his shoulder that must have pricked him well who hath done this think ye if it be one of ours he may all to prayer will give him a short and a long rope up with the said lawless clap him on my back and then when dick had been hoisted to his shoulders and he had taken the lad s arms about his neck and got a firm hold of him the ex added � keep ye the post brother i will on with him by myself so returned to his on the and lawless down the bill whistling as he went with dick still in a dead faint comfortably settled on his shoulders the sun rose as he came out of the skirts of the wood and saw hamlet ling up the opposite hill all seemed quiet but a strong post of some half a score of lay close by the bridge on either le dick side of the road and as soon as they perceived lawless with his began to themselves and set arrow to string like who goes cried the man in command will lawless by the � ye know me as well as your own hand returned the contemptuously give the word lawless returned the other now heaven thee thou great fool replied lawless did i not tell it thee myself but ye are all mad for this playing at soldiers when i am in the give me ways and my word for this tide is a fig for all mock i lawless ye but show an ill example give us the word fool said the commander of the post and if i had f oi it asked the other an ye bad forgotten it � as i know j ave not � by the mass i would clap an arrow in bo your big body returned the first nay an y are so ill a said lawless ye shall have your word for me and is the word and here to the illustration is on my shoulders and to do i carry him pass lawless said the and where is john asked the grey he a court by the mass and rents as to the manner bom i cried another of the company so it proved when lawless got as far up the village as the little inn he found surrounded by sir daniel s tenants and by the right of the black hie good company of coolly rents and g written in return for them by the faces of the tenants it was plain how little this proceeding pleased them for they argued very rightly that they would simply have to pay them twice as soon as he what had brought lawless dismissed the remainder of the tenants and with every mark of interest and apprehension conducted dick into an inner chamber of the inn there the lad s hurts were looked to and he was recalled by simple dear lad said pressing his hand y are in a friend s hands that loved your father and loves you for his sake rest ye a little quietly for ye are somewhat out of case then shall ye tell me your story and the two of us we shall find a remedy for all a little later in the day and after dick had awakened from a slumber to find himself still very weak hut clearer in mind and easier in body returned and sitting down by the bedside beg d him in the name of hie father to relate the circumstance of his escape from moat house there was something in the strength of s frame in the honesty of his brown face in the clearness and of his eyes that moved dick to obey him and from first to last the lad told him the story of his two days adventures well said when he had done see what the kind saints have done for yon dick not how dick s de alone to save your body in so numerous and deadly perils but to bring you into my hands that have no dearer wish than to assist your father s son be but to me � and i see y are true � and you and me we shall bring that false heart traitor to the death will ye assault the house asked dick i were mad indeed to think of it returned he hath too much power hia men gather to him those that gave me the slip night and by the mass came in so for you � those have made him safe nay dick to the contrary thou and i and my brave we must all slip from this forest speedily and leave sir daniel free my mind me for jack said the lad for jack	38
had the of been submitted to and hj a direct popular the eight other states which had double their free population and double their representation in had not merely declined to � virginia and had such against it as they before north and had expressly it down while and refused to take the matter into consideration in fact the people of the south like those of the north were as yet for and shuddered at the prospect of civil war the of which summoned the nation to arms was impelled by a consciousness that the would otherwise and disappear said formerly united states from at a union meeting at march � i wish to state a fact in relation to the of this war some time after the of was passed i was in and called on president who was in that city the secretary of war pope the member from county and several others were present as i entered the conversation ceased they were evidently discussing the propriety of firing on fort two or three of them withdrew to a comer of the room and i heard say to the secretary of war it must be done delay and in the union you must blood in the faces of the people so said so done � except that the swelled into a the into a river which and the whole breadth of our country l civil war � actual and possible on the part of the had been weeks before mr s accession to the the c c in the states had in good part thus changed hands � often with the hearty assent and of their � always without serious resistance offered by them or commanded from washington fort key west and fort at were all that held out for the union general s surrender of the greater part of our little army then posted along the exposed of with all the arms stores c occurred two weeks before the close of mr s term still the fact that war existed or even that it was inevitable was not generally realized in the free states the telegraph flashed far and wide the startling news that fire had been opened f on fort from the rebel and whereby it was half encircled � following this next day with the tidings that the feebly and fort had surrendered virginia was promptly plunged by her into the of and was soon followed by j north � and ultimately by meantime president directly on hearing of the fall of had summoned the new to meet in � february may t april � may tm m our civil actual and possible on the of july and had called on the gk of the loyal states for their respective of a force of men to defend capital and public property of the union the not only of which was then on the if not in the act of but of north and even responded only with railing amazement that any president should ask or expect help in the work of from the of the free states nearly or quite all very different were received swiftly followed by the required one of the first on foot was from and was fiercely assailed on its passage by a vast pro slavery mob whereby three of its men were slain and eight seriously wounded the made their way through the city and proceeded to washington but a regiment just behind it was handled by the mob and constrained to take the back track to philadelphia ranged herself on the side of stopping the trains and cutting the wires that connected washington with the still loyal states the at s being was fired and abandoned the navy yard at was deserted leaving two thousand cannon and large supplies of to the a camp was established near st louis under the of governor and men openly and there for the work in prospect the south was closed to northern travel and commerce and everything a formidable bloody war yet president persisted in what seems to me his second grave mistake � that of the spirit and power of the rebellion he had called for but men when that fort had fallen he called for no more when assured that virginia and north had been swept into the of by that open � lie recollections of a busy life defiance of the national authority and assault on the national int that and were on the point of following their bad example and that even and were at least for the moment in the hands of those who shared the and with the of the it was now plain that the slave power was the nation s and that its motto was war to the knife i think the president should have changed his in view of the added gravity of the public i think he should have invited the people to on a early day in their several wards and then and there to solemnly swear to the government and union and to themselves as for the war subject to be called out at his discretion each man s age as well as name should have been recorded and then he should have called them out in classes as they should be wanted � say first those of to years old secondly those between and and so on i judge that not less than one million able men would have thus themselves that the first two calls would have provided a force of not less than two hundred thousand men and that subsequent calls though less productive would have supplied all the men from time to time required without cost and without material delay the had met at held a brief and to at on the th of july i hold that it should not have been allowed so to meet but that a union army one hundred thousand strong	19
a i felt i had disgraced my people so i held close and went on here just like the rest but though i ve not virtue nor courage enough to take the first part i ll always be your second so reckon upon me i ll always back you up there are two or three more among us put in for as trifling as yours and i fear they are all you can permanently reckon upon for the next time the priest comes who does not come very often the others will go to him to confess and confess other people s faults or what they consider such as well as their own so he ll soon know all you and then he ll warn them against the you and they ll keep apart from you you ll see i s fears however were not fully realized it was a good while before the priest came at all secondly had meantime grown such a favorite that not one of his companions would speak ill of him the who was aware of a great change among his charges and thought it no sin to play and hear if any mischief were became a decided patron of and felt heartily obliged to him for his companions to order when the priest heard the fact reluctantly confessed that a prisoner was obtaining great influence over them the fact was so and by various accompanying statements that he thought it best to content with a very gentle charge to his to beware of being led astray by their ears let the charm never so wisely finally he played himself two or three times without being able to detect any harm and held a with mildly reminding him the old law for burning a minister who attempted to convert a catholic had never been and that though he was a he exposed himself to very said so little in reply and that little so gently that the old man could find no pretext for attacking him and being really of a mild and pacific disposition thought he might as well leave the matter alone meanwhile with a rusty nail blackened with a mixture of and for his had written out nearly all the gospel of st john on the walls of the yard this was the text book by the aid of which he taught his scholars to read and to commit portions of scripture to memory he told them this was a golden opportunity which might never occur to them again and even the most were aroused to a little exertion while the ardent made rapid and progress while all were his friends was his friend who hung upon everything he said everything he could out of him reason the ed him learned of him and aided him ia every way he could had it not been for the generosity of these poor fellows and the s humanity would have ill at the commencement of his for hia friends at and la tour could not immediately journey to nor obtain access to him when they got there but at length made his appearance loaded with a miscellaneous collection of good things which enabled to feast those who had shared their own scanty supplies with him and moreover brought a purse containing a small sum indeed but sufficient for the s w ts during the remainder of his imprisonment which had been collected for him in among the of he accepted this with as much simplicity as gratitude for the workman ia worthy of his hire and he knew that in spite of the reason of his punishment he was ia reality suffering his testimony to the cross of christ and now the time came when he was to regain his liberty to the no small regret of all those whom he was leaving behind how earnestly how affectionately did he them fo keep up to the mark he had set before them and press onward instead of falling off as soon as his personal influence was withdrawn as for he was resolved to become a as soon as his term was out which would be not long after s and he persuaded him to await him before he crossed the that they might travel awhile together with a sense of the blessing of liberty which nothing but the loss of it can give descended the rock of thanking god as he went at the foot of the steep road a man sitting on the bank started up and spoke to him and to his no small amazement he found himself greeted by john the hour and the man i cried john seizing him by tlie hand and working his arm like a pump handle you little thought to see me i fancy but i ve been watching for you this hour more i knew you were here and the would come out to day � have known it some weeks my lord is stopping in on purpose to see you oh what a lot of things i have to tell you to be sure i must begin with the end and end with the beginning when we got into the valleys a fortnight ago we found all the in a about your and making quite a personal of it every man ing it home to his own hearth and heart well my lord thought the transaction such a shame even before he remembered who you were f brought that to his mind that he took it up quite warmly and spoke of it in the public rooms and called on m and m and wrote to the of the district to beg him to let you out it was no go in prison you must stay in spite of lord s and calling it a disgrace to the times so finding your time was almost out he resolved to wait quietly in the valleys	2
so with some natural pain as all men did but that it would have been better for me if my wife could have helped me more and shared the many thoughts in which i had no partner and that this might have been i knew between these two conclusions the one that what i felt was general and the other that it was particular to me and might have been different i balanced curiously with no distinct sense of their opposition to each other when i thought of the airy dreams of youth that are incapable of i thought of the better state preceding manhood that i had and then the contented days with in the dear old house arose before me like of the dead that might have some renewal in another world but never never more could be here sometimes the speculation came into my thoughts what might have happened or what would have happened if and i had never known each other but she was so with my existence that it was the of all fancies and would soon rise out of my reach and sight like floating in the air i always loved her what i am describing and half awoke and slept again in the recesses of my mind there was no evidence of it in me i know of no influence it had in anything i said or did i bore the weight of all our little cares and all my projects held the pens and we both felt that our shares were adjusted as the case required she was truly fond of me and proud of me and when wrote a few earnest words in her letters to of the pride and interest with which my old friends heard of my growing reputation and read my book as if they heard me speaking its contents read them out to me with tears of joy in her bright eyes and said i was a dear old clever famous boy the first mistaken impulse of an heart those words of mrs strong were constantly to me at this time were almost always present to my mind i awoke with them often in the night i remember to have even read them in dreams inscribed upon the walls of houses for i knew now that my own heart was when it first loved and that if it had david been it never could have felt when we were married what it had felt in its secret experience there can be no in marriage like of mind and purpose those words i remembered too i had endeavoured to to myself and found it it remained for me to myself to to share with her what i could and be happy to bear on my own shoulders what i must and be happy still this was the discipline to which i tried to bring my heart when i began to think it made my second year much happier than my first and what was better still made s life all sunshine but as that year wore on was not strong i had hoped that lighter hands than mine would help to mould her character and that a baby smile upon her breast might change my child wife to a woman it was not to be the spirit fluttered for a moment on the threshold of its httle prison and unconscious of took wing when i can run about again as i used to do aunt said i shall make race he is getting quite slow and lazy i suspect my dear said my aunt quietly working by her side he has a worse disorder than that age do you think he is old said astonished oh how strange it seems that should be old it s a complaint we are all liable to little one as we get on in life said my aunt cheerfully i don t feel more free from it than i used to be i assure you but said looking at him with compassion even little oh poor fellow i dare say he ll last a long time yet blossom said my aunt patting on the cheek as she leaned out of her couch to look at who responded by standing on his hind legs and himself in various attempts to scramble up by the head and shoulders he must have a piece of flannel in his house this winter and i shouldn t wonder if he came out quite fresh again with the flowers in the spring bless the little dog exclaimed my aunt if he had as many lives as a cat and was on the point of losing em all he d bark at me with his last breath i believe david had helped him up on the sofa where he really was my aunt to such a furious extent that he couldn t keep straight but himself sideways the more my aunt looked at him the more he reproached her for she had lately taken to spectacles and for some inscrutable reason he considered the glasses personal made him lie down by her with a good deal of persuasion and when he was quiet drew one of his long ears through and through her hand repeating thoughtfully even httle oh poor fell w his lungs are good enough said my aunt gaily and his are not at all feeble he has a good many years before him no doubt but if you want a dog to race with little blossom he has lived too well for that and give you one thank you aunt said faintly but don t please no said my aunt taking off her spectacles i couldn t have any other dog but said it would be so unkind to besides i couldn t be such friends with any other dog but because he wouldn t have known me before i was married and wouldn t have	8
and w ve it in he air d s bow how the flames up the walls are there none left to rally round us with a hundred men we might hold our own oh for my company cried sir k but where he is murdered my fair lord the saints receive him may he rest in peace but here come some at last who may give us counsel for amid these passages it is ill to stir without a guide as he spoke a french squire and the knight down the steps the latter bleeding from a cut across his forehead all is lost he cried the castle is taken and on fire the is slain and there is naught left for us on the contrary sir there is much left to us for there is a very honorable before us and a fair lady for whom to give our lives there are many ways in which a man might die but none better than this tou can tell us said du to the french squire how came these men into the castle and what can we count upon by saint if we come not quickly to some counsel we shall be burned like young in a nest the squire a dark slender spoke firmly and quickly as one who was trained to swift action there is a passage under the earth into the castle said he and through it some of the made their way casting open the gates for the others they have had help from within the walls and the men at arms were heavy with wine they must have been slain in their beds for these devils crept from room to room with soft step and ready knife sir the was struck down with an axe as he rushed before us from his sleeping chamber save only ourselves i do not think there are any left alive what then would you counsel that we make for the keep it is unused save in time m of war and the key hangs from my poor lord and master a belt there are two keys there it is the larger once there we might hold the narrow stair and at least as the walls are of a greater thickness it would be longer ere they could bum them could we but carry the lady across the all might be well with us nay the lady hath seen something of the work of war said coming forth as white as grave and as unmoved as ever i would not be a to yon my dear and gallant friends rest assured of this that if all else fail i have always a here � drawing a small silver from her bosom � which sets me beyond the fear of these vile and blood stained wretches cried du i have always loved you and now by our lady of i love you more than ever did i not know that your hand will be as ready as your words i would myself turn my last blow upon you ere you should fall into their hands lead on a new golden shall shine in the of if we come through with it the attention of the had been drawn away from murder to plunder and all over the castle might be heard their cries and of delight as they dragged forth the rich the silver and the carved furniture down in the half clad wretches their bare limbs all with blood about with upon their heads or with the lady s silken gowns round their and trailing on the ground behind them of choice wine had been rolled out from the and starving in hand off which de set aside for noble and royal guests others with of bacon and joints of dried meat upon the ends of their held them up to the blaze or tore at them with their teeth yet all order had not been lost among them for some of the better armed stood together in a silent group leaning upon their rude weapons and looking up at the fire which had spread so rapidly as to involve one whole side of the castle already could hear the and roaring of the flames while the air was heavy with heat and full of the of burning wood r how men held the keep of the guidance of the french squire the party passed down two narrow the first was empty but at the head of the second stood a peasant who started off at the sight of them yelling loudly to his comrades stop him or we are undone cried du and had started to run when ay ward s great war bow like a harp string and the man fell forward upon his face with limbs and clutching fingers within ve paces of where he lay a narrow and little used door led out into the from beyond it came such a of and screaming horrible oaths and yet more horrible laughter that the heart might have shrunk from casting down the frail barrier which faced them make straight for the keep said du in a sharp stern whisper the two in front the lady in the centre a squire on either side while we three knights shall bide behind and beat back those who press upon us so now open the door and god have us in his holy keeping for a few moments it seemed that their object would be attained without danger so swift and so silent had been their movements they were half way across the ere the frantic howling made a movement to stop them the few who threw themselves in their way were or brushed aside while the were beaten back by the ready weapons of the three they fought their way to the door of the keep and faced round upon the mob while the squire thrust the great key	4
i and ri fu � e by their to aid my con nt refuse to e tlie actual of the � ttie i beyond the grasp and of the tell you sir i and the of mr grow forbidding the public of for at least ten years after their survey would secure the great bulk of the lands to and would give them a long pay day and thus save them from the enormous they are now compelled to pay to money it would not reduce the derived by the treasury from the public lands but would only it and this would be far less to the government than it would be to the the government can borrow money at four and a half per cent per while the frequently pay a five per cent per mouth for the money to enter his lands to prevent their sale at public on the first of february the question of the public lands was again before the house the bill house bill no being a bill to secure to actual and being in the words following � bill to to actual et on the public domain l be u by the and house of re of the united of america in ny person who is the head of a or who arrived at the age of twenty one years and is a of tlie united states or who shall filed his intention to become such as required by the bi laws of the united states shall and after tiie passage of this act be entitled to enter free of coat one quarter of vacant and public lands which may at the time the application is be to private entry at per acre or a quantity equal to be in a l in the legal of public lands and after tne same shall have been surveyed s a and be it further tiiat the person applying for the benefit of act shall upon application to tiie register of the land office in he or she is about to make such entry make before the said register that he or she is tlie head of a family or is twenty one years or more of age and that such is made fur his or her exclusive use and benefit and those specially mentioned in act and not either directly ur indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person or persons and upon making the as above and the with the register be or shall thereupon be permitted to enter tlie quantity of land already provided tliat no shall be given or patent issued the of five years from the date of such � and if at the of such time or at any time thereafter the person making such entry or if he be dead his widow or in case of her death his or or in case of a widow making such entry her or in case of her death shall prove by two creditable witnesses that he she or they have continued to reside upon and such land and stiu reside upon the same and have not the same � r any part thereof then in such ease he she or they if � t that a of the united states shall on or dollars be to a patent as in other provided by for law and provided further in ease of tlie death of both and mother leaving an infant child or children under one year of age the right and uie fee shall t tne of � ai i or children he � or r� il u may any time y after death of the parent and in with the laws of the state in soon for the time bet their sell said land for the benefit of sa but for no other purpose and the purchase � hall acquire the absolute title by the purchase and be entitled to a patent from the united states s and be it that the register of the land office shall note all on the tract books and plate of hia office and keep a register of all such and make a return thereof to the general land office together with the proof upon which they have been founded s and be it further that all lands acquired under the provisions of this act in no event become liable to the of any debt or debts prior to the issuing the patent and be it further that if at any time after the the as d in the second section of this act and before the of the five years it shall be after due notice to the to the satisfaction of the ter of the land office that the person having filed such shall have actually changed his or her residence or abandoned the said entry for more than six months at any time then and in thi event the land so entered shall back to the government and be disposed of as other public lands are now by law subject to an to the general land office and be it further that no in shall be permitted to make more than one entry the provisions of this act and that the of the land office is to prepare and issue such rules and consistent with this act as shall be necessary and proper to carry its into effect and that the and of the several land offices shall be entitled to receive tiie same compensation for any lands entered under the provisions of this act that they are now to receive when the same quantity of land is entered money one half to be paid by the person making the application at the time so doing and the other half on the issue of the by the person to whom it may be issued provided that nothing in this act shall be so as to or interfere in any	19
this but increased the anxiety of the boys though they held boldly on their way the red haired boy detached himself from the group and stepped before them their path they to go around him but he stretched out his yer here he why don t yer stay where yer b long brick top and we re just going home said mildly brick looked at joe yer got under yer arm he demanded joe contained himself and took no heed of him come on he said to and at the same time starting to brush past the gang leader but with a quick blow brick struck him in the face and with equal quickness snatched the bundle of from under his arm joe uttered an inarticulate cry of rage and all caution flung to the winds sprang at his this was evidently a surprise to the gang leader who expected least of all to be attacked in his own territory he retreated backward still clutching the and divided between desire to fight and desire to retain his capture the latter desire him and he turned and fled swiftly down the narrow side street into a of streets the of the and joe knew that he was plunging into the wilderness of the enemy s country but his sense of both property and pride had been offended and he took up the pursuit hot footed and followed after though he them and behind came the three other members of the gang a whistling call while they ran which was evidently intended for the of the rest of the band as the chase proceeded these were answered from many different directions and soon a score of dark figures were at the heels of and who in turn were straining every muscle to keep the footed joe in sight brick darted into a vacant lot for a slip as such things are called which are passages through fences and over sheds and houses and around dark holes and corners where the must go more care brick top and fully and where the chances are many that he will soon lose the track but joe caught brick before he could attain his end and together they rolled over and over in the dirt locked in each other s arms by the time and and the gang had come up they were on their feet facing each other d ye want eh the red headed gang leader was saying in a tone d ye want that s i know i want my joe answered brick s eyes sparkled at the intelligence were something he stood in need of himself then you ve got to fight fer em he announced why should i fight for them joe demanded indignantly they re mine which went to show how ignorant he was of the ideas of and property rights which obtained among the people of the pit the of the a chorus of and went up from the gang which clustered behind its leader like a pack of wolves why should i fight for them joe i say so replied an i say goes understand but joe did not understand he refused to understand that brick s word was law in san or any part of san his love of honesty and right dealing was offended and all his fighting blood was up you give those to me right here and now he threatened reaching out his hand for them but jerked them away d ye know who i am he demanded i m brick an i don t low no one to talk to me in that tone of voice better leave him alone whispered in joe s ear what are a few leave him alone and let s get out of this brick top and they re my joe said slowly in a dogged manner they re my and i m going to have them you can t fight the crowd interfered and if you do get the best of him they all pile on you the gang observing this whispered and it for on the part of joe set up its wolf like howling again afraid afraid the young and he s too he is he spoil his nice clean shirt and then what say shut up their leader snapped and the noise died away will you give me those joe demanded advancing will you fight for em was s counter demand yes joe answered fight fight the gang began to howl again the of the and it s me that see fair play said a man s heavy voice all eyes were instantly turned upon the man who had approached unseen and made this announcement by the electric light shining brightly on them from the corner they made him out to be a big muscular fellow clad in a working man s garments his feet were in heavy a narrow of black leather held his about his waist and a black and greasy cap was on his head his face was with coal dust and a coarse blue shirt open at the neck revealed a wide throat and massive chest an who re you angry at the interruption none of yer business the retorted but if it do you any good i m a on the china and as i said i m goin to see fair play that s my business your business is to give fair play so pitch in and don t be all night about it brick top and the three boys were as pleased by the appearance of the as and his followers were displeased they conferred together for several minutes when deposited the bundle of in the arms of one of his gang and stepped forward come on then he said at the same time pulling off his coat joe handed his to and sprang toward brick they put up their fists and faced each other almost instantly	21
in the best health and spirits as he was about to reply came into the room and she tried to carry on the conversation naturally but the silence of mrs and made this difficult dr reed was not a ready and this morning his replies were more than ever awkward and constrained at last it dawned on that he wanted to speak to her alone and in answer to a remark he had made concerning the fever in she said i wanted to ask you a question or two about fever dr reed one of my is going to die of it and i should like to avoid medical may i show you the passage f certainly miss i shall be delighted to help you � if i can as soon as left the room to fetch her manuscript the doctor hurriedly bade his patient and mrs good bye aren t you going to wait to see mrs asked e l have to speak to the boy in charge of my by muslin car i shall see miss as she comes downstairs mrs looked as if she thought this arrangement not a little singular but she said nothing and when came running downstairs with a roll of in her hand she attempted to explain her difficulty to the doctor he made a feeble attempt to listen to the passage she read aloud to him and when their eyes met across the paper she saw he was going to propose to her will you walk down the drive with me and we will talk of that as we go along her hat was on the hall table she took it up and in walked with him out on the gravel will i put the up cried the boy from the outside car no follow me down the avenue it was a wild autumn evening full of wind and leaves the great green pasture lands soaked and with rain rolled their monotonous green turf to the verge of the blown trees about which the drifted in picturesque confusion now they like or on straightened wings were carried down a furious gust across the tumultuous waves of yellow and past the of cold crimson that is tossed like a banner through the shadows of evening i came here to tell you that i am going away that i am leaving ireland for ever i ve bought the practice i spoke to you of in hill oh i am so glad thank you but there is another and more important matter on which i should like to speak to by muslin you for a long time back i had resolved to leave ireland a sad or an entirely happy man which shall it be you are the only woman i ever loved � will you be my wife � yes i will i was afraid to ask you before but he added sighing s i shan t be able to give you a home like the one you are leaving we shall have to be very economical we shall not have more than three hundred a year to live upon will you be satisfied with that r i hope indeed � i am sure we shall get on very well you forget that i can do something to keep myself she added smiling i have two or three orders she passed her arm through dr reed s and as he unfolded his plans to her he held her hand warmly and affectionately in his and as the twilight drifted it was wrapped like a veil about them the in great flitting flocks passed over their heads the crimson of the sky had been hurled further away and only the form of the grey horse that the boy had allowed to stood out distinctly in the gloom that descended upon the earth on the very first opportunity she could find told her mother that dr reed had proposed to her and that she had accepted him mrs said it was disgraceful and that she would never hear of such a marriage and when the doctor called by muslin next day she acquainted him with her views on the subject she told him he had very taken advantage of his position to make love to her daughter she really didn t know how he could ever have arrived at the conclusion that a match was possible and that for the future his visits must cease at and when heard what had passed between dr reed and her mother she wrote assuring him that her feelings towards him would remain by anything that anyone might say all the same it might be as well having regard for what had happened that the marriage should take place with the least possible delay she took this letter down to the post office her self and when she returned she entered the and told mrs what she had done i wish you had shown me the letter before you sent it there is nothing we need advice about so much as a letter yes mother replied deceived by the gentleness of mrs s manner � but we seemed to hold such widely different views on this matter that there did not seem to be any use in discussing it mother and daughter should never hold different views my children s interests are my interests � what interests have i now but theirs oh mother then you will consent to this marriage mrs s face always changed expression before a direct question my dear i would consent to anything that would make you happy but by muslin it seems to me impossible that you could be happy with dr reed i wonder how you could like him you do not know � i mean you do not what the of married life are they are often hard to put up with no matter who the man may be but with one	15
little which the hostess was the first to break i wonder how dick is getting on with his young friend to night i have been thinking of that aunt don t you think he is a little young to be dining at a club well he is nearly seventeen and has left though it is true only a few days he cannot be tied to one s apron strings now he is no longer a school boy his friend mr who is at college asks him to dine with him what would you have had me do the poor boy is so thoughtless and i am afraid has so little principle � though indeed that is not his fault aud he has never a mother s care that is only too true but even supposing myself to be in his mother s place here is an old school fellow asks the lad to dine should i not be his � a feeling that is perhaps strongest at his age � in saying no and perhaps added the old lady it is just possible he might have gone all the same oh i hope not aunt i trust not he is self willed and i fear wild but not so wicked as that lady smiled again and this time her smile had a touch of bitterness if dick is wicked at his age help him and forgive grown men i think you are disposed to take a view of human instead of using what from your own elevation above the follies of the world would more become you � the i you do not talk like that elevation i my feet are set in mire and clay well the soil is even worse at all events on which the rest of us are standing as to dick if you objected to his going out why did you not advise him to stay at home j advise him you know that i have no authority nay that his father has the poor lad against me as though i were a serpent poor francis it seems so strange to me that you good people should quarrel so even when yon are of the same blood il is written aunt answered the other gravely that for the good cause a man s foes shall be those of his own household there i also the text let love continue replied the elder lady you have eaten next to nothing my dear as usual will you not take one glass of wine sister shook her head and smiled you know i never drink wine aunt then we will go np stairs you will sit up for master to night very good my lady the deceased lord when he came home from his club was supposed to use his own skeleton key chapter il sister s the two ladies when they to the drawing room resumed the work in which they had been engaged the younger at least would have scorned to call it by that name her real work lay among the tenants of the lanes and of the town and what she did for the same with her thread and needle was by comparison perhaps the hardest task she had to do within doors was to herself from her own opinions with a vehemence that under the circumstances would have been the like of her venerable relative to matters that were nearer to her than life itself was one of the crosses that sister had to bear i had a letter from francis this morning and not a very satisfactory one observed the elder lady pi yes this was full of significance it implied first an absence of rise and secondly a if the other pleased to listen � but under protest as though nothing coming from the quarter in question could possess any interest i really do pity that poor boy having to spend his holidays or at least the time before he goes to college at i always did pity him aunt such a change as he must find it after not a soul seems ever to come to the tower except mr sister uttered an of yes i must say there i agree with you continued the old lady that man seems to have picked out as it were the worst part of the christian faith to form a religion for himself and he s a too is a very of it is that francis does not see it he sees it aunt but the man in spite of it said sister quietly he considers him a and a shining light i wonder how it is that the clergy are now so puffed up mused her in my young days till a man was made a bishop no one thought anything of him and not much even � then my lord s father indeed looked upon his as a sort of link between the drawing room and the servants hall but that was an extreme case now half one s relatives are preached to death by them and the other half t so much as eat or drink without permission of their clergyman � just as though they had taken degrees in instead of divinity i i� waa � a less black than we re painted church and possibly even to the himself her own spiritual superior is richard like his father was as a boy aunt inquired she presently yes though with a difference he is not quite so handsome but then he has a more frank expression even in his wildest days your brother had rather an austere look he took his pleasures sadly but the clear skin and complexion the bright brown eyes the mass of hair with that natural wave in it are of his father s characteristics francis was never winning to my mind as this boy is though my poor mary � his cousin too which	25
under other circumstances that mrs had been hunting eggs in a stray nest in the hay had slipped to the floor and been taken up insensible bones were undoubtedly broken y t was a woman and her senses tbe doctor must be found as soon as possible mrs powder hastily put her house to rights and with a good round bundle of what she called her set on the welcome enterprise on tbe way she could hardly keep herself from due cheerfulness and if ever there was likely to be a presence in a sick room il was powder s tliat december day she entered the gloomy kitchen looking like a footed snow her big round shoulders were so heaped with the damp white old sat by the store in utter despair and a limp hand toward the bedroom door she s in a he said hopelessly i ought to thought to send word to pore � all the boy she had mrs powder calmly removed her snowy outer garments and tried to warm her the fire law lane pot in a o sticks of good dry wood suggested in a soothing and felt bis spirits be knew not why then the whole woman walked into the bedroom � � could see related was the end of jane s nose and i just as sure then as i be now that she was likely to but i set down side of the bed and got bolt of her hand and she groaned two or three times real desperate i wished the doctor was there to see if anything really her but i there wa n less t was � a i spoke to her but she never said and i went back out into the kitchen s a tory sick woman says i loud for her to hear me i knew please her there was a good deal to do and i put on my and took right and begun to lay about me and dinner the men folks was for want � it being nigh three o clock an then i got jane to feel more comfortable with of her for all d let me of her � poor i did feel sore i � and then was and i f kind o spent so law i set me down in a cheer by the bed bead and was speechless too i knew if she was able to she could n t hold in no great spell longer after a while she stirred a little and groaned and then says she ain t the tor and i her up well s i could be i bad off t says she � � we u hope for the best says i and that minute the notion come to me bow i d work her round an i like to right out but i did n t � if i should lose me again you must see to for my son says she his father s got no head i will says i real solemn an yon trust me with anything you feel to say sister � she kind of opened her eye that was next to me and surveyed my sharp but i h serious and groaned real honest be i like old mis she whispered and i kind o nodded an my hand up to my eyes too some like her but not nigh so bad for mis was so down hm stairs thai over k aa died the day after � � law lane � oh my i f ha out i t be look away now i � in t a goin to die right off bo i mu powder i ain t the to give ye hope in the midst of life we are in death we ain t � of the next minute none of us says i it general but away like an ou book o sermons i do feel kind o now says she oh t you do � and i come over an set on the foot o the bed an locked right at her i knew she was a dreadful woman and always made a fuss when anything was the matter with her n t bear no kind o pain sister says i don t you bear on your mind yoa d like to see before you go i know yon ain t been at peace with s folks and t none o my business but i should n t want to be called away with hard s in my heart you must my speaking right out but i should want to be so used myself poor old i she had an awful fight of it but she beat her temper for once an in i do forgive all them says she an rolled np her eyes i law lame says to myself that wa n t all i wanted i let her alone a spell and set there as if i expected her to breathe her last any minute she asked for and i said he waa anxious and out for the doctor now the snow d stopped i i could see says she i m all done with the lane now and i d keep the peace if i was goin to live her got weak and i did n t know but she was worse off than s posed i was scared for a minute and then i took a grain o hope i d watched by too many beds not to know the � don t ye let old la make my coffin will ye mis powder she once he s called a good workman a n l he says i as i when il come to her funeral orders t waa more n i could do to hold in i ain t goin through l o e n l in a coffin to please that old	40
beyond the brains which god has given them is it not a monstrous the admiral chuckled you are like one of these said he you have had all this talked into you and now you are it off again it s rank every word of it for man has his duties and woman has hers but they are as separate as their natures are i suppose that we shall have a woman her on the presently and taking command of the channel well you have a woman on the throne taking command of the whole nation remarked his wife and everybody is agreed that she does it better than any of the men the admiral was somewhat staggered by this that s quite another thing said he you should come to their next meeting i am to take the chair i have just promised mrs that i will do so but it has turned chilly and it is time that the girls were indoors good night i shall look out for you after breakfast for our constitutional admiral the old sailor looked after his friend with a twinkle in his eyes how old is he mother about fifty i think and mrs i heard that she was forty three the admiral rubbed his hands and shook with amusement we ll find one of these days that three and two make one said he i ll bet you a new bonnet on it mother a sister s secret chapter iv a sister s secret tell me miss you know how things should be what would you say was a good profession for a young man of twenty six who has had no education worth speaking about and who is not very quick by nature the speaker was charles and the time this same summer evening in the ground though the shadows had fallen now and the game been abandoned the girl glanced up at him amused and surprised do you mean yourself precisely but how could i tell i have no one to advise me i believe that you could do it better than any one i feel confidence in your opinion it is very flattering she glanced up again at his earnest questioning face with its saxon eyes and drooping moustache in some doubt as to whether he might be joking on the contrary all his attention seemed to be concentrated upon her answer it depends so much upon what you can do you know i do not know you sufficiently to be able to say what natural gifts you have they were walking slowly across the lawn in the direction of the house i have none that is to say none worth mentioning i have no memory and i am very slow but you are very strong beyond the city oh if that goes for anything i can put up a hundred pound bar till further orders but what sort of a calling is that some little joke about being called to the bar up in miss s mind but her companion was in such obvious earnest that she stifled down her inclination to laugh i can do a mile on the track in and across country in but how is that to help me i might be a professional but it is not a very dignified position not that i care a straw about dignity you know but i should not hke to hurt the old lady s feelings your aunt s yes my aunt s my parents were killed in the you know when i was a baby and she has looked after me ever since she has been very good to me i m sorry to leave her but why should you leave her they had reached the garden gate and the girl leaned her upon the top of it looking up with grave interest at her big white companion it s said he what don t tell my aunt that i said it � he sank his voice to a whisper � i hate off into such a merry peal of laughter that he forgot the evil things which he had suffered from the poet and burst out laughing too i can t make him out said he i try but he is one too many no doubt it is very stupid of me i don t deny it but as long as i cannot there is no use a s secret i i pretending that i can and then of course she feels hurt for she is very fond of him and likes to read him aloud in the evenings she is reading a piece now passes and i assure you miss that i don t even know what the title means you must think me a dreadful fool but surely he is not so incomprehensible as all that she said as an attempt at encouragement he is very bad there are some things you know which are fine that ride of the three and and others they are all right but there was a piece we read last week the line my aunt and it takes a good deal to do that for she rides very straight and and that was the it sounds like a charm no it is a gentleman s name three gentlemen thought at first but my aunt says one then he on he in the light of the moon it was a very trying piece w laughed again you must not think of leaving your aunt � he said think how lonely she would be without you well yes i have thought of that but you remember that my aunt is to all hardly middle aged and a very eligible person don t think that her dislike to mankind extends to individuals she might form new ties and then i should be a third wheel in the coach it was all very well ah long as t was	4
said � what is the matter dear am i not nice to yon yes you re an enchantment only only what dear fear our future i fear shall lose you all has come true so far the end must happen she drew his arm about her waist and laid his face on her bare shoulder let there be no live in the present the future is too near us say you ll marry me or else shall lose you altogether it is the one influence on our side she was born he said under two great influences but each could be modified one might be the other lessened and both might finally resolve into her destiny so far as he could read her future it in him or another that other he was sure was not sir nor was it himself he thought for when she and he had met in the theatre she had experienced no dread but he had dreaded her her as his destiny he had even recognised her as before she had been pointed out to him but you had seen my photograph but it was not by your photograph that i knew you and you knew that should care for you i knew that something had to happen but you did not feel that i was your destiny ton said you experienced no dread but when you met sir did yon experience none i suppose i did i was afraid of him at first i think i hated him ah we shall not marry � it is not our fate you see that you cannot say you will marry me another fate is you who is it who me have i already met him he fell to dreaming again and asked him vainly to describe this other man why are you singing that melancholy mark motive i did not know i was singing it he returned to his dream again but starting from it he her hands he said we must marry a reason us have you not thought of it and then as if he had not noticed that she had not answered his question he said on your father s account if he should ever know what my position is i have betrayed my friend that is why the mark motive has been singing in my head you must say you will marry me we must marry at once for your father s sake i have betrayed him my best friend i have acted worse than that other man dear open the window the scent of these flowers is overpowering that is better throw some of those into the street we might give them to those poor men they might be able to sell them tell the coachman to stop the of destiny sounded clearer than ever in their ears it seemed as if they could almost catch the tune and with a movement drew her lover towards her every hour us he said can you not hear do not go to park lane � park lane your friend i see nothing hot threats and all are against ns dearest we cannot spend the night driving about london he sighed on his mistress s shoulder she threw his hair from his forehead there is no hope we shall be separated scattered to different winds why do you think that how do yon know these things in losing you i lose the principle of my life yon will lose nothing in losing me so it is written bnt yon are not listening i am you you re clinging to the present knowing that yon will soon lose it she threw herself upon him and kissed him as if she would destiny on his lips and until they reached park lane there was no future only a present for both of them i won t ask you in i am tired good bye dearest good bye i ll write remember that my time is short and there was a strange accent in his voice which she did not hear till long after she had locked herself into the present and in happy sensations of gratified sense she allowed to her she thought of the soft luxury of her bed and lay down her brain full of floating impressions of flowers music and of love chap and when called her in the morning she was dreaming of love she turned over and closing her eyes strove to continue her dream but it fled like from her memory and was soon so far distant that she not even perceive the of it and she awoke in spite of herself and sat up in bed her and then lay back upon the pillow with for the inner circle of her thought it seemed that she could think of him for hours the romance of his personality carried her on and on at one moment she dwelt on the gold glow in his dark eyes the paint like blackness of his hair and his long thin hands at another her fancy liked to his for him the past present and future were not twain but one thing and every time she saw him she was more and more interested every time she discovered something new in him � he did not exist on the surface of thing but deep in himself and she wondered if she would ever know him her thoughts paused a moment and then she remembered something he had said it had struck her at the time but now it appeared to her more than ever interesting he had said had not fallen from him � he had merely learnt that it was only part of the truth he had gone further he had raised himself to a higher it was not that he wanted less but more than could give him in religion as in art there were higher and lower states we began by	15
whom he was so forced and it was honestly meant well towards her for if he i found her unhappy in the prospect of that marriage through her to another man or for any other cause he would have said this is another of the old uses of the making money i will let it go to my and my sister s only and friends when the into which he fell so his first intention as that he found himself by the ice authorities upon the london walls for dead he the aid that fell upon him without considering how firmly must seem to fix the in their accession to the fortune ten he saw them and knew them and even from his of inspection could find no flaw in them he asked himself nd shall i come to life to such people as these there no good to set against the putting of them to that hard proof had heard from s own lips when he stood tapping at the r on that night of his taking the lodgings that the marriage would a been on her part thoroughly he had since tried in his own unknown person and supposed station and she not r rejected his advances but resented them was him to have shame of buying her or the meanness of her yet by ing to life and accepting the condition of the inheritance he must the former and by coming to life and it ho must do latter mother consequence that he had never was the � of an innocent man in his supposed murder he would complete from the and set the wrong it but clearly the wrong could never have been done if he had er planned a deception then whatever inconvenience or distress ol i u mutual friend of mind the deception cost him it was to accept as among its consequences and make no complaint thus john in the morning and it buried john still many deeper than he had been buried in the night going out earlier than he was accustomed to do he encountered the at the door the s way was for a certain his way and they walked together it was impossible not to notice the change in the s appearance the felt very of it and modestly remarked a present from my daughter mr the words gave the secretary a stroke of pleasure for he remembered the fifty pounds and he still loved the girl no doubt it was very weak � it always i very weak some authorities he loved the girl i don t know whether you happen to have read many books of african travel mr said b w i have read several well you know there s usually a king george or a king boy or a king or a king bill or bull or bum or or whatever name the sailors may have happened to give him where asked u anywhere anywhere in africa i mean pretty well everywhere i may say fox black kings are and j think � said b w with an air nasty i am much of your opinion mr you were going to say � i was going to say the king is generally dressed in a london hat only or a pair of or one or an uniform coat with his legs in the sleeves or something of that kind just so said the secretary in confidence i assure you mr observed the cheerful that when more of my family were at home and to be provided for i used to remind myself immensely of that king you have no idea as a single man of the difficulty i have had in wearing more than one good article at a time i can easily believe it mr i only mention it said b w in the warmth of his heart as a proof of the amiable delicate and considerate affection of my daughter if she had been a little spoilt i couldn t have thought so very much of it under the but no not a bit and she is so very pretty i hope you agree with mo in finding her very pretty mr certainly i do every one must i hope so said the indeed i have no doubt of it this is a great advancement for her in life mr a great opening of her prospects m miss could have no better friends than mr and mrs impossible said the gratified i begin to think things are very well as they are if mr john had lived � he is better dead said the secretary mutual no i won t go so far as to say that urged the a little against the very decisive and tone but he t have suited or t have suited him or fifty things whereas now i hope she can choose for herself has she � as you place the confidence in me of speaking on the subject you will excuse my asking � has she � perhaps � chosen faltered the secretary oh dear no returned e w young ladies sometimes hinted choose without mentioning their choice to their fathers not in this case mr between my daughter and me there is a regular league and of confidence it was only the other day the dates from � these said the giving a little pull at the of his coat and the pockets of his trousers oh no she has not chosen to be sure young george in the days when mr john m who i wish had never been born said the secretary with a gloomy brow r w looked at him with surprise as thinking he had contracted an unaccountable spite against the poor deceased and continued u in the days when mr john was being sought out young george certainly was hovering about and let mm but it never was seriously thought o�	8
supposing him capable of mr under such circumstances in her heart she felt certain for other reasons that he would not be there and she was secretly well pleased to be able to defend the major with confidence against the of selfishness mary seemed about to speak but restrained herself she only shook her head with a melancholy incredulous smile and again into silence presently they came to the crest of the hill from which the house was visible mary forward and gazed at it intently the hand she laid on the window frame was trembling her lips murmured thank heaven i miss dart understood at once that the poor girl had feared to see the blinds down you must keep up a good heart mary she said and especially in your mother s presence i you for her sake to be as brave as you can mary made a gesture of assent and pressed her companion s hand she well understood that the comparative coldness of the other s tone arose from no want of sympathy there are occasions when firmness even to severity is a greater kindness than the word the lodge gate was fastened back which was not usual and when the vehicle drew up at the the front door was opened on the instant both as miss dart s c ik s ii suggested to her � sl ss the of the ages mistress s eager inquiry the butler answered that mrs bum was as well as could be expected after her long journey of yesterday � a reply evidently learnt by heart that confirmed the s suspicions mary instantly hurried upstairs leaving miss dart alone in the hall there was nothing for her to do not even to for the luggage of the two young ladies was to follow them from in a cart as she stood hoping that mr might appear and give her some certain information of his wife s condition before her own interview with her should take place the door of the was pushed noiselessly open and a she knew though it had never shaped that word before murmured chapter xxvi outside the window it was the same room in which she had had that first interview with him on her arrival at hill when his and good humour had put her at her ease and convinced her that there was one person at least in that strange house with whom she would be able to get on but his reception of her on this occasion was very different oh happy hour he whispered beneath his breath and drew her to his breast and kissed her again and again you got my letter then she said softly as though herself for to these caresses which the consciousness that she had acknowledged her love for him made in truth a thousand times more of course i did my darling and shall wear it next my heart till you take its place was the ardent think what it has cost me not to reply to it and think he added with a glance at the door behind which they stood what a need for caution there must be which imposed upon me such a cruel silence but there is no need now said the girl withdrawing from him with a sudden impulse indeed there is darling and more than ever you will put a httle trust in me he pleaded for her face suddenly grown very grave you will not or my motives aa o v� n i outside the window say that for some time yet we must needs keep our love a secret i cannot do it � not even for your sake she answered firmly but you have done it dearest with mary it was different i owe her no such duty as i owe mrs but under her roof there must be nothing if i deceived her i should be unworthy of you you do not know how ill she is that would only make it worse � to deceive a sick perhaps a dying woman i how can you ask it of me because i love you so because the thought of any to our union drives me wild � nay there would be denial you do not know my s obstinate nature nor my father s pride i am proud too in my w y returned miss dart her figure was drawn up to its full height her eyes sparkled with a light that was new to him she was resolute it was plain to have her will and yet as he gazed upon her and bit his lip in doubt and fear he could not withhold his admiration it seemed to him that her beauty had never shone so before there is only one way he murmured mechanically give me till to morrow promise me at least this much � that for twenty four hours you will not disclose the � the relations between us i do not like it said miss dart doubtfully and yet of her doubt it was terrible to her to have to oppose him almost as terrible as that sharp quick pang at her heart � caused by she scarce knew what � which had made her step back from him a few minutes ago do you suppose i like it he exclaimed bitterly do you think it will be easy or pleasant for me for even hours to keep at a distance from you to treat you as if nothing had passed between us to put a on my lips to veil my eyes to hide the thoughts � the loving thoughts � that my soul oh � to refuge nay first request and that so slight a one i his words uttered with passionate vehemence but in suppressed scarcely audible tones melted her heart within her but what moved her even more were his pleading eyes his looks his	25
i am sure and you must have a great deal of patience till i get a little used to things gray could control his tongue but not his thoughts and he wondered more than ever how this mother s girl this father s pet had strayed so far from reserve and duty as to have come gone to her present pass but he shook off these reflections with all the force he could muster he had not only to forgive he must try also to forget chapter xiv good night mrs thoroughly under the influence of her husband agreed with but slight resistance to the departure of the young couple a little in advance of us as she put it for the exact date she was to follow was not yet arranged she troubled mr gray when he came for his good by covert allusions to the natural desire of young married people to be away from their elders where they could enjoy with absolute freedom the society of each other she had once been of their age she told them and her memory was good ah they should make the most of their youth and their love for years crept on and there would be an end to all things earthly if only their affection grew brighter with the lapse of time as hers and her husband s had done they could ask for nothing sweeter and to this play of words and lent themselves with whatever was necessary to deceive while the sober face of colonel with its new lines of pain and care even when it encouraged the deception good night at parting bent above the sweet countenance of his mother in law and kissed her reverently on the forehead at which she drew him down and pressed her lips to his cheek declaring at the last moment that could not be in better hands than his and that he had her entire confidence and love here is purse and yours said colonel pressing it into gray s hand when they retired to be for a few minutes alone and here is a letter of credit that you will use at your discretion say nothing i pray you about this matter but consider yourself as i told you before one of my family and entitled to a full share of all i have i also want you to know that i like you more than i ever dreamed i should and that there has been a weight lifted from my heart since i have found to what a true man the happiness of my child is nothing was to be gained by any reply to this speech except a simple thank you colonel and an hour later the mail bore the wedded pair rapidly toward the channel gray was not surprised because his wife curled herself into a corner of the and wept softly during most of the journey she had enough to weep for god knew and tears he had often heard were a blessing to women in trouble the kindest thing was to arrange her about her with a gentle hand and leave her to herself at the steamer pier he assisted her to the ladies cabin glad to remember that the rules prevent men and women occupying that part of the boat together and gave special directions to the love gone astray with a good fee to make madame as comfortable as possible then he went into the men s cabin and lighting a cigar passed the time before reaching france in contemplating his future in wreaths of smoke when he went for his wife on the arrival of the steamer at he found that she had dried her tears for the in the experience of a new form of discomfort for which they offered no relief she had suffered from and presented a most spectacle as women are apt to do on such occasions she clung closer to her husband as he took her to the train and shivered as the wintry wind blew around the corners with a suggestion of fine snow in the air when the train started she began to talk referring to her illness on the boat and showing her feminine nature by remarks in relation to her appearance to which he gave suitable replies the was also occupied by another couple a young man and woman whom no one could doubt were on the first day of their wedding trip the young woman close to her husband and laughed when he tucked the about her feet and felt occasionally to see if her hands were as warm as they should be their conversation which did not for an instant was conducted in so low a tone that the man s lips almost and once or twice quite touched his companion s cheek happiness the purest and sweetest that is given to the children of men was theirs and the couple who sat in the other corner felt the contrast in all its intensity this girl thought might also be leaving good night her father and mother for the first time but in the overpowering love for her wedded mate she could feel her heart throb with joy even after that parting in the new arms to which she was going nature would teach her to forget for the those that had so long been her refuge against the breast of this lover she would find compensation for the one which had nursed her baby lips with this champion to fight her battles she could spare the father who had guarded her from every danger since her little feet took their first step and i reflected i what have i thrown away what have i gained in exchange for all this if only the past could come again and i could see these things as i see them now thought of it all too he saw as in a	1
child even with the tears of anguish on his cheek the decisive word of truth which his sentence upon earth � the word which rejoicing angels bear to the courts of heaven as the richest tribute humanity can lay before the throne of its creator these are but single instances chosen out from a mass of evidence clearly proving that religion in its influence upon the affections in its intimate with those important scenes and circumstances of life from which we derive the greatest pain or pleasure in short in its supreme dominion over the human heart is above all other subjects that which possesses the highest claim to the regard of ths poet not only as being most productive of gratification but most worthy of him who to the right exercise of the attributes of mind a superficial view of religion may lead to the popular and vulgar notion that its practical duties are with true refinement of feeling and elevation of thought but is not that the most genuine refinement which into the distant relations of things and by mental association the visible and material � tlie familiar or the gross with powerful impressions of moral excellence and beauty and happiness i is not that the most elevated range of thought which the practical and affairs of men with the eternal p upon which the world is established and governed we know of nothing that can so fully and beautifully adorn the ordinary path of life as religion because it a spiritual essence to all our customary actions and pursuits in which the slightest portion of good and evil is involved we can imagine nothing to exceed in tenderness the merciful dealing of our heavenly father with his and rebellious creatures and as there is nothing to equal the perfection of the divine character so there is no to that of his nature nor is this all we have said that poetry must come home to our own in order to be truly felt and religion teaches us that we have a portion in everlasting life � an inheritance in eternity � that the hopes and the fears which our actions the powers and the energies with which we are endowed arc not merely given us for the brief purposes of to play their little part upon this stage � to frail creatures that must perish in the tomb but as links woven in with the great chain of being to be unfolded in a sphere without in a world without end we would not the and the fulness of the benefits of religion by saying that the poet has a in their delights beyond that enjoyed by others because we reverently believe the nature of religion to be such as to it to every understanding render it available in every condition of humanity and and to every heart but we have no hesitation in it impossible for the poet to reach the same intellectual without the aid of religion as when he on angels wings up to the gates of heaven � to touch the strings of human feeling so powerfully as when his hand is bathed in the pure fountains of eternal truth how for instance would he upon beauty or excellence if they had no in heaven how would he describe die which tear up the root of do peace and tlie tortured bosom if neither prayer nor appeal were wrung out by such wretchedness and directed to a power by whom the calamity might be averted how would he the vow or seal the blessing or the curse without the sanction of divine authority or how might his soul to the sublime without its wings in the regions of eternity no there is nothing which the poet need reject in the religion of the bible or the religion of the heart but rather let him seek its and inspiring influence as a light to his genius a to his imagination a guide to his taste a fire to his an to his power and a thrown open to his enjoyment impression � hitherto we have bestowed our attention upon what essentially belongs to poetry as a medium for receiving and the highest intellectual enjoyment we now come to the for poetry � the characteristics of the poet all persons of cultivated understanding endowed with an ordinary share of sensibility are more or less capable of feeling what is poetical but that all even amongst those who attempt it are not equal to poetry is owing to their deficiency in some or all of the following � capacity of receiving deep impressions � imagination � power � and taste these we shall now consider separately beginning with the first which for want of a term i have called impression we have already seen how poetry its existence from the association of ideas as well as how such associations must arise out of impressions and it follows as a natural consequence that if this be necessary to enable a man to feel poetry a is still more so to him for writing it impressions are in fact the secret fund from whence the poet his most brilliant thoughts � the with which he works the colouring in which he his pencil when he � the inexhaustible fountain to which he applies for the of nature and e force of truth we have before observed that it is im impression to trace a great pro of our associations to their original source because we cannot recall the impressions made upon our mind in infancy but we know that in that early stage of life when we were most alive to sensation all the impressions which we did receive must have been connected with pain or pleasure and that hence arise preference and hope and fear love and hatred we have the authority of dr johnson a well as that of our own observation for asserting that children	41
bringing snow and violet aj it to the figure as as a adds clay to his model as she discerned the snow child the mother thought to herself that never before was there a so made nor ever such a dear little girl and boy to make it they do everything better than other children said e very complacently no wonder they make better snow images she sat down again to her work and made as much haste with it as possible because twilight would soon � a and s frock was not yet finished and was expected by railroad pretty early in the n morning faster and faster therefore went her flying fingers the children likewise kept busily at v in the garden and still the mother listened whenever she could catch a word she was amused to observe how their little had got mixed up with what they were doing and were carried away by it they seemed positively to think that the snow child would run about and play with them what a nice she will be for us all winter long said violet i hope papa will not be of her giving us a cold shan t you love her dearly o yes cried and i will her and e shall sit down close by me and drink some of mv warm milk a childish � o no i answered violet with grave wisdom that will not do at all milk will not be wholesome for our little snow sister little like her eat nothing but no no we must not give her anything warm to drink there was a minute or two of silence for whose short legs were never weary had gone on a pilgrimage again to the other side of the garden all of a sudden violet cried out loudly and joyfully look here quickly a light has been shining on her cheek out of that rose colored cloud and the color does not go away is not that beautiful yes it is beau ti ful answered the three with deliberate accuracy o violet only look at her hair it is all like gold i o certainly said violet with tranquillity as if it were very much a matter of course that color you know comes from the golden clouds that we see up there in the sky she is almost finished now but her lips must be made very red � than her cheeks perhaps it will make them red if we both kiss them accordingly the mother heard two smart little as if both her children were kissing the snow image on its frozen mouth but as this did not seem to make the lips quite red enough violet next proposed that the snow child should be invited to kiss s scarlet cheek snow sister kiss me cried � there she has kissed you added violet and the snow image now her lips are very red and she blushed a little too o what a cold kiss cried just then there came a breeze of the pure west wind sweeping through the garden and rattling the parlor windows it sounded so wintry cold that the mother was about to tap on the window pane with her finger to summon the two children in when they both cried out to her with one voice the tone was not a tone of surprise although they were evidently a good deal excited it appeared rather as if they were very much rejoiced at some event that had now happened but which they had been looking for and had reckoned upon all long mamma mamma we have finished our little snow sister and she is running about the garden with us what imaginative little beings my children are thought the mother putting the last few into s frock and it is strange too that they make me almost as much a child as they themselves are i can hardly help believing now that the snow image has really come to life dear mamma cried violet pray look out and see what a sweet we have the mother being thus entreated could no longer delay to look forth from the window the sun was now gone out of the sky leaving however a rich inheritance of his brightness among those purple and golden clouds which make the of winter so magnificent but there was not the slightest gleam or either on the window or on the snow so that the good lady could a childish look all over the garden and see everything and everybody in it and what do you think she saw there violet and of course her own two darling children ah but whom or what did she besides why if you will believe me there was a small figure of a girl dressed all in white with rose tinged cheeks and of golden hue playing about the garden with the two children a stranger though she was the child seemed to be on as familiar terms with violet and and they with her as if all the three had been during the whole of their little lives the mother thought to herself that it must certainly be the daughter of one of the neighbors and that seeing and in the garden the child had run across the street to play with them so this kind lady went to the door intending to invite the little into her comfortable parlor for now that the sunshine was withdrawn the atmosphere out of doors was already growing very cold but after opening the house door she stood an instant on the threshold hesitating whether she ought to ask the child to come in or whether she should even speak ta her indeed she almost doubted whether it were a real child after all or only a light wreath of the new fallen snow blown hither and thither about the garden by the intensely cold west	35
it and that meantime no person shall be allowed upon any pretext to acquire more than the prescribed by law what says an would take away a part of a man s land honestly acquired by inheritance gift or purchase and give it to some one else who needs it no sir there is no call for this let every man keep through life what the law has once decided to be his but when the landlord of thousands of acres shall die it is perfectly just it is expedient that the which has assured and guarded his ample possessions shall say with regard to land as it has long said with regard to thus far and no farther let the dying rich man leave all his to his but let him not the land which reason with experience in to the dearest interests of mankind the law may say and should say take the property messrs and share it as you shall agree or as the ministers of justice shall decide only it is that none of you shall take and retain beyond a certain limit say acres of soil whatever falls to any one in excess of that must be sold within a year to some person who will still have less than the legal after a few years this will have been entirely adjusted and no man having more than the quantity none will be in of what he has only the man who has already as much as the law allows him will be required on coming into possession of more to choose what portions of the whole not exceeding the legal he will retain selling the to some one who has no land or less than the legal allowance within the term by law when population shall have grown considerably more dense a limit op labor may justly be to which possessions shall be required gradually to as we have already seen i might well despair of on any mind which has not hitherto reflected on this subject the vital importance and vast of the principle of land to me it seems die very key of the arch which is destined to the millions from their degradation and misery i trace the frequent lack of employment the reward and the often accorded to labor directly to the influence of land here for example is a new i community just emerging from or just planted on a virgin soil for a season all goes well with it no man stands idle for want of employment and industry what it has sown but population gradually the land is all appropriated and good soil gradually rises in market value from ten to one hundred dollars per acre and perhaps higher is it not inevitable that it is now far more difficult than formerly for the young man to buy a farm and become his own employer and that he who as the tenant or of another must now receive for his labor a far smaller share of its product than of old suppose the crop be com and the average a yield thirty to the acre worth fifteen dollars one dollar of this or a part of the product would have r paid the rent when the land was valued at ten dollars but now it takes six dollars or two of the entire product but population still and its increase steadily carries up the market value of land until at length the becomes worth three hundred dollars per acre from sheer force of competition and necessity acting upon those who have no land and yet must live now the tenant can no longer to grow com unless he can immensely increase the product or unless he is willing to perform all the labor and run all the risks of hail frost c hints toward and give the entire of a full harvest for the privilege of cultivation it seems to me impossible with land stationary and incapable of increase naturally tending to fewer and fewer hands and population increasing that the of the laboring mass should not become more and more and precarious and their more and more depressed and hopeless for the last half century this tendency has been partially by the invention of labor saving machinery and the immense development of natural and mechanical resources thus it is that the labor now performed in england would have required the best efforts of at least twenty times the present population of that island two centuries ago yet such is the evil influence of the land so fearfully there that though the present laboring class of england accomplish twenty times as much as did their ancestors two centuries back they yet receive a more scanty reward not in money but in the necessaries of life are worse fed lodged more severely worked and hardly better clad nor taught than those ancestors were capital land and machinery takes all the profit of labor to itself the of toil has not increased but the rent and of land have immensely and the number of substantial since the fatal conquest is still sensibly a scotch duke owns a tract miles by while twenty nine of the whole people remain on the island at the good pleasure and of the other and might be driven into exile by that at any time it chose in this country things have come to no such pass as yet thanks to our republican institutions and to the republican spirit which generally pervaded and directed the first on these shores there are portions of our continent where a vicious system of vast of labor tracts of wilderness to some favorite of the british crown or of some provincial governor or the sale of millions of acres at a price by some step mother state to one or more has some portion of the evils whereof unhappy ireland affords the most conspicuous example but in the	19
to me a good thing for us to remember wrong that has been done us yes that we may forgive it pardon me great heaven said lifting up the haunted eye for thrown away thine own high and if said if your memory one day be restored as we wiu hope and pray it may be would it not be a blessing to you to at once a wrong and its forgiveness he looked at the figure by the door and his attentive eyes on her again a ray of clearer light appeared to him to shine into his mind om her bright face he cannot go to his abandoned home he does not seek to go there he knows that he could only carry shame and trouble to those he has so cruelly neglected and that the best he can make them now is to avoid them a very little money carefully bestowed would remove him to some place where he might live and do no wrong and make as is left within his power for the wrong he has done to the unfortunate lady who is his wife and to his son this would be the best and kindest boon that their best friend could give them � one too that they need never know of and to him shattered in reputation mind and body it might be salvation he took her head between his ai d it the han s and said it shall be done i trust to you to do it for me now and secretly and to tell him that i would forgive him if i were so happy as to know for what as she rose and turned her beaming face towards the fallen man that her had been successful he a step and without raising his eyes addressed himself to you are so generous he said � you ever were � that you will try to banish your rising sense of in the spectacle that is before you i do not try to banish it from myself k you can believe me the entreated by a gesture to come nearer to him and as he listened looked in her face as if to find in it the clue to what he heard i am too decayed a wretch to make professions i recollect my own career too well to array any such before you but from the day on which i made my first step downward in dealing by you i have gone down with a certain steady doomed that i say keeping her close at his side turned his face towards the speaker and there was sorrow in it something like mournful recognition too thb i might haye been man my life might have been another life if i had avoided that fatal step i don t know that it have been i claim nothing for the possibility sister is at rest and better than she haye been with me if i had even what you thought me even what i once supposed myself to be made a hasty motion with his hand as if he would have put that subject on one side i speak the other went on like a man taken from the grave i should have made my own grave last night had it not been for this blessed hand oh dear he me too sobbed under her breath that s another i could not have put myself in your way last night even for bread but to day my recollection of what has been between us is so strongly stirred and is presented to me i don t know how so vividly that i have dared to come at her suggestion and to take your and to thank you for it and to beg you in your dying hour to be as merciful to me in your thoughts as you are in your deeds he turned towards the door and stopped a moment on his way forth thb haunted i hope my son may interest you for mother s sake i hope he may deserve to do so unless my life should be preserved a long time and i should know that i have not your aid i shall never look upon him more going out he raised his eyes to for the first time whose gaze was fixed upon him held out his hand he returned and touched it � little more � with both his own and bending down his head went slowly out in the few moments that elapsed while silently took him to the gate the dropped into his and covered his face with his hands seeing him thus when she came back accompanied by her husband and his fa r who were both greatly concerned for him she avoided disturbing him or permitting him to be disturbed and down near the chair to put some warm clothing on the boy that s exactly where it is that s what i always say exclaimed her admiring husband there s a feeling in mrs william s breast that must and will have went aye aye said the old man you re right my son william s right the of and th haunted man man it happens all for the best dear no said mr william tenderly that we have no children of our own and yet i yon had one to love and cherish our little dead child that you built such hopes upon and that never breathed the breath of hfe � it has made you quiet like i am happy in the of if william dear she answered i think of it every day i was afraid you thought of it a good deal don t say a aid it is a comfort to me it speaks to me in so many ways the innocent thing that never lived on earth is like an angel to me william you are like	8
am that ia a simple scene reader but it is almost certain that too have been in love � perhaps even more than once though you may not choose to to all your lady friends if you will no more think the slight words the timid looks the tremulous touches by which two human souls approach each other gradually like two little quivering streams before they mingle into one � you will no more think these things trivial than yon will think the first detected signs of coming spring though they be but a faint indescribable something in the air and in the song of the birds and the perceptible on the branches those slight words and looks and touches are part of the soul s e and the finest language i believe is chiefly made up of words such as light sound stars � words really not worth looking at or hearing in themselves any more than or it is only that they happen to be the is of something great and beautiful i am of opinion that love is a great and beautiful thing too and if yon agree with me the signs of it will not be and to you they will rather be like those little words light and music the long of your memory and your present with your most precious past chapter li s touch of could not be made to appear serious enough to detain another night from the hall farm now she had made up her mind to leave her aunt so boon and at evening the friends must part for a long while had said for she had told of her resolve then it ll be for all my life an i shall ne er see thee again long while i n got no long t an i shall be took bad an die an thee ne er come a nigh me an i shall die a longing for thee that had been the key note of her wailing all day for adam was not in the house and so she put no restraint on her complaining she had tried poor by returning again and again to the question why she must go away and ing to accept reasons which seemed to her nothing but whim and and still more by that she ha one o the lads and be her daughter thee put up wi she said he enough foi thee happen but he d ha been very good t thee � he s as handy as can be at things for me when i m bad an he s as fond o th bible an as thee a t but happen thee like a husband better as just the cut o th brook for th rain adam ud ha done for i know he an he might come t like thee well enough if thee stop but he s as stubborn as th iron bar � there s no him no way but s own but he d be a husband for any body be they who they so looked on an so as he is an d he d be rare an it does me good on y a look o the lad s eye when he means land tow rt me tried to escape from s looks and questions by finding little tasks of that kept her mo ing about and as soon as came home in the evening she put on her bonnet to go it touched keenly to say the good by and still more to look on her way across the fields and see the old woman still standing at the door after her till she must have been the speck in the dim ed eyes the god of love and peace be with them prayed as she looked back from the last make them glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted them and the years wherein they have seen evil it is thy will that i should part from them let me have no will but thine turned into the house at last and sat down in the near who was himself there with fit ting some bits of turned wood he had brought from the village into a small work box which he meant to give to she went away thee t see her again o sunday afore she goes were her first words if thee good for any thing thee make her come in again o sunday night wi thee an see me once nay mother said ud be sure to come again if she saw right to come i should have no need to persuade her she only thinks it ud be troubling thee for just to come in to say good by over again she d ne er go away i know if adam ud be fond on her an many her but every thing s so said with a burst of vexation paused a moment and looked up with a slight blush at his mother s face what has she s� ud any thing o that sort to thee mother he said in a low tone said nay she ll say it s ou y the men as have to wait till folks say things afore they find em out well but what thee think so mother what s put it into thy head f it s no matter what s put it into my head my head s none bo hollow as it must get in an to pat it there i know she s fond on him as i know the win s in at th door an that s an he might he to marry her if he know d she s fond on him but he ll ne er think on t if somebody put it into s head his mother s suggestion about s feeling toward adam was not a new	14
it was now but it was something so droll i an hour or two spent in what her mother called chat or in other words in every varied of concerning all their acquaintance on mrs s and in laughter without cause on mrs s it was proposed by the latter that they should all accompany her to some shops where she had business that morning to which mn and readily consented as having likewise some purchases to make themselves and though declining it at was induced to go likewise wherever went she was evidently always on the watch in bond street where much of their lay her eyes were in constant and in whatever op the party were engaged her mind was equally abstracted firom everything actually before them from all that interested and occupied the restless and dissatisfied every where her sister could never obtain her opinion of any article of purchase however it m ht equally concern them both she received no pleasure from any thing only impatient to be at home again and l w aw li y go i ba v at the of un was b or new was wild to bay ao on and i h� time in it was late in the � ig before i and no sooner had the � � flew np stain and when followed her turning from the table with a declared that no by had been has no letter been left here for me since we went out i said she to the footman who then entered the she was in the n are yon quite sure of it i she replied are you certain no no porter hu left any letter or the man replied that none had how very odd i said she in a low and voice aa she away to the window how odd indeed i repeated within herself regarding her sister with uneasiness if she had not known him to be in town she would not have written to him as she did she would have written to and if he is in town how odd that he should come nor write i oh my dear mother you must be wrong in an engagement between a daughter so a man so httle known to be carried on in so so mysterious a manner long to but how will my interference be borne she determined after some consideration that if continued many days longer as unpleasant as they now were she would represent in the strongest manner to her mother the of some serious into die affair mrs and two elderly ladies of mrs s intimate acquaintance whom she had met and invited in the morning dined with them the former left them soon after tea to fulfil her evening engagements and � was obliged to assist in making a table for the others was of no use on these occasions as she would never the but though her time was at sense and sensibility her own disposal the evening ma by no means more productive of pleasure to her than to for it was spent ia all the anxiety of expectation and the pain of she sometimes endeavoured for a few minutes to read but the was soon thrown aside and she returned to the more interesting employment of backwards and forwards across the room pausing for a moment she came to the window in hopes of the expected rap chapter v if this open weather holds much longer said mrs when they met at breakfast the following mornings sir not like leaving next we tis a sad for to lose a day s pleasure poor souls pity them when they do they seem to take it so to heart that is true cried in a cheerful voice and walking to the window as she spoke to examine the day i had not thought of this weather will keep many in the country it was a lucky recollection all her good spirits were restored by it it is charming weather for them indeed she continued as she sat down to the breakfast table with a happy countenance how much they must enjoy iti but a return of anxiety it cannot be expected to last long at this time of the year and after such a series of rain we shall certainly have very little more of it will soon set in and in all probability with severity in another day or two perhaps this extreme can hardly last longer � nay perhaps it may to night at any rate said wishing to prevent from seeing her sister s thoughts as clearly as she did i dare say we shall have sir john and lady in town by the end of next week ay my dear i ll warrant you we do always has own way i s� iu and and now silently she will write to by this day s post but if e did tiie letter written and sent away with a privacy which all her to ascertain the ct whatever the of it might be and r as was firom feeling thorough about it yet while she saw in spirits she could not be very and was in spirits in die of the weather and still h in her e of a frost the morning was chiefly spent in leaving cards at the houses of s acquaintance to them of her being in town and was all die time busy in observing the direction of the wind watching the of the sky and imagining an alteration in the air don t find it colder than it in the t there seems to me a very decided difference i can hardly keep my hands even in my it was not so yesterday i think the clouds seem parting too the sun will be out in a moment and we shall have a clear afternoon was alternately diverted and pained but and	26
fainted and had fainted again he had had little food during the day and had been two of the group were but only one of them knew the other being a magistrate not resident in the one who knew was mr john johnson whose zeal for the public peace had brought him from when he heard that the soldiers were summoned i know this man very well said mr johnson he is a dangerous character � quite it was a weary night and the next day whose wound was declared trivial was lodged in jail he was committed on three counts � a for having committed was dead from and for having led a on a dwelling house four other men were committed one of them for possessing himself of a gold cup with the arms on it the three others one of whom was the for riot and assault that morning town was no longer in terror but it was in much sadness other men more innocent than the hat d were groaning under severe bodily injuries and poor s corpse was not the only one that had been lifted from the pavement it is true that none grieved much for the other dead man unless it be grief to say old fellow he had been trampled upon doubtless where he fell near the entrance of the seven stars this second corpse was the bill otherwise thomas the last of a very old family line the radical chapter the fields are with december s frost i too am with the of age bat through the fields and through the woods is rest and stillness � only in my heart the pall of winter a throbbing life a week after that riot was at court he had returned from a hasty visit to town to keep his christmas at this delightful country home not in the best christmas spirits he had lost the election but if that had been his only annoyance he had good humor and good sense enough to have borne it as well as most men and to have paid th eight or nine thousand which had been the price of that he was not to sit in the next parliament without useless grumbling but the disappointments of life can never any more than its pleasures be estimated singly and the and most agreeable of men is exposed to that coincidence of various each the effect of the other which may produce in him something corresponding to the spontaneous and unaccountable of the morbid and disagreeable might not have grieved much at a small riot in even if it had caused some expenses to fall on the county but the turn which the riot had actually taken was a bitter morsel for on more grounds than one however the had arisen and been and probably no one knew the whole truth on these points � the conspicuous incidents had all tended to throw the blame on the radical party that is to s on and on s agents and so far the and its results had done in the county precisely the opposite effect to that which was a q i dear object of his ambition more than this s conscience was active enough to be very affected by what had befallen his memory always good was particularly vivid in its of s complaint to him about the treating of the men and of the subsequent scene in s office when the personage with the name of johnson had to him the impossibility of an scheme once begun and of turning your vehicle back when it had already begun to roll down hill remembering s words of indignant warning about men with drink in them to make a noise could not resist the urgent impression that the for which was committed were not brought about by any willing co operation of his with the s but arising probably from some ill judged efforts to their violence and this impression which insisted on growing into a conviction became in one of its phases an uneasy sense that he held evidence which would at once tend to and to place himself and his agents in any thing but a desirable light it was likely that some one else could give equivalent evidence in favor of � the little preacher for example but anyhow the affair with the men would be open and made the worst of by the opposite parties the man who has failed in the use of some is helped very little by the fact that his rivals are men to whom that is a something human very far from being alien there remains this grand distinction that he has failed and that the jet of light is thrown entirely on his in this matter felt himself a victim could he hinder the tricks of his agents in this particular case he had i to hinder them and had tried in vain he had not loved the two agents in question to begin with and now at this later stage of events he was more innocent than ever of bearing any thing but the most sincere the radical ill will he was more utterly exasperated with them than he would probably have been if his one great passion had been for public virtue with his john johnson had added this ugly dirty business of the election to all the long list of which was resolved to visit on him to the utmost he had seen some carrying the that there was a to on the part of the if any such notions existed apart from there was fell the reason for letting the world see severely punished for his power over the family affairs and with the family property and the world certainly should see this with as little delay as possible the cool confident assuming fellow should be to the last drop in compensation and all	14
sprung up everywhere in the yet always artistic fashion of mother nature when she is left to design her own ways � so that the entire was more a wilderness than anything else yet it had its attractions or seemed to have at least for mrs for she passed nearly all her time in it now however owing to the long shadows her husband could not perceive her anywhere though presently as he stood at the window he heard her voice an absurd of which he caught a distinct fragment concerning gay bo hem i we re not particular what we do in gay bo hem i a � his face cold and heavy as it was grew downright ugly in its expression of contempt she ought to have been a music hall singer he said to himself with a kind of inward � she has all the taste and talent required for it and to think she is actually well born and well educated what an he the window to violently and went within there was a smoking room at the back of the house and thither he retired with his and one of the of all the various dull evening papers chapter iii early the next morning between six and seven o clock little was up and dressed and sitting by his bedroom window cap in hand waiting eagerly for to appear he was going to see his friendly off by the coach and the idea was not without a certain and excitement it was a perfect day bright with sunshine and all the birds were singing the boy s sensitive soul was divided between sadness and pleasure � sadness at losing the companionship of the kindly good natured young fellow who alone out of all his various teachers had seemed to understand and with him � pleasure at the novelty of getting up on the sly and slipping out and away without his father s knowledge and seeing the coach with its four horses its jolly driver and its still red faced guard all at a halt outside the funny old inn called by various the pack o cards on account of its peculiar structure � and watching mr climb up to the too of the horn and then finally beholding the whole glorious dash away at break neck speed to this was something for a boy as mere boy to look forward to with a thrill of expectation � but deep down in his heart of hearts he was thinking of another delight as well � a plan he had formed in secret and of which he had not breathed a word even to the scheme was a bold and dreadful one and it was this � to run away for the day he did not wish to his studies � but he knew there were to be no lessons till his new professor arrived and professor was not due till that evening at ten o clock the whole day therefore was before him � the long beautiful day � and he in his own mind resolved that he would for once make the best of it he had no wish to deceive his father � his desire for an arose out of an instinctive longing which he himself had not the skill to � a longing not only for freedom but for rest turning it over and over in his thoughts now as he had turned it over and over all night poor child he could not see that there was any particular harm or mischief in his intention neither his father nor mother ever wanted him or sent for him except at luncheon which was his dinner � all the rest of the time he was supposed to be with his always engaged in learning something useful but now it so happened that he was to be left for several hours without any and why should he not take the chance of liberty while it was offered him he was still mentally this question when entered softly in hand come along he said with a kind smile � step gently nobody s � and aid and you in this morning s we re going to breakfast together at miss s � the coach won t be here for a long time yet gave a noiseless jump of delight on the floor and then did as he was told creeping after his down the � like a velvet footed and with excess of timidity and pleasure when the big hall door was opened cautiously and closed again with equal care behind them and they stood together among the and wild rose of the sweetly scented garden let mc help you carry your mr � he said � i m sure i can i m sure you can t returned with a laugh leave it alone my boy � it s too heavy for you here you can carry my instead took the well worn leather bound volume and bore it along in both hands reverently as though it were a sacred where arc you going mr he asked presently � have you got another boy like me to teach no � not yet i wonder if i shall manage to find another boy like you eh do you think i shall considered seriously for a moment before replying well i don t know he said at last � i suppose there must be some you see when you re an only boy you get different to other boys you ve got to try and be more clever you know if i had two or three brothers now my father would want to make every one of them clever and he wouldn t have to get it all out of me that s how i look at it it oh that s how you look at it echoed studying with some compassion the delicate little figure	33
surprise and every surprise must be matter of humiliation to her how to understand it all how to understand the she had been thus on herself and living under i the the blindness of her own head and heart she sat still she walked about she tried her own room she tried the � in place every posture she perceived that she had acted most weakly that she had been imposed on by others in a most degree that she had been imposing on herself in a degree yet more that she was wretched and should probably find this day but the beginning of wretchedness l to understand thoroughly understand her own heart was the first endeavour to that point went every leisure moment which her father s claims on her allowed and every moment of involuntary absence of mind how long had mr been so dear to her as every feeling declared him now to be when had his influence such influence begun when had he succeeded to that place in her affection which frank had once for a short occupied � she looked back she compared the two � compared them as they had always stood in her estimation from the time of the latter s becoming known to her � and as they must at any time have been compared by her had it � oh had it by any blessed felicity occurred to her to the comparison she saw that there never had been a time when she did not consider mr as infinitely the superior or when his regard for her had not been infinitely the most dear she saw that in persuading herself in in acting to the contrary she had been entirely under a delusion totally ignorant of her own heart � and in short that she had never really cared for frank at all this was the conclusion of the first series of reflections this was the knowledge of herself on the first question of inquiry which she reached and without being long in reaching it she was most sorrowfully indignant ashamed of every sensation but the one revealed to her � her affection for mr every other part of her mind was disgusting witli vanity had she believed herself in the secret of everybody s feelings with proposed to arrange everybody s destiny she was proved to have been universally mistaken and she had not quite done nothing � for she had done mischief she had brought evil on on herself and she too much feared on mr were this most unequal of all connections to take place on her must rest all the reproach of having given it a beginning for his attachment she must believe to be produced only by a consciousness of s � and even were this not the case he would never have known at all but for her folly mr and smith � it was an union to distance every wonder of the kind the attachment of frank and jane became commonplace stale in the comparison exciting no surprise presenting no affording nothing to be said or thought mr and smith such an elevation on her side such a on his it was horrible to to think how it must sink him in the general opinion to foresee the smiles the the merriment it would prompt at his expense the mortification and disdain of his brother the thousand to himself could it be no it was impossible and yet it was far very far from impossible � was it a new circumstance for a man of first rate abilities to be by very inferior powers was it new for one perhaps too busy to seek to be the prize of a girl who would seek him was it new for anything in this world to be unequal inconsistent � or for chance and circumstance as second causes to direct the human fate oh had she never brought forward had she left her where she ought and where he had told her she ought had she not with a folly which no tongue could express prevented her marrying the young man who would have made her happy and respectable in the line of life to which she � ought to belong all would have been safe none of this dreadful would have been how could ever have had the presumption to raise her thoughts to mr � how she could dare to herself the chosen of such a man till actually assured of it but was less humble had fewer scruples than formerly her inferiority whether of mind or situation seemed little she had seemed more sensible of mr s being to stoop in marrying her than she now seemed of mr s alas was not tliat her own doing too who had been at pains to give notions of self consequence but herself who but herself had taught her that she was to herself if possible and that her claims were great to a high worldly establishment if from being humble were grown vain it was her doing too till now that she was threatened with its loss had never known how much of her happiness depended on being first with mr first in interest and affection satisfied that it was so and feeling it her due she had enjoyed it without reflection and only in the dread of being found how important it had been long very long she felt she had been first for having no female connections of his own there had been only whose claims could be compared with hers and she had always known exactly how far he loved and esteemed she had herself been first with him for many years past she had not deserved it she had often been or perverse his advice or even opposing him insensible of half his merits and quarrelling with him because he would not acknowledge her false and insolent estimate of her	26
and without moat c mm avoid alluding to their hue thus betraying upon the point as if it were a altogether the colonel and w lad ft make many friends and are as a happy and as truly as any le or elsewhere coming to beach we no boat and half an passed be one to take us on board in the i strolled along the picking up the small i ih waves had m in abundance n the sand in the of they would have bee of little value as all of then were common and none possessed more than a angle but the purple blush of the interior pleased me and is more i was gathering these trifles for a lady whom i have never seen yet whom i trust i t i may venture to count nor i know tiiat she will be pleased with the poor and its for each of these shells i� a thought that over ite � ear the ore of africa to a fireside in new england � and returned to the grateful fancies and hopes it waa a � t and m the it is a t on the second door of th e recently d for the purpose of a i l an l court the governor presided sitting in a high backed ro chair d by log aw by the by the natives call a mi � k t the secretary a� do ot w� tt in gold bowed spectacles as his assistant an wi big feet and striped seemed to person the offices of door keeper at bt the consisted of ten members milk arranged semi in front of tlie occupied benches in rear of le i the before the council related to i o w in at the e e wealth as proposed in one of the sections of a city government this being a matter of member his views but te whole debate forty a i i individuals spoke twice this waa la vii of choice than necessity at to the fact t the officer set his against ah of and kept the to e point if wandered in the least he was instantly called to orders � bi compelled to take his seat upon tlie slightest the rules of t house one of the members was a specimen of humanity than even our bodies at have ever presented to an admiring � captured african representing new an figure of man who spoke very broken with earnestness and much to t e of his brother and ike audience generally i regret my preserve r the matter or the manner of so � � orator here as in the other situations in whidi i him placed governor as a manly and sensible person ins appointment tbe society at home he can act ind in m official capacity than if indebted to t e voices of the for bin position � � � d by � t i� on our way to i with the of war oar cap on boards and was that she had been r fr i y ry four days to the tiie k to ma where s was at she van of the boat with three guns out on h� r waist of a hm m tm hie did not venture to attack her took in nine hundred or a slaves and � i ted at sea she the and was into repeatedly by that vessel daring the night bull in making her the was undo and is said to have been the i ms now owned by and bearing ii � i� again came to an at l i np the t paul s river officers in company with dr left in the m in me of our boats rowed an i w� if rowed by five near the village wa from the river through s seven or eight miles to the st paul s oar first landing was aa the where the of sugar was going on twelve whose power in this country is applied to as great a variety of purposes as those of steam and in our own were the mill by two long round and round in one interminable circle like the in an old fashioned bark mill three or four boys fed tiie mill with cane which about a score of were m cutting and bringing in by small from a ft field in tha vicinity the mr and a few ol er persons were occupied in boiling the mr informed me that were employed on the premises at dollars per month and twenty five at sixty two and a half cents a day be d by sides i dr food m they r sugar which wiu at least nt par ab pipes of the now im � ia ami ii kind l already ba with a ml and ten in the tin ap il ihe � ar � w mr had the m ip ef and resided nine or tea m if ij the al si e� white man the survived a large amount of property was in of and he the ta land as oi the he now tf from le salary a three leaving the we soon entered ike st a r comes rolling onward from the yet interior of the country following its course a mile or towards ihe we arrived at s town a or forty huts where a considerable slave trade carried on until broken up by the under old still here and ter hatred against the and all americans and men as having caused the ruin of her profitable the old was not now at home having obeyed of the by retiring to a more secluded e t purpose of a sick grand g ter the persons remained were quite uninteresting the only a group was composed of two women one flat on face with her head in the other	35
have thought already that be ii as merciful and kind as you and why do i not trust myself to as soon as to you have you not thought so no thought said little can be quite a stranger to my heart that springs out of the knowledge that mr is always to be relied upon for being kind and generous and good i do not doubt it yet arthur is of the whole world the one person from whom i would conceal this while i am in it i kept over him as a child in the days of his first remembrance my and hand was stem with him knowing that the of the parents are visited on their offspring and that there was an angry mark upon him at his birth i have sat with him and his father seeing the weakness of his father yearning to to him and forcing it back that the child might work out his release in bondage and hardship i have seen him with his mother s face looking up at me in awe from his little books and trying to soften me with his mother s ways that hardened me the shrinking of her stopped her for a moment in her flow of words delivered in a gloomy voice for his good not for the satisfaction of my injury what i and what was the worth of that before the curse of heaven i have seen that child grow up not to be pious in a chosen way his mother offence lay too heavy on him for that but still to be just and upright and to be to me he never loved me as i once halt hoped he might � so frail we are and so do the corrupt affections of the flesh war with our and tasks but he respected me and ordered himself to me he does to this hour with an empty place in his heart that he has never known the meaning of he has turned away from me and gone his separate road but even that he has ji q i id and with deference these have been hia oi s vo ts a s l v h kind b i tea o ex r v s� l have sat at your needle in my room yon have been in fear of me but � yon have supposed me to have been doing you a kindness you are better informed now and know me to have done you an injury f and misunderstanding of the cause in which and the motives with which i have worked out this work is lighter to endure than his would be i would not for any worldly i can imagine have him in a moment however blindly throw me down from the station i have held before him all his life and change me altogether into something he would cast out of his respect and detected and exposed let him do it if it must be done when i am not here to see it let me never feel while i am still alive that i die before his face and utterly perish away from him like one consumed by lightning and swallowed by an earthquake her pride was very strong in her the pain of it and of her old passions was very sharp with her when she thus expressed herself less so when she added even now i see t au shrink from me as if i had been cruel little could not it she tried not to show it but she with dread from the state of mind that had burnt so fiercely and lasted so long it presented itself to her with no upon it in its own plain nature i have done said mrs what it was given to me to i p do i have set myself against evil not against good i have been an instrument of severity against sin have not mere like myself been to lay it low in all time in all time repeated little even if my own wrong had prevailed with me and my own vengeance had moved me could i have justification none in the old days when the innocent perished with the guilty a thousand to one when the wrath of the of the was not even in blood and yet found favor mrs mrs said little angry and deeds are no comfort and no guide to you and me my life has been passed in this poor prison and my teaching has been very but let me you to remember later and better days be guided only by l e of the sick the of the dead ihe friend of all who were and forlorn the patient master who shed tears of compassion for our we cannot but be right if we put all the rest away and do everything in remembrance of him there is no vengeance and no of suffering in his life i am sure there can be no confusion r in following him and seeking for no other footsteps i am certain b in the softened light of the window looking from the scene of her � early trials to the shining sky she was not in stronger opposition to � the black figure in the shade than the life and doctrine on which rested were to that figure s history it bent its head low again and said not a word it remained thus the first warning bell � began to ring hark starting i said i had another petition it is one that does not admit of delay the man who brought you this packet and possesses these proofs is now waiting at my house to be bought off i keep this from only by off be n large bum more than i can get together to pay him having time he to make any because his	8
cheeks were ruddy with the flush of youth and her cherry lips were parted with a smile she was looking for her sister and she held in her hands a dainty piece of with which she had been the morning hours when her surprised eyes saw the strangers in the hall she started quickly back and shrieked with alarm in a moment the came running from the weaving room with their and in their hands and following them came s elderly sister the mother of when they beheld the strange young prince so noble in form and so richly clad they stopped suddenly and stood speechless for wonder then all at once looking beyond saw her son standing in the hall and with a cry of glad surprise she ran to meet him in the halls of king o my child she cried hast thou indeed come home again hast thou had enough of savage and hast thou come back to stay with thy mother in her old age while she was clinging to his neck and sobbing aloud for joy the king himself came into the hall was very old yet he walked erect and proud and his eyes blazed like beneath his gray forehead men said that he was the child of the sun and none could remember the time when he began to rule over the people of ea like a lion roused in his he strode forward eager to learn what was the cause of the commotion but when he saw the strangers and among them his he his anger and in pleasant tones bade each of them welcome then without further words he went back the way he had come calling aloud to his servants forthwith there was running to and fro throughout the palace some hastened to carry wood into the kitchen some quickly the fires others hurried to the and to prepare a feast for the unexpected guests one of s maidens led them to pleasant chambers set apart for strangers another brought them clean linen and warm water for the bath another their clothes and stood ready to do the golden any service they might wish but no one asked them questions or sought to know the reason of their coming at length when they had rested and refreshed themselves they were led into the long dining hall where meat and drink for the were placed before them there with the old king as their host they merrily while soft music played by unseen hands filled their hearts with joy and drove all fear of danger from their minds from a gallery above dark eyes looked down upon them � the eyes of and of her young maiden sister and as gazed upon the form of she thought that nowhere in the world could there be another prince so full of grace and noble courage and all that goes to the making of a perfect man when the meal was finished and it was right and courteous to ask the questions that were uppermost in his mind said to now tell me my why have you returned to a and who are these noble strangers whom you have brought hither to be my guests then answered humbly as becomes a young man speaking to his i went as you did bid me to to claim the kingdom which should be mine but the m the halls of king in that city would not receive me and i barely escaped from them with my life the race of is accursed and it is that no one of his descendants shall sit upon his throne until the golden is carried back to greece ah indeed said scornfully then i suppose that your errand here is to rob your of his richest treasure and you have brought these strangers to help you is it not so judge me not so harshly grandfather answered i will tell you the truth the young prince who sits beside us is whose grandfather was the brother of he is therefore my own cousin he is heir to the rich kingdom of w hich lies at the foot of old mount by the sea but a certain lawless man robbed him of his while he was still a lad and bade him win it back by bringing the golden from a so we together built a ship greater than any other that has ever sailed the sea and gathered around him all the chosen heroes of the race for a quest the like of which no other man has ever undertaken he has come hither to and the city of ea bringing great treasures with which to buy the golden indeed indeed muttered and his face the golden began to grow purple with rage then arose and spoke soothingly to him great king he said the words that has spoken are true and now that we may remove the curse which rests so heavily upon the house of we come to you as merchants with a fair store of goodly things to offer you in exchange for the we have in the hold of our ship rich golden cups and well wrought arms and brazen and rare from distant and much else to please the eyes of kings and deck their halls take these and let us have the that hangs useless in your treasure house then the curse will be removed from the family of and your son will be his just rights the old face of changed from purple to an hue as he listened to these words but he checked his anger and answered for he planned not only to keep the but also to possess himself of all the riches of which had spoken i am no merchant that i should trade with you he said the is not for sale and even though it were there is not enough in the world to pay for	23
either sex who is not taken in when they marry look where i will i see that it is and i feel that it must be so when i consider that it is of all transactions the one in which people expect most others and are least honest themselves ah you have been in a bad school for matrimony in street my poor aunt had certainly little cause to love the state but however speaking from my own observation it is a business know so many who have married in the full n and confidence of some one particular advantage in the connection or accomplishment or good quality in the person who have found entirely deceived and been obliged to put up with exactly the reverse i what is this but a take in v my dear child there must be a little imagination here i beg your pardon but i cannot quite believe you depend upon it you see but half you see the evil but you do not see the consolation there will be little and disappointments every where and we are all apt to expect too much but then if one scheme of happiness fails human nature turns to another if the first calculation is wrong we make a second better we find comfort somewhere � and those evil minded dearest mary who make much of a little are more taken in and deceived than the parties themselves well done sister honour your du corps when i am a wife i mean to be just as myself and i wish my friends in general would be so too it would save me many a heart you are as bad as your brother mary but we will cure jou both shall cure you both and without any taking in stay with us and we will cure you the without wanting to be cured were very willing to stay mary was satisfied with the as a present home and henry equally ready to his visit he had intending to spend only a few days with them but promised well and there was nothing to call him elsewhere it delighted mrs grant to keep them both with her and dr t wa exceedingly well contented to have it so a talking pretty young woman like miss is always pleasant society to an indolent stay at home and mr s being his guest was an excuse drinking et every day the s admiration of mr was more than any thing which miss s habits made her likely to feel she acknowledged however that the messrs were very fine young men that two such young men were not often seen together in london and that their manners particularly those of the st were very good he had been much even in london and had more and gallantry than and must therefore be preferred and indeed his being the eldest was another strong claim she had felt an early that she should like the eldest best she knew it was her way tom must have been thought pleasant indeed at any rate he was the sort of young man to be generally his was of the kind to be oftener found agreeable than some of a higher stamp for he had easy manners excellent spirits a large acquaintance and a great deal to say and the of park and a did no harm to all this miss soon felt that he and his situation might do she looked about her with due consideration and found almost every thing in his favour a park a real park five miles round a spacious modern built house so well placed and well as deserve to be in any collection of of gentlemen s seats in the kingdom and wanting only to be completely new furnished � j sisters a quiet mother and an agreeable man himself � x advantage of being tied up from a park present by a promise to his father and of being sir hereafter it do very well she believed she should accept liim and she began accordingly to interest herself a little about the se which he had to run at the b races these races were to call him away not long after their acquaintance began and as it appeared that the family did not from his usual on expect him back again for many weeks it would bring his passion to an early proof much was said on his side to induce her to attend the races and schemes were made for a large party to them with all the eagerness of inclination but it would only do to be talked of and what was she doing and all this while and what was her opinion of the new comers few yo ladies of eighteen could be less called on to speak their opinion than in a quiet way very little attended to she paid her tribute of admiration to miss s beauty but as she still continued to think mr very plain in spite of her two cousins having repeatedly proved the contrary she never mentioned him the notice which she excited herself was to this effect i begin now to understand you all except miss price said miss as she was walking with the messrs pray is she out or is she not i am puzzled she dined at the with the rest of you which seemed like being out and yet she says so little that i can hardly suppose she w to whom this was chiefly addressed replied i believe i know what you mean � but i will not undertake to answer the question my cousin is grown up she has the age and sense of a woman but the and not are be me and yet in general nothing can be more easily ascertained the tion is so broad manners as well as appearance are generally speaking so totally different till now i	26
some large spreading trees loaded with the largest and crimson blossoms i ever saw throwing even the gaudy into the shade but nothing can look very attractive here with the swamp in front and the behind where the is said to undisturbed we landed in the police boat at a approached by a ladder with few and slippery at the top there was a primitive of loose bars and the so rapidly and below that i was obliged to hold on to a china the district has recently been handed over to and is now under mr low s very capable administration the golden letter man in order to reach the safely to add to the natural of the some men killing a goat at the top of the ladder and its blood made the whole slippery the of the river are shining giving off under the burning sun there is a general smell of vegetable and fever one would suppose is from every of the and swamp in the of mr s house a number of forlorn looking are sitting each with his train of followers and in front of the police station a number of forlorn looking are sitting motionless hour after hour the chinese have a row of shops above the river bank and even on this shore they display some purpose and energy mrs and i are sitting in mr s side with the swamp below us she reads a dull novel i watch the dead life pen in hand and think how i can convey any impression of it to you the has gone shooting to our a boat now and then crosses from the p side a occasionally the group a fishing hawk now and then down upon a fish a policeman occasionally up the wretch in the cage and so the hours pass i take this up again as the dew falls and the sea takes on the colouring of a dying the returned with a good bag of and with a gentle timid looking man and another with an puzzled face took his place at a table a policeman with a brace of loaded standing behind him filed in one or two cases were tried and dismissed the witnesses trembling from head to foot and then the wretch from the cage was letter xvi a and stray brought in looking hardly human as from under his shaggy hair and which hung over his chest he cast frightened glances at the array before him he was charged with being a a had picked him up at sea in a boat of which he could give no account neither of himself so he is supposed to have been in the murder of mr and we are bringing him and his boat up to i wonder how many of the feelings which we call human exist in the lowest order of i it is certain that many of them only regard kindness as a confession of weakness the chinese seem specially inscrutable no one seems really to understand them even the said that they knew nearly nothing of them and their feelings this wretched criminal with his possible association with a brutal murder is a most piteous object on deck and comes between me and the enjoyment of this evening we re embarked late in the afternoon and with the flood tide in our favour have left behind it has impressed me as compared with of i cannot give any opinion but i have seen no signs of progress or life anywhere else the people of the state are harassed by which yield very little cost a great deal to collect repress industry and drive away population among such are taxes on individuals moving about the country up or down the rivers cutting wood or in boats heavy duties on certain kinds of produce and ad duties on all articles of import and not otherwise specially the costs of are enormous and the legal expenses to are as great as in where with the same money every advantage can be obtained the s the golden i on all legal are also oppressive the various are said to be in a state of with all this there is a good deal of display of military power on a small scale and of such implements as and together with marching and counter marching body guards and guards of honour there must surely be a want of the right kind of vigour in the administration and a on the part of some of the minor officials the result of which is that the great of the state are not developed and its resources seem very little known there has not been any disturbance in since and as neither the the nor the chinese have ever raised objections of any serious kind to the proposals of the british the far back state of things is very singular mr the of military police appears a thoroughly efficient man as sensible in his views of what would to the advancement of the state as he is conscientious and careful in all matters of detail which concern his rather complicated position he is a student of the people and of the country speaks and for a european seems to have a sympathetic understanding of the is studying the chinese and their language as well as the and of the country and is altogether i have formed a very high opinion of him and should rely on anything which he told me as a fact this is a great blessing for conflicting statements on every subject and the difficulty of which one comes probably nearest the truth are among the great woes of travelling i l b letter the xvii hotel l february in the evening we reached the a lovely group of small islands to england by the treaty and just now in the height of an the sun was low and	20
the brook but it was not the hum of the insects or the of a bird or the snapping of a rotten that filled joseph with awe but something that he could neither see nor hear nor smell nor touch the life of the trees � is that it he ex asked himself a remote and mysterious life was certainly breathing about him and he regretted he was without a sense to apprehend this life again and again it seemed that the forest was about to whisper its secret but something always happened to t � interrupt once it was certainly s fault for just as the trees were about to speak he picked up a leaf and began to explain how the shape of an oak leaf differed from that of the leaf of the chestnut and the ash a was heard among the leaves there she goes � a hare joseph said and a moment afterwards a white thing ap a white said shall we follow him joseph asked and answered that it would � be useless to follow we should soon miss them in the and he continued his discourse upon trees hop n ing that joseph would never again mistake a for s a chestnut and what is that tree so dark and gloomy rising up through all the other trees joseph asked so much higher than any of them that is a said do build in did not know and the tree did not inspire a climb it seemed to forbid any attempt on its privacy do trees talk when they are alone joseph asked and his gave the very sensible answer that the life of trees is unknown to us but that trees v had always awakened religious emotions in men the earliest tribes were tree which was very foolish for we can fell trees and put them to our usage they had come to a part of the forest in which there seemed to be neither birds nor beasts and joseph had begun to feel the forest a little wearisome and to wish for a change when the trees suddenly stopped and before the brook them lay a sunny full of tall grass with here and there a fallen tree and on these trees prone great themselves nodding their heads in a motion ever the same something had died in that beautiful for a rose sullenly and went away over the top of the trees and begged joseph not to pursue his search but to hasten out of the smell of the that a little breeze had just carried towards them besides this thick grass is full of he said and the words were no sooner out of his mouth than a snake issued from a thick stopped and feed on and rats joseph asked and come out of their holes to catch them isn t that so sir everything is out this sunny morning seeking its food answered after after this way joseph � yonder we may rest awhile but we must be careful not to sit upon a snake that yonder is free from for the trees that grow about it are fir trees and do not like any place where they can easily be detected and they sat on the ground and looked up into the darkness of the withered pines � withered everywhere except in the branches that alone caught the light a sad place to sit in joseph said don t you feel the sadness sir answered that he did but it is to snake he added at that moment slowly flapping wings were heard overhead it is the returning whispered to joseph and he is bringing a comrade back to dinner to a dinner joseph rejoined the breeze had suddenly and they found themselves again in the smell of we must go on farther said and after passing into many quiet hollows and ascending many the path to which they had remained faithful at last on broken ground with the tail end of the forest straggling up the opposite in groups and single trees i n s v x v v i v the brook � � s know where we are now joseph cried do you not remember sir joseph s explanation was cut short by the sight of some sitting at their midday meal and hunger falling suddenly upon and joseph both began to regret they had not brought food with them but had some tied in his garment and for one of these pieces of silver the were glad to share their bread and with them and to draw milk for them from one of the she from which shall i draw milk the shepherd asked his mate and the mate answered white nose looks as if her is her she lost her kid yesterday he mentioned two others and long ears whichever would like her milk drawn off will answer to thy call the shepherd answered and the goat came running to him as if glad to hear her name white nose isn t it joseph asked and he gathered a branch for her and while she he watched the milk drawn off and drank it foaming and warm from the believing it to be the sweetest he had ever drunk though he had often drunk goat s milk before too vowed that he had never drunk better milk and persuaded the into discourse of their trade learning much thereby for these men knew everything that men may know about flocks having been engaged in leading them from pasture to pasture all their lives and their fathers before them after telling of many famous they related the courage and fidelity of their dogs none of which feared a wolf and they mentioned that two had been lost in an encounter with a � but the flock had been saved as much as wolves the feared the there are a dozen nests in yon	15
less degrading than one which is persisted in i cannot oblige you in this instance i hate to be the of a show and to hear the comments of weak upon what i may choose to say or do then try to yourself of these foolish thoughts about your fellow creatures and imagine for an instant that you are alone in the world standing before the presence of your creator deeply in an act of to his holy will are we not told that there is no act of too deep or daring to be forgiven but when did we ever hear of forgiveness while the sin was persisted in and is dot every hour that you live without doing what justice you can to this poor man a convincing proof that you prefer the gratification of a mean and pride to the noble independence of daring to do what is right then you shall do this noble deed for me you shall proclaim to my household that i have been base and ungrateful enough to heap disgrace and shame upon the head of a servant you shall tell them also that their master is too great a coward to acknowledge his fault before them that he hides himself from their very looks and the voice of a to speak for him if there is no other way of setting the matter right i will for the sake of the old man and with your permission give my own version of the case to your nor need you tremble lor the dignity of your character in my hands but this is only my last resource � dear is there not something due from yourself is there not something due to her could proceed no farther the subject was too near her heart and tears of more than common anguish fell thick and fast while she bent down her head with a vain to conceal them for had unconsciously pronounced his doom � and hers on this one subject her thoughts had lingered with the fond hope that if he yielded to her arguments she should then feel justified in giving way to such of the future as were perpetually forcing themselves upon her heart but if she had said to herself that very morning cannot be made to see this glaring case as i do it will be proof that in the great consideration of moral good and evil we never can be united by that of feeling which is the foundation of all human happiness for many months had been remarked upon as being more grave and thoughtful than could be accounted for by her age or circumstances but now her gravity assumed an air of sadness which her at the cause endeavoured by the most delicate attentions to soothe and perceiving her kind wishes succeeded in forcing herself to converse and smile with a cheerfulness which repaid mrs for all her solicitude still her energy gave way � her health declined � the colour faded from her cheek and who seldom observed the of common life could not with all his incredulity blind himself to the conviction that he was or had been deeply and tenderly beloved but that any woman should refuse from principle the man who would otherwise have been her choice was to him so far beyond belief that he bestowed little regard k pictures of private life upon their frequent difference of opinion so long as he could enjoy such clear and evidence of his cousin s attachment to him for her sadness he could no cause but strove to her secret cares by more than kindness and solicitude until was often compelled to depart abruptly from his presence with tears that were altogether inexplicable to him in this manner time glided away and on a bright and morning when autumn had again spread her yellow curtain over the face of nature begged her cousin would accompany her on a visit to a poor man whom she had promised to see that morning they walked together to the door of the cottage where at the request of his cousin placed himself on a low bench within a sort of porch while she entered an inner apartment in which the object of her kind interest was seated by the fire it was a well known voice that bade her welcome in tones of the most gladness and after asking many questions about the health and comfort of the invalid sat down beside old who affectionately took her hand and pressed it closely with his time worn fingers you see i grow weaker every day said he without the least s of regret either in his countenance or voice i do indeed perceive an alteration said and the old man went on i have been thinking to day miss that pride has been all along my sin � pride in a good name and though he who robbed me of mine ought certainly to have known me better i have no doubt but this affliction was permitted to fall upon me in order that i might arrive at a better knowledge of my own heart for is a searching thing and we sometimes learn in what we never so much as thought of while all went well with us it was wrong very wrong in me miss to rebel as i did against the stroke and when i said in my towering pride that i forgave him i felt an triumph in the thought that i was coals of fire upon his head but now i see differently i see that he was in error but we are all liable to i can now say indeed that i forgive him from my soul and only wish that i could see his face and see it once more looking kindly on me before i die perhaps he will visit you said i wish he would sighed the	41
marriage you are very wrong she can never be i lost to you than she but she will be gained by i and if that some one should be the very he whom i of all others i could least bear � but i will sense and sensibility stay to rob myself of all your compassionate by showing that where i have most injured i can least forgive good by � god bless you i and with these words he almost ran out of the room r chapter xviii some time after he left her for some time after the sound of hia carriage had died away remained too much oppressed by a crowd of widely in but of which sadness was the general result to even of her � he whom only half an hour ago she had aa the most worthless of men � in spite of all his faults excited a degree of for the sufferings produced by them which made her think of him aa r forever from her family with a a regret rather in proportion as she soon acknowledged within herself to his wishes than to his merits she felt that his influence over her mind was heightened by circumstances which ought not in reason to have weight � by that person of uncommon attraction that open affectionate and lively manner which it was no merit to and by that still ardent love for which it was not even innocent to indulge but she felt that it was so long long before she could feel less � sense and sensibility when at last she returned to the found her just refreshed by bo long and sweet a sleep to the extent of her s heart was fall the past the present the future s visit s safety and her mother s expected arrival threw her altogether into an agitation of spirits which kept off every indication of fatigue and made her ly fearful of betraying herself to her sister short was the time however ia which that fear lid affect her for half an after s leaving the house she was again called downstairs by the sound of another carriage eager to save her mother from every unnecessary moment s horrible suspense ran immediately into the hall and reached the outward door just in time to receive and support her as she entered it mrs whose terror as they drew near the house had produced almost the conviction of s being no more had no voice to inquire after her no voice even for but she waiting neither for salutation nor inquiry instantly gave the joyful relief and her mother catching it with all her usual warmth was in a moment as much overcome b her happiness as had been before by her fears she was supported into the drawing room between her daughter and her friend and there shedding tears of joy though still unable to speak embraced again and a io sense and sensibility turning from her at intervals to press i s hand with a look which spoke at her gratitude and her conviction of his sh with herself in the bliss of the moment shared it however in a silence even greater her own as soon as mrs had recovered herself to see was her first desire and minutes she was with beloved child dearer to her than oi er by absence i and danger s as she saw win each felt in the meeting was only checked by ab apprehension of its of j sleep but mrs could be calm could i even prudent when tbe life of a child was stake and satisfied in knowing hi mother was near her and conscious of being t weak for conversation submitted readily to tl silence and quiet prescribed by every nurse around her mrs sit up with her all night and in compliance with her mother s entreaty went to bed but the which one night entirely sleepless and many of the most wearing anxiety seemed to make site was kept off by irritation of spirits � poor as she now allowed herself to call him � was in her thoughts she would not but have heard his the world and now blamed now sense and for having judged him so harshly before but her of relating it to her sister was invariably painful she dreaded the performance of it dreaded its effect on might be doubted whether after an explanation she could ever be happy with another and for a moment wished then remembering i herself felt that to his and his constancy far more than to hia i rival s the reward of her sister was due and wished i anything rather than mrs s death the shock of colonel s errand at been much softened to mrs by her i own previous alarm for so great was her i about that she had already to set out for on that very day without waiting for any further intelligence and j far settled her journey before his arrival the were then expected every moment fetch margaret away as her mother was ing to lake her where there might be continued to mend every day and the brilliant cheerfulness of mrs s looks and spirits proved her to be as she repeatedly d herself one of the happiest women in the could not hear the declaration nor its proofs without sometimes wondering her mother ever recollected but trusting to the temperate a and sensibility of her own which had her was led away by the of her joy to think only of what would increase it was restored to her from a danger in which as she now began to feel her own mistaken judgment in encouraging the unfortunate attachment to had contributed to place her and in her recovery she had yet another source of joy of by it was thus imparted her as soon as any opportunity	26
windows of the s chapel that looked across the beach were lighted up with a light as i have never seen from candle or and there were passing the blaze that seemed deep in some we kept our course until we got almost close aboard � when suddenly all grew dark there came at that moment a gust of wind such as the master said he never knew to sweep in daylight across the it struck us in our teeth and we were glad to get out again upon the broad water it would seem to infer that the evil one had service rendered there which it would be sinful to look upon in my poor judgment it is matter for the church rather than for the hand of the law you are not a man captain to be lightly moved by said the gravely you have good for sense and courage i would have you weigh well what you report surely my lord is as stout a man in heart as any in the province and yet he could scarcely hold his for fear why was i not told of this your s favor replied shaking his head neither the master the nor myself would hazard ill will by moving in the matter there is malice in these my lord which will not brook in their doings we waited until we might be questioned by those who had right to our answer the blessed shield me i i am pledged to fight your bodily foes � the good priests of our holy patron st were better soldiers for this warfare by ic rob of the bowl the remained for some moments silent at last to the he inquired � what dost thou know of this house f well lord charles replied the i was not born to be much d of or in my i have more than once come in the way of these wicked spirits and then i have that a clean breast and a stout heart with the help of an ave mary and a was more than a match for all their but the s house � oh my good lord charles he added with a shrug has in it that it is best not to trouble when and myself were across by st s at that time when s men were thought to be a � last if i remember � we shot a towards night and sat down in the woods waiting to dress our meat for a supper which kept us late before we mounted our horses again but we had some and didn t much care for hours so it was midnight with no light but the stars to show us our way it happened that we rode not far from the s chapel which put us to telling stories to each other about paul and the ghosts that people said haunted his house the made you as well as interrupted the i will not say that replied the but something put it into our heads to go down the bank and ride round the chapel at first all was as quiet as if it had been our church here of st mary s � except that our horses and reared with fright at something we could not see the wind was blowing and the waves were beating on the sh re and suddenly we began to grow cold and then all at once there came a noise inside of the like the by ic rob of the bowl rolling of a full of pebbles and afterwards little flashes of light through the windows and the said he heard chains and groans it isn t worth while to hide it from your but the ran away like a coward and i followed him like another lord charles since that night i have not been near the black house we have an old saying in my country � een bet water � the cat keeps clear of cold water � ha i mind the proverb it is not long ago said � perhaps not above two years � when they say the old sun dried timber of the building turned suddenly black it was the work of a single night � your shall find it so now i can witness the truth of it said � the house was never black until that night and now it looks as if it was with lightning from roof to ground sill and yet lightning could � ever leave it so black without burning it to the ground there is some in this said the it may scarce be accounted for on any pretence of or although i know there are malignant influences at work in the province which find motive enough to do all the harm they can has or any of his had commerce with this house captain can you suspect such intercourse assuredly not my lord replied the captain for who is the most insolent of that has to my personal knowledge the greatest dread of the chapel of all other men i have seen besides these terrors have flourished in the winter night tales of the neighborhood ever since the death of and long before the grew so in the province by ic rob of the bowl it is the blood of the my good lord and of his wife and children that the floor said it is that blood which brings the evil spirits together the old hearth twice every day the blood spots upon the floor and grow strong as the tide comes to flood � at the ebb they may be hardly seen you have witnessed this yourself at the ebb lord charles i did not stay for the change of tide when i saw the spots it was as much as we could do to make them out but at the flood every body says they are	29
along upper side of the never of as anything or of becoming anything and now it is converted into a walk tt would be difficult to say whether valuable as a or an ornament and perhaps in another three years we may bs � almost forgetting what it was before how how very tbe operations of time and the rf the human and following the latter train of thought d� soon afterwards added if any one faculty of our nature be called more wonderful than the rest do think it u there seems something more incomprehensible in the failures the of memory than in any of out the memory is sometimes so il il so at others so bewildered and m new and at others again so so beyond we ut be sure a miracle every way but our powers ot of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out miss and bad nothing � perceiving it brought back her seem in i ih � mrs in all there ia � a quiet in tlie of not i d t tea replied mile it very well one of extent er and between till i came lo i had not a parson ever to a or of the kind fo to see the in my uncle s e the soil here is better his own and so it from the growth of the and in general the how il how welcome how il the when one thinks of it bow astonishing a or nature in some we know u e tree that sheds its leaf is the but that does not make it amazing that the soil and the same sun should during in the first rule and law of their oa will think me but when i am out of h when i am i am apt to get into thia of strain one cannot one s eyes on the production without finding for a fancy say the truth replied miss i i the at the court of xiv and may i bee no wonder in thia equal to myself in ft if told mo a year ago that thia would be that i bu month after mouth here as i done i certainly should not believed them have now men here nearly five and moreover the i ever passed quiet for yon i believe i have thought so myself but and her eyes she spoke i never spent happy but then with a more thoughtful air lowered there ia no saying what it may lead to i ny s heart beat quick and she felt quite unequal to anything more however with renewed of far better reconciled to a county than i had ever expected to be i can even suppose it lo spend j the year in the under certain very an elegant moderate sized house in the centre of family connections continual engagements commanding the society in neighbourhood looked ip s n � than those of larger mi from the cheerful round of such to nothing than a tiie a i te with the person one feels moat agreeable in is nothing frightful in such a picture u there � � � � need not envy the new mr witb � � � i envy was all that to say come come it would be very un i be severe t a t eat many f v � � at ai made u a i e i� as � � of mr a wife must i and the best in the country was silent and till suddenly looking up u the of i i exclaimed ah i here ia it was not mr i bat who then appeared j grant my sister and mr am i is gone tliat he be mr i thing in the sound of ir k younger brother that i it how differently we cried to me the of mt is � o cold and moaning so entirely warmth or character it fur n a all bnt there ia in of a of heroism and renown of kings and and to breathe the spirit of and warm i grant you the name is good in and at sir sounds delightfully but sink it under the of a mr am mr ia no more than mr ca mr well shall we join and disappoint of l� lt i� upon sitting out of at this lime of by up before can begin met them with pleasure it vas time of his seeing them together tlie beginning of he liad been hearing of with great a between two bo very dear to him was exactly wm he could wished and to the credit the lover s be it d he did not by consider m ae only or as the greater by a weu said miss and do you not set for aa what do ou wo have been down but to be talked to about it and to do ml i might have said if ol you had been sitting down alone but you do wrong i can overlook a great deal tliey cannot have been sitting long cried mrs ta when i went up for my shawl saw from the sin dow and then they w ting and added the day is mild that down for a few minutes can be thought our weather must not always be by tile wa m sometimes ti ce greater liberties in november than in upon my word you are two of m most apt and kind friends i there is no giving you a moment s you do not we have been nor what we liave bat i bare long thought mr me ut v to work on ia nay little � s could be with had va ia i mm the but you ii i i o i bad a right to al yoa a i r my dearest ton hb n n in i iii u	26
rugged cliff at the base of which rolled the ocean still the character of the simple inhabitants of the village was almost exclusively pastoral though a few scattered huts between it and the sea were evidently the of those whose � occupation was connected with the great deep the bias of public opinion was not very favorable to this portion of the community and if the fireside gossip of the village of had been worthy of belief strange tales might haye been told of on that fearful of scenes in which the perished or even the had not had fair play at the hands of their brethren on the coast but chiefly of exploits with all the successful and unsuccessful by which the iron hand of justice had been altogether that part of the country which lay between the village and the sea had acquired a character by no means attractive to the timid and the and scarcely in broad noon of summer would a delicate female have trusted herself alone upon that beach yet to this very spot it was that margaret al i bo first i n witli breathless i was regardless of the gathering gloom of advancing night of the dreary heights she had yet to cross of the perilous descent to the shore and of the dark hollows and deep which broke the majestic of the cliffs on all or any one of these margaret never once bestowed a thought her mind was set upon reaching a particular spot before the hour of six and though she had often in girlish traversed those wild paths in company with her brothers she knew too well the nature of that descent not to be aware that a single moment lost by the way might wholly defeat the object of her enterprise the wide ocean was now before her blue and and � revealing none of its dark secrets to her eager gaze there seemed to be a speck upon its bosom she held her breath for a moment it was a nearer object � there were two � two figures on the path before her could one of them be her brother she hastened on they were two amazed to see her there they have stopped and learned her strange errand but she passed them so rapidly that they were too much bewildered to speak arrived at last on the very edge of the t impressions margaret looked down at a fearful depth be low her was a boat upon the beach one man alone remained with it and he stretched his head as if watching impatiently for some one in the distance now was the difficulty of the path to be tried margaret began to descend it required all her natural and strength to make sure her footing and often was her own safety by the hurried glance she cast to the to see if other forms had yet appeared half way down she to take time to breathe again but no � they are coming � they are coming and he is with them p again she hastened on � there was a splash of the oars a suppressed greeting and robert had already set his foot upon the edge of the boat which had been pushed off among the � when a loud shriek from the cliff made all the party look and look again for the increasing darkness and the blackness of the damp rocks rendered it difficult to perceive any object distinctly at that distance that was my sister margaret s voice said robert if i know one sound from another and what if it was v said one of the sullenly those who with us must not be kept back by the scream of a silly girl g impressions i ll tell yon what said robert by this of margaret was never yet called a silly girl by those knew her and i won t stir an inch until t hare seen her safely at the bottom of that and her father and his pack of bounds along with him said another of the men in another moment margaret would hare been too late but now at the very point of time when the proud youth had been as he considered it insulted by his comrades his sister was by his side her arms around his neck her tears upon his cheek and her kind voice whispering such entreaties in his ear as none but a heart of could have resisted at the same time young who was one of the party in the boat used every species of that rude eloquence of which he was master and which consisted chiefly of vulgar sarcasm to his victim once more into bis toils indignant at this interference from such a quarter and at the unfair advantage thus taken of her brother s youth and temper margaret turned a fearless look of defiance toward men from whom almost any other woman would have shrunk appalled especially in such a place first i n � � off off said h� with your vile boat or you will repent of your delay repent of it shall we said young and the party joined in a chorus of laughter gladly would margaret now hare retreated for her courage was at last beginning to way but seeing that her brother still hesitated whether to accompany her or them she roused herself again in the hope of them to push off without him she had besides her watch and some money in reserve to offer as a bribe but her great spirit was not yet so fat subdued and she said again in a more voice than before � i know you james disguised as you are and i tell you if you do not push off this instant i will utter a shriek that will bring other eyes upon you besides mine this threat had its weight with	41
yes it s nothing new to me i used to be always alone many hours together in the day and in the night when poor father was alive you have a brother i have been told i have a brother but he is not friendly with me he is a very good boy though and has raised himself by his industry i don t complain of him r as she said it with her eyes upon the fire glow there was an escape of distress into her face seized the moment to touch her hand i wish you would tell me whether you have any friend of your own sex and age i have lived that lonely kind of life that i never had one was the answer tt nor i neither said u not that my life has been lonely for i could have sometimes wished it instead of having ma going on like the tragic muse with a face ache in majestic corners and being � though of course i am very fond of them both i wish you could make a friend of me do you think you could i have no more of what they call character my dear wan a bird but i know i am the playful affectionate nature giddy for want of th weight of some purpose and capricious because it was always fluttering among little things was yet a one to it was so new so pretty at once so womanly and so childish that it won her completely and when said again do you think you could with her eyebrows raised her head on one side and an odd doubt about it in her own bosom showed beyond all question that she thought she could tell me my dear said what is the matter and why yon live like this presently began by way of you must have many vol il g our mutual lovers � when checked her with a little scream of astonishment my dear i haven t one � well perhaps one said a i am sure i don t know i had one but what he may think about it at the present time can t say perhaps i have half a one of course i don t count that idiot george however never mind me i want to hear about yon m there is a certain man said a passionate and angry man who says he loves me and who i most believe does love me he is the friend of my brother i shrank from him within myself when my brother first brought him to me bat the last time i saw him he terrified me more than i can say there she stopped did yon come here to escape from him i came here immediately after he so alarmed me are yon afraid of him here i am not timid generally bat i am always afraid of him am afraid to see a newspaper or to hear a word spoken of what is done in london lest he should have done some violence then yon are not afraid of trim for yourself dear said after pondering on the words i should be even that if i met him about here i look round for him always as i pass to and fro at night are you afraid of anything he may do to himself in london my dear no he might be fierce enough even to do some violence to himself bnt i don t think of that then it would almost seem dear said m as if there must be somebody else t put her hands before her face for a moment before replying the words are always in my ears and the blow he struck upon a stone wall as he said them is always before my eyes i have tried hard to think it not worth remembering but i cannot make so little of it his hand was down with blood as he said to me then i hope that i may never kill him v startled made and clasped a of her arms round s waist and then asked quietly in a soft voice as they both looked at the fire � ill him is this man so jealous then t of a gentleman said u � i hardly know how to tell you � of a gentleman far above me and my way of life who broke father s death to me and has shown an interest in me since does he love you shook her head does he admire you ceased to shake her head and pressed her hand upon her living is it through his influence that you came here t o no and of all the world i wouldn t have know that i am here or get the least clue where to find me i d dear i why asked in amazement at this but then quickly added reading s face no don t say why that was a foolish question of mine i see i see there was silence between them with a drooping head glanced down at the glow in the fire where her first fancies had been nursed and her first escape made from the grim life out of which she had plucked her brother her reward ton know all now she said raising her eyes to s there is nothing left out this is my reason for living secret here with the aid of a good old man who is my true friend for a short part of my life at home with father i knew of things � don t ask me what � that i set my face against and tried to better i don t think i could have done more then without letting my hold on father go but they sometimes lie heavy on my by doing all for the best i hope i may wear them	8
i saw by her astonished exclamation that he had out our news oh she ejaculated with a meaning look at me i went across the hearth rug i see he has told you mother he wants you to ask him to dinner i have told to lay another cover we ll talk business afterwards said philip put a self made ting his hand over mother s for one instant i m afraid all this is rather sudden to you lady but the end was inevitable and it was just as well that we should get it over if you will allow me to come back to dinner i shall be awfully pleased it was really the most conventional speech that i had yet heard him make mother told him that she should be delighted if he would join us and then he said in quite his ordinary tones that he must hop into a cab and run down to his mother s house to dress he himself away there and then and really i thought the other people would never go some more friends had arrived whilst i was in the and they having come late were apparently determined to remain until our dinner was served really my mother was an admirable hostess she sat patiently talking over the usual fashionable topics of conversation without displaying in the very smallest degree the fever of impatience that must have possessed her at last when the little silver clock on the chimney shelf was pointing to a quarter past seven the last of our visitors departed leaving only paul and ourselves then mother got up and came across the room to me as i turned away from the door my darling she said taking me in her arms and kissing me i am so pleased i am so glad i think he is charming why mother exclaimed what has happened to you i think she thought my mother and i had taken leave of our senses but mother still kept tight hold of me stretching out a hand to my sister a self made dear has happened to me but lord he and are engaged i am sure you must be as pleased as i am oh my dear my dear cried i am indeed delighted i told you mother how much i liked him � so genuine so straightforward so good natured darling accept my congratulations so kissed me and then paul had something to say and he too claimed the privilege of being a brother in law elect and kissed me also i am delighted cried she was and heartily glad and i s an with her feeling far more than anyone might believe for had been from the very first so anxious that i should be a success in that moment my mind travelled back in the curious way that one s mind does at important times to the morning when she sat laboriously flaming concerning my first drawing room and he is coming back to dinner said my mother so you must run away and dress paul shall we see you oh yes i expect you dear boy because this is the first time that you have seen for a week i should like to come back lady if you don t mind if you think i shan t be in the way mother put her white dainty hand most affectionately on his shoulder it s all in the family my dear she said sweetly but do go along remember we dine at eight a self made so paul went away followed down the stairs by and mother turned once again to me come and kiss me my dear child she said my dear little red head you have indeed pleased me not because you are going to marry a nobleman but because i am sure that he is true and good and strong i liked his manly way of coming and telling me his news in spite of there being other people in the room i liked his direct way of making himself at home i think you have made a most wise choice my a most wise choice how pleased and proud i shall be to tell what has happened i believe has been making herself very disagreeable to you mother i said half well a little superior said my mother a little superior and superiority is a little trying to a mother who has done ever in her power to further her children s interests as you have darling as you have chapter xv a rose leaf mothers are seldom satisfied with their sons choice the following morning about eleven o clock lord came and had an interview with ray mother � i mean a business interview i had seen him for two minutes just as he came and he asked me a self made if i would put on my hat and go in the park with him when it was over of course i promised that i would and i put on my prettiest hat a affair of white trimmed with many and some pink and blue ribbon i was wearing a pink morning dress trimmed with a good deal of white it was quite the garment of the kind that i possessed but of course i made myself look as pretty as i possibly could i had been waiting some ten minutes before came up to ask if i was ready and told me that my mother wanted me in the drawing room now my dear child said mother as i entered the room we have finished all our business talk and so go along and enjoy your turn in the park we lunch at half past one my dear philip she added turning to him oh thanks awfully he replied then if you are ready we will go i knew from the faces of both of them that something had gone	30
morning i have an appointment with him at twelve you as tempest the author of the book mr is going to and make a boom of could not possibly put your name to such a it would not be good form � it might crop up afterwards and i sorrows of satan so betray the sec ts of the prison house but for me it is another affair am going to pose as your � your literary agent who pockets ten per cent of the profits and wants to a big thing out of you and fm going to talk the master over with the perfectly practical who has like every true a keen eye for the main chance of course it will be in confidence � strict confident e and he laughed it s a l a question of business you know commercial days literature a become a trade g else and even critics work for what pays them as indeed why the not do you mean to tell me will take that five hundred i asked i mean to tell you nothing of the kind i would not put the matter so for the world this money is not for � it is for a literary charity indeed i thought you had an idea perhaps of offering a bribe bribe good heavens bribe a critic impossible my good � such a thing was never heard of � never never never and he shook his head and rolled up his eyes with infinite solemnity no no press people never take money for anything � not even for a new gold company � not even for putting a notice of a fashionable concert into the morning post everything in the english press is the just expression of pure and lofty sentiment believe me this little is for a ty of which mr is chief patron � you see the civil list all go by favour to the wrong persons now to the keeping of lunatic and retired who never could act � the actual genius never gets anything out of government and moreover would scorn to take a from that body which him anything higher than a money recognition it is as great an insult to offer a of fifty or a the sorrows of satan hundred pounds a year to a really great writer as to give him a � and we cannot fall much lower than to be a knight as knights go the present five hundred pounds will help to relieve certain poor and proud but pressing literary cases known to alone his expression at this moment was so extraordinary that i entirely failed to it i have no doubt i shall be able to represent the benevolent and respectable literary of course i j insist on my ten per cent t t began laughing y again but i can t stop to discuss tl now with you v � i m off i promised he with him at twelve o clock precisely and it s now half past eleven i shall lunch with him so don t wait for me and concerning the five hundred you needn t be in my debt an hour longer than you like � i ll take a for the money back from you this evening all right i said but perhaps the great of the will reject your proposals with scorn if he does then is realized replied carefully drawing on his gloves as he spoke where s a copy of your book ah here s one smelling newly of the press and he slipped the volume into his overcoat pocket allow me before departure to express the opinion that you are a singularly ungrateful fellow here am i perfectly devoted to your interests � and despite my actually prepared to pose to as your acting manager pro and you haven t so much as a thank you to throw at me he stood before me smiling the of kindness and good humour i laughed a little will never take you for an acting manager or literary agent i said you don t look it if i seem i m sorry � but the fact is i am disgusted at what he inquired still smiling oh at the of everything i answered impatiently the stupid farce of it all why shouldn t a book the sorrows of satan get noticed on its own merits without any appeal to and influential wire pulling on the press exactly and he delicately a grain of dust off his coat while speaking and why shouldn t a man get received in society on his own merits without any money to recommend him or any influential friend to back him up i was silent the world is as it is made he went on regarding me it is moved by the lowest and motives � it works for the most trivial ridiculous and aims it is not a paradise it is not a happy family of united and affectionate brethren it is an over colony of and who fancy they are men philosophers in old days tried to teach it that the should be for the growth and encouragement of a nobler race but they preached in vain � there never were enough real men alive to overcome the majority of the beasts god himself they say came down from heaven to try and set wrong things right and to restore if possible his own image to the general aspect of humanity � and even he failed there is very little of god in this world i said bitterly there is much more devil he smiled � a musing dreamy smile that his countenance and made him look like a fine absorbed in the thought of some new and glorious song no doubt he said after a little pause mankind certainly prefer the devil to any other deity � therefore if they elect him as	33
when the long hot summer had set in it was his habit to walk up and down the stretch of high road which borders the sea there pausing sometimes to look across the blue waves towards france or up at dame d rising dark on its hill top against the fiery sunset his tall thin figure his hollow cheeks his drooping grey moustache his coat with its scrap of red ribbon in the button hole and something in his manner of carrying his head and his cane which can only be described as a sort of � all these things were apt to arrest the attention of the stranger if such a person looked hard at him he would return the gaze half timidly half and would probably end by raising his old but carefully brushed hat and saying bon in a high voice he was willing upon slight en the of saint i i to enter into conversation and would upon the beauty of the weather and the charm of the surrounding scenery and similar commonplace topics with a good deal of courteous an country � a divine climate figure to yourself that i came here twenty years ago and that i have not yet been able to tear myself away what would you have � when one becomes old one to value tranquillity above all things but if by any chance his grew inquisitive asked where he lived produced a card case or showed other signs of wishing to keep up the acquaintance thus begun he would take alarm his would cease he would draw his heels together lift his hat again and he would say with a low bow j ai de le bon with which he would retire hurriedly it was not that he had any desire to conceal either his name or his place of abode m was well known to all the inhabitants of saint and any one of the dirty children playing on the beach or of the black women lounging in the or of the men playing in their shirt sleeves before the s could have shown you his house � a white villa with all its closed standing in a neglected garden and shut in by rusty iron gates upon the side posts of which the inscription l in thin black letters was barely that amount of information m would have to nobody the of saint but he dreaded the society of his fellow creatures as much as he loved it because he had once been hospitable and could be hospitable no longer time has moved so fast during the last and changes have been so many that probably only a very few people recollect m as he used to be in the days of his prosperity � those good old days before the war when an imperial official could afford himself a pretty villa in the as well as his house in the town and could even go so far as to invest his cash in a farm far away on the plain which everybody said was sure to pay in that happy republican era saint was as lovely a retreat as any official could wish for and the guests at the merry breakfast parties which used to take place at the several times a week were wont to swear as they looked out upon the roses in the garden and upon the sea glittering through a belt of palms and that m was the dog in africa he did not contradict them his opinion indeed quite with theirs he had a sufficient income congenial employment a charm ing daughter and if anything had been lacking to complete his happiness the want was supplied when after somewhat he was able to announce s to that aristocratic personage the de perhaps he a little too much over this latter piece of good fortune perhaps m de s name was rather too frequently upon his lips and perhaps his the of saint friends sometimes laughed at him in their sleeves if so he was unconscious alike of ridicule and of having given cause for it for there never lived a more innocent or creature but all this is ancient history there are no more breakfast parties at saint now and such of the as have not been pulled down are inhabited by nobody knows whom saint itself is lovely no longer the hand of modem has fallen heavily upon it pouring forth cars and on to its highway its beach with and rubbish and making its shores hideous with mean where that strange and being the french dwells cheerfully in an atmosphere of dust and possibly this sad did not affect m as much as it might have done his own been less complete he fell with the fall of the empire and on losing his appointment discovered as many others have discovered under similar circumstances that he had been somewhat in making no provision for a rainy day when france was lying under the heel of the and every able man was for active service m went off to fight for his country with the rest he committed his daughter to the care of a lady friend of his for his friends were still numerous then and departed with his usual cheerfulness but he came back a good deal aged and broken only to find that his farm had been during the the of saint ne and that his had leaving neither money nor address behind him this was a rather serious calamity for the old gentleman had calculated that the sale of the farm and stock would help him out considerably with the dot of whose marriage was now about to be it was not in the least likely that m de and his family would consent to any of the large sum agreed upon and a at the hour if it had not broken s heart would assuredly have	4
whose young are in trouble so i turned to her and said man has been of women dealt unfair shall i give him of our a portion i saw her eyes light as with quick pleasure but she looked long at the man and at me and her mouth drew close and hard and she said no the salt water is afar off and death lies in wait better it is that he take this stranger man and let my man pass so the man went away in the silence toward that night she wept never had i seen her weep before nor was it the smoke of the fire for the wood was dry wood so i at her sorrow and thought her woman s heart had grown soft at the darkness of the trail and the pain life is a strange thing much have i thought on it and pondered long yet daily the strangeness of it grows not less but more why this longing for life it is a game which no man wins to live is to toil hard and to suffer sore till old age heavily upon us and we throw down our hands on the cold ashes of dead fires it is hard to live in pain the babe his first breath of women i in pain the old man his last and all his days are full of trouble and sorrow yet he goes down to the open arms of death stumbling falling with head turned backward fighting to the last and death is kind it is only life and the things of life that hurt yet we love life and we hate death it is very strange we spoke little and i in the days which came in the night we lay in the snow like dead people and in the morning we went on our way walking like dead people and all things were dead there were no no no � nothing the river made no sound beneath its white robes the sap was frozen in the forest and it became cold as now and in the night the stars drew near and large and leaped and danced and in the day the sun dogs us till we saw many and all the air flashed and sparkled and the snow was diamond dust and there was no heat no sound only the bitter cold and the silence as i say we walked like dead people as in a dream and we of women kept no count of time only our faces were set to salt water our souls strained for salt water and our feet carried us toward salt water we by the and knew it not our eyes looked upon the white horse but we saw it not our feet trod the of the but they felt it not we felt nothing and we fell often by the way but we fell always with our faces toward salt water our last went and we had shared fair and i but she fell more often and at crossing her strength left her and in the morning we lay beneath the one robe and did not the trail it was in my mind to there and meet death hand in hand with for i had grown old and had learned the love of woman also it was eighty miles to mission and the great far above timber line reared his storm swept head between but spoke to me low with my ear against her lips that i might hear and now because she reed not fear my anger she spoke her heart and of women cold me of her love and of many things which i did not understand and she said you are my man and i have been a good woman to you and in all the days i have made your fire and cooked your food and fed your dogs and lifted or broken trail i have not complained nor did i say that there was more warmth in the lodge of my father or that there was more on the when you have spoken i have listened when you have ordered i have obeyed is it not so and i said ay it is so and she said when first you came to the nor looked upon me but bought me as a man a dog and took me away my heart was hard against you and filled with bitterness and fear but that was long ago for you were kind to me as a good man is kind to his dog your heart was cold and there was no room for me yet you dealt me fair and your ways were just and i was with you when you did bold o of women deeds and led great and i measured you against the men of other and i saw you stood among them full of honor and your word was wise your tongue true and i grew proud of you till it came that you filled all my heart and all my thought was of you you were as the sun when its golden trail runs in a circle and never leaves the sky and whatever way i cast my eyes i beheld the sun but your heart was ever cold and there was no room and i said it is so it was cold and there was no room but that is past now my heart is like the in the spring when the sun has come back there is a great and a bending a sound of running waters and a and of green things and there is of and songs of and great music for the winter is broken and i have learned the love of woman she smiled and moved for me to draw her closer and she said i am glad after that she lay of women quiet for a long	21
perhaps better than i could tell you how and why i am vexed let me talk to you a little you are a kind kind listener i have been pained by her manner this morning and cannot get the better of it i know her disposition to be as sweet and as your own but the influence of her former companions makes her seem gives to her conversation to her professed opinions sometimes a of she does not think evil but she speaks it � speaks it in � and though i know it to be it me to the soul the effect of education said gently could not but agree to it yes that uncle and aunt they had injured the finest mind for sometime i own to you it does appear more than manner it appears as if the mind itself was imagined this to be an appeal to her judgment and therefore after a moment s consideration said if you only want me as a listener cousin i will be as useful as i can but i am not qualified for an adviser do not ask advice of me i am not competent you are right to protest against such an but you need not be afraid it is a subject on which i should never ask advice it is the sort of subject on which it had better never be asked and few i imagine do ask it but when they want to be influenced against their conscience i only want to talk to you one thing more excuse the liberty � but take care you talk to me do not tell me anything now which hereafter you may be sorry for the time may come m f i park � the colour rushed into her as she spoke dearest cried pressing her hand to his lips with almost as h warmth as if it had been miss s you are ail considerate thought but it is unnecessary here the time will never come no such time as vou allude to will ever come i to think it most improbable the chances grow less and less and even if � there will be nothing to be remembered by either you or me that we need be afraid of for i can never be ashamed of my own scruples and if they are removed it must be by changes that will only raise her character more by the recollection of the faults she once had you are the only being upon earth to whom i should say what i have said but you have always known my opinion of you can bear me witness that i have never been blinded how many a time have we talked over her little errors you need not fear me i have almost given up every serious idea of her but i must be a indeed if whatever me i could think of your kindness and sympathy without the gratitude he had said enough to shake the experience of eighteen he had said enough lo give some happier feelings than she had lately known and with a brighter look she answered yes cousin i am convinced that you would be incapable of any thing else though perhaps some might not i cannot be afraid of hearing any thing you wish to say do not check yourself tell me whatever you like they were now on the second floor and the appearance of a prevented any further p or s present comfort it was concluded perhaps at the happiest moment had he been able to talk another five minutes there is no saying that he might not have talked away all miss s its and his own but as it was they parted with looks on his side of grateful affection and with some very precious sensations on hers she had felt nothing like it for hours since the first joy from mr s note to william had worn away she had been in a state absolutely the reverse there had been no comfort around no hope within her now every thing was smiling william s good fortune returned again upon her seemed of greater value than at first the ball too � such an evening of pleasure before her it was now a real animation � and she began to dress for it with much of the happy flutter which belongs to a ball all went well � she did not dislike her own looks and when she came to the again her good fortune seemed complete for upon trial the one given her by miss would by no means go through the ring of the cross she had to oblige resolved to wear it but it was too large for the purpose his therefore must be worn and having with delightful feelings joined the chain and the cross those of the two most beloved of her heart those dearest tokens so formed for each other by every thing real and � and put them round her neck and seen and felt how full of william and were she was able without an effort to resolve on wearing miss s too she it to be right miss had a claim and when it wai no longer to on to interfere with the stronger claims the truer kindness of another she could do her justice even with pleasure to herself the really looked very well and left her room at last comfortably satisfied with herself and all about her her aunt had recollected her on this occasion an unusual degree of it had really occurred to her that preparing for a ball might be glad of better ip than the upper s and when dressed herself she actually sent her own to assist her too late of course to be of any use mrs had just the floor when miss price came out of her room completely dressed and only were but	26
i am young � full of life and strength � the world loves me � wants me and i � i will not die � no i will not � not yet not yet � i am not ready stop � stop you do not know what you are doing � stop you are driving me mad with your horrible singing and he shrieked aloud mad i tell you � mad for one moment he saw some of the dark figures beg n to move towards him he clutched at them � fought with them � tore at their garments � he would have killed them all he thought if the moonlight had not come in between him and them and shut him up in a cold silver circle of ice from which he could not escape � yet he went on struggling and talking and shrieking sometimes as he fancied with swords and and trying to find his way through strange storms of mingled fire and snow � till all at once some strong invisible force down upon him lifted him up and carried him away � and he remembered no more away in paris a vast of people were assembled round an open grave in la chaise wherein the plain coffin of the had just been lowered the day was misty and cold and the sun shone through the wreaths of thin that hung over the city occasionally gleaming on the pale fine face of the famous who standing at the edge of the grave spoke his over the dead to this to this he cried oh people of paris we all must come i our our hopes our dreams our grand our loves and joys end here so far as this world is concerned he whom we have just laid in the earth was skilled in many ways of learning � gifted with eloquence great in quick with the tongue as with the pen he was a man whom perchance all france would have called famous had it not been for me i am the blot on my father s name i i am the sin for which he has made the last people of paris for years he lived and worked among you � outwardly smiling witty of speech and popular with you all � but inwardly a misery to himself in his own conscience because he knew his life was not what he professed it to be he knew that he did not believe what he asked you to accept as true he knew that he had guilt upon his soul � he knew that all the sins which none of you could guess at god saw for there is a god not the god of the priests but the god of the universe and of man s natural and spiritual instinct he from whom nothing escapes � he who where every drop of dew shall fall � he whose vision the flight of every small bird in the air and the building of its nest and the manner of its end � he is the god whom none can deceive those who dream they can play false with him are mistaken this dead man my father living among you for years was contented for years to s em like you � � for you all ihe master christian have something which you think you can cover up from the searching eye of fate and many of you pretend to be what you are not � while many more wear the aspect of men over the souls of beasts my father who rests here to day at our feet was a priest of the roman church in that capacity he should have been clothed with human yet removed from common yet reckless of his order heedless of his vows he priest as he was turned and betrayed an innocent woman he destroyed her name � skilled her honour � broke her heart of all classes from kings to do this kind of thing every day and deem it but a small fault of character nevertheless it is a crime � and for a crime there is always punishment for everything that is false � for everything that is mean � for everything that is contemptible and cowardly punishment comes � if not soon then late in this case vengeance was � for the sinner in time took his vengeance on himself he confessed his sin before you all that was brave how many of you here to day would have such courage how many of you would throw off your of virtue and admit your vices � or having admitted them try to them but this is what my father did and for this he should be honoured he told you all fully and frankly that his professions of faith were false and vain and conventional and that he had seemed to you what he was not now the of a sin is one thing � but the frankly confession of that sin is another some of you will say � who am i that i should judge my father why truly i am nothing � and should have been nothing but the of my mother s life and broken hearted misery for that i lived � for that i was ready to die what a trivial object of existence it must seem to you nowadays � to a mother s name much better to fight a for some paltry yes � but i am not so constituted from my childhood i worked for two things � vengeance and ambition i put ambition second for i would have sacrificed it all to the passion but when i sought to fulfil my vengeance the man on whom i would have taken it himself changed it into respect pity admiration affection � and i loved what i had so long hated so even i bent on cruelty	33
like this cannot be useless out of the depths by may american writer and sometimes i feel the tide of life in me flood upward high and higher till i stand with energy a god young in my youth and power but not for long the grip of poverty me sets my daily task the eyes of those i love looking to me for bread me like through very love i am bound these cares and fears tear at my leave me broken spent and tis spent my life my wondrous life so with rich powers that stuff in me from which heroic deeds great thoughts and noble poems might be made is from me is in wealth and spent by others save that i and mine receive a mere existence bare of hope and joy bare even of comfort stretched and bound in agony on labor s rock we live and die � to the cry for justice co a by most and poet and during the war an army nurse and later a government clerk discharged for what his considered an book not songs of loyalty alone are these but songs of also for i am the sworn poet of every rebel the world over and he going with me leaves peace and routine behind him and his life to be lost at any moment when liberty goes out of a place it is not the first to go nor the second or third to go it waits for all the rest to go � it is the last when there are no more memories of and heroes and when all life and all the souls of men and women are discharged from any part of the earth then only shall liberty or the idea of liberty be discharged from that part of the earth and the come into full possession out of the depths by poet and editor born and of you will long resist me you will deceive yourself with you will find me weak you will count me only one against a million you will see the world seem to go on just as it is one day another succeeding in dead in children starvation handing starvation on the innocently played against the people demand and supply for the production of a blind the landlord the land the money the production all will seem to go on just as it is and you who resist me will be you will say the universe is against me you will say i am cursed or you will in your moments ask what s the use but all this time i will be keeping on doing nothing unusual only keeping on asleep or awake keeping on compelled to say the say of justice all by myself willing to wait until you are shaken up and convinced until you will say it to yourself and say it to yourself you will there are things ahead that will stir you out of your or or doubt give you an immortal awakening so you will never sleep again i do not know just what it will be but something and you know it when it comes and then you will understand why i am calm why i am not worried by the cry for justice delay why i am not defeated by why all the big that seem to be me do not seem to worry the one little thing that is for me why my faith itself against your property why my soul itself against injustice why i am willing to say words that are thought personally unkind for the sake of a result that is universally sweet why i look in your face and see you long before you are able to see yourself why you with all your fortified rights doubt and despair why i without any right at all am cheerful and confident why you tremble when one little man with one little voice asks you a why i do not tremble with all the states and churches and political at my heels l from towards by edward carpenter english poet and philosopher bom of t � � so white faced machine made turned out by out of offices out of by thousands all alike � huddled up in clothes fearing a chill a drop of rain looking timidly at the sea and sky as at strange monsters or running back so quick to their and with washed out small eyes � what are these are they men and women out of the depths each denying himself hiding himself are they men and women so like � a breath of propriety or custom a draught of wind the mere threat of pain or of danger for a breath of the sea and the great a hardy live man walking his way through it all thousands of men the waves and the storms splendid in health naked catching the hon with their hands a thousand swift footed and free � owners of themselves forgetful of themselves in all their actions � full of joy and laughter and action not so differently from the men joining with them m their games and sports sharing also their labors free to hold their own to grant or withhold their love the same as the men strong well equipped in muscle and skill clear of and affectation � the men too clear of much and conceit � comrades together equal in intelligence and adventure trusting without concealment loving without shame but with and towards a perfect passion for a breath of the sea the necessity and of the great elements themselves swimming the rivers the sun the cold the animals and the earth conquering the air with wings and each other with love � the true the human society the cry for justice w t ip of l from by william moody american poet and god dear god does she know her	21
else though pretending to listen to the others jane was forced to smile completely for a moment and the smile partly remained as she turned towards him and said in a conscious low yet steady voice � how you can bear such recollections is astonishing to me they will sometimes but how you can court them he had a great deal to say in return and very enter ii r but s feelings were chiefly with jane in the argument and on leaving and falling naturally into a comparison of the two men she felt that pleased as she had been to sec frank and really regarding him as she did with friendship she had never been more sensible of mr s high superiority of character the happiness of this most happy day received its completion in the animated contemplation of his worth which this comparison produced c if had still at intervals an anxious feeling for a momentary doubt of its being possible for her to be really cured of her attachment to mr and really able to accept another man from inclination it was not long that she had to suffer from the of any such uncertainty a very few days brought the party from london and she had no sooner an opportunity of being one hour alone with than she became perfectly satisfied unaccountable as it was that robert martin had thoroughly mr and was now forming all her views of happiness was a little did look a little foolish at first but having once owned that she had been and silly and self deceived before her pain and confusion seemed to die away with the words and leave her without a care for the st and with the fullest exultation in the present and future for as to her friend s approbation had instantly removed every fear of that nature by meeting her with the most congratulations was most happy to give every particular of the evening at s and the dinner the next day she could dwell on it all with the utmost delight but what did such particulars explain the fact was as could now acknowledge that had always liked robert martin and his continuing to love her had been irresistible beyond this it must ever be unintelligible to the event however was most joyful and every day was giving her fresh reason for thinking so s became known she proved to be the daughter of a rich enough to afford her the comfortable maintenance which had ever been hers and decent enough to have always wished for concealment such was the blood of which had formerly been so ready to for it was likely to be as perhaps as the blood of many a gentleman but what a connection had she been preparing for mr or for the or even for mr the stain of by nobility or wealth would have been a stain indeed no objection was raised on the father s side the young man was treated liberally it was all as it should be and as became acquainted with robert martin who was now introduced at she fully acknowledged in him all the of sense and worth which could bid fairest for her little friend she had no doubt of s happiness with any man but with him and in the home he offered there would be the hope of more of security and improvement she would be placed in the midst of those who loved her and who had better sense than herself retired enough for safety and occupied enough for cheerfulness she would be never led into temptation nor left for it to find her out she would be and happy and admitted her to be the creature in the world to have created so steady and an affection in such a man or if not quite the to yield only to herself necessarily drawn away by her engagements with the was less and less at which was not to be regretted the intimacy between her and must sink their friendship must change into a calmer sort of good will and fortunately what ought to be and must be seemed already beginning and in the most gradual natural manner before the end of september attended to church and saw her hand bestowed on robert martin with so complete a satisfaction as no even connected with mr as he stood before them could perhaps indeed at that time she scarcely saw mr but as the clergyman whose blessing at the altar might next fall on herself robert martin and smith the latest couple engaged of the three were the first to be married jane had already quitted and was restored to the comforts of her beloved home with the the mr were also in town and they were only waiting for november the month was the one fixed on as far as they dared by and mr they had determined that their marriage ought to be concluded while john and were still at to allow them the fortnight s absence in a tour to the sea side which was the plan john and and every other friend were agreed in it but mr � how was mr to be induced to consent � he who had never yet alluded to their marriage but as a distant event when first sounded on the subject he was so miserable that they were almost hopeless a second allusion indeed gave less pain he began to think it was to be and that he could not prevent it � a very ing step of the mind on its way to resignation still however he was not happy nay he appeared so much otherwise that his daughter s courage failed she could not bear to see him suffering to know him ring himself neglected and though her understanding almost in the assurance of both the mr tliat when once the event were over his	26
talking to a of mine that s working for the associated � oh there s the sweetest little babies that come to the � and i feel as though i ought to be doing thing worth while like that what do you mean worth if you get to be � and maybe you would if you kept up and didn t go off to and every evening � i guess you ll find five or forty bones a week worth know but � oh i want to � i wish i were d n by i in a settlement house i if i could get one of tbe stores to let me put in a welfare department a nice rest room and and chairs and so m and so forth or i could � you look the first thing you got to understand fa that ah this and and settlement work and is nothing in god s but the entering for the sooner a man he isn t going to ba and he needn t expect a lot of free and all these free and and for his unless be em the sooner hell get on tlie job and pro � produce � produce i that s what the country needs and not an this stuff that just les the will power of the working man and gives his a lot of notions above their and � if you d tend to business instead of and � all the when i was a young man i made op my mind what i wanted to do and stuck to it and thin and that s why i m where i am to day and � what do you let tbe girl chop the toast up into these little tor can t get your fist em half cold anyway i ted junior in the great east side school had been making like sounds of interruption he now say you going to � ted i will you kindly not interrupt us m n talking about serious aw said ted ever since somebody j up and let you out of college you been these nut conversations about what and so ao are going to � i want to use tbe car to y h you may want it protested oh you do mr i m going to it oh papa you said maybe d drive us down to and mrs car d n by i your sleeve is in the butter th hurled ted you re a perfect pig about the coarse you re not a ted could be bland you just want to it off ri t after dinner and leave it in front of some skirt s house all evening while you sit and gas about and the you re going to marry � if they on well ou tn t to let you have iti you and those jones drive like the idea of your taking the torn on place at miles an aw do you get that stuff you re so dam scared of the car that you drive np bill with the ont i do and � always talking about bow you know about and little told me you said battery fed the you � my good woman you don t know a from a not was ted lofty with her he was a natural a maker and of machines he in for the came that ll do sung in mechanically as he lifted the satisfying first of the day and tasted the of the times ted n honest i don t want to take the old boat but i promised couple o is in my class i d drive em down to the of the chorus and i don t want to but a gentleman s got to keep his l well my you and your engagements in high oh ain select since we went to that hen let me you there a private school in the state that got as swell a bunch as we got in this year two that their are say d n by gk i hi to hive z ax of my own like of the almost rose a car of your don t you want a and a house and lot pretty nearly takes the a boy that cant pass his latin like any other boy ou t to and he expects me to ve him a car and i a and an maybe as a reward for the hard work he puts in going to the with well see me giving you � later after ted persuaded to admit that she was merely going to the that evening to see the dog and cat show she was then ted planned to the car in front of the store across from the bad be would pi it op there were arrangements leaving the k and having the filled ud passionately of the great god they the patch on the inner and the lost ted observed that her friends were a of a bunch � stuck op four his friends she indicated were disgusting imitation sports and horrid little shrieking ignorant girls further it s disgusting of you to smoke and so on and so forth and clothes you ve got on this morning they re too utterly � honestly simply disgusting ted balanced over to the low mirror in the his and his suit the latest thing in t was skin tight with trousers to the of his tan boots a chorus man pattern of an agitated check and across the back a belt which nothing his was an enormous black silk his hair was ice back without when be went to school he would add a cap with a long like a blade of all was his waistcoat saved for b for for a real fancy of with of a decayed red the points long d n by so on the	42
lady was silent she felt it almost hard hearted to attempt to argue on the of the grounds on which her cousin proposed to himself wait awhile dear charles for my sake consent to delay your project for three months was silent lady continued gently after a pause suffered deeply yet charles she found not her grief she loved not then with the deep of heart like i have done responded he shortly and lady thought that perhaps hereafter this very fact might prove mr s greatest comfort and consolation colonel was scarcely the man to inspire profound attachment promptly rejoined she gladly shifting the conversation from herself he has written a most letter to expressive of the greatest for the past earnestly for forgiveness and imploring permission to renew his and miss consented � most certainly not colonel every way so and could never hope for pardon poor whenever his name is mentioned in her presence yes he was unworthy therefore miss speedily him from her heart our cases are not parallel she made no reply but rising from her chair approached the window mr presently joined her l hoped with the intent of saying farewell � for the prolonged interview was becoming irksome and embarrassing he however evinced no such inclination and she turned therefore and took up her book then iu ther minute hastily laid it down and approached the window again i exclaimed she suddenly as two beautiful dogs bounded past on the terrace yes yonder comes lord i cannot stay to witness his happiness farewell i we shall meet on the morning of your marriage i may you find every blessing every joy in your union farewell i and mr quitted the room a few tears lady s eyes and she stood a moment in silent thought soon however a smile lighted her beautiful features and she stepped out on the terrace to welcome lord i thought to have found mr here exclaimed he as they presently entered the room together � he has just left me poor charles never was there a truer or more honorable heart than his i would give much to see him happy again replied lady gravely which means i suppose that had i delayed now to strive for individual empire over your heart i should have found it strongly enough to defy all my attacks this formidable cousin of yours came to this morning and upon my word uttered the rebuke possible for my past jealousy by asking in the manner conceivable permission to call upon you exclaimed lord laughing and you it had it not been for your suspicious distrust and injurious in human faith and truth poor charles would have been saved much that he has undergone had you suffered me after your arrival in england to have declared myself yours and then told me all what sorrow indeed should we not all have been spared i � it is your example your own bright truth and love which alone make me regret the past in you i perceive that there is such a thing as pure disinterested affection in the world cold calculating interest in the dearest relations of life for why do the majority of women marry but from a desire to throw off parental restraint or to obtain either wealth or station even these principles i heard my own mother into the ears of my innocent sisters i heard her tell them that an establishment was everything � the heart nothing i became then suspicious and the smiles of the pretty who me only because i was wealthy and a lord i panted to be loved for myself my own though from childhood upwards you have ever dwelt in my heart yet even you i suspected you had rank and wealth equal to my own these then could not be your objects yet i knew that our union would be considered a desirable event by both our families and i feared lest you might be persuaded into it by motives of policy and i met you again my while suffering most keenly under the and of my enforced exile your smile and glance kindled the love i had long borne you into almost worship i resolved at once therefore to make my disguise to the bitter distrust which still in my mind to prove whether my passionate devotion had roused feelings as intense and ardent in your heart � and need i say i obtained proof greater oh far greater than i dared hope do you however thoroughly pardon my own the miserable suspense my jealous doubts after my arrival in england when after having heard of robert s safe for america i might have revealed the mystery which me and yet refrained and lord turned eagerly towards her i you deserve the punishment in my power to inflict for these doubts yet nevertheless feel rather proud of my convert she paused no dear i am too happy too thoroughly content with my lot to quarrel with you for the past but never more let the trust i have so hardly won be shaken said lady earnestly never i after a pause lord resumed � tell me when am i to receive your hand from lord i confess that i am beginning to weary of playing the lover so long and shall take upon myself to write to mr and fix a time for our marriage or resort to the desperate step of carrying you off to it is ten months since i placed this ring on your finger mj is it not now time to reward my patience and time that the world should know you mine your confession is a very bold one weary already of playing the lover i i wonder what you will tell me this day six months exclaimed lady turning aside her blushing cheek that you are loved if possible more and entirely but listen to what i	41
from our descendants life works about the same in all times only exterior aspects change in the particular period in which and all italy for that matter was so remarkable italy was alive with ambitious men � strong remarkable capable characters they made the wonder of the life it was not the architecture that did it and not the routine movements of the people has much the same architecture to day better in fact but not the men great men make great times � and only struggling ambitious men make the existence of the artist possible however much he may despise them they are the only ones who in their and power can readily call upon him to do great things and supply the means witness and in italy in holland and in spain chapter of to day it was while i was in that a light was thrown on an industry of which i had previously known little and which impressed me much brooding over the almost endless treasures of the city i into the palace one afternoon that perfect example of architecture then occupied by an of objects of art and to be the work of an association of italian artists after i had seen most of the treasures in the i encountered a thing which i had long heard of but never seen � an organization for the the of all the wonders of art and too the place was full of of the loveliest character of famous statues in the the the and elsewhere and in many instances also copies of the great pictures there was beautiful furniture even as to age from many of the italian palaces the and others and as for garden � fountains benches metal and the like they were all present they were from some of the with the of age upon them and i thought at first that they were original i was soon for i had not been there long strolling about when an attendant brought and introduced to me a certain a small dark man with clear black eyes who made clear the whole situation a at forty the of the world according to mr a jew were being with cheap of every truly worthy object of art from italian stone benches to by or portraits by � as and it had been resolved by this association of italian artists that this was unfair not only to the and the art loving public generally but also to the honest who could make an excellent living frankly copies of ancient works of merit at a price if only they were permitted to copy them most in fact all of them could make interesting but in many cases they would lack that trait of personality which makes all the difference between success and failure whereas they could perfectly the of others and that too for prices with which no foreigner could so they had themselves together determined to do better work and sell more than the fly by night who were and degrading all good art and to say frankly to each and all here is a perfect of a very lovely thing do you want it at a very low cost or we will make for you an exact copy of anything that you see and admire and wish to have and we will it so that you cannot afford to with doubtful who sell you as and charge you outrageous prices i have knocked about sufficiently in my time in the chambers of american and elsewhere to know that there is entirely too much in what was told me the wonder of grew a little under the professor s quiet commercial analysis for after this matter of so we proceeded to a discussion of the present conditions of the city of to day it s very different from anything in america or the north of europe he said or even the north of italy for as yet we have scarcely anything in the way of commerce here we still build in the fashion they used five hundred years ago � narrow streets and big in order to keep up the atmosphere of the city for we are not strong enough yet to go it alone and besides i don t think the will ever be different they are an easy going race they don t need the american two dollars a day to live on fifty will do for one thousand dollars five thousand you can rent a palace here for a year and i can show you whole floors overlooking gardens that you can rent for seventeen dollars a month we have a garden farther out that we use as a here in in the heart of the city which we rent for four hundred dollars a year what about the italian s idea of progress isn t he naturally i asked mr rarely the italian not at this date we have many jews and here who are doing well and foreign capital is building street i think the will have to be with another nation to experience a new birth the are mixing with them if they ever get as far south as italy will be made over the themselves will be made over i notice that the and get along well together i thought of the age long wars between the and the from the fifth to the twelfth century but those days are over they can apparently mingle in peace now as i saw here and farther north it was also while i was in that i first became definitely and in an irritated way conscious of a certain aspect of travel which no doubt thousands of other a at forty have noted for themselves but of which nevertheless i feel called upon to speak i could never in to the breakfast table either there or at rome or in or without a large	43
as well as their personal relation would he think of her as carrying even into the their love had the hours went on without his returning and at length it occurred to her that he might have taken the night train to her heart contracted at the thought she remembered � though every nerve shrank from the � his sudden flight at another crisis in his life and she felt y that if he escaped from her now she would never recover her hold on him but could he be so cruel � could he wish any one to suffer as she was suffering at ten o clock she could endure the drawing room no longer and went up to her room again she slowly tr ing to the process as much as possible to put off the period of silence and wliich would close in on her when she lay down on her l but at length the dreaded moment there was nothing more between her and the night she crept into bed and put out the light but as she slipped l the cold sheets a trembling seized her and after a moment she drew on her dressing gown again and her way to the by the fire she pushed the closer to the hearth and lay n still shivering though she had drawn the up u her chin she lay there a m the op the tree with closed eyes in a mental darkness torn by sudden flashes of memory in one of these flashes a phrase of s stood out � a word spoken at on the day of the opening of the emergency hospital about a good looking young man who had called to see her she remembered s boyish burst of jealousy his sudden relief at the thought that the visitor might have been and no doubt it was � who had come to to threaten her and who baffled by her non arrival or for some other reason had left again without ing out his purpose it was dreadful to think by how slight a chance her first draught of happiness had escaped that drop of poison yet when she understood her inward cry was if it had happened my dearest need not have suffered already she was feeling s pain more than her understanding that it was harder to bear than hers because it was at war all the part of his nature as she lay there her face pressed into the cushions she heard a sound through the silent house � the opening and closing of the outer door she turned cold and lay listening with strained ears yes now there was a step on the stairs � her husband s step she heard him turn into his own room the of her heart almost lier � she only distinguished the fruit of the tree that he was moving about within that it was as if she felt his touch then her door opened and he entered he stumbled slightly in the darkness before be found the of the lamp and as he over it she that his face was flushed and that his eyes had ao excited light which in any one less might almost have seemed like the effect of wine are you awake he asked she started up against the cushions her hair streaming about her small ghostly face yes he walked over to the and dropped into the low chair beside it i ve given that cur a lesson he won t forget he exclaimed breathing hard the deepening in his face she turned on him in joy and trembling john � oh john you didn t follow him oh what happened have you done no i didn t follow him but there are that even the powers above can t stand and ao they managed to let me run across him � by the merest accident � and i gave him something to remember he spoke in a strong clear voice that had a brightness like the brightness in his eyes she felt its heat in her veins � the primitive woman in her owed at the fruit of the tree contact with the primitive man but reflection chilled her the next moment but why why oh how could you where did it happen � oh not in the street as she questioned him there rose before her the terrified vision of a crowd gathering � the police newspapers a hideous he must have been mad to do it � and yet he must have done it because he loved her no � no don t be afraid the powers looked after that too there was no one about � and i don t think he ll talk much about it she trembled fearing yet him nothing could have been more unlike the she fancied she knew than this act of anger which had lifted the darkness from his spirit yet also it gave him back to her made them one flesh once more and suddenly the pressure of opposed emotions became too strong and she burst into tears she wept painfully violently with the resistance of strong natures unused to expression till at length through tlie tumult of her tears she felt her husband s touch he said speaking once more in his natural voice she raised her face from her hands and they looked at each other ml j the fruit of the tree � � i said things i t mean to say her lips parted but her throat was still full of sobs and she could only look at hi m while the tears ran down i believe i understand now he continued in the same quiet tone her hand shrank from his clasp and she began to tremble again oh if you only believe if you re not sure don t pretend to be he sat down beside her and drew	10
kind offices she could not equal them in their warmth her spirits sank under the glow of theirs and she felt herself becoming too nearly nothing to both to have any comfort in having been sought by either they must now together proposed urged entreated it till the lady not very unwilling at first could refuse no longer � and was wanted only to prompt and observe them she was invested indeed with the office of judge and critic and earnestly desired to exercise it and tell them all their faults but from doing so every feeling within her shrank she could not would not dared not attempt it had she been otherwise qualified for criticism her conscience must have restrained her from venturing at she believed herself to feel too much of it in the for honesty or safety in particulars to prompt them must be enough for her and it was sometimes more than enough for she could not always pay attention to the book in watching them she forgot herself and agitated by the increasing spirit of s manner had once closed the page and turned away exactly as he wanted help it was to very reasonable weariness and she was thanked and pitied but she deserved their pity more than park she hoped they would at last the scene was over and forced herself to add her praise to the compliments each was giving the other and when again alone and able to recall the whole she was inclined to believe their performance would indeed have such nature and feeling in it as must their credit and make it a very suffering exhibition to herself whatever might be its effect however she must stand the of it again that very day the first regular of the three first acts was certainly to take place in the evening mrs grant and the were engaged to return for that purpose as soon as they could after dinner and every one concerned was looking forward with eagerness there seemed a general of cheerfulness on the occasion tom was enjoying such an advance towards the end was in spirits from the morning s and little seemed everywhere smoothed away all were alert and impatient the ladies moved soon the gentlemen soon followed them and with the exception of lady mrs and everybody was in the theatre at an early hour and having lighted it up as well as its unfinished state admitted were waiting only the arrival of mrs grant and the to begin they did not wait long for the but there was no mrs grant she could not come dr grant an for which he had little credit with his fair sister in law could not spare his wife dr grant is ill said she with mock be has been ill r he did not eat any of the to day he fancied it sent ai ray plate and has been suffering ever here was disappointment mrs grant s non attendance was sad indeed her pleasant manners and cheerful made her always valuable amongst them but now she was absolutely they could not act they could not with any satisfaction without her the of the whole evening was destroyed what was to be done tom as was in despair after a pause of perplexity some eyes began to be turned towards and a voice or two to say if miss price would be so good as to read the part she was immediately surrounded by � everybody asked it even said do if it is not very disagreeable to you but still hung back she could not endure the idea of it why was not miss to be applied to as well or why had not she rather gone to her own room as she had felt to be safest instead of attending the at all she had known it would and distress her � she had known it her duty to keep away she was properly punished you have only to read the part said henry with renewed entreaty and i do believe she can say every word of it added maria for she could put mrs grant right the other day in twenty places i am sure you know the part vol i � could not say she did not and as they all � as repeated his wish and with a look of even fond dependence on her � she must yield she would do her everybody was satisfied and she was left to the of a most heart while the others prepared to begin they did begin and being too much engaged in their own noise to be struck by an unusual noise in the other part of the house had proceeded some way when the door of the room was thrown open and appearing at it with a face all aghast exclaimed my father is come i he is in the hall at this moment xix how the consternation of the party to be described to the greater number it was a moment of absolute horror sir thomas in the house all felt the conviction not a hope of or mistake was anywhere s looks were an evidence of the fact that made it and after the first starts and exclamations not a word was spoken for a minute each with an altered countenance was looking at some other and almost each was feeling it a stroke the most unwelcome most ill timed most appalling mr might consider it only as a interruption for the evening and mr might imagine it a blessing but every other heart was sinking under some degree of self condemnation or alarm � every other heart was suggesting what will become of us what is to be done now it was a terrible pause and terrible to every ear were the sounds of opening doors and passing footsteps was the first to move and speak again jealousy and	26
who seemed scarcely able to put one foot before another what is the matter i exclaimed taking madame de him by the arm what has happened � for i saw by his ghastly face that some catastrophe must have occurred what has happened he repeated in a strange thick voice haven t you heard � no of course you haven t she is dead that s all � yes dead i don t know whether you can believe it or not can t though there isn t a doubt about its being true to the best of my recollection i did not believe it i thought the lad must have been drinking or that he was the victim of some he was at all events incapable of expressing himself it was only after i had got him into an arm chair and had made him swallow a couple of glasses of wine that he recovered the use of his tongue and even then he remained so painfully agitated that i had difficulty in understanding what he said i gathered however that he had on the previous evening written such a letter to the romance of madame de as he had intimated his intention of writing i received her answer he said an hour � or perhaps it was two hours ago here it is read it and you will you will see his voice broke and it was some seconds before he could resume of course i rushed at once to her house there was a great there i didn t understand what it was about but they tried to keep me back and i forced my way in all the doors were open the servants were in her bedroom sobbing and chattering i think there was a policeman there too i saw her lying on the bed dead and cold she had been ill and had taken an over dose of they said i think i had better kill myself too for you will see by her letter that she was innocent and that i murdered her i him as best i could but naturally he were open ihe d i these a madame de i myself was somewhat overcome and even if i had had all my wits about me i don t know that i could have said very much to comfort him presently he sank back in his chair and to me to read the letter which he had placed in my hand i need not quote the whole of it indeed i am not sure that had he been calmer he would have cared to let me see the opening sentences which conveyed an assurance of such passionate love as i should scarcely have supposed madame de capable of and which even at that sad moment i could not help wondering at his having had the power to arouse but notwithstanding this � or possibly on account of it � the writer without a murmur in the sentence which had been pronounced against her acknowledging that it was inevitable and only that she had ever imagined that it might be averted the romance of still she added now that all is over between us and since you cannot i think suspect me of any wish to bring you back to ine i should like you to know that the truth is not quite so bad as you have been led to believe the prince paid me great attentions and my vanity was flattered by them i liked him very much though i did not love him i was scarcely more than a child i knew nothing of the world and when he used to talk about a marriage i saw no ft impossibility in such an arrangement indeed so far as i had any voice in the matter i had consented to this when all of a sudden i was told that he had gone away that i should never see him again that he had even been placed under a sort of arrest and � that i was to marry m de of course i was very unhappy but i had always been completely under the control of my mother who told me this was not a case for argument that madame de she had done the very best she could for me and that i must bow to necessity it was not until after my marriage that i learnt from my husband by what infamous means the transaction which handed me over to him had been brought about i don t speak of my s share in it she was ambitious in her eagerness to make what she considered a magnificent alliance for me she probably committed herself to false statements which may afterwards have been used against her and from which she could find no honourable way of escape at any rate my husband s revelation came far too late to save or serve me if i had proclaimed my true story from the house tops not one person in a thousand would have believed it but t i hope will believe it and forgive the wrong i was so nearly doing you as i have forgiven those who have ruined my life there was a good deal more but i could the romance of only glance at the remainder of the letter for young had started up from his attitude and his cold trembling fingers were laid upon my wrist well said he impatiently speak out � don t be afraid of me do you think she did it i was astonished at the question why i exclaimed you yourself told me just now that you were persuaded of her innocence and i must confess no no he interrupted you don t understand me as if i would let you dare to cast a doubt upon her innocence what i mean is do you � do you think she killed herself	45
give me bread and fire i perceive that i pay for it the full price and at last it leaves me as it found me neither better nor worse but all mental and moral force is a positive good it goes out from you whether you will or not and profits me whom you never thought of i cannot even hear of personal vigour of any kind great power of performance without fresh resolution we are of all that man can do s saying of sir walter i know that he can toil terribly is an electric touch so are s portraits � of who was of an industry and vigilance not to be tired out or wearied by the most laborious and of parts not to be imposed on by the most subtle and sharp and of a personal courage equal to his best parts � of who was so severe an of truth that he could as easily have given himself leave to steal as to we cannot read without a of the blood and i accept the saying of the chinese a sage is the of a hundred ages when the manners of loo are heard of the stupid become intelligent and the wavering determined this is the moral of biography yet it is hard for departed men to touch the quick like our own companions whose names may not last as long what is he whom i never think of whilst in every solitude are those who our genius and us in wonderful manners there is a power in love to divine another s destiny better than that other can and by heroic to hold him to his task what has friendship so signal as its sublime attraction to whatever virtue is in us we will never more think of ourselves or of life we are to some purpose and the industry of the on the railroad will not again shame us this head too falls that homage very pure � of great as i think which all ranks pay to the hero of the day � from and down to hear the shouts in the street the people cannot see him enough they delight in a man here is a head and a trunk what a front what eyes shoulders and the whole carriage heroic with equal inward force to guide the great machine this pleasure of full expression to that which in their private experience is usually cramped and runs also much higher and is the secret of the reader s joy in literary genius nothing is kept back there is fire enough to the mountain of ore s principal merit maybe conveyed in saying that he of all men best understands the english language and can say what he will yet these channels and of expression are only health or fortunate constitution s name suggests other and purely intellectual benefits and sovereigns have no compliment with their swords and coats like the addressing to a human being thoughts out of a certain height and his intelligence this honour which is possible in personal intercourse scarcely twice in a lifetime genius perpetually pays contented if now and then in a century the is accepted the of the of matter are degraded to a sort of and on the appearance of the of ideas genius is the or of the regions and draws their map and by us with new fields of activity our affection for the old these are at once accepted as the reality of which the world we have conversed with is the show we go to the and swimming school to see the power and beauty of the body there is the like pleasure and a higher benefit from witnessing intellectual of all kinds as of memory of combination great power of abstraction the jo of the imagination even and as these acts expose the invisible organs and members of the mind which member for member to the parts of the body for we thus enter a new and to choose by their truest marks taught with to choose those who can without aid iron the eyes or any other senses proceed to truth and to being foremost among these are the and wrought by the imagination when this wakes a man seems to ten times or a thousand times his force it opens the delicious sense of size and an audacious mental habit we are as elastic as the gas of and a sentence in a book or a word dropped in conversation sets free our fancy and instantly our heads are bathed with and our feet tread the floor ef the rt and this benefit is real because we are entitled to these and once having passed the bounds shall never again be quite the miserable we were the high functions of the intellect are so that some imaginative power usually in all em i minds even in of the first but especially in meditative men of an habit of thought this class serve us so that they have the perception of identity and the perception of the eyes of never shut on either ef these laws the perception of these laws is a kind of of the mind little minds are little through failure to see them even these have their our delight in into of the herald especially when a mind of powerful method has instructed men we find the of oppression the dominion of the the credit of ef bacon of in religion the history of of saints and the which have taken the name of each founder are in point alas my of great u man is such a victim the of men is always inviting the impudence of power it is the delight of vulgar talent to and bind the but true genius seeks to defend us from true genius will not but will and add new senses if a wise man should appear	37
so in each other i think i can find my tongue to night john he added after a moment s pause but i never can tell you what unutterable joy this day has given me it would be unjust to you to speak of your having chosen a girl for i feel that you know her worth i am sure you know her worth nor will it in your estimation john which money might which money would tom he returned her worth oh who could see her here and not love her who could know her tom and not honour her who could ever stand possessed of such a heart as hers and grow indifferent to the treasure who could feel the rapture that i feel to day and love as i love her tom without knowing something of her worth your joy unutterable no no tom it s mine it s mine no no john said tom it s mine it s mine their friendly was brought to a close by little herself who came peeping in at the door and oh the the glorious half proud half timid look she gave tom when her lover drew her to his side as much as to say yes indeed tom he will do it but then he has a right you know because i am fond of him tom as to tom he was perfectly delighted he could have sat and looked at them just as they were for hours i have told tom love as we agreed that we are not going to permit him to run away and that we cannot possibly allow it the loss of one person and such a person as tom too out of our small household of three is not to be endured and so i have told him whether he is considerate or whether he is only selfish i don t know but he needn t be considerate for he is not the least restraint upon us is he dearest well he really did not seem to be any particular restraint upon them judging from what ensued was it folly in tom to be so pleased by their remembrance of him at such a time was their graceful love a folly were their dear caresses follies was their lengthened parting folly was it folly in him to watch her window from the street and rate its gleam of light above all diamonds folly in her to breathe his name upon her knees and pour out her pure heart before that being from whom such hearts and such affections come if these be follies then fiery face go on and prosper if they be not then fiery face but set the bonnet at some other single gentleman in any case for one is lost to thee for ever life and adventures chapter gives the author great concern tor it is the last the book was in high feather and mighty preparations for a late breakfast were in its commercial the morning had arrived when miss was to be united in holy matrimony to miss was in a frame of mind equally becoming to herself and the occasion she was full of and she had laid in several of live coals and was prepared to heap them on the heads of her enemies she bore no spite nor malice in her heart not the least quarrels miss said were dreadful things in families and though she never could forgive her dear papa she was willing to receive her other relations they had been separated she observed too long it was enough to call down a judgment upon the family she believed the death of was a judgment on them for their internal and miss was confirmed in this belief by the lightness with which the had failed on herself by way of doing sacrifice � not in triumph not of course in triumph but in humiliation of spirit � this amiable young person wrote therefore to her of the strong mind and informed her that her would take place on such a day that she had been much hurt by the unnatural conduct of herself and daughters and hoped they might not have suffered in their that being desirous to forgive her enemies and make her peace with the world before entering into the most solemn of with the most devoted of men she now held out the hand of friendship that if the strong minded woman took that hand in the temper in which it was extended to her she miss did invite her to be present at the ceremony of her marriage t and did invite the three red her daughters but miss did not their noses to attend as the strong minded woman returned for answer that herself and daughters were as regarded their in the enjoyment of robust health which she knew miss would be glad to hear that she had receive miss s note with delight because she never had attached the least importance to the paltry and insignificant with which herself and circle had been assailed otherwise than as she found them in the contemplation a harmless source of innocent mirth that she would joyfully attend miss s and that her three dear daughters would be happy to assist on so interesting and so very unexpected � which the strong minded woman � so very unexpected an occasion on the receipt of this gracious reply miss extended her forgiveness and her invitations to mr and mrs to mr george the bachelor cousin to the solitary female who usually had the and to the hairy young gentleman with the outline of a face of the party that had once assembled in mr s parlour after which miss remarked that there was a sweetness in doing our duty which the bitter in our cups the wedding guests had not yet assembled and indeed it was so early that miss herself	8
satisfactory he found his voice at last well he said now that you know all what are you going to do about it i � would rather know the worst i will tell you that in good time she replied but first of all i want you to tell me exactly how you came to have these and what use you made of them on previous occasions so slightly reassured by her manner which was composed peter gave her a plain account of the way in which he had been led to deposit his extra time and the whole story of his v ith miss he did not mention any others because he felt that the affair was quite complicated enough dragging in and matter i may have been he concluded but i do assure you that in all the quarters of an hour i have had as yet i never once behaved to that young lady in any capacity but that of a friend i only went on drawing the because i wanted a little change of air and scene now and then you have no idea how it picked me up i saw in what society it set you down peter was s answer you � you t think she is like that he urged it took me quite by surprise � it was a most painful position for me i think your own sense of will acknowledge that considering the awkwardness of my situation i � i behaved as well as could be expected you do admit that don t you was silent for a minute or so before she spoke again i must have time to think peter she said it is all so strange so contrary to all my experience that i can hardly see things as yet in their proper light but i may tell you at once that from what i was able to observe and from all you have just told me i am inclined to think that you are free from actual in the matter it was quite clear that that very forward girl was the principal e � i and that you were nothing more than an unwilling and most embarrassed this was so much more a view than he had dared to expect that peter recovered his ordinary that was all he said i am very glad you saw it my dear i was perfectly helpless and then said i was more than pleased by your firm refusal to commit suicide what you said was so very sound and true peter i hope so said peter with much complacency yes i was pretty firm with her by the way he added you � you didn t happen to see whether she really did jump overboard i suppose i came away just at the crisis she said i thought you would tell me came away too said peter it doesn t matter of course but still i should have rather liked to know whether she meant it or not how can you speak of it so peter she may have been trying to frighten � s you is just tlie kind of girl who would but she may have been in earnest after all you see said peter it doesn t matter whether she was or not � it isn t as if it had ever really happened not really happened but i was there i heard i saw it � nothing could be more real at any rate he said it only happens when i use those and she can t possibly carry out her rash intention until i draw another � which i promise you faithfully i will never do if you doubt me i will burn the book now before your eyes with these words he went to the drawer and took out the book no said you must not do that peter there is much about this time bank that i don t pretend to understand that i can not account for by any known natural law but i may not my own eyes and ears these events that have happened in the extra time you chose to till now are just as real as any other events you ha ve made this girl s acquaintance you have � i don t say through any fault of your own but � l e still you ha � caused her to transfer her affections from the man she was engaged to and being a creature of ill regulated mind and no strength of character she has resolved to put an end to her life rather than meet his just indignation she is now on the very point of this folly well badly as she has behaved you can not possibly leave the wretched girl there you must go back at once restrain her by main force and not leave her until you have argued her into a rational frame of mind peter was by no means anxious to go back at first it s not at all necessary he said and besides i don t know if you re aware of it but with the way these are worked it s ten chances to one against my off the right fifteen minutes i still he added with an i can try of course if you insist upon it i can take my chance with another fifteen minutes but that must be the last i am sick and tired of this ng business i am indeed shameful as it is to state he had altered his mind from a sudden recollection that he � � would not mind seeing miss for just once more he had not drawn her for several weeks said thoughtfully i see your objection � fifteen minutes is not enough unless you could be sure of getting the to the last but i have an idea peter � if you draw out the whole	44
determined at once to enter upon her grand project of reform she made her appearance just one quarter of an hour before dinner was announced nor did she rise from table as had been her usual custom a few minutes after was placed and when lord entered the drawing room it � was from the fair hands of his bride that he received his cup of coffee she then took her work basket and drawing a sofa near to the table seated herself with the composed air of one determined to make herself comfortable for a long evening not that felt any very remarkable degree of composure far from it for though a pleasant smile beamed on her face she was sensible of a very uncomfortable feeling at heart as for lord finding his wife in a more accessible humor than ordinary he did not propose to while away the evening with a book but seated himself by her side for about three quarters of an hour or more they conversed and felt that she enjoyed more even this restrained intercourse than her solitary presently the clock struck ten she started � so rapidly had time fled and yet she had not taken the first step in the new character she had resolved to assume she had yet made no at reconciliation since the morning the earl quitted her presence in and until this was done � until there existed a perfect understanding between them both that the past was forgiven � she felt it almost hopeless to enter upon her task of but to plunge into the of this almost forbidden ground required no small portion of moral courage therefore poor s spirits suddenly became subdued and her eyes were more bent upon the group of glowing she was working lord made no remark on her sudden abstraction perhaps concluding that one of her moods was fast over her long glossy hung low and veiled her face or perhaps he might have divined from the varying hue of her cheek that some unusual emotion agitated her her fair head drooped still lower over the canvas as she spoke are you still displeased with me lord have you forgiven the pain my inflicted last week she asked after a long silence in very low tones slightly glancing towards him a short pause ensued she continued working nervously do you ask this because you think it a necessary duty or is it that you really value my forgiveness said lord earnestly i say it because it me to have incurred your just displeasure but believe me lord i am deeply deeply for all you have done for me and above all for your which so surpassed my deserts replied her voice faltering the least in the world � put down your work then and listen to me said the earl taking the canvas from her hands she it without an effort now i am going to appeal to your reason to your sense of propriety resumed lord in the eye of u od in the eye of man you are my wife and in voluntarily to take that position you incurred a vast load of responsibility new duties unfolded themselves to you in a more special manner your example is looked up to by your equals as well as those placed beneath you now i would ask is it fitting that this responsibility should remain longer disregarded by you or that to our whole household the spectacle of our in heart and deed should be daily exhibited � you are right lord i see my error believe me however my solitary meditations have not been and firom henceforth i will to be all you can desire replied sorrowfully will you do so will you indeed become my companion and sometimes also show me a glimpse of your heart let me read its language and then confess if my interpretation bo right a smile of assent trembled on her lips if you faithfully perform this and moreover give me that confidence i have hitherto so vainly asked and consult me and only me in every future difficulty i promise you i will never more reproach you i will forget the past said the earl taking her hand involuntarily her little fingers closed over his i will engage to do all this lord you shall never more find me ungrateful insensible to your goodness or heedless of your remonstrance mine has been too bitter a lesson to need repetition am i then forgiven exclaimed she while tears dropped from her eyes and she turned her agitated towards him can you doubt it for a moment oh how many heart would have been spared us had you possessed to confide in me after your first interview with that man at said as he threw his arm around her her head sank on his bosom tell me assure me again that colonel never possessed your heart he never did � never i murmured she for one instant with happiness unspeakable filling her heart she rested in his arm the next moment she started hurriedly away the dark shadow of her evil genius � � again interposed and her spirit beneath its influence in her hasty movement a small gold chain on her neck became accidentally entangled round one the buttons of the coat pride in the twinkling of an eye suggested the unworthy thought that he might this accident into an artful device and in an instant she snatched it away and the slender chain fell to the ground she turned away however and busied herself in into her basket the scattered on the table her hand trembled the more so as she felt that lord s eyes were upon her she shrank under his steady scrutiny and unable longer to endure the ordeal she hurriedly traversed the room and opening the piano sat down before it her and soon she found the impossibility of	41
of importance to the look of the thing and let me tell you my dear that to write a good note should be one of a woman s chief accomplishments but what am i to do sighed let it go for this time unexpectedly rejoined her mother who having had the satisfaction of pointing out the defects felt as many other people would that they were not worth further trouble remember what i said for another occasion my love and now ring for tea i am to send this dear me yes there is no help for it such into were not uncommon to the speaker it must go i suppose what are you doing now directing the envelope mamma is that still to be done then could you not just take out a fresh sheet and but no i am so tired i really cannot go over it all again no i the history of an evening cannot look at the direction my head too much take it down stairs yourself like a good child and don t let me have in and out of the room more than can be helped the door was scarcely heard to close behind the departing messenger it slid so softly into its but once outside it was the flight of a terrified bird that brought to the bottom of the great staircase across the hall along the passages till she found her object she guessed would not be far to seek and sure enough though her light footsteps left no sound he caught the rustle of her dress and emerged from a doorway ere she had considered by what means to summon him the letter was now taken from s hands and scarce a minute elapsed ere her listening ear caught the sound of a horse s hoofs pass beneath the window where she stood on the watch and she saw the groom despatched by lady trot quickly out of sight a sigh of ecstasy burst from her lips a wonderful well nigh impossible thing had come to pass an event which she could not have stirred hand or foot to bring about had been brought about for her a mystery she could not had been accomplished a miracle had been wrought all this and nothing less it seemed to this simple maiden because the most ordinary common thing in the world had happened what more natural than that her brother having failed she should be summoned by her aunt to supply his deficiency what more likely than that she should be permitted to do so what need of this fear this this emotion on so a subject and why should care to go at all the night was dark and wild � the circle at lady s would in all probability prove formal and � formidable moreover to one so shy and unused to society it would have been much more easily understood much more in accordance with the young s character if she had shrunk from and the ordeal it would � and yet it had seemed as if her very heart would break if she had had to send a refusal underneath that passive exterior veins were throbbing and swelling that gentle acquiescence hid a passion of entreaty she had so envied the elder ones who had been preferred before her had so patiently borne her and so proudly hidden her desire that the present reaction was almost too much to none had a whisper of her secret been confided and how childish would one and all have deemed her knowing nothing � how much how infinitely worse than childish � a fool a � had the truth come out that was to be there � the handsome haughty stiff the pride and object and worry of his mother s the incomprehensible cousin � what should that have been to any of the fair they had been deeply annoyed � at least the history of an evening and had for the youngest sister knew nothing of such matters � because a ridiculous rumour had got abroad and been from one to the other founded on the mere fact of s hav ing been seen galloping across the floating sands which lay between and the castle whereas he ought to have gone round to his uncle s door by the road at the head of the bay suppose he had chosen the path � suppose he were a rider who risked his neck without much thought of its value � was that to say that he would not as readily have done the same had the dangerous route led him to any other goal he had brought a fragment of pink sea weed from the in the heart of the bay and had taken it with a burst of tears this had been unfortunate foolish she had been spoken to and told how absurd she was and kept away from from that time she had also been to avoid her cousin to speak coldly to him withdraw herself from his company when accident brought him to the castle and in all respects show that what had so happened was merely the effect of the shock consequent on finding that any one � any one � had been so thoughtless and had had so narrow an escape all this had done and no further blame had in consequence attached itself to her but now was going away and going as she felt under an impression so false that if he left at this time according to his present ma intentions all was over that ever might have been between them once she had felt nearly sure she was beloved but of late coldness had coldness and reserve formality � so that the at length had become complete and one at least had well nigh of anything ever happening to break it down but might not have this one chance more might	4
oh uncle here s a regiment of soldiers coming down the street with the band playing in front of them a eh where be my glasses lor but i can hear the band as plain as plain here s the an the drum major what be their number his eyes were shining and his bony yellow fingers like the claws of some fierce old bird dug into her shoulder they don t seem to have no number uncle they ve something wrote on their shoulders i think it be ah yes he growled i heard as they d dropped the numbers and given them names there they go by they re young mostly but they t forgot how to march they have the swing � aye tu say that for them they ve got the swing he gazed round the red lamp after them until the last had the comer and the measured tramp of their marching had died away in the distance he had just regained his chair when the door opened and a gentleman stepped in ah mr i better to day he asked come in doctor yes i m better but there s a deal o in my chest it s all them if i could but cut the i d be right can t you give me something to cut the the a grave faced young man put his fingers to the blue wrist you must be careful he said you must take no liberties the thin tide of life seemed to thrill rather than to throb under his finger the old man chuckled i ve got brother s girl to look after me now she ll see i don t break or do what i hadn t ought to why dam my skin i knew something was amiss with what why with them soldiers you saw them pass eh they d forgot their stocks k ot one on em had his stock on he and chuckled for a long time over his discovery it wouldn t ha done for the he muttered no by the would ha had a word there a op the doctor smiled well you are doing very well said he i ll look in once a week or so and see how you are as followed him to the door he beckoned her outside he is very weak he whispered if you find him failing you must send for me what him doctor ninety years him his are pipes of lime his heart is and the man is worn out stood watching the brisk figure of the young doctor and pondering over these new which had come upon her when she turned a tall brown faced with the three gold of upon his arm was standing in hand at her elbow good morning miss said he raising one thick finger to his yellow cap i b there s an old gentleman lives here of the name of who was engaged in the battle o it s my sir said casting down her eyes before the keen critical gaze of the young soldier he is in the front parlour could i have a word with him miss i ll call again if it don t chance to be convenient i am sure that he would be very glad to see you sir he s in here if step in uncle here s la gentleman who wants to speak with you round the red lamp proud to see you sir � proud and glad sir cried the taking three steps forward into the room and his while he raised his hand palm forwards in a salute stood by the door with her mouth and eyes open wondering if her had ever in his prime looked like this magnificent creature and whether he in his turn would ever come to resemble her the old man up at his visitor and shook his head slowly sit ye down aid he pointing with his stick to a chair you re full young for the it s easier to get three now than one in my day were old soldiers then and the grey hairs came quicker than the three i am eight years service sir cried the is my name � of h battery southern division i have called as the of my mates at the s to say that we are proud to have you in the town sir old chuckled and rubbed his bony hands that were what the said he cried the is proud of ye says he and i am proud of the says i and a damned good answer too says he and he and lord hill bu st out a the non mess would be proud a of and honoured to see you sir said and if you could step as far you ll always find a pipe o and a glass o a you the old man laughed until he like to see me would they the dogs said he well well when the warm weather comes again ril maybe drop in too grand for a eh got your mess just the same as the what s the world a to at all i you was in the line sir was you not i asked the respectfully the line cried the old man with shrill scorn never wore a in my life i am a i am served in the third the same they call now the guards but they have all marched away � every man of them � from old colonel down to the boys and here am i a � that s what i am a i m here when i ought to be there but it ain t my fault neither for i m ready to fall in when the word comes we ve all got to muster there answered the won t you try my sir handing over a old drew a blackened clay	4
truly beautiful as it is good or as it is reasonable and must as much appear as it must be done or be known words and deeds are quite indifferent modes of the divine energy words are also actions and actions are a kind of words the sign and of the poet are that he that which no man foretold he is the true and only doctor he knows and tells he is the only of news for he was present and to the appearance which he describes he is a of ideas and an of the necessary and for we do not speak now of men of poetical talents or of industry and skill in but of the true poet i took part in a conversation the other day concerning a recent writer of a man of subtle mind whose head appeared to be a music box of delicate tunes and and whose skill and command of language we the poet could not sufficiently praise but when the question arose whether he was not only a but a poet we were obliged to confess that he is plainly a contemporary lot an eternal man he does not stand out of our low like a under the line running up from a base through all the of the globe with of the of every latitude on its high and sides but this genius is the landscape garden of a modern house adorned with fountains and statues with well bred men and women standing and sitting in the walks and we hear through all the varied music the ground tone of conventional life our poets are men of talents who sing and not the children of music the is secondary the finish of the verses is for it is not but a making argument that makes a poem � a thought so passionate and alive that like the spirit of a plant or an animal it has an architecture of its own and nature with a new thing the thought and the form are equal in the order of time but in the order of the thought is prior to the form the poet has a new thought he has a whole new experience to he will tell us how it was with him and all men will be the richer in his fortune for the experience of each new age requires a new confession and he world seems always i waiting its poet i remember when i was how much i was moved one morning by tidings that genius had appeared in a youth who sat near me at table he had left his work and gone rambling none knew whither and had written hundreds of lines but could not tell whether that which was in him was therein told he could tell nothing but that all was changed � man beast heaven earth and sea how gladly we listened how society seemed to be we sat in the of a sunrise which was to put out all the stars boston seemed to be at twice the distance it had the night before or was much farther than that rome � what was rome and were in the yellow leaf and no more should be heard it is much to know that poetry has been written this very day under this very roof by your side what that wonderful spirit has not expired i these stony moments are still sparkling and animated i had fancied that the were all silent and nature had spent her fires and behold i all night from every pore these fine have been streaming every one has some interest in the advent of the poet and no one knows how much it may concern him we know that the secret of the world is profound but who or what shall be our we know not a v the tain a new style of face a new person may put the key into our hands of course the value of genius to us is in the of its report talent may and genius and adds mankind in good earnest have availed so far in understanding themselves and their work that the foremost on the peak his news it is the truest word ever spoken and the phrase will be the most musical and the voice of the world for that time all we call sacred history that the birth of a poet is the principal event in man never so often deceived still watches for the arrival of a brother who can hold him steady to a truth until he has made it his own with what j w i begin to read a poem which i confide in as fm inspiration and now my chains are to be broken i shall mount above these clouds and airs in which i live � though they seem transparent � and from the heaven of truth i shall see and comprehend my relations that will reconcile me to life and nature to see trifles animated by a tendency and to know what i am doing life will no more be a noise now i shall see men and women and know the signs by which they may be discerned from fools and this day shall be better than my birthday then i became an animal now i am invited into the science essay i of the real such is the hope but the is postponed oftener it falls that this winged man who will carry me into the heaven me into mists then leaps and about with me as it were from cloud to cloud still that he is bound and i being myself a am slow in perceiving that he does not know the way into the heavens and is merely bent that i should admire his skill to rise like a fowl or a flying fish a little way from the ground or the water but	37
very gay and bright that night once or twice her cousin looked at her with amazement she laughed more often and more merrily than usual she the whole of her which was usually carefully wrapped up in paper to show the two gentleman how her work was and what are you going to do with it the eligible young lawyer asked to do with it oh i am going to finish it yes but when you have finished it what are you going to do with it then oh i don t know � nothing i shall put it in a drawer you will wear it won t you oh no an unmarried woman could not wear lace like that perhaps you are going to save it for your wedding dress he suggested thinking if the truth be told how utterly charming miss north would look in the bride s attire the smile died from the girl s face more likely for my she said shortly her brief spell of gaiety seemed to be utterly she rolled her work up carefully the paper over it once more and although she was as kind and sweet in manner as ever there were no more gay bursts of laughter no radiant smiles only a sad gravity the needle no longer flew in and out of the dainty like work but she sat back in a corner of a big listening to the music which she had ed her cousin to give them her right hand clasping her left arm so absent so unconscious of their presence was she as long as the music lasted that when at length she found herself in her room she saw that the which had brought such joy to her soul had made a deep in her white arm a woman my wedding dress my wedding dress her thoughts ran how blind they all are they are all blind except him before she slept that night she opened her desk and drawing a sheet of paper towards her she wrote on it with firm fingers � margaret thanks you not a word more or less then having folded the sheet of paper and put it in an envelope she addressed it as usual and locked her desk again well she had cast the die had gently and with hesitating fingers raised the curtain from his side on her s she had not expressed any displeasure at his action in her strained and unhappy state of mind those three brief words written on a sheet of note paper conveyed a distinct invitation to him who stood on the other side to with her again but when they reached they conveyed so little � nothing of what to margaret s mind they had seemed to convey so much well she had received his message to her and she had not rejected it so she sent her brief word of acceptance in reply and then sat down to wait with what patience she might for what should happen next chapter xx with her own hand the mind has a thousand eyes and the heart but one yet the light of the whole life dies when love is done i may as well say at once that when received margaret s note he was living by himself in the pretty flat which had been their paradise the place was perfectly unchanged still acted as major still did the work the only was that margaret was not there and that no longer kept up the of calling himself with her own hand margaret s letter was brought to him by one evening immediately after dinner brought in fact with the coffee he took it carelessly enough but when the had left the room he tore it open with eager trembling fingers margaret thanks oh the of feeling that into that man s heart margaret thanks not a word more she had not cared to wound him by returning his gift it was true but on the other hand she did not care to please him by a more gracious acceptance of it he had never known margaret he told himself this margaret was f ome strange new being that he had never really known he had only fancied during those two happy years that she was all his as he was all hers he had waited until her birthday � that purely personal which they had previously ke t with such joy and love together � he had waited till then and he had his brains to think of some offering not too costly not so costly as to excite suspicion among her people something which would link the and empty present with the full and lovely past something which would touch her something which would appeal to her something which would give her a chance of lifting the curtain were it ever so little and perhaps of coming back again if she had found her life in england more than she could bear and the only response that came was � margaret tha you nothing personal not a question not a sign of no desire to know how life had gone with him bitter hour oh blind eyes oh mistaken aching heart what possessed you all that dark night that you saw nothing beyond the three simple words of margaret s reply but it was natural that prince did not write again to margaret he accepted those three words as being even more final than her letters upon silence between them which had reached him so she watched and waited for the answer which never came for the further lifting of that wall of fate which she herself had let down with such a firm and resolute hand between them the days wore into weeks and the weeks into months until two years had gone by since that fatal day when desolation had come into her life if prince had read	30
was not less remarkable for the same genius and the same richness of imagination and if at this period the mind took a false direction it must be acknowledged that the error was accompanied with those great efforts of the intellect of which a nation very far advanced in civilization is alone capable it would be wrong nevertheless to believe that there yet existed only such writers as the and the it was towards the middle of the age that founded his school the academy of was established and a prodigious number of writers such as the c united the with philosophy in the charms of the former to explain the the � of the latter on italian literature at the same time in the crowd of those who followed the brilliant of the of the empire of already were seen judicious their countrymen for their love of before it was attributed to them by strangers and it was in the century that the celebrated i v not only taught the principles of th social contract before j j had yet exaggerated its consequences but also the school of and restored the of good taste by his and his example and above all by at rome that academy of the from which arose au those literary associations that multiplied through the whole of italy we owe to the pupils of and to the academy of the such writers as c and it was owing to them also that italy was speedily cured of that of false taste which had not attacked her only but had invaded almost all europe notwithstanding these brilliant proofs of the genius of they have been considered inferior to other nations in respect to extent and depth of knowledge because of the nature of their which it was supposed could only produce minds as and limited as themselves such causes are certainly not without influence but we should not their effects if italy in its political division does not present to view a capital like london or paris where are united in one all the intellectual lights of the nation to again and like blood through all the veins of the body she is in some degree for this disadvantage by the great number of smaller and which each one of the provinces takes care to supply every state however small has to make a figure in all kinds of knowledge and often has claimed the glory of from thence the prodigious number of literary of from la schools and by consequence of men of letters to be found no where else in the same proportion it is not only in the such as rome c that this spectacle is presented but also in the towns of the second and third order as c it is however that this division of italy into petty states of which each one has its particular school has caused a great of opinions and tastes which has not only excited but at times has produced bitter and each country has desired that its schools its philosophers its poets its artists shall often they seemed to have nothing in which there was felt a common interest thus in the fine arts were distinguished the school the roman the the c the celebrated fourteen distinct schools in painting and there b the same of schools in literature and philosophy but what is most remarkable the same school sometimes produced hostile in observing the warfare which and the against and the that which and the de la carried on against and his admirers and that of and the against and the one is tempted to believe that the of and were not extinct the same and the same often took place in the bosom of particular whose professors and students divided into two parties almost ready to fight these were doubtless but they the ardent imagination and enthusiasm of the who are not so much disposed as it seems to be thought they are to submit to the judgment and authority of strangers it may be said on the contrary that as soon as they began to awake from their long they sought to themselves for their po on hj independence in learning always possessed philosophers more or less daring but never of the dominant party each one has endeavoured to retain his peculiar style of thought however celebrated and followed for a time these philosophers were soon overcome or neglected and of all those masters and leaders no one has been able to preserve his power or his and founded a school in england and left des worthy to maintain it the french boast and remain so faithful to his laws that they were the last in europe to receive the theory of t ie became and still remain all or while among the used all his to and establish the philosophy of and this was the first we hear of a school of philosophy in that country but it disappeared with the success of the sane may be said of and so many others who perhaps would have enjoyed less influence elsewhere after ao many examples is there not reason to believe that des and would not perhaps have obtained brilliant success among the but we must not confound the school of man with that of nature which is common to all men all nations and all ages in this respect the system of like that of does not present a character either particular be cause it was founded on experience reason and truth and is therefore beyond the power of the imagination the school or rather the method of and the of to is still preserved in italy c are but their but as to other opinions and hy there is no distinct and permanent school in short i repeat it was the who while they lost their political independence gave the earliest example to europe of an independent philosophy	48
another when the voice and the laugh of miss once more caught her ear the sound approached and a few more brought them before her they were just returned into the wilderness from the park to which a side gate not fastened had tempted them very soon after their leaving her and they had been across a portion of the park into the very avenue which had been hoping the whole morning to reach at last and had been sitting down under one of the trees this was their history it was evident that they had been spending their time pleasantly and were not aware of the length of their absence s best consolation was in being assured that had wished for her very much and that he should certainly have come back for her had she not been tired already but this was not quite sufficient to do away the pain of having been left a whole hour when he had talked of only a few minutes nor to banish the sort of curiosity she felt to know what they had been conversing about all that time and the result of the whole was to her disappointment and depression as they prepared by general agreement to return to the house on reaching the bottom of the steps to the ter park and mrs presented themselves at the top ready for the wilderness at the end of an hour and a half from their leaving the house mrs had been t� o well to move faster had occurred to the plea her she had found a of complete enjoyment for the housekeeper after a great many on the subject of had taken her to the told her all about their cows and given her the receipt for a cream cheese and since s leaving them they had been met by the gardener with whom she had made a most satisfactory acquaintance for she had set him tight as to his s illness ci him it was an and promised him charm for it and he in return had showed her all his nursery of plants and actually presented her with a very curious specimen of g a al l returned to the house j away the time aa they o � i and a tin return of the and the oi � l e before the and the two gentlemen name iu and their did not appear to have been more than partially agreeable or at al productive of anything useful with regard to the object of the day by their own accounts they had been all walking after each other and the which had taken place at last seemed to s observation to have been aa much too late for re park establishing harmony as it had been for on any alteration she felt as she looked at and mr that hers was not the only dissatisfied bosom amongst them there was gloom on the face of each mr and miss were much more gay and she thought that he was taking particular pains during dinner to do away any little resentment of the other two and restore general good humor dinner was soon followed by tea and coffee a ten miles drive home allowed no waste of hours and from the time of their sitting down to table it was a quick succession of busy till the carriage came to the door and mrs having about and obtained a few eggs and a cream cheese from the housekeeper and made abundance of civil speeches to mrs was ready to lead the way at the same moment mr approaching said lam not to lose my companion unless she is afraid of the evening air in so exposed a seat the request had not been foreseen but was very graciously received and s day was likely to end almost as well as it began miss had made up her mind to something different and was a little disappointed but her conviction of being really the one preferred comforted her under it and enabled her to receive mr bush worth s parting attentions as she ought he was certainly better pleased to hand her into the than to assist her in ascending the box � and his complacency seemed confirmed by the arrangement park well this been fine day for you upon my word i said mrs as they drove the park nothing but pleasure from beginning to i am sure you ought to ba very obliged to your aunt and me for to let you go a pretty good day s amusement you have had maria was just discontented enough to say directly i think you have done pretty well your ma am your lap seems full of good things and here is a basket of something between us has been knocking my elbow my dear it is only a beautiful little heath which that nice old gardener would make me take but if it is in your way i will have it in my lap directly there you shall carry that parcel for me � take great care of it � do not let it fall it is a cream cheese just like the excellent one we had at dinner nothing would satisfy that good old mrs bat my taking one of the i stood out as long as i could till the tears almost came into her eyes and i knew it was just the sort that my sister would be delighted with at la treasure i she waa quite shocked when i asked her whether wine was allowed at the second table and she has t away two house oi waa ng take care oi the cheese now i can manage the other parcel and the basket very well what else have you been said maria half pleased that should be bo my dear it ia but four park generally a bad passage or something � that	26
that guide us lord let their faith hymn before action if wrong we did to call them by honour bound they came let not thy wrath befall them but deal to us the blame from panic pride and terror revenge that knows no rein light haste and lawless error protect us yet again cloak thou our make firm the shuddering breath in silence and to taste thy lesser death ah mary pierced with sorrow remember reach and save the soul that comes to morrow before the god that gave since each was born of woman for each at utter need � true comrade and true e en now their e en now we face the � as thou help our fathers help thou our host to day fulfilled of signs and wonders in life in death made clear of the lord god of battles hear to the true romance thy face is far from this our war our call and counter cry i shall not find thee quick and kind nor know thee till i die enough for me in dreams to see and touch thy garments hem thy feet have trod so near to god i may not follow them through if men profess they weary of thy parts e en let them die at and perish with their arts but we that love but we that prove thine excellence august while we discover more thee perfect wise and just since spoken word man s spirit stirred beyond his belly need what is is thine of fair design in thought and craft and deed by d ft co to the true romance each stroke aright of toil and fight that was and that shall be and hope too high wherefore we die has birth and worth in thee who holds by thee hath heaven in fee to his thereby and knowledge sure that he endure a child until he die � for to make plain that man s disdain is but new beauty s birth � � for to possess in loneliness the joy of all the earth as thou teach all lovers speech and life all mystery so shalt thou rule by every school till love and longing die who or yet the lights were set a whisper in the void who shalt be sung through young when this is clean destroyed beyond the bounds our staring rounds across the pressing dark the children wise of outer skies look and mark a light that a glare that thus and thus not all forlorn for thou hast borne strange tales to them of us to the true romance time hath no tide but must abide the servant of thy will tide hath no time for to thy rhyme the stars stand still � of that lock our fears our hopes invisible oh twas at thy we fashioned heaven and hell i pure wisdom hath no certain path that thy morning and captains bold by thee controlled most like to gods design thou art the voice to boys to lift them through the fight and of to give the dead good a veil to draw god his law and man s infirmity a shadow kind to dumb and blind the where we die a rule to trick th too base of � the spur of trust the of lust thou of the gods o charity all patiently abiding and o faith that meets ten thousand yet drops no of faith i to the true romance devil and brute thou dost to higher show who art in that lovely truth the careless angels know thy face is far from this our war our call and counter cry i may not find thee quick and hind nor know thee till i die yet may i look with heart on blow brought home or missed yet may i hear with equal ear the down the list yet set my lance above and ride the � oh hit or miss how little tis my lady is not there i � the flowers to our private taste there is always something a almost artificial in songs which under an english aspect and dress are yet so the product of other skies they affect us like the very and are alien remote the dog s tooth violet is but an ill substitute for the nor can we ever believe thai the wood sings as sweetly in april as the english � the buy my english and may � of the wet with channel spray from a � buy my english and i ll your heart s desire buy my english you that scorn the may won t you greet a friend from home half the world away the flowers green against the drift faint and frail and first � buy my northern blood root and i ll know where you were nursed robin down the road come to me spring has found the grove the sap is running free all the winds of canada call the rain take the flower and turn the hour and kiss your love again buy my english here s to match your need buy a of royal heath buy a bunch of weed white as sand of spun before the gale � buy my heath and lilies and i ll tell you whence you hail under hot broad the lie � and the aching the sky � slow below the the � take the flower and turn the hour and kiss your love again buy my english you that will not turn � buy my hot wood buy a o the flowers gathered where the leaps down the road to � buy my christmas and i ll say where you were born west away from dust holidays begin � they that mock at paradise at � through the great south sings the great south main � take the flower and turn the hour and loss your love again buy my english	39
nothing better than the de paris in so far as food i a at forty is concerned it is as good a place to go for dinner as the city it me now when i think of how the ability of had been working through all this as the had been arranged in his mind i was to take the elder of the two ladies as my partner and he had reserved the younger for himself as a matter of fact they were really equally pretty and charming � and i was interested in both until after a few and when i had exchanged a few laughing signs with the younger he informed me that she was really closely tied up with some one else and was not available this i really did not believe but it did not make any particular difference i turned my attention to the elder who was quite as if not quite so as her younger sister i never knew what it meant before to sit in a company of this kind welcome as a friend looked to for gaiety as a companion and admirer and yet not able to say a word in the language of the occasion there were certain words which could be quickly acquired on an occasion of this kind such as beautiful charming very delightful and so on for which gave me the french equivalent and then i could make complimentary remarks which he would for all and the ladies would say things in reply which would come to me by the same medium it went gaily enough � for the conversation not have been of a high order if i had been able to speak french objected to being used constantly as an and when he became stubborn and gaily without stopping to explain i was compelled to fall back on the resources of looks and smiles and gestures it interested me to see how quick these women were to themselves to the difficulties of the situation they were constantly laughing and between themselves � looking at paris me and saying obviously flattering things and then laughing at my discomfiture in not being able to understand the elder explained what certain objects were by lifting them up and on the french name was constantly telling me of the compliments they made and how sad they thought it was that i could not speak french we departed finally for the where the sensation of paris was playing she proved to be a brilliant to look upon a gay slim yellow haired who seemed to the large audience by her boyish manners and her air there was a brilliant chorus in and and finally a beautiful maiden without any clothing at all who was by the of the stage before she had half crossed it the acts were about as good as they are anywhere i did not think that the performance was any better than one might see in one or two places in new york but of course the humor was much broader now and then one of their remarkable was translated for me by just to give me an of the character of the place back of the seats was a great or where a fragment of the of paris was � beautiful creatures in many instances and as as you please i was particularly struck with the of their and the cheerful character of their faces the companion type in london and new york is somewhat colder looking their eyes snapped with intelligence and they walked as though the whole world held their point of view and no other from here at midnight we left for the and there i encountered the best that paris has to show in the way of that gaiety and color and beauty and for which it is famous one a at forty really ought to say a great deal about the because it is the last word the of midnight excitement and the russian and the the frenchman the american the englishman the german and the italian all meet here on common i saw much of life in paris while i was there but nothing better than this like the de paris it was small � very small � when compared to of similar in new york and london i fancy it was not more than sixty feet square � only it was not square but almost circular the tables to begin with went the walls with seats which had the wall for a back and then as the guests poured in the interior space was filled up with tables which were brought in for the purpose and later in the morning when the guests began to leave these tables were taken out again and the space devoted to dancing and as in the de paris i noticed that it was not so much the quality of the as the spirit of the place which was important this latter was of various elements � success perfection of service absolute distinction of cooking and lastly the and of sex which is and used in paris as it is nowhere else in the world i never actually realized until i stepped into this what it is that draws a certain element to paris the tomb of napoleon and the and the are not the significant attractions of that important city those things have their value � they constitute an historical and artistic element that is appealing romantic and but over and above that there is something else � and that is sex i did not learn what i am going to say now until later but it might as well be said here for it the point exactly a little experience and in paris in paris quickly taught me that the owners and of the more successful encourage and help to sustain a certain t of woman whose presence is desirable she must	43
nor ain t you said he well nor i m glad to see you i m to help you finish out yo term walk along and up yer jaw i m kinder tired on it and i ve a good mind to let you have a load of jest to teach you manners well that old fellow marched me down and made a go through my clothes the things in my pockets were proof positive of my guilt of course and you never heard such a as he gave me in your life all the time keeping a running fire at me asking what i was in for etc the evidence was that i was a but they all agreed i looked like a and one man even suggested that i had picked a s pocket that was the worst of all then he marched me off to the what became of the guard asked one he s my manager on my farm said the governor and he still makes me march straight uncle jack s views of en the war ended and the were free there was a great for them one of the first schools started was on the edge of his place by colonel who got a little school as they were termed to come down and teach it it was soon filled by the colored population the pupils from five to seventy five years all studying a b ab e b even uncle jack scott the colonel s head man one of the old went in and was transferred from the stable to the school room the about it but it was laid to the door of uncle jack s new wife mrs scott who was a lady and had many uncle jack was an acquisition to the school and was given a prominent position by the stove the little mistress paying him especial attention putting him through his a b ab s and e b s with much pride and holding him up to her younger scholars as a shining example a few days later uncle jack appeared armed with a long which he presented to the teacher with a remark about lazy ry s much s bread and loud enough to be heard by the whole school miss called bear by mrs scott took the with visible emotion made a speech to the school upon uncle jack s wisdom and appreciation of advantages and uncle jack with much grandeur went to his task the lesson that day was b a ba b e be unhappily uncle jack had learned a b ab e b too well and b and a were never anything but ab and b and e never anything but no matter in what order they came miss was at her wits end she had established her rules and she stood by them had she believed it her duty she would have gone to without a tremor one of her most invariable rules was to for missing lessons when uncle jack missed his lesson two days hand running she was in despair but discipline was to be preserved and after hours of painful suspense when he still failed she ordered him to stand up he obeyed she glanced around seeking some alternative fifty pairs of eyes were fastened upon her she reached under her desk and slowly drew out a the very one uncle jack had brought her fifty pairs of eyes showed their take oflf your coat there was a gasp throughout the room uncle jack paused a moment as if then laid down his book and took off his coat take off your waistcoat he obeyed you ain t meek me off my shirt is you he asked no clasp your hands he did so and she raised the and brought it down across his back again there was a gasp throughout the room which came every time a was given uncle jack was the only one who uttered no sound he stood like a statue when she finished he put on his coat and sat down school was dismissed next day uncle jack was at his old place at the stable why i thought you were at school said his master who had heard something of the trouble nor i got he said he stuck his comb into his brush there was a pause then i tell you de i is too to be by a an a po white at it was several years after this that uncle jack was working one day at a water gate in a field when the children came down the road from school they stopped and peeped through the fence among them was mrs scott s hopeful who had proved an scholar than his father his bag was on his arm he climbed over the fence and from the bank gazed down at his father in the water below presently he said or de teacher say you me a geography uncle jack s jaw set he dug on as if he had not heard then he repeated to himself � public library a tor and foundations is is a he asked looking up at his employer who happened to be by a geography said the colonel why a geography is a � is a book � a book that tells about places and where they are and so on he gave a comprehensive sweep with his arm around the horizon now i said jack going back to digging presently he stopped and looked up at i say boy you tell de teacher say you better stick to you a b ab s an you e b s an let alone you knows de way now to de spring an de wood pile an de mill an when you a little bigger i s to show you de way to de handle an de an s all de a s got to know	46
i render it with pleasure if i had nothing else to consider but the immediate support of my i should be obliged to resign my although cry out qui fit it is not caprice but the iron hand if want which me to this resignation it is true that by every social advance from the inhabitants here which i should e obliged to do since i could not return them by myself day to day and forever within the solitary walls of my own loose my salary might be sufficient to purchase bread and meat and as such a life might require but these are conditions i choose not to impose either on others or myself another with terror is that as my salary depends on my own life my death would throw my wife and children on the of a cold and selfish world all these things considered and that i am now in the prime of life i would ask whether it would act be mean little and worthy of eternal to sit quietly down the light of conscience and see these misfortunes coming upon me one after another in succession would you think a man worthy of your friendship who should be capable of such disgraceful the resignation of the becoming thus inevitable the only remaining question is where shall i resume the practice of my profession the answer clearly is in that country where i can with most certainty achieve the object for which i resign that is a support for my family independent of the world and of my own life you understand me this is a question which i have deliberately considered � not in the delirium of a fever hissing hot master but with all the scrupulous conscientious coolness of which my mind is capable you ask why quit the state which has adopted which has me which has raised me to its honours it is the partiality of your friendship which puts this question i am sure that it is very to virginia where i reside x x i throw this point entirely out of the question and consider simply the interests of my family to this i am determined that every feeling of private attachment and for virginia shall bend knowing as i have done the agony to which the want of wealth or at least independence any mind not devoid of sensibility it becomes a point of conscience in the first place and the � b soon an object of of delightful pursuit to shelter those who are dear to me from all danger of the like torment having once effected this purpose death who would be to me now a king of terrors indeed would become merely a master of ceremonies to introduce me into the apartments above you ask me how many you could name who are now at the bar in this country wealth as fast as their hearts can desire or quite fast enough i answer i don t know how many you could name w it is true made a fortune c is also making a fortune with the exception of these two there is not another individual who has hitherto done this at the bar of these courts or who is now in the way of doing so i am not sure of john of he however practised at a most period such a one as does not now exist baker washington and others � what have they made by the fro f not more than the most ordinary lawyer in is able to do in five or six years x � between ourselves i was thirty years old the eighth day of last november have i any time to lose and considering the uncertainty of life and the certainty of death is it not the highest wisdom to improve every flying moment to the best advantage r ten years of life would do but little here in they might and probably would make my family for the first time in my life and with shame i confess it i look forward my dear with a thoughtful mind and a heart aching with uncertainty to the years that lie before me i cannot abide the reflection that the time shall ever come when my conscience shall reproach me with having neglected the interests and happiness of my family with having involved by my want of energy and enterprise a lovely and innocent wife with a group of tender and helpless children in want and misery it but hope like an angel of peace whispers to my heart that this shall not be she does indeed sketch some most and scenes to my waking as well as sleeping fancy wealth respect the love of my fellow citizens she designs with the boldness and grandeur of an while with all the softness and sweetness of s pencil she draws my wife and a circle of blooming and smiling happy as innocence and peace and plenty can make them � your friend wm vn a speculation the waa resigned in may and the of e to abandoned now determined to lake up his abode in in accordance with mr s although for the present he still resided in to june � � � � � � well sir you have heard that i have myself of the s and i feel much the cooler and lighter for it not but that there was some awkwardness in coming down to conflict with men to whom a few days before my was the law the pride was a false one and i myself on it i feel little triumph in being thus able to get out of myself to survey from an intellectual distance the workings of my own heart to discern and to its errors the man who can thus make an impartial and candid friend of himself has gained a great point in the and perfection of	29
ii quarrel with his father and had gone to return at the end of six weeks take up hia old and bis own family who equally expected this issue wi the sole di that the squire w determined this time to forbid hi the old quarters never mentioned his absence and when his uncle or mr noticed it the story of his killed and father t toe f s disappearance with that of the robbery on ihe same day lay quite away from track of every one s thought � even who had reason than any one else to know what his brother was of lie remembered no mention of the between them since the time twelve years ago when it was their boyish sport to him and besides his constantly created an a i bi for he saw him continually in congenial haunt to which he had off on leaving � saw him on chance and meditating a return home to the old of i � � his elder brother if any brain with which in had put the said two whether a nation so to of a family with a monument and would not have been suppressed as of tendency christmas and abundance of the mental originality into the channel of nightmare are great against a dangerous of waking thought when the robbery was talked of nt the rainbow and elsewhere in good company the balance continued to between the rational c tion founded on the box and the theory of an impenetrable that investigation the of the box and view considered the other side a headed and set who because they themselves were supposed everybody else to have the same blank outlook and the of tlie more than hinted that their were animals inclined to crow before they had found any corn � mere dishes in point of depth � whose consisted in supposing there was nothing behind a barn door because they lid n t see through it so that though their did not serve to the fact concerning the robbery it some true opinions of importance but while poor s loss served us to the current of conversation himself was feeling the withering desolation of that about which his were arguing at their ease any one who had observed him fore he lost his gold it have seemed that so withered and a life as bis could hardly be of a could hardly endure any hut such as would i put an end to it altogether but in i reality it had been an eager life filled � him in from ihe wide cheerless it liad been a and though the round its had was a dead dis thing it the need clinging but now the fence no longer move in i round and were hy n blank like that which meets a ant when the earth has broken aj on iti homeward path the loom was there and the weaving and the growing pattern in the cloth bat the bright in the hole under iii was gone the prospect of handling and counting it v as gone evening had no of delight to still the poor s craving the thought of the money he would get by his actual work could bring no joy for its meagre image was only a fresh of his loss and hope was loo heavily crushed by the sudden blow for his imagination to li on the growth of a new from chat small beginning he filled up the blank with grief then he e ii le sign that his thoughts had round again to tlie chasm � to the empty evening time and all the evening as he sat in his loneliness by his dull are he leaned his elbows on his knees and clasped his head with his hands and moaned very low � not as one who seeks tu be heard and yet he was not i in ms trouble the had always created in his neighbors was partly dissipated by the new light in which this misfortune had shown him instead of a man who had cunning than honest fi come by and what was worse not the inclination ta that in a way it was now apparent that had not cunning enough to keep his own lie w is generally spoken of as a poor i and that of his neighbors which had before been referred lo his ill will and to a probable to worse ny was now considered mere this change to a feeling was shown in various ways tlie of christmas cooking being on the wind it was the season when superfluous pork and black are suggestive of charity in well to do families and s misfortune had like mrs mr loo while he that his money had probably been taken from him because he thought too much of it and never came to the doctrine by a of pigs calculated to prejudices against the character who had nothing but verbal consolation to give showed a disposition not only lo greet and discuss his misfortune at some length when hey encountered him in the village to lake the trouble of at his cottage and getting him to repeat all the details on the very spot and then they try to cheer him by saying i suppose one reason why we am seldom to comfort onr neighbors with our words is that oar good will gets in spite of ourselves before it can pass our lips we can black and without giving them a flavor of oar that is almost sure soil there was a fair proportion in but ic was often of a and and took the shape least allied to the and mr for example coming one evening expressly to let know that recent events had given him the advantage of standing more favor in the opinion of a man judgment not lightly opened tlie bj as soon as he	14
bees falling like but before any lump touched water the bees flew upward and the body of a whirled down stream overhead they could hear furious short that were drowned in a roar like � the roar of the wings of the little people of the rocks some of the too had fallen into the that communicated with the and there choked and fought and snapped among the tumbled and at last borne up even when they were dead on the heaving waves of bees beneath them shot out of some hole in the to roll over on the black rubbish heaps there were who had leaped short into the trees on the cliffs and the bees blotted out their shapes but the greater number of them by the had flung themselves into the river and as said the was hungry water held fast till the boy had recovered his breath we may not stay here he said the little people are roused indeed come swimming low and as often as he could went down the river knife in hand slowly slowly said one tooth does the second book not kill a hundred unless it be a s and many of the took water swiftly when they saw the little people rise the more work for my knife then how the little people follow sank again the face of the water was with wild bees sullenly and all they found nothing was ever yet lost by silence said � no sting could penetrate his scales � and thou hast all the long night for the hunting hear them howl nearly half the pack had seen the trap their fellows rushed into and turning sharp aside had flung themselves into the water where the broke down in steep banks their cries of rage and their threats against the tree who had brought them to their shame mixed with the and of those who had been punished by the little people to remain ashore was death and every knew it their pack was swept along the current down to the deep of the peace pool but even there the angry little people followed and forced them to the water again could hear the voice of the leader bidding his people hold on and kill out every wolf in but he did not waste his time in listening red dog one in the dark behind us snapped a here is water had forward like an a struggling under water before he could open his mouth and dark rings rose as the body up turning on its side the tried to turn but the current prevented them and the little people darted at their heads and ears and they could hear the challenge of the pack growing louder and deeper in the gathering darkness again and again a went under and rose dead and again the broke out at the rear of the pack some howling that it was best to go ashore others calling on their leader to lead them back to the and others bidding show himself and be killed they come to the fight with two and several voices said the rest is with thy brethren below yonder the little people go back to sleep they have chased us far now i too turn back for i am not of one skin with any wolf good hunting little brother and remember the low a wolf came running along the bank on three legs leaping up and down laying his head sideways close to the ground his back and i the second book breaking high into the air as though he were playing with his it was won the and he said never a word but continued his horrible sport beside the they had been long in the water now and were swimming wearily their coats and heavy their tails dragging like so tired and shaken that they too were silent watching the pair of blazing eyes that moved abreast this is no good hunting said one panting good hunting said as he rose boldly at the brute s side and sent the long knife home behind the shoulder pushing hard to avoid his dying snap art thou there man said won across the water ask of the dead replied have none come down stream i have filled these dogs mouths with dirt i have them in the broad daylight and their leader his tail but here be some few for thee still whither shall i drive them i will wait said won the night is before me nearer and nearer came the bay of the wolves for the pack for the full pack it is met and a bend in the river drove the red dog forward among the sands and opposite the then they saw their mistake they should have landed half a mile higher up and rushed the wolves on dry ground now it was too late the bank was lined with burning eyes and except for the had never stopped since there was no sound in the it seemed as though won were on them to come ashore and turn and take hold said the leader of the the entire pack flung themselves at the shore and through the water till the face of the was all white and torn and the great went from side to side like bow waves from a boat followed the rush and as the huddled together rushed up the river beach in one wave then the long fight began heaving and straining and and scattering and and along the red wet sands and over and between the tangled tree roots and through and among the and in and out of the grass for even now the were two to one but they met wolves fighting for all that made the pack and not only the short high deep white hunters of the the second book pack but the anxious eyed � the	39
shakespeare in examples of this kind in no one instance more touching or powerful than in the lament of af er the french long tells her she is as fond of grief as of her child � the room np of my child lies in his walks np and down im on his pretty looks his words remembers me of all his gracious parts out his vacant garments with his then have i reason to be fond of grief the following example from is remarkable for its elegance and beauty alluding to the and the orange � the boast of and he says they peep the polished foliage at tho and seem to smile at what they need not the next figure of speech noticed by is of immense importance to the poet because if for one moment he loses the chain of association an image wholly out of place is introduced the charm of his is destroyed and his verse becomes contemptible from lord whose writings abound in beauties of this kind has selected one example of perfect the writer is describing the behaviour of charles the to his parliament in a word says he about a month after meeting he dissolved t the poetry op language them and as soon as he had dissolved them he repented but he repented too late of his well might he repent f the was now full and this last drop made the of bitterness the works of abound with beautiful and correct such as that on a hero in peace thou art the gate of spring in war the mountain storm or this on woman she was covered with the light of beauty but her heart was the house of pride young in speaking of old age says it should walk on the solemn shore or that ocean it mast sail so soon in the following lines prior gives us an example of which may be regarded as continued did i bat to with thee � on the of a summer s sea while blow with and s the swelling sails bat would the ship and make the when the winds whistle and the roar v beyond these figures of speech there yet remain comparison and a variety of others which the young poet would do well to study and which are described in books expressly devoted to the purpose i shall therefore pass on to the language of the irish � the simple genuine irish which has always appeared to me particularly imaginative powerful and pathetic but unfortunately for the writer it is only heard in moments of excitement of which the feelings alone keep a record and this record being one of impressions rather than words it is difficult to recall the precise expressions which striking the of sympathy produce a momentary echo to the music of the soul mrs c hall in an irish story of the strong and language of the irish makes this observation proceed from the mouth of a poor man who had listened to the recital of e misfortunes of one who was brave just and virtuous the the even to bleeding and the to grow its own way it is to the of traits and stories of the irish that we are chiefly indebted for our knowledge of what is peculiarly national and characteristic in his native language he gives us a spirited and amusing chapter upon irish swearing by no means confined to those wishes which it would be a task to but which as they issue from the impassioned lips of the have something of that sentimental nature though far deeper in its character triumphantly displayed by acres before his friend may the grass grow before your door a striking picture of desolation and ruin a ay you melt ofi die earth uke the snow off the ditch is another figure of the same description if positive good had the power to evil we might comfort ourselves in reading such expressions as these with what the author goes on to tell us that the irish have a superstitious dread of the curse of the pilgrim or idiot and of the widow and the orphan and so high is his idea of the duty he owes to these that his heart is ever open to their complaint and his hand ready to assist them thus it is not uncommon for them to say of a man whose do not prosper he has had some poor body s curse and a woman who unexpectedly receives a guest welcome in no way except that she was a stranger and a wanderer without a home is described as exclaiming the blessing o goodness upon you woman the frequent of the word heart in its unlimited capacity gives a warmth and to their expressions of or sorrow the beloved fair boy of my heart father son of my heart thou art dead from me heavy and black was his heart the world s goodness is in your heart light of my eyes and of my heart but above all � the of my heart is most expressive of that deep toned which the heart alone can understand what can exceed the following words for refined yet genuine and fervent such as those who have been intimately acquainted with suffering alone can feel and hence it m that the irish derive their pathos for what strain of human misery can be the poetry of life touched to which own experience has not an echo hunger and sickness and may come upon you when you ll be far from your own and from them that love you or he s far from his own the � the pretty yoimg boy � my sweet darling is expressive of great tenderness my father the heavens be his bed when uttered with has both solemnity and pathos � in their good wishes the irish are most ingenious may every hair of	41
this thing now i am going straight to and when i come back watch out he never looked at us but started for the door you wait here john he said waving me back from accompanying him we stood around like a group of ghosts it is the truth said you could see it for yourselves they looked at me and i nodded harry lifted his glass to his lips but lowered it he half of it over the bar his lips were the of like a child that is about to cry ned made a clatter in the ice chest he wasn t looking for anything i don t think he knew what he was doing nobody spoke harry s lips were trembling harder than ever suddenly with a most horrible malignant expression he drove his fist into s face he followed it up we made no attempt to separate them we didn t care if he killed the half caste it was a terrible beating we weren t interested i don t even remember when ceased and let the poor devil crawl away we were all too dazed told me about it afterward he was working late over a report when came into his office had already recovered his and came swinging in a trifle angry the of with to be sure but very certain of himself what could i do asked me i knew he had it i had seen it coming on for months i couldn t answer him i couldn t say yes i don t mind telling you i broke down and cried he pleaded for the test out a piece he said over and over out a piece of skin and make the test the way cried must have convinced the was leaving next morning for we caught him when he was going aboard you see he was headed for to give himself up to the board of health we could do nothing with him he had sent too many to to hang back himself we argued for but he wouldn t hear of it i ve got to take my the of medicine fellows was all he would say and he said it over and over he was with the idea he wound up all his affairs from the receiving station at and went down to he didn t get on well there the resident physician wrote us that he was a shadow of his old self you see he was about his wife and the he knew we were taking care of them but it hurt him just the same after six months or so i went down to i sat on one side a plate glass window and he on the other we looked at each other through the glass and talked through what might be called a speaking but it was hopeless he had made up his mind to remain four mortal hours i argued i was exhausted at the end my steamer was whistling for me too the of but we couldn t stand for it months later we the she was an and she sailed like a witch her master was a who would do anything for money and we made a to china worth his while he sailed from san and a few days later we took out s for a she was only a five ton but we her fifty miles to into the trade i never suffered so in my life out of sight of land we picked up the and and i went aboard we ran down to arriving about eleven at night the to and we landed through the surf in a whale boat at � the place you know where father died q the of that was game with a couple of on him he came right along the three of us crossed the to something like two miles just imagine hunting in the dead of night for a man in a settlement of over a thousand you see if the alarm was given it was all off with us it was strange ground and pitch dark the dogs came out and at us and we stumbled around till we got lost the solved it he led the way into the first detached house we shut the door after us and struck a light there were six we them up and i talked in native what i wanted was a a is literally a a native who is clean that lives in the settlement and is paid the of by the board of health to nurse the dress their and such things we stayed in the house to keep track of the inmates while the square head led one of them off to find a he got him and he brought him along at the point of his revolver but the was all right while the guarded the house and i were guided by the to s house he was all alone i thought you fellows would come said don t touch me john how s ned and and all the crowd never mind tell me afterward i am ready to go now i ve had nine months of it where s the boat we started back for the other house to pick up the but the alarm had got out lights were showing in the of the houses and doors were we had agreed that there was to be no shooting unless absolutely necessary and when we were halted we went at it with our fists and the of our i found myself tangled up with a big man i couldn t keep him off of me though twice i smashed him fairly in the face with my fist he with me and we went down rolling and and struggling for he was getting away with me when some one came running up with a lantern then i saw his	21
and notices had entered upon his office as teacher the appointed him a few months afterwards temporary of ck n law in the law school of paris if his in the college de france had excited the indignation of the of the government the opposition press now protested in full chorus against this second and the students were also drawn into this party strife nobody could dispute the capacity of for this new he was disliked only because he was a foreigner and the special of the the students alleged as a special reason � his not having taken the degree in the university of paris numbers of students and others forced their way several times into the hall of the law school where the persecuted man and made such a tumult that the public authority had to interfere and the government was obliged in december to the lectures for some time it was only after several months that the patience and firmness of succeeded in obtaining an undisturbed hearing before the students and in course of time in securing at least in part even their attachment how ever it was not till the doth of november that an made his temporary appointment in the law school permanent a portion of his lectures on political economy in the de france was published from the notes taken by one of his hearers e under the title of d paris d ed proves himself by this work to be a and clever in the department of political economy he demands a free course for labor capital and trade respecting his views on the land rent he to but in his theory of population to this latter view is still more apparent in his other work the principles of the british introduction k i sur le de population de which is in the seventh part of the collection des in the year who had now gradually gained considerable respect among the scholars at paris was chosen member of the academy of moral and political and he received at the same time the de of his works in the academy a on the relations of political economy to the of the civil law is well known the warm of and as well as the writings which he had from time to time published in the des and other government organs had already procured for him the decided favor of the court louis saw in the and italian a man whom he might use for something greater than a teacher of the doctrine in when many were created was also ft npon the list and this elevation was to be only the to and notices tbe new career which the king himself intended to open for his the active influence of in the chamber of was probably very limited he spoke but a few times namely during the on the privilege and afterwards during the dispute regarding public instruction in short after having been created peer resigned the offices of in the law school and the college de france where succeeded him and instead of it he was at once admitted in into the council of state where he was at first assigned to the department of instruction and some time after to that of foreign it is indeed remarkable how soon in this position stood in the most confidential relation to the king and he must have penetrated into all the plans and designs of the court and have been consulted regarding them his frequent and personal intercourse with louis displeased even the and who began to fear and not without reason that the italian might sooner or later and him notwithstanding his relations to the court and to the notwithstanding his stiff and uninteresting external which still reminded one of and the party type of the men who had elevated him succeeded in putting himself in a tolerably good understanding with the other public parties and their tendencies the alone and rejected him called him a and similar names because he did not care to trouble himself about these people without a future but with the and he was not out of favor and was even praised several times in the national the opposition entertained the conviction that the and perseverance of the italian might perhaps lead to the and overthrow of the hated party and that according to several expressions made he concealed an opinion the development of which might one day his the did not look upon with eyes as citizen of and husband to a wife he had had his children educated in but in france the shrewd man caused his family to go over to during the dispute on the question between the university and clergy had spoken in the chamber of in such a manner that he did not offend in fact any party but to a certain degree satisfied them both the party already fancied that they saw in him a possible ally this extreme which displayed in the on and religious determined at last to make a decided use of the powers of his intending through his agency to make a final settlement of uie questions then between france and the ko vn short and june see and thus to restore peace between the two parties in the beginning of the year when the breach between the church and state showed itself more dangerous than ever was appointed minister extraordinary to rome it was given out that he was to conduct the at rome ad in place of the sick count the french at rome protested against it in vain likewise found him self quite severely treated by the appointment of which had been made without hi wishes and knowledge had selected for the post at rome count le who was acceptable to both the party of and that of the priests and he was already on his journey to paris from where he represented the	37
been any for my doing so � but that i was mire the condition of the could be very much improved without permanent harm to the by any one who felt a sympathy lor them and in the end i believe such produces better and so benefits the em she listened with her gentle look of trust as though committing to him with the good faith of a child her ignorance her her little and her uttle on him not to abuse or them in the boundless of his masculine that is just what i want you to explain to me the fruit of the tree she said but first i should like to know more about the poor man who was hurt i meant to see his wife yesterday but mr told me she would be at work till six and it would have been difficult to go after that i did go to the hospital but the man was sleeping � is his name � and the matron told us he was much better dr came in the evening and said the same thing � told us it was all a false report about his having been so badly hurt and that mr was very much annoyed when he heard of your having said before the that would lose his arm smiled ah � mr heard that well he s right to be annoyed i ought not to have said it when i did but unfortunately i am not the only one to be punished the who tied on the black cloth was dismissed this morning mrs up dismissed oh how unjust � how cruel you must look at both sides of the case said finding it much easier to remain temperate in the gk w he had kindled than if he had had to force his own heat into frozen veins of course any act of must be � but i think a would have been enough it gave him an of pleasure to find that not to lie checked by such arguments but he be put l � i won t liave any one dis the of the tree charged for such a reason you must find him for me at once � you must tell him once more gently restrained her if you ll forgive my saying so i think it is better to let him go and take his chance of getting work elsewhere if be were taken back he might be made to suffer as things are organized here the bands ore very much at the mercy of the and the in that room would be likely to make it uncomfortable for a hand who had so openly de him with a heavy sigh she bent her puzzled brows on him how complicated it is i wonder if i shall ever it all you don t think s accident was bis own fault certainly not there ore too many cards in that room i pointed out th fact to mr when the new machines were set up three years ago an may be ever so expert with his fingers and yet not learn to measure his ordinary movements quite as as if he were an and that is what a man must do to be safe in the room she sighed again the more you td me the more difficult it all seems why ia th� room to to make it pay returned and the colour flushed her sensitive skin he thought she was about to punish for his i the fruit of the tree plain speaking but she went on after a pause what you say is dreadful each thing seems to lead back to another � and i feel so ignorant of it all she hesitated again and then said turning her glance on him i am going to be quite frank with you mr mr repeated to me what you said to him last night and i think he was annoyed that you were unwilling to give any proof of the charges you made charges ah exclaimed with a start of recollection he means my refusing to say who told me that dr was not telling the truth about yes he said that was a very grave accusation to make and that no one should have made it without being able to proof that is quite true but in this case it would be easy for you or mr to find out whether i was right but mr said you refused to say who told you i was bound to as it happened but i am not bound to prevent your trying to get the same information ah � she murmured and a sudden thought striking him he went on with a glance at the clock if you really to judge for yourself why not go to tlie hospital now i be free i five and could go with you if you wish it had remembered the nurse s cry of saw mrs s face under l ic street lamp and it immediately occurred to him that if the two had really known each mrs have no difficulty in obtaining tlie she wanted while even if met as strangers the dark eyed s might be trusted to come to aid it to be seen how would � but some was already him method was the one she really preferred to the now i like it rf ad things she exclaimed rising with wliat seemed an almost childish zest in the adventure of course that is the beat way of finding i t to have insisted on seeing yesterday � but i beg to think the matron didn t want mc to left this to work itself out in her mind himself as they drove back to with answering lier questions about s family the ages of his children and his wife s health her he did not extend from the	10
by sir john chapter xxii who had never much for any thing like impertinence vulgarity inferiority of parts or even difference of taste from herself was at this time particularly from the state of her spirits to be pleased with the or to encourage their advances and to the invariable coldness of her behaviour towards them which checked every endeavour at intimacy on their side principally attributed that preference of herself which soon l came evident in the manners of both but especially of who missed no opportunity of engaging her in conversation or of striving to improve their acquaintance by an easy and frank communication of her sentiments was naturally clever her remarks were often just and amusing and as a companion for half an hour frequently found her agreeable but her powers had received no aid from education she was ignorant and and her deficiency of all mental improvement her want of information in the most common particulars could not be concealed from miss dash wood in spite of her constant endeavour to appear to advantage saw and pitied her for the neglect of abilities which education might have rendered so respectable but she saw with less tenderness of the thorough want of delicacy of and integrity of mind which her attentions her her at the park betrayed and she could have no lasting satisfaction in the company of a person who joined with ignorance whose want of instruction prevented their meeting in conversation on terms of equality and whose conduct toward others made every show of attention and deference towards herself perfectly you will think my question an odd one i dare say said to her one day as they were walking together from the park to the cottage but pray are you personally acquainted with sister in law s mother mrs � and did think the question a very odd one and her countenance expressed it as she answered that she had never mrs indeed i replied i wonder at that for i thought you must have seen her at sometimes then perhaps you cannot tell me what sort of a woman she is no returned cautious of giving her real opinion of i s mother and not very desirous of satisfying what seemed impertinent curiosity i know nothing of her i am sure you think me very strange for about her in such away said attentively as she spoke but perhaps there may be reasons � i wish i might venture but however i hope you will do me the justice of believing that i do not mean to be impertinent made her a civil reply and they walked on for a few minutes in silence it was broken by who renewed the subject again by saying with some hesitation � i cannot bear to have you think me curious i am sure i would rather do any thing in the world than be thought so by a person whose good opinion is so well worth having as yours and i am sure i should not have the smallest fear of trusting you indeed i should be very glad of your advice how to manage in such an uncomfortable situation as i am but however there is no occasion to trouble you i am sorry you do not happen to know mrs i am sorry i do no said in great astonishment if it could be of any use to you to know my opinion of her but really i never understood that you were at ail connected with that family and therefore i am a little surprised i confess at so serious an inquiry into her character i say you are and i am sure i do not at all wonder at it but if i dared tell you all you would not be so much surprised mrs is certainly nothing to me at present but the time may come � how soon it will come must depend upon herself � when we may be very intimately connected she looked down as she said this with only one side glance at her companion to observe its effect on her good heavens cried what do you mean are you acquainted with mr robert can you be and she did not feel much delighted with the idea of such a sister in law sense and en no replied not to mr robert � i saw him in my life but fixing her eyes upon to his eldest brother what felt at that moment astonishment that would have been as painful as it was strong had not an immediate of the assertion attended it she turned towards in silent amazement unable to divine the reason or object of such a declaration and though her complexion varied she stood firm in incredulity and felt in no danger of an hysterical fit or a you may well be surprised continued for to be sure you could have had no idea of it before for i dare say he never dropped the smallest hint of it to you or any of your family because it was always meant to be a great secret and i am sure has been faithfully kept so by me to this hour not a soul of all my relations know of it but anne and i never should hare mentioned it to you if i had not felt the greatest dependence in the world upon your secrecy and i really thought my behaviour in asking so many questions about mrs must seem so odd that it ought to be explained and i do not think mr can be displeased when he knows i have trusted you because i know he has the highest opinion in the world of all your family and looks upon yourself and the other quite as his own sisters she paused for a few moments remained silent her astonish at what she heard was at first too great for words but	26
he were a prophetic voice her future � and yet all the she judged him in return she said inwardly that he was narrow and unjust that he was below feeling those mental needs which were often the source of the wrong doing or absurdity that made her life a riddle to him she did not answer directly her heart was too full and she sat down leaning her arm on the table it was no use trying to make tom feel that she was near to him he always her her feeling under his words was complicated by the allusion to the last scene between her father and and at length that painful solemn memory sur mounted the immediate grievance no i she did not think of such things with frivolous indifference and tom must not accuse her of that she looked up at him with a grave earnest gaze and i can t make you think better of me tom by anything i can say but i am not so shut out from all your feelings as you believe me to be i see as well as you do that from our position with regard to philip s father � not on other grounds � it would be unreasonable � it would be wrong for us to entertain the idea of marriage and i have given up thinking of him as a lover i am telling you the truth and you have no right to me i have kept my word to you and you have never detected me in a falsehood i should not only not encourage i should carefully avoid any intercourse with philip on any other footing than that of quiet friendship you may think that i am unable to keep my resolutions but at least you ought not to treat me with hard contempt on the ground of faults that i have not committed yet well said tom softening under this appeal thb mill ok thb don t want to matters i think all things it will be best for you to see philip if wishes him to come to the house i believe what you at least you believe it yourself i know i can only warn you i wish to be as good a brother to you as will let me there was a little tremor in tom s voice as he uttered the last words and s ready affection came back with as sudden a glow as when they were children and bit their cake as a of she rose and laid her hand on tom s shoulder dear tom i know you mean to be good i know you have had a great deal to bear and have done a great deal i should like to be a comfort to you � not to vex you you don t think i m altogether naughty now do you tom smiled at the eager face his smiles were very pleasant to see when they did come for the grey eyes could be tender underneath the frown n o i may turn out better than you expect i hope you will and may i come some day and make tea for you and see this extremely small wife of bob s again yes but trot away now for no more time to spare said tom looking at his watch not to give me a kiss tom bent to kiss her cheek and then said � there i be a good girl i ve got a great deal to think of to day i m going to have a long consultation with my uncle this afternoon you ll come to aunt s to morrow we re going all to dine early that we may go there to tea you must come told me to say so oh i ve plenty else to do said tom pulling bell violently and bringing down the small bell rope i m frightened � i shall run away said a laughing retreat while tom with masculine philosophy flung the bell rope to the farther end of the room � not very far either a touch of human experience which i flatter myself will come home to the of not a few substantial or distinguished men who were once at an early stage of their rise in the world and were very large hopes in very small lodgings i chapter v showing that tom had opened the and now we ve settled this is business tom said mr that same afternoon as they were seated in the private room at the bank together there s another matter i want to talk to you about since you re likely to have rather smoky unpleasant time of it at for the next few weeks you ll want a good prospect of some sort to keep up your spirits tom waited less nervously than he had done on a former occasion in this apartment while his uncle took out his and gratified each with deliberate you see tom said mr at last throwing himself backward the world goes on at a pace now than it did when i was a young fellow why sir forty years ago when i was much such a as you a man expected to pull between the shafts the best part of his life before he got the whip in his hand the went and didn t alter quite so fast i d a best suit that lasted me six years everything was on a lower sir � in point of expenditure i mean it s this steam you see that has made the difference it drives on every wheel double pace and the wheel of fortune along with em as our mr guest said at the dinner he these things off wonderfully considering he s seen nothing of business i don t find with the change as some people do trade sir opens a man s eyes	14
called at seven to this the night clerk no reply but stretching out his hand to press an electric button to the perusal of the police a cup of cold water his summons was answered by the appearance of a man in shirt sleeves whose head indicated that he had recently risen from some kind of repose to him the night clerk tossed a key � the brief comment ninety seven and the man after a sleepy glance at turned on his heel and toward the staircase at the back of the corridor followed and they climbed three flights in silence at each landing glanced down the long passage way ht by a lowered gas jet � a double line of boots before the doors like yesterday s deeds to their owners so many miles farther on the morrow s destined road on the third landing the man paused and after examining the number on the key turned to the left and past three or four doors finally unlocked one and preceded into a room lit only by the upward gleam of the electric in the street below the man felt in his pockets then he turned to a match he asked politely offered him one and he applied it to the gas which extended its arm above an ash dressing table with a mirror fixed between two standards having performed this office with an air of designed to make recognize it as an act of he turned without a word and vanished down the passage way a cup of cold water after an indifferent glance about the room which seemed to afford the amount of luxury generally for two dollars and a half in a � quarter of new york locked the door and sat down at the ink stained writing table in the window far below him lay the lit depths of the forsaken now and then he heard the of a and the ring of hoofs on the pavement or saw the lonely figure of a policeman the illumination of the plate glass windows on the opposite side of the street he sat thus for a long time his el bows on the table his chin between his hands till at length the contemplation t f the abandoned above which the electric kept became intolerable to him and he drew down the window shade and lit the gas beside the dressing table then he took a cigar from his case and held it to the flame the passage from the freshness of the night to the stale atmosphere of the hotel had checked the rapid working of his mind and he was now scarcely conscious of thinking at all his head was heavy and he would have thrown himself on the bed had he not feared to the hour fixed for his departure he thought it safest instead to seat himself once more by the table in the most uncomfortable chair that he could a cup of cold water find and smoke one cigar after another till the first sign of dawn should give an excuse for action he had laid his watch on the table before him and was gazing at the hour hand and trying to convince himself by so doing that he was still wide awake when a noise in the adjoining room suddenly straightened him in his chair and banished all fear of sleep there was no the nature of the noise it was that of a woman s sobs the sobs were not loud but the sound reached him distinctly through the frail door between the two rooms it expressed an utter to grief not the cloud burst of some passing emotion but the slow down pour of a whole heaven of sorrow sat listening there was nothing else to be done and at least his listening was a mute tribute to the trouble he was powerless to relieve it roused too the of his own grief he was touched by the chance of two alien sorrows in a great city throbbing � passions it would have been more in keeping with the irony of life had he found himself next to a mother singing her child to sleep there seemed a mute in the hand that had led him to such neighborhood gradually the sobs subsided with pauses an effort at self control at last they died off softly like the drops that end a day of rain j a cup of cold water poor mused she s got the better of it lor the time i what it s all at the same moment he heard another sound that made him to his feet it was a very low sound but in that silence which gives distinctness to the � noises knew at once that he had heard the dick of a pistol what is she up to now he asked himself with his eye on the door between the two rooms and the lit seemed to reply with a glance of intelligence he turned out the gas and crept to the door pressing his eye to the illuminated circle after a moment or two of during which he seemed to himself to be breathing like a he discerned a room like his own with the same dressing table by gas and the same table in the window this table was directly in his line of vision and beside it stood a woman with a small revolver in her hands the lights being behind her could only infer her youth fit m her slender and the of hair her head her dress seemed dark and simple and on a chair under one of the gas lay a jacket edged with cheap fur and a small travelling bag he could not see the other end of the room but something in her manner told him that she was alone at length she put the revolver down and took up a letter	10
the boat was in the explanation the young man and the allusion to his father opened a new train of thought my father is he well about as usual and very anxious to see you if the news of your steamer s safe arrival was in the evening edition of the boston papers he will sit up to night waiting for you your best way now is to take the midnight train and be at home early in the morning there was something in this suggestion that caused to break into laughter not loud enough to attract attention from others in the room but sufficiently strange to cause mr a good deal of apprehension had his friend completely lost his mind it was the kind of laughter that is often followed by tears but in this case the stopped short of that if you have really had no dinner you should eat something said nothing is worse than an empty stomach in the idea of and a was soon spread before him of which he partook with a reasonable appetite the effects of the their marriage bond were almost immediately apparent in his improved appearance i cannot go to boston to night he said when that subject was again but perhaps i will go tomorrow i have a little business to here for my firm yes i think a note stating that i have arrived might be sent home it will relieve father of anxiety in case he hears of the arrival of my boat was procured and the a messenger being summoned to take it to the railway station as it was too late for the you d better let me walk to the hotel with you when the name of that establishment was at last given to him i m at the and tomorrow unless you re a great deal better i advise you to be careful not to go about too much you gave me a start when i first met you upon my word as there was nothing to be gained by continuing to the city in his present condition consented to go home and to bed after his arrival there he for a time into his former condition of despondency it did not seem as if he could close his when the girl he loved so well might be already a victim to the and that would be set for her feet but tired nature had her way at last and he slept the sleep of an exhausted man till morning h their marriage bond chapter xiii you are a sick man when awoke it was with a start the which he had been obliged to face on the previous day was still in existence for a full hour he did not attempt to rise but though he thought of the in every conceivable phase its severity did not margaret had deserted him in a manner that showed how strong was her purpose to end all connections between them there was a possibility that to day or to morrow frightened at being alone in a strange land she would and come in search of him if she held out beyond that he did not know where to find further hope he could not long delay going to see his father but he resolved at least to wait in the city forty eight hours there was no telling whether the english girl was still in the vicinity or whether some of the trains that run to all points of the compass had taken her miles and miles away he would write a few words home stating that he had arrived and that a business matter would delay him in new york for a couple of days in the meantime there was the of the long streets and avenues the perusal of the newspapers the frequent returns to the office of the hotel where she had left him with inquiries and a careful to each of the clerks to detain any person who might call for him came around about ten o clock to inquire after his condition and who was then at their marriage bond breakfast got rid of him by a plausible story without giving said he was in the city on no particular business merely passing the time while the coffee was disappearing he took occasion to speak of edward and of the family but paid little attention to the subject there isn t anything that i can do for you is there asked as his friend excused himself i don t like to see you looking like this and my time is wholly at your disposal if it s of any use no was the reply i am upset a little about a business matter but i guess it will come around all right if you want any money pardon me you know you have only to mention it thank you it is nothing of that kind good bye he was very much broken up who knew him go well was perfectly certain of that but there was nothing he could do either to help his friend or to satisfy his curiosity and he parted from without either of them alluding to a possible after walking about for a time peering into the faces of every woman he met returned to the hotel and copied from a a long list of intelligence offices these he obtained help in arranging in some order as to their distance from the hotel and the direction in which they lay then taking a carriage he explained to the driver his desire to visit the entire list as fast as convenient and set off on that errand i wish to engage a young woman to teach two children the ordinary branches was the story he repeated at each office an english girl newly arrived would be preferred at two or three places they said they had exactly their	1
and over again as she uttered no sound and as her dumb motions like most of her gestures were of a very extraordinary kind this unintelligible conduct reduced mr britain to the of despair he stared at this table at the stranger at the at his wife � followed hear with looks of deep amazement and perplexity � asked in the same language was it property in danger was it he in danger was it answered her with other expressive of the deepest distress and confusion � followed the motions of her lips � guessed half aloud milk and water monthly warning and � and couldn t aj her meaning gave it up at last as a hope ss attempt and moving her chair by very slow degrees a little nearer to the stranger sat with her eyes apparently cast down but glancing sharply at him now and then waiting until he should ask some other question she had not to wait long for he said presently the battle op life � � and what is the after history of the young lady who went away they know it i suppose shook her head i ve heard she said that doctor is thought to know more of it than he tells miss has had letters from her sister saying that she was well and happy and made much happier by her being married to mr alfred and has written letters back but there s a mystery about her life and fortunes altogether which nothing has cleared up to this hour and which � she faltered here and stopped and which � repeated the stranger which only one other person i believe could explain said drawing her breath quickly who may that be asked the stranger mr michael answered almost in a shriek at once conveying to her husband what she would have had him understand before and letting michael know that he was recognized you remember me sir said trembling with emotion i saw just now you did you remember me that night in the garden i was with her yes you were he said yes sir returned yes to be sure this is my husband if you please ben dear ben run to miss grace � run to mr alfred � run re ben bring somebody here directly stay said michael quietly himself between the door and britain what would you do let them know that you are here sir answered clapping her hands in sheer agitation let them know that they may hear of her from your own lips let them know that she is not quite lost to them but that she will come home again yet to bless her father and her loving even her old servant even the battle of life me she struck herself upon the breast both hands with a sight of her sweet face ben run i and still she him on toward the door and still mr before it with his hand stretched out not angrily but sorrowfully or perhaps said running past her husband and catching in her emotion at mr s cloak the s here now perhaps she s dose by i think from your manner she is let me see her sir if you please i waited on her when she was a little child i saw her grow to be the pride of all this place i knew her when she was mr alfred s promised wife i tried to warn her when you tempted her away i know what her old home was when she was like the soul of it and how it changed when she was gone and lost let me speak to her if you please he gazed at her with compassion not with wonder but he made no gesture of assent i don t think she can know pursued how truly forgive her how they love her what joy it would be to to sec her once more she may be of going home if she sees me it may give her new heart only tell me truly mr is she with you she is not he answered shaking his head this answer and his manner and his black dress and his coming back so quietly and his announced intention of continuing to live abroad explained it all was dead he didn t contradict her yes she was dead sat down hid her face upon the table and cried at that moment a gray headed old gentleman came running in quite out of breath and panting so much that his voice was scarcely to be recognized as the voice of mr good heaven mr i said the lawyer taking him aside what wind has blown � he was so blown himself that he couldn t get on any further until after a pause when he added feebly you here the battle of life an ill wind x am answered if you have rd what l passed r w i have been and entreated to perform � what confusion and affliction i carry with me can guess it all � but why did you come here my good retorted j how i know who k t the house when i � fi servant on to you i strolled in here because the place new to me and i had a natural curiosity in every thing new and in these old a i it was the x wn i with you re appearing there i know what people would say to m i by your that you can tell me if it were not fer your confounded i should have been possessed of every thing long ago our caution returned the lawyer speaking for self and � deceased here mr glancing at his hat band shook his head how can you reasonably blame us mr it was understood between us that the subject was never to be and that it wasn t a subject	8
you and i might as well understand each other he went on i can see how this thing came about it was a piece of foolishness on my part not to have asked you before and made you tell me it was silly for you to conceal it even if you didn t want the child s life mixed with mine you might have known that it couldn t be done that s neither here nor there though now the thing that i want to point out is that one can t live and hold a relationship such as ours without confidence you and i had that i thought i don t see my way clear to ever hold more than a relationship with you on this basis the thing is too tangled there s too much cause for scandal i know said now i don t propose to do anything hasty for my part i don t see why things can t go on about as they are � certainly for the present � but i want you to look the facts in the face sighed i know she said i know he went to the window and stared out there were some trees in the yard where the darkness was settling he wondered how this would really come out for he liked a home atmosphere should he leave the apartment and go to his club ai c l you d better get the dinner he suggested after a time turning toward her but he did not feel so distant as he looked it was a shame that life could not be more decently organized he strolled back to his and went about her duties she was thinking of of her attitude toward of his final decision never to marry her so that was how one dream had been wrecked by folly she spread the table lighted the pretty silver candles made his favorite put a small leg of lamb in the oven to roast and washed some leaves for a she had been a student of a cook book for some time and she had learned a good deal from her mother all tiie time she was wondering how the situation would work out he would leave her � no doubt of that he would go away and marry some one else oh well she thought finally he is not going to leave right away � that is something and i can bring here she sighed as she carried the things to the table if life would only give her and together but that hope was over l chapter there was peace and quiet for some time after this storm went the next day and brought i away with her the joy of the between mother and child made up for many other now i can do by her as i ought she thought and three or four times the day she foimd herself humming a little song came only occasionally at first he was trying to make himself believe that he ought to do something toward his life � toward bringing about that separation which he had suggested he did not like the idea of a child being in this apartment � particularly that particular child he fought his way through a period of calculated neglect and then began to return to the apartment more regularly in spite pf all its it was a place of quiet peace and very f notable personal comfort during the first days of s return it was for to matters so as to keep the playful nervous almost child from the staid emphatic commercial minded man gave a severe talking to the first night that he was coming telling her that he was a very man who didn t like children and that she mustn t go near him you mustn t talk she said you mi tn t ask questions let mamma ask you what you want and don t reach ever agreed solemnly but her childish mind hardly grasped the full significance of the warning ai d l came at seven who had taken great pains to array as as possible had gone into her bedroom to give her own toilet a last touch was in the kitchen as a matter of fact she had followed her mother to the door of the sitting room where now she could be plainly seen hung up his hat and coat then turning he caught his first glimpse the child looked very sweet � he admitted that at a glance she was arrayed in a blue dotted white dress with a soft roll collar and and the costume was completed by white stockings and shoes her corn colored hung gaily about her face blue eyes rosy lips rosy cheeks completed the picture stared almost inclined to say something but restrained himself retreated when came out he commented on the fact that had arrived rather sweet looking child he said do you have much trouble in making her mind not much she returned went on to the room and a scrap of their conversation who are he asked sh that s your uncle didn t i tell you you mustn t talk are he your uncle no dear don t talk now run into the are he only my uncle yes now run along all right in spite of himself had to smile what might have followed if the child had been homely or all three can scarcely be had been less even in the beginning he might have obtained a disagreeable impression as jt was the natural beauty of the child combined with the mother s gentle in keep l z i ing her in the background served to give him that fleeting glimpse of innocence and youth which is always pleasant the thought struck him that had been the mother of a child all these years she had been separated from	43
that can be done under the of form of government � and i recall the with gratitude mingled with � y as by an now no more � a bon sir ot own state he bad a large enough and a t broad enough to perceive even in its infancy the development of which was capable how much of interest his presence would have added to i need not say alas his image only ia among ne knows do country the ot daniel out of french stone by english hands rises here most to contemplate the work to which he gave the first great impulse what he commenced was continued by the eminent gentleman who succeeded him in the last high office which he filled � a gentleman of whom i may be permitted to say that the country is still fortunate in commanding in another ment his experience and and finally you sir have this day the by permitting as to greet the chief magistrate of the republic our walls we once more you sir for the honor you have done us applause tour presence here to day the close and friendly lies between the government of the united states and the happy people whom its power � applause � the cordial sympathy entertained by the highest of the republic for any legitimate popular undertaking � the intimate connection between labor and honor while at the same time it is proper here to state most distinctly and most and especially to those not so familiar with the frame work of our system that the government of the union is not in the most remote degree responsible for our in matter whatever they have been whatever they may be with the great objects of our enterprise sir you are already � to bring before our the of the genius and skill of the old world � to make a first exhibition on a national scale of the of the spirit and energy of our countrymen � on a national to collect in tiie poetical language of a most stranger this day for us unhappily not hers a full representation of n delight and and � � to together the two � to the area of commerce and the of nations these have been our aims how far they have been or will be attained it would be most for us to say recalling to mind the gorgeous and exhibited in park two short years ago � knowing what french genius has undertaken to establish m the capital of europe that centre of intellectual life and artistic it ia enough to say that we have desired to do something for art for the architecture for the industry of our beloved country and that if we shall be hereafter pronounced by competent judges to have su m the great exhibition our dearest wishes will be answered op some however i may for a be allowed to dwell as our exhibition jet we wliat are ta ca of the interest which it has aud the it will the flag of borne by a by that royal who commands the respect cf foreign as she does the of her own people � applause � has waved in oar waters on this peaceful errand the vessel of france is ou her way � that of will immediately follow old from the old tower of london here bs it did perhaps at or and the imperial of and iron fi om the royal work of are here or actually on the water bound and i cannot too strongly our sense of the kindness and with which our foreign agents have been received abroad no less than our respect for that liberal and policy in obedience to the of the sovereigns of europe have with each other b sending which in other periods of uie world would have been to heads alone sir are our greetings or yet concluded i have still to he extreme gratification which we feel in the presence of so many agents � distinguished by position by by from all parts of europe from all of this the on the eastern shores of the atlantic are here mingled with the representatives of our own empire on the coast of the pacific and there are i here to day twenty chief at s of ae many states of the � of that of which you sir are the central star applause we are deeply sensible of this courtesy and kindness while sir we are not so blind or so vain glorious as not fully to understand that the honor is done not t� us but to you � renewed applause � and that the homage of their respect is above all poured to the governing power majesty of the may that power and majesty � and i say it with the be ever united to and governed by that spirit of peace and good will which is our direct command from on high and to to which in the great family of man is the best and purest and action that can bring us together in this temple of � in palace of labor but sir i detain my from the pleasure that i hope them hereafter i may take some more fitting occasion to state in detail what we have done and what we desire to do the we have encountered and the obstacles we have surmounted today ray voice is of little moment except for the echo and the � which i hope it is fortunately destined to awaken permit me then mr to ask you to let your voice be heard beneath our dome and to request that you will by words as well as by your presence this of the of all mr speaks emphatically well his manner is the opening ss and self possessed and he was much applauded the president replied evidently and his words were weu chosen	19
one who stopped him in the street and a passage from one of his essays asking what he meant by it to which the author of and the after pondering the passage a moment calmly replied that he certainly had a meaning in his mind when he wrote that sentence though it had now unfortunately escaped him but s fault seems to rather in utterance than in conception his mind is full of materials ill which come rushing against and over each other when summoned to daylight and so choke the and prevent or rush forth an confused mass sweeping all before them his later writings are half spoiled by this whirl and are thence inferior on the whole to their immediate yet what a wealth of allusion a mine of meaning a of the intellectual tendencies of the age are found in bishop s apology i and what have we clearer and purer in our language than this � hope hope is dead i sit and watch by her side an that is her book shelf this her bed she plucked that piece of flower beginning to die too in the glass little has yet been changed i think the shutters are shut no light may pass save two long rays through the hinges sixteen years old when she died perhaps she had scarcely heard my name � it was not her tin e to love beside her life had many a hope and � � duties enough and little cares and now was quiet now till god s hand beckoned unawares and the sweet white brow is all of her is it too late then hope what i your soul was and true the good stars met in your made you of spirit fire and dew � and just because i was thrice as old and our paths in the world so wide each was to each must i be told we were fellow mortals beside no indeed for god above is great to grant as mighty to make and the love to reward the love � i claim you still for my own love s sake i delayed it may bo for lives yet through worlds i shall not a few much is to learn and much to forget ere the time bo come for taking but the time will come � at last it will when hope what meant i shall say in the lower earth in the years long still that body and soul so pure and gay why your hair was i shall divine and your mouth of your own s red � and what you would do with me in fine in the new life come in the old one s stead i have lived i shall say so much since then given up myself so many times gained by the gains of various men the ages spoiled the one thing � one � in my soul s full scope either i missed or itself missed mc � and i want and find you hope what is the issue let us see i i loved you all the while my heart seemed full as it could hold � there was place and to spare for the frank young and the red young month and the hair s young gold so � i will give you this leaf to keep � see i shut it inside the sweet cold hand there that is our secret i go to sleep tou will wake and remember and understand poets and poetry i envy the of robert and elizabeth twenty ago they were poets unknown to each other he poor and each by no means young i have heard that their first acquaintance came through their published works which a sympathy destined to make them one forever the usual order they loved they became personally acquainted and were married each wrote better more � in the main more � than before wrote doubtless by the help of the other s happy suggestions as well as loving and so each won larger and still audience and more generous appreciation and and a fair son was bom to them and a wealthy mend related to either left them a modest fortune and they spent their wedded years partly in their native england and partly in their beloved which inspired both of them but especially the wife with some of her noblest and most enduring poems � windows for instance and � and there i believe she died leaving her husband and son not to lament but to rejoice over and thank god for the abiding memory of her worth and her love i close this hurried survey without having attempted to the claims of any among our countrymen to the character and of poets i should prefer to consider american poetry by itself and in its relations to that which preceded and that which is with it in so doing we should find i judge that while it has grave faults � faults of imitation of poverty of of exaggeration � it has decided merits and also � merits not only eminent iu themselves but such as give promise of still achievement in the future if we have contributed our full share to the saxon stock of shallow and sham poetry we have also contributed our full � considering our youth as and our our lack of leisure and of the highest intellectual culture � to that which the world will not willingly let die i this discussion for the present however and close with a more direct consideration of the problem what is the essential nature and true office of poetry of course i need waste no more time on the pitiable ignorance poetry with verse � the eternal essence with the occasional form or garb � though this delusion has still many � i might say victims the young lady who corrected a friend s allusion to	19
work of tastes and ill � if here and there for a moment two colours two are the same so much the better for the pattern certainly could foresee in no positive happiness for either of her friends but she saw positive disaster for in separation from her husband suddenly she rose from her chair by the falling fire and crossed over to the writing table she would write to herself � she would tell him to come tlie the fruit of the tree decision once reached hope flowed bade to her heart the joy of action ao often deceived her into faith in its results dear mr she wrote the last lime i saw you you told me you would remember what i i ask you to do ao now � to remember that i urged you not to be away too long i believe you ought to come back now though i know will not ask you to i am writing without her knowledge but with the conviction that she needs you thou perhaps without knowing it herself she paused and laid down her pen why did it make her so happy to write to him was it the sense of recovered or something warmer more personal that made it a joy to trace his name and to remind him of their last intimate exchange of words well � perhaps it was that too there were moments when she was ao that any sympathetic contact with another life sent a glow into her veins � that she was thankful to warm at any fire xxv languidly glancing through her midday mail some five days later uttered a slight exclamation as she withdrew her finger tip from the of the she had begun to open the fruit of the tree it was a black day with an east wind bowing the trees beyond the window and the two friends after luncheon had withdrawn to the where sat writing notes for while the latter lay back in her arm chair in the state of dreamy into which she always sank when not under the of amusement or exercise she sat suddenly upright as her eyes fell on the letter i beg your pardon i thought ft was for me v be said holding it out to the latter as she glanced at the it had not occurred to her that would reply to her appeal she had pictured him springing on the first north bound train perhaps not even pausing to announce his return to his wife and to receive his letter under s eye was embarrassing since felt the necessity of keeping her secret but under s eye she certainly was � it continued to rest on her curiously with an of malicious significance so stupid of me � i can t imagine why i should have expected my husband to write to me went on leaning back in lazy contemplation of her other letters but still including in her angle of the fruit of the tree the latter after a moment s pause broke ihe seal and read my dear letter reached me yesterday and i thought it over carefully i appreciate the feeling that prompted it � but i don t know that any friend however kind and can give the final advice in such matters you tell me you arc sure my wife will not ask me to return � well under present that seems to me a sufficient reason for staying away meanwhile i assure you that i have remembered ail you said to me that day i have made no binding arrangement here � nothing to involve my future action � and i have done this solely because you asked it this will tell you better than words how much i value your advice and what strong reasons i must have for not following it now i suppose there are no more exploring parties in this weather i wish i could show some of the birds down here yours faithfully john please don t let my wife ride impulse latent under s acute consciousness of what this � the fruit of the tree letter meant was the sense of s and conjectures she could feel them actually piercing the page in her hand like some organ to which matter offers no or rather baffled in their endeavour they were out of the unseen heaven knew what fantastic structure of � over the innocent page with burning e of and one thing became instantly clear to her she must show the letter to she ran her eyes over it again trying to the consequences there was the allusion to their talk in town � well she had told of that but the careless reference to their excursions � what might not in her present mood make of it s uppermost thought was of distress at the failure of her plan she might still have induced to come back had it not been for this accident but now that hope was destroyed she raised her eyes and met s will you read it she said holding out the letter received it with lifted brows and a protesting murmur � but as she read saw the blood mount under her clear skin the temples the even the little flower like ears then it as suddenly at last from the very lips so that the smile with which she looked up from her reading was as the fruit of the tree white as if she had been under the stress of physical pain so you have written my husband to come back as you see looked her straight in the eyes i am very much obliged to you � extremely obliged met the look quietly which means that you resent my interference i leave you to call it that tossing the letter down on the table at her side don t take it in that way if i	10
a of colour in her face put her arm round his neck and steadily said papa you are not well come with me he laid his head upon her shoulder as if he were oppressed with heavy shame and went out with her her eyes met mine for but an instant yet i saw how much she knew of what had passed i didn t expect he d cut up so rough master said but it s nothing i be friends with him to morrow it s for his good m anxious for his good i gave him no answer and went upstairs into the quiet room where had so often sat beside me at my books nobody came near me until late at night i took up a book and tried to read i heard the strike twelve and was still reading without knowing what i read when touched me the personal history and experience you will be going early in the morning let us say good bye now she had been weeping but her face then was so calm and beautiful heaven bless you she said giving me her hand � dearest i returned i see you ask me not to speak of to night � but is there nothing to be done there is god to trust in she replied can do nothing � j who come to you with my poor sorrows and make mine so much lighter she replied dear no dear i said it is for me who am so poor in all in which you are so rich � goodness resolution all noble qualities � to doubt or direct you but you know how much i love you and how much i owe you you will never sacrifice yourself to a mistaken sense of duty more agitated for a moment than i had ever seen her she took her hand from me and moved a step back say you have no such thought dear much more than sister think of the gift of such a heart as yours of such a love as yours oh long long afterwards i saw that face rise up before me with its momentary look not wondering not not oh long long afterwards i saw that look as it did now into the lovely smile with which she told me she had no fear for herself � i need have none for her � and parted from me by the name of brother and was gone it was dark in the morning when i got upon the coach at the inn door the day was just breaking when we were about to start and then as i sat thinking of her came struggling up the coach side through the mingled day and night s head said he in a whisper as he hung by the iron on the roof i thought you d be glad to hear before you went off that there are no squares broke between us i ve been into his room already and we ve made it all smooth why though i m i m useful to him you know and he understands his interest when he isn t in liquor what an agreeable man he is after all i obliged myself to say that i was glad he had made his apology oh to be sure said when a person s you know what s an apology so easy i say i suppose with a jerk you have sometimes plucked a before it was ripe master i suppose i have i replied i did that last night said but it yet it only wants attending to i can wait in his he got down again as the coachman got up anything i know he was eating something to keep the raw morning air out but he made motions with his mouth as if the were ripe already and he were his lips over it of david i chapter xl the we had a very serious conversation in street that night about the domestic i have detailed in the last chapter my aunt was deeply interested in them and walked up and down the room with her arms folded for more than two hours afterwards whenever she was particularly she always performed one of these and the amount of her might always be estimated by the duration of her walk on this occasion she was so much disturbed in mind as to find it necessary to open the bed room door and make a course for herself the full extent of the bed rooms from wall to wall and while mr dick and i sat quietly by the fire she kept passing in and out along this measured track at an pace with the regularity of a clock my aunt and i were left to ourselves by mr dick s going out to bed i sat down to write my letter to the two old ladies by that time she was tired of walking and sat by the fire with her dress tucked up as usual but instead of sitting in her usual manner holding her glass upon her knee she suffered it to stand neglected on the chimney piece and resting her left elbow on her right arm and her chin on her left hand looked thoughtfully at me as often as i raised my eyes from what i was about i met hers i am in the of my dear she would assure me with a nod but i am and sorry i had been too busy to e until after she was gone to bed that she had left her night mixture as she always called it on the chimney piece she came to her door with even more than her usual affection of manner when i knocked to her with this discovery but only said i have not the heart to take it trot to night and shook her head	8
and hard she turned round and a who happened to be passing what is the fuss john she asked in her brisk pleasant capable voice he told her that we were just nurse turned round and looked at ma now i wonder she said in her brisk way i wonder whether we shall have a word from your good husband at all events whether or no we shall have the satisfaction of sending a cable to him by chapter xi mr of i did receive a message hy cable from my husband that day indeed as soon as we at ad i it seemed very short bat really it was as long as i could reasonably expect it said � no frontier news all anxiety nurse sent off oar message to from this place she merely steadily improving it is no wasting money she said sensibly because we have no more information than that to give him and of course he will have a letter from you much earlier than you can have one from him i felt more after i had received s message because if things remained quiet on the frontier and the threatened were there was more than a chance that he would be able to follow us and spend at least some time with as in england i now that the of parting was over regretted that i had been as it were forced into leaving india it was plain to the meanest observation that the doctors had been right in saying that such a journey would be the making of me with every day i recovered strength and became less of an invalid i do not mean to say tiiat j l oo mc mt impressions of home i was well or that i was io anything like a condition of health bat i was not so terribly shattered and nerve broken aa i had been daring the few weeks i was able to take an interest in the child and to talk a little to my and to read write quite long letters to i to write lying in my deck chair upon a propped half on my knee and half the arm of my chair though i was only strong to do bat a few lines at a time so our long journey wore itself away when we reached nurse insisted npon my going on shore and taking a drive she also me into several and tried to arouse my interest in that way oh i was very much better i had been and after we got out of the and into tjie breezes picked up my in a most manner why nurse exclaimed to me one day when i was walking on deck captain would hardly know you i to think that this brisk lady is the death like little creature he carried on is almost incredible i i don t feel like a brisk lady i said no no but you feel very different to what did and you look a pounds better while that dear baby is already a perfect that was quite true and by the time that we reached onr i could not shut my eyes to the immense improvement which had taken place in my own appearance i was more like dear father s than i had been at time since my how well i remember my first sight of english the of mt shores of home � the home for which i had longed so eagerly all my life what a strange fate it was that i should have come to it alone i had planned bo often in my childhood the home coming with my dear mother i had to come home with my father and both were lying asleep in their indian graves and would never see their native land again then i had been so resolute in saying that i would never return my husband and by what a accident i had been forced from my resolution and sent across all those weary miles of land and sea to seek health and strength upon the shores of my native land alone except for a little child who understood as yet nothing of the difference between one country and another we reached just at the end of october and after staying there for a single night went the following day to london on the whole i was disappointed � yes intensely disappointed i had expected such a grand city almost that it would really be paved with gold i had thought to see great palaces and the broad and to see crowds of happy people up and down as i had been accustomed to see the people up and down the different in india and the was gloom or the of sunlight and shadow splendid cheek by with sordid tumble down dwellings beautiful horses and side hy side with and donkey carts b and each other and mingling with both strange painted women with manners us brazen aa their singularly hair it is horrible i to what a dread ht of home city what what what bustle oh i don t like this london ah yon will get used to that she said quietly when yon have settled down comfortably in hotel have had dinner yon will feel more at home and to morrow morning when yoa see sir os he will tell yon whether you ought to remain here or where yon should go for the best i don t like your london i said vehemently whatever sir says of my health i would not stay in the smoke the gloom the they are all detestable ah well it is the end of october it is the worst part of the year she said with the indifference of one who is evidently quite used to the general atmosphere see she said looking oat that is the national where all the pictures are it	30
the ivory leg and the pour diamonds ix my cousin from france the dwarf s chamber n the dwarf s chamber oh twice i met with folk all in the cold � with them i beneath the oak and their wine but i have my weird because i a deadly sin they laid a curse on me and mine and gifted me with kin chapter i the the railway is responsible for the of sleepy villages into noisy towns of picturesque into gaudy hotels that iron road runs as by its touch begin to throw out lines of to gather into of roaring while the rustic of the parliament of rural into a three all glass and glitter and bare discomfort the host his apron for the smart of a and trim changing sex and to a lean black white of tips and in this may be progress but it is neither beauty nor comfort and in the dwarf s chamber stirring up to modem activity though the task may be the spirit of the age is apt to overlook the claims of eye and soul to lovely sights and artistic yet as on the verge of the lie broad still pools wherein collect and thrown off from the central so beyond the of railroad and town lie untouched by the restless spirit of the nineteenth century here may be found the pleasant of old time huddled in a confusion of picturesque houses round the square church grey and solemn here the market place with cross and inn yonder the dwelling of the lord of the showing red roofs and lean chimneys above the park tree tops at the end of the crooked street a narrow bridge a swift stream and beyond the dusty high road leaving behind its runs towards the smoky towns which skirt the of modern existence such a village is artists of the great tribe as they are knew it well and often had its quaint houses its ivy clad church its common figured on the walls of the academy so sleepy so peaceful so idle it was that here if anywhere might have built his pleasant castle of buried in fertile pasture lands thirty miles from the nearest railway was and heard as in a dream the t of the century roaring far away notwithstanding its to the high road it did not seem to recognize that it was its duty to increase its houses to its population not a single dwelling had been erected there for the last half century and its rural population was limited still to three hundred souls of the surrounding farms as in the middle ages no battles had been fought in its vicinity no great man had sprung from its inhabitants no industry of lace or cloth or straw the dwarf s chamber weaving was peculiar to the place in a word was to all useful purposes dead and no artist in love with its beauty ever wished it to be alive against the high road near the bridge stood the arms a quaint little from the days of the and now presided over by mistress sally she a comfortable old round and rosy as an apple was mistress out of courtesy to her age and respectability a famous was mistress sally learned in and and and her inn was clean and eminently comfortable here one slept in low rooms with diamond wherein were set pots of and here the sheets smelt of and the breakfast table was set forth with caught rich cream and the sweetest of home made bread three maid servants and an formed the staff of this and these mistress sally governed with a rod of iron but she was a kindly creature and her rule was beneficent hither in the evening came and farmer to taste the ale for which the arms was famous they sat in high backed settles with their before them and discussed such scraps of news as came from the outside world until it struck ten when mistress sally with many a laugh and jest them out so that they might not the respectability of her house by keeping midnight hours the parish clerk the the steward from even the parson himself knew that mellow and the of the home painters in search of the picturesque stayed at the of mistress sally and its white washed front its high red roof the twisted of chimneys and those rustic opening on to the village green once a lean and hungry poet came who abode a week in the best bedroom and then without paying his bill save in the following the dwarf s chamber oh mistress sally ask me not in gold to pay my shot for i fallen on evil times but lest you should he hai sh and wild with one who is the child i pay my debt in over which sufficiently bad verses mistress sally laughed till the tears her ruddy cheeks and the she had them hung up in the bar parlour had the lean poet appeared again he would no doubt have been permitted to pay a second bill in the like coin tm sorry for the poor creature and his bits of verse said mistress sally with a large hearted at the sunset hour she stood under the porch looking across the green to where the bridge the stream already in and with uncouth the customers of the arms were passing within and from the windows of the the flame of the early lighted lamps shrill children played round the old stone cross but mistress sally heedless of their noisy stared at the of the distant house as they loomed against the clear evening sky she had been a still room maid in the service of the and as was natural took a deep interest in the family what she was thinking of it is impossible to say but she up her lips and	12
do not need to tell very much of my life at this it was very gay visit succeeded visit and with every day that went hy louis became more and more devoted to me and his mother more tenderly attached to me i never for one moment regretted that i had consented to their wishes and married louis i was calmly quietly peacefully happy and above all things i had that tranquil feeling of which was most of anything satisfying and delightful to one who had as cruelly and bitterly from for change as i had done in the past i never in any way thought of putting louis in the place which my first husband had occupied when i thought of him which was very often it was of some sacred past too bright for human hopes to hold on to for ever i never talked about him and never mentioned him never spoke of him in any way asked me no questions never sought to open the door of my past love never treated me other than as if he were the first and only man who had possessed my heart i was more than glad of this z i c the t rt ot my life because i had never in any way bought to parade the fact of my before the face of my second husband immediately upon my l to louis i gathered together my photographs and of and put them away it would have been terrible to me to have had to answer careless who might hare seen them in my apartments and to me it seemed that it would have been terrible to louis to see before him the face of his dead rival so we begun our new life without any evidences of the old one and the only remembrance of my first love that i had allowed myself to retain in daily use was that i always wore a little gold ring set with a single diamond like a which had bought for me in on the evening before we parted a little ring for which he had given something like a couple of hundred and which he had bought oa a last of india and not with any idea tiiat an immediate parting was upon n i never explained that ring and louis asked no questions about it indeed i knew not then and know not now whether he ever noticed that it was upon my hand so our life glided peacefully on a life that was peaceful and yet very full of interests and occupations we visited during that winter each one of the different estates belonging to the family the princess remaining at partly because she thought it would he better if we went alone and partly because she was afraid to face long journeys in the midst of a winter wherever we went we were ted and great were got up in our honour and we came back to our every day life and contentment on my part at all events with sighs of satisfaction and relief the following spring was taken op by to and and when the time came again that we should thick of the cure necessary for the off of the princess s louis suggested to her that we should all go together to rather than that she should once more take a cure at she was absolutely indifferent as to her place of cure i d m t think that it is quite the right place for me she said to me because it is more for than for but if we find that it does not agree with me we can very well go to where i should be very near to you in case i were not so well from what i can gather louis replied to her i believe that would suit you even better than and i think you would like the place itself much the better of the two i am anxious for to see it and i have not been there for a long long time so that if it makes no difference to you mother we may as well try it for once i have not been there for nearly twenty years said the princess i shall be delighted to renew my acquaintance with the picturesque little spot shall we then regard it as a settled thing so it was quite decided that we were to spend a little time at for myself i cared little or nothing i was in excellent health at this time and had no need of taking a cure at either one place or another indeed so far as i knew there was at this stage of our life together only one thing which seemed possible for us to want and that was an heir to the great house of and i confess that i should j the sl of ht life have hailed the coming of such an event with for it seemed to me that to give an heir would be the only adequate way in which i could in any repay him for all that he had given to me q l chapter a in coarse of time we found ourselves comfortably established at bitter s hotel overlooking the pretty little park at then not a little to s we discovered that he had done wrong in his mother to accompany ns the place did not seem to suit her at all and the doctor who was called in to attend her at once told us that we had better remove to the princess however with that rare which so distinguished her refused to change her quarters unless we would promise that she should go alone � that is to say only with her attendants i shall be quite wretched if i know that i have taken you and with me she said to louis after all	30
made her teeth chatter though it was a warm day rather would she have cast her body into the tides that wash the shores of island even to save her father from prison if it came to that she could not make this sacrifice she now felt for a horrible a feeling akin to that she might entertain for a whatever good she had seen in him in other days had vanished under the revelations of his true character what to do next was the absorbing question a great danger hung over her father a dim idea of seeking the mayor or the chief of police and im jl black their mercy entered her brain then she thought of whose aid she might have secured if he had not proved himself a capable of making love to herself and at the same time and then came the resolve to seek out mr the one person in all this trouble that seemed clear of wrong her sister had told her that he loved her well if necessary she would marry him at least he was a man of honor and white yes she would go to him and throw herself upon his mercy knew that made his at the house and a cab she asked to be taken to that hotel in the ladies parlor she awaited the coming of the man she wanted and yet dreaded so much to see luckily he was in the house and in a few moments responded in person to her card why miss he stammered what is the matter nothing wrong i trust you look quite pale is it anything about your father the girl was pale indeed now that mr was so close the danger that he might not be willing to help her rose like a mountain in her path she did not know exactly how grave a matter was whether it was something that the injured party would be able or likely to forgive if she should tell him everything and he should refuse to be what could she do then there was no one else in the parlor but seeing that she wanted as much seclusion as possible mr the girl to follow him to a remote out sit corner where the curtains of a window partially concealed them he felt that she had come on a momentous errand his suspicions concerning mr were apparently about to be and if so he did not mean that other ears should hear the tale mr began i don t know what to say to you i am in great distress would you will you help me he responded gently that he would do anything in his power he bade her calm herself and promised to be the most attentive of listeners reassured by his kind words and manner the girl began again but she could not tell her story and after making several attempts to do so she broke out in a new direction i want so very much of you dear mr and i am nervous and afraid to ask what i would like i will give you anything you please in return yes yes anything he smiled down upon her face on which the tears were making in spite of her you are promising a great deal little girl he said i know it i realize it fully she responded quickly but i mean all i say i did not think i could once but i am quite resolved now told me you were in love with me and feared i would refuse you but i won t no no i will marry you indeed i will if you will only save my darling father the concluding words were spoken in the midst of a a torrent of sobs that shook the girlish frame and affected powerfully the strong man that witnessed them dear child don t speak like this he answered if i can do anything for your father i will most gladly and the price of your sweet little heart shall not be demanded in payment either leave that matter entirely out of the question and tell me at once what you desire she heard him with infinite delight and wiping her eyes she began in broken tones to relate the history of s revelations as she proceeded his brow darkened and when she had finished he muttered something that sounded very much like a curse and what do you wish of me he asked when she had ended to keep him from having my father put in prison to give us time to escape if there is no other way and to forgive the harm to yourself i know she added earnestly it is a great deal to ask but i have no one else to go to he has paid every cent and you will lose nothing tell me dear mr is there anything you can do he had the greatest struggle of his life to keep from bending over that trembling mouth and pressing upon it the kiss he knew she would not refuse that mouth he had so long and which must never be touched by his lips can i do anything he repeated certainly lean stop that fellow so quickly he won t know what him hare no fear mis go home and out rest in peace before the sun sets i will remove the last of danger from your father s path the girl sprang to her feet and would have thrown her arms around his neck had he not prevented her you are certain you can do this she cried beaming with happy eyes upon him there is not the least question of it but i must demand payment for my trouble i shall not do this work for nothing with a hot blush lowered her eyes to the carpet i have already told you what i will do she said	1
like a map at his feet he could see the evening held on the circle of the because that was the only level ground could see the wonderful green of the young rice the of the indian corn the dock like patches of and in its season the red bloom of the whose tiny seeds being neither grain nor pulse make a food that can be eaten by in time of the second book when the year turned the roofs of the huts were all little squares of purest gold for it was on the roofs that they laid out their of the corn to dry and harvest and passed before his eyes all embroidered down there on the plots of fields and he thought of them all and wondered what they all led to at the long last even in india a man cannot a day sit still before things run over him as though he were a rock and in that wilderness very soon the wild the miracle of things who knew s shrine well came back to look at the intruder the the big gray of the were naturally the first for they are alive with curiosity and when they had upset the and rolled it round the floor and tried their teeth on the brass handled and made faces at the skin they decided that the human being who sat so still was harmless at evening they would leap down from the pines and beg with their hands for things to eat and then swing off in graceful curves they liked the warmth of the fire too and huddled round it till had to push them aside to throw on more fuel and in the morning as often as not he would find a sharing his blanket all day long one or r of the tribe would sit by his side staring out at the and looking wise and sorrowful after the came the that big deer which is like our red deer but stronger he wished to rub off the velvet of his horns against the cold stones of s statue and stamped his feet when he saw the man at the shrine but never moved and little by little the royal edged up and the second book his shoulder slid one cool hand along the hot and the touch soothed the fretted beast who bowed his head and very softly rubbed and off the velvet afterward the brought his and � gentle things that on the holy man s blanket � or would come alone at night his eyes green in the fire to take his share of fresh at last the the and almost the smallest of the came too her big ears erect even silent must needs find out what the light in the shrine meant and drop her like nose into s lap coming and going with the shadows of the fire called them all my brothers and his low call of would draw them from the forest at noon if they were within the black bear moody and suspicious � who has the v shaped white mark under his chin � passed that way more than once and since the showed no fear showed no anger but watched him and came closer and begged a share of the caresses and a of bread or wild often in the still when the would climb to the very crest of the pass to watch the red the miracle of day walking along the peaks of the he would find shuffling and at his heels thrusting a curious fore under fallen trunks and bringing it away with a of impatience or his early steps would wake where he lay curled up and the great brute rising erect would think to fight till he heard the s voice and knew his best friend nearly all and holy men who live apart from the big cities have the reputation of being able to work miracles with the wild things but all the miracle lies in keeping still in never making a hasty movement and for a long time at least in never looking directly at a visitor the villagers saw the outline of the like a shadow through the dark forest behind the shrine saw the the blazing in her best colors before s statue and the on their inside playing with the shells some of the children too had heard singing to himself behind the fallen rocks and the s reputation as miracle stood firm yet nothing was further from his mind than miracles he believed that all things were one big miracle and when a man knows that much he knows something to go upon he knew for a the second book certainty that there was nothing great and nothing little in this world and day and night he strove to think out his way into the heart of things back to the place whence his soul had come so thinking his hair fell down about his shoulders the stone at the side of the skin was into a little hole by the foot of his brass handled and the place between the tree trunks where the begging bowl rested day after day sunk and wore into a hollow almost as smooth as the brown shell itself and each beast knew his exact place at the fire the fields changed their colors with the seasons the floors filled and emptied and filled again and again and again and again when winter came the among the branches with light snow till the brought their sad eyed little babies up from the warmer valleys with the spring there were few changes in the village the priest was older and many of the little children who used to come with the begging dish sent their own children now and when you asked of the villagers how long their holy man had lived in s shrine at	39
be beneath the ocean heaving up these great masses of vol iv no i voyage to water for our special destruction and then again when i remembered looking off to sea the waves seemed an pack of great giant hell hounds on by the winds bounding and howling on towards us with the bitter fixed tearing us in pieces this was one of my disagreeable thoughts as sat up in the cabin and there was another thing troubled me i must confess at the risk of losing your good opinion that the praying of the captain afforded me anything but con it looked so like giving up the ship and was such a plain intimation that all hope of being saved by earthly aid was at an end that i could not but feel discouraged by it like on his return from russia to compare small things to large he seemed to have a dread of hearing details and apparently wished to abstract his mind from what was going on around him and taking it for granted that we should be all lost set very about what he considered the necessary process for saving his own soul i do not intend to sneer at him for praying to pray in times of great danger is as as to breathe at such times all men whether christians or pray instinctively � though for the most part by and in silence i only mean to say that the master of a vessel should be the last man aboard to show by any change of manner a falling off in confidence but our captain was an old man of a and though not cowardly was weighed down by a perfect mare of superstition and i found afterwards had a that this would be his last voyage at about ten or eleven o clock at night one of the men came to the and asked for bread they had had nothing to eat all day i about below for our lamps were lost till i found some bread and having handed it up before the was closed took a look out on deck the moon at that moment for it was for the most part a dry storm was shining full and clear the same sea was raging and the same wind roaring just as they were seven hours previous and our forlorn shattered was still it out with them alone upon the ocean i do remember it now for a scene of awful beauty and but so far as i recollect i only felt at the time that it was awful i have heard of men who could forget imminent danger in voyage to their admiration of the sublime and of a painter who lashed himself to the mast that he might draw the sea in a terrible storm i take this to be chiefly at any rate for myself i was sick and weak it was cold � my clothes were wet i was and doubled up with � the fear of death was pressing heavily upon me and i confess the artist feeling did not so prevail over the man i went below and for the purpose of getting warm for sleep was out of the question i took to my berth i first piled into it all the wet clothes i could find for we had no other and then tried to pull off my coat but it was so wet and the rolled so much that after it down the back and tearing one sleeve nearly out i gave it up and got in with all my clothes on between the straw bed and the both of which were thoroughly and in less than an hour i found myself in a sort of steam bath of very comfortable temperature about every quarter of an during the night heard the man on the watch give a cry of warning to those at the followed by the tumbling of a heavy sea on deck and then a of the vessel which it took all my holding on to keep from throwing me out of my berth then the water streamed down through the to increase the quantity in the hold bearing with it or some matter which left ghastly streaks of light on the � or rather looked like pale liquid fire down the bulk head our great danger was that in on account of these heavy seas the would throw her out or as the mate afterwards expressed it shake the sticks out of herself and was all night to hear them fall every time we a sea my mind however was not exclusively occupied by these fearful details nor as i have remarked before by the dreaded catastrophe at times some scrap or other such as backward and forward half her length with a short uneasy motion would suddenly come into my head and in a moment i was striving like a boy at school to the succeeding lines that of containing et es joseph the french painter of sea scenes voyage to july of which i could remember at first only this one line haunted me thus for a long time my memory seemed to take it up on her own account with the obstinate determination to conquer it and was succeeding better than i am able to do at this moment when another great sea and a of the put it to flight at another time i myself very busy with the ballad of which the following is a three merry men and three merry men and three merry men are we i on the sea and thou on the land and jack on the gallows tree it soon struck me was very ridiculous and to be thinking of old situated as i was but a moment after there it was again through my mind to a merry tune i on the sea and thou on the	37
tree oh as to that � she swept it aside with one of her airy motions but for instance � would he have been happier if i d been passive seemed to there again � how can one tell and the risk s not worth taking no she paused and they looked at each other again do you mean that seriously i wonder do you act on it myself god forbid the gods drive so badly there s poor he happened to be in their way as we all are at times he pulled himself up and went on in a matter of fact tone in s case however my don t apply when my wife heard the truth she was of course immensely kind to him and if it hadn t been for you she might never have known smiled i think you would have found out � i was only the humble but now � she hesitated � now you must be able to do so much � lifted his head and she saw the colour rise under his fair skin out at you ve never been there since yes � my wife has made some changes but it s all so � and one would have to live here you don t then he answered by an shrug of course m the fruit of the tree i m here of tea and she comes now and then but the journey s tiresome and it is not always easy for her to get away he checked himself and saw that he in turn was suddenly conscious of the of explaining and his personal situation to a stranger but then we re not strangers a voice in her just aa he added with an attempt to and yet justify his moment of that reminds � i think you know my wife i heard her asking mrs about you she wants so much to see you the transition had been effected at the expense of interest but to the obvious triumph of social and to after all at his side the group about the the interest was not so much diminished aa shifted to the no less suggestive problem of studying the friend of her youth in the unexpected character of john s wife meanwhile however during the brief across the her thoughts were still busy with she had at once that the sense of intimacy by their meeting been chilled and by her first allusion to the to mc which previously brought them had drawn as soon as she named the mills what could be the cause of his when th last met the subject burned im the fruit of the tree him her being in actual fact a stranger had not been an obstacle to his confidences now that he was master at it was plain that another tone became him � that his situation a greater reserve but her did not imply the least wish to this it merely showed her remembrance of his frankly interest in the was struck by the fact that so natural an allusion should put him on the she did not for a moment believe that he had lost his interest in the mills and that his point of view should have shifted with the fact of she rejected as aa equally superficial reading of his character the man with whom she had talked at s bedside was one in whom the ruling purposes had already shaped themselves and to whom life in whatever form it must henceforth take their mould as she reached this point in her analysis it occurred to her that his shrinking from the subject might well imply not indifference but a deeper a for some reason suppressed and almost yet the more intensely its painful hidden life from this it was but a leap of thought to the next � that the cause of the change must be sought outside of himself in some external influence strong enough to the innate lines of his character and where could such an influence be more obviously sought than the fruit op the tree id the marriage which had transformed the assistant manager of the mills not indeed into their owner � that would rather have tended to the problem � but into the husband of mrs after all the mills were s � and for a farther understanding of the case it remained to find out what manner of person had become s first impression as her friend s charming arms received her � with an eagerness of welcome not lost on the suspended judgment of feminine � the immediate impression was of a gain of emphasis of individuality as though the creature she remembered had her and run at last into a definite mould had acquired an outline a graceful one as became her promise though with perhaps a little more of edge than her youthful had promised but the side she turned to her friend was still all softness � had in it a hint of the old the impulse to lean and that at once woke in the corresponding instinct of guidance and protection so that first kiss before a word was spoken carried the two back to the i� relation in which th� r school had left them so easy a to the past left no room for the sense of subsequent changes by which such are sometimes embarrassed s had and almost at once transferred the fruit of the tree themselves to s side � passing over at a leap the pained recognition that there sides already � and had gathered up into the circle of gentle self which left her very dimly aware of any characteristic in her friends except that of their affection for herself � since she asked only as she put it that they should all be of her and i ve wanted you so often you re the only	10
subsided the young men turned from the main road into a by path which led them off into the woods and soon brought them to the shores of the brook the brook was a torrent indeed it poured over the rocky and broad in its bed with great violence sometimes under the ice and sometimes over it great cakes of flat ice floated in the deeper parts and and in uncouth forms down the little at particular points where there were rocky on each side of the stream the ice and snow had themselves in and formed a sort of rude natural dam with great in fresh fragments from above and a perfect boiling and foaming below james and his cousin had not lost or forgotten the feelings of boyhood they pulled long poles out of a brush fence and amused themselves with clearing away these and watching the great masses of ice as they broke away from their and were borne m j m difficulties on either side st paul s difficulty down by the torrent of waters crowding and one another along the stream after a while they paused and stood each upon a rock with his pole resting upon the brink of the water said james you must admit that my views are more satisfactory than yours � i mean in the results they make every man entirely responsible for his own conduct he is his own master as it were and has his moral destiny in his own hands and god is freed from all responsibility of every kind for the sins which his creatures commit yes said i acknowledge that but then those views do in effect god he is no longer the monarch � the sovereign for a vast portion of the events which take place under his reign and altogether the most interesting and important portion � that is the moral actions of his creatures are placed beyond his control he must have all character and conduct under his control or else he must when he calls men into existence take the risk of their conduct while he is himself a mere on and yet if he � if all human conduct results necessarily from causes which he has put in operation we avoid making him morally responsible for it all i don t know said there s the great difficulty the son of man as it is written of him but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed that is a woe is against the man whoever he might be who should become the instrument to one of god s deliberate and recorded designs that is a hard knot said james after a pause yes but it does not trouble me at all replied how so because it seems st paul came across the very same and he did not try to answer it so i am content not to he old school and new school thinks that the will possesses very little real power says thou wilt say then why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will v� that is how can we be worthy of blame if all our actions are only the gradual development of god s designs and he does not attempt to explain it now as i come upon the same difficulty precisely and as it seems to me utterly as it appears to have seemed to him i infer that i have come in the same course and occupy the same position with him so that the difficulty is an actual confirmation of my views i make the same rock which an experienced old made before me and it has the same aspects and bearings and so as every body admits that he was on the right course i take it for granted that i am too so saying pitched his pole into the water and turned toward the woods james following his example and his steps they walked along a little time in light conversation examining the various objects of interest they met � now the remains of a fantastic snow drift now an old hollow tree and now a running along upon a log or gliding through the low with his like tail curled over his back at length returned again to the general subject of their discussion by saying it seems to me cousin james that you take altogether a wrong view of the power and province of the will in your system of philosophy the will is the not the commander her business is to convey orders and carry them into execution not to issue them originally who does issue them the and the permanent moral tendencies of the soul which constitute the character as distinguished from the conduct i think it can be shown very clearly that the will is altogether more of a servant than a master m don shows that the will can not control the train of thought no said james the will is free and it forms the conduct by its own spontaneous and this conduct viewed what we call the character yes that is your philosophy i know but now let us look at the power the will has over the other powers and faculties of the mind first on the thoughts look at that red running along with an in his cheek now see if you can look at him without thinking of him � that is fix your eye upon him and yet by your will prevent all thoughts of him from entering your mind no said james that is impossible but that proves nothing nobody that the will the trains of thought so entirely as to the idea of a thing when the visible object is full before us very well said walk along then a little before me and i will follow now i am out of sight he continued as james stepped on before him	22
book because � being real � it must of necessity therefore be to some minds i prefer not to express an opinion on by ic that subject returned the idiot because i never read robert � never read it ejaculated the school master a look of triumph in his eyes why everybody has read that to have read anything asserted the of course put in the landlady with a scornful laugh well i didn t said the idiot the same ground was gone over two years before in s great story la it or is it not and anybody who ever read s books on the non as opposed to what is knows where got his points s story was a perfect marvel i don t know how many it went through in england and when it was translated into french by madame it simply set france wild great scott whispered the desperately i m afraid we ve been barking up the wrong tree you ve read i suppose asked the idiot turning to the school master y � es returned the school master blushing deeply by ic the idiot looked surprised and tried to conceal a smile his coffee from a spoon and no returned the school master humbly i never read well you ought to it s a great book and the one robert is taken from � same ideas all through i m told � why i didn t read waste of time you know but you noticed yourself i suppose that s ground is tiie same as that covered in f no i only dipped into returned the school master with some embarrassment but you couldn t help noticing a of ideas insisted the idiot calmly the school master looked at the who would have been glad to fly to his co s assistance had he how but never having heard of or either for that matter he made up his mind that it was best for his reputation for him to stay out of the very slight however said the school master in despair by ic where can i find s books put in mr very much interested the idiot conveniently had his mouth full of chicken at the moment and it was to the school master who had also read him that they all � the landlady included � looked for an answer oh i think returned that worthy hesitatingly � i think you ll find in any of the public what is his full name persisted mr taking out a j said the idiot yes that s it � j echoed the school master very writer and a clear he added with some what if any of his books would you specially recommend asked the minister again the idiot had by this time risen from the table and was leaving the room with the genial gentleman who occasionally the school master s reply was not audible i say said the genial gentleman to the by ic idiot as they passed out into the hall they didn t get much the of you in that matter but tell me who was anyhow r never heard of him before returned the idiot and same as know anything about chuckled the genial gentleman nothing � except that it and pigs in came out at the same time and i stuck to the pigs and the genial gentleman who occasionally was so pleased at the plight of the school master and of the that he invited the idiot up to his room where the private stock was kept for just such occasions and they put in a very pleasant morning together by ic iv the guests were assembled as usual the course had been eaten in silence in the idiot s eye there was a cold glitter of � a glitter that ill for the man who should challenge him to combat � and there seemed also to be judging from passed over the table and passed under it an understanding to which he and the genial gentleman who occasionally were parties as the school master his coffee the genial gentleman who occasionally broke the silence i missed you at the concert last night mr idiot said he yes said the idiot with a caressing movement of the hand over his upper lip i was very sorry but i couldn t get last night i had an engagement with a number of friends at the club i by ic meant to have dropped you a line in the afternoon telling you about it but i forgot it until it was too late was the concert a success very successful indeed the best one in fact we have had this season which makes me regret all the more deeply your absence returned the genial gentleman with a suggestion of a smile playing about his lips indeed he added it was the one i ve ever seen the finest one you ve what the school master startled at the the finest one i ve ever seen replied the genial gentleman there were only ten and really in all my experience as an attendant at i never saw such a magnificent rendering of as we had last night i wish you could have been there it was a sight for the gods i don t believe said the idiot with a slight cough that may have been intended to conceal a laugh � and that may also have been the result of too many � i don t believe it could have been any more interesting than a game of pool i heard at the club by ic it appears to me said the to the school master that the we heard late last night in the idiot s room may have some connection with the present mode of speech these two gentlemen affect let s hear them out returned the school master and then we ll take them into	27
said poor who in the of this world laid hold of any with great readiness and at th academy s no parson and he s done very bad by the boy and i made up my mind if i sent him to school again it should be to somebody different to and this mr by what i can make out is the sort o man i want and i mean my boy to go to him at he concluded in a tone of decision tapping his and taking a pinch y u ll have to pay a swinging half yearly bill then eh the have notions in general said mr taking snuff vigorously as he always did when wishing to maintain a position what do you think the parson teach him to know a good o wheat when he sees it neighbor said mr who was fond of his jest and having retired from business felt that it was not only but becoming in him to take a playful view of things why you see got a plan i my head about tom said mr pausing after that statement and up his glass well if i may be allowed to speak and it s seldom as i am said mrs with a tone of bitter meaning i should like to know what good is to come to the boy by him up above his why said mr not looking at mrs but at the male part of his audience you see i ve made up my mind not to bring tom up to my own business had my thoughts about it all along and i m e v what thb mill on the i saw with and his son i mean to put him to some as he can go into without capital and i want to give him an as he ll he even wi the lawyers and folks and put me up to a notion now an then mrs a long sort of sound with closed that smiled in mingled pity and scorn it ud he a fine deal for some people she said after that note if they d let the lawyers alone is he at the head of a grammar school then this clergyman such as that at market said mr no nothing o that said mr he won t take more than two or three pupils and so he ll have the more time to attend to em you know ah and get his done the sooner they can t learn much at a time when there s so many of em said uncle feeling that he was getting quite an insight into this difficult matter but he ll want the more pay i said mr ay ay a cool hundred a year � that s all said mr with some pride at his own spirited course but then you it s an tom s he so much capital to him ay there s something in that said mr well well neighbor you may be right you may be right when land is gone and money s spent then learning is most excellent i remember seeing those two lines wrote on a window at but us that have got no learning had better keep our money eh neighbor mr rubbed his knees and looked very pleasant mr i wonder at you said his wife it s very in a man o your age and what s mrs g said mr pleasantly at the company my new blue coat as i ve got on i pity your weakness mr i say it s to be making a joke when you see your own kin going to ruin if you mean me by that said mr considerably you needn t trouble yourself to fret about me i can manage my own affairs without troubling other folks bless me said mr introducing a new idea why now i come to think of it somebody said was goin to send his son � the lad � to a man t thej appealing to hia � j give no account of it i m sure ba l t mill ok the closing her lips very tightly again mrs was not a woman to take part in a scene where were flying well said mr speaking all the more that mrs might see he didn t mind her if o sending his son to a clergyman nd on it i shall make no mistake i sending tom to one s as big a scoundrel as old harry ever made but he knows the length of every man s foot he s got to deal with ay ay tell me who s s butcher and til tell you where to get your meat but lawyer s son s got a back said mrs who felt as if the whole business had a aspect it s more to send him to a yes said mr mrs s observation with you must consider that neighbor s son isn t likely to follow any business make a gentleman of him poor low mr said mrs g in a tone which implied that her indignation would and a little though she was determined to keep it up you d far better hold your tongue mr doesn t want to know your opinion nor mine neither there s folks in the world as better than every body else why should think that s you if we re to trust your own tale said mr beginning to boil up again oh i say nothing said mrs my advice has never been asked and i don t give it it be the first time then said mr � it s the only thing you re over ready at giving i ve been over ready at then if i haven t been over ready at giving said mrs there s folks i ve lent money to as perhaps i shall	14
they were not supposed to be of equal antiquity with the night born gods that s what she did repeated it word for word and i forgot the for it was solemn a declaration of religion � pagan if you will and clothed in the living of herself and the rest of it was torn away she added a great in her voice it was only a scrap of newspaper but that was a wise man i wish i knew more about him she stopped a moment and i swear her face was holy as she said i could have made him a good wife and then she went on i knew right away as soon as i read that what was the matter with me i was a night bom i who had lived all my life with the day bom was a night bom that was why i had never been satisfied with and that was why i had the night born to run naked in the moonlight and i knew that this dirty little joint was no place for me and right there and then i said i quit i packed up my few rags of clothes and started saw me and tried to stop me what you doing he says you and me i says i m for tall timber and where i belong no you don t he says reaching for me to stop me the has got on your head you listen to me talk before you up and do anything but i pulled a gun � a little s � and says this does my for me and i left emptied his glass and called for another boys do you know what that did she was twenty two she had spent her life over the dish pan and she knew no more about the world than i do of the fourth or the fifth all roads led to her desire no she did n t head for the dance halls on the pan handle it is to travel by water she went down to the beach an indian was start the night born for � you know the kind carved out of a single tree narrow and deep and sixty feet long she gave them a couple of dollars and got on board romance she told me it was romance from the jump there were three families altogether in that and that crowded there was n t room to around with dogs and indian babies over everything and everybody dipping a and making that go and all around the great solemn and tangled of clouds and sunshine and oh the silence the great wonderful silence and once the smoke of a hunter s camp away off in the distance trailing among the trees it was like a a grand and i could see my dreams coming true and i was ready for something to happen most any time and it did and that first camp on the island and the boys fish in the mouth of the creek and the big deer one of the shot just around the point and there were flowers everywhere and in back from the beach the grass was thick and and neck high and some of the girls went this with me and we climbed the behind and picked and roots that the night born tasted sour and were good to cat and we came upon a big bear in the making his supper and he said and ran away as scared as we were and then the camp and the camp smoke and the smell of fresh cooking it was beautiful i was with the night bom at last and i knew that was where i belonged and for the first time in my life it seemed to me i went to bed happy that night looking out under a comer of the canvas at the stars cut off black by a big shoulder of mountain and listening to the night noises and knowing that the same thing would go on next day and forever and ever for i was n t going back and i never did go back romance i got it next day we had to cross a big arm of the ocean � twelve or fifteen miles at least and it came on to blow when we were in the middle that night i was along on shore with one wolf dog and i was the only one left alive picture it yourself broke off to say the was wrecked and lost and everybody to death on the rocks except her she went ashore hanging on to a dog s tail escaping the rocks and washing up on a tiny the only one in miles the night born t for me it was the she l so i headed right away back through the woods and over the mountains and straight on anywhere seemed i was looking for something and knew i d find it i was n t afraid i was ni t bom and the big timber could n t kill me and on the second day i found it i came upon a small clearing and a cabin nobody had been there for years and years the roof had fallen in blankets lay in the and pots and were on the stove but that was not the most curious thing outside along the edge of the trees you can t guess what i found the of eight horses each tied to a tree they had starved to death i reckon and left only little piles of bones scattered some here and there and each horse had had a load on its back there the loads lay in among the bones � painted canvas and inside and inside the � what do you think i she stopped reached under a comer of the bed among the boughs and pulled out	21
s rent to me mutual and we must try and save it somewhere youve got some lovely furniture haven t you the furniture in my rooms is my own then we shan t have to buy any for you in case you was to think of it said mr with a look of peculiar so independent in you as to make it a relief to your mind to make that furniture over to me in the light of a set oflf against the quarter s rent why ease your mind ease your mind i don t ask it but i won t stand in your way if yon should consider it due to yourself as to your room choose any empty room at the top of the house any empty room will do for me said the secretary you can take your pick said mr and it ll be as good as eight or ten shillings a week added to your income i won t for it look to you to make it up handsomely by keeping the expenses down now if you ll show a light i ll come to your office room and dispose of a letter or two on that clear generous face of mrs s had seen such traces of a pang at the heart while this dialogue was being held that she had not the courage to turn her eyes to it when they were left alone to be intent on her she sat her needle until her busy hand was stopped by mrs s hand being lightly laid upon it yielding to the touch she felt her hand carried to the good soul s lips and felt a tear fall on it oh my loved husband said mrs this is hard to see and hear but my dear believe me that in spite of all the change in him he is the best of men mutual friend he came back at the moment when had taken the hand between her own eh said he looking in at the door what s she telling you t she is only you sir said me you are sure not me for standing on my own against a crew of who would me dry by not me for getting a little together he came up to them and his wife folded her hands upon his shoulder and shook her head as she laid it on her hands there there there i urged mr not don t take on old lady but i can t bear to see you so my dear nonsense recollect we are not our old selves recollect we must or be recollect we must hold our own recollect money makes money don t you be uneasy my child don t you be doubtful the more i save the more you shall have thought it was well for his wife that she was musing with her affectionate face on his shoulder for there was a cunning light in his eyes as he said all this which seemed to cast a disagreeable illumination on the change in him and make it morally mutual chapter vi the golden falls into worse company it bad to pass that mr now rarely attended the of fortune and the worm of the hour at his the worm s and s own house but lay under general instructions to await him within a certain margin of hours at the bower mr took this arrangement in great because the appointed hours were hours and those he considered precious to the progress of the friendly move but it was quite in character he bitterly remarked to mr that the who had trampled on those eminent creatures miss elizabeth master george aunt jane and uncle should his literary man the empire having worked out its mr next appeared in a cab with s ancient history which valuable work being found to possess properties broke down at about the period when the whole of the army of alexander the at that time about forty thousand strong burst into tears simultaneously on his being taken with a shivering fit after bathing the wars of the jews likewise under mr s mr arrived in another cab with whose lives he found in the extremely entertaining though he hoped might not expect him to believe them all what to believe in the course of his reading was fr ous mutual s chief literary difficulty indeed for some time he was divided in his mind between half all or none at length when he decided as a moderate man to compound with half the question still remained which half and that stumbling block he never got over one evening when had grown accustomed to the arrival of his patron in a cab accompanied by some profane historian charged with unutterable names of incomprehensible of impossible descent wars any number of years and long and carrying hosts and riches about with the greatest ease beyond the of geography � one evening the usual time passed by and no patron appeared after half an hour s grace mr proceeded to the outer gate and there executed a whistle conveying to mr if perchance within hearing the tidings of his being at home and disengaged forth from the shelter of a neighboring wall mr then emerged brother in arms said mr in excellent spirits welcome i in return mr gave him a rather dry walk in brother said clapping him on the shoulder and take your seat in my comer for what says the ballad no malice to dread sir and no falsehood to fear but truth to delight me mr and forgot what to cheer li om and something to guide my ain fireside sir my ain fireside mutual with this quotation depending for its neatness rather on the spirit than the words mr conducted his guest to his hearth and you come brother said mr in a hospitable glow you come	8
enough � quite enough still to stand at the door a mind and at ease can do with seeing nothing and can see nothing that does not answer she looked down the road the scene en two persons appeared � mrs and son in law they were walking into � to of course they were stopping however in the first place at mrs s whose house was a little nearer than ford s and had all but knocked when caught their eye immediately they crossed the road and came forward tp h r and the ag of yesterday s engagement seemed to give fresh pleasure to the present meeting mrs her that she was going to call on the in to hear the new instrument for my companion tells me said she that i absolutely promised miss last night that i would come this morning i was not aware of it myself i did not know that i had fixed a day but as he says i did i am going now and while mrs pays her visit i ma be allowed i hope said frank to join your party and wait for her at if you are going home mrs was disappointed i thought you meant to go with me the would be very much pleased me i should be quite in the way but perhaps i ma be equally in the way here miss looks as if she did not want me my aunt always sends off when she is she says i tier to death and miss looks as if she could almost say the same what am i to do i am here on no business of my own said i am only waiting for my friend she will probably have soon done and then we shall go home but you had go with mrs and hear the instrument well if you advise it but � with a smile � if colonel should have employed a careless friend and if it should prove to have an indifferent tone what shall i say i shall be no support to mrs chapters from jane she might do very well b herself a disagreeable truth would be through her lips but i am the being in the world at a civil falsehood i do not believe any such thing replied i am persuaded that you can be as as your neighbors when it is necessary but there is no to the instrument is indifferent quite otherwise indeed if i understood miss s opinion last night do come with me said mrs if it be not very disagreeable to you it need not detain us long we will go to ds we will follow them to i really wish you to call with me it will be felt so great an attention and i always thought ou meant it he could say no more and with the hope of to reward him returned with mrs to mrs s door watched them in and then joined at the interesting counter trying with all the force of her own mind to convince her that if she wanted plain muslin it was of no use to look at figured and that a blue be it ever so beautiful would still never match her pattern at last it was all settled even to the destination of the parcel should i send it to mrs s ma am asked mrs ford yes � � yes to mrs s only my pattern gown is at no ou shall send it to if you please but then mrs will want to see it and i could take the pattern gown home any day but i shall want the directly so it had better go to � at least the you could make it into two mrs ford could not you it is not worth while to give mrs ford the trouble of two no more it is i i no trouble in the world ma am said the obliging mrs ford oh but indeed i would much rather have it only in one then if you please ou shall send it all to mrs s � i do not know � no i think miss i may just as well have it sent to and take it home with me at night what do you advise that ou do not give another half second to the subject to if you please mrs ford ay that will be much best said quite satisfied i should not at all like to have it sent to mrs s voices approached the shop or rather one voice and two ladies mrs and miss met them at the door my dear miss said the latter i am just run across to entreat the favor of ou to come and sit down with us a little while and give us your opinion of our new instrument � you and miss smith how do you do miss smith � well i thank ou � and i begged mrs to come with me that i might be sure of succeeding i hope mrs and miss are � well i am much obliged to you m mother is delightfully well and jane caught no cold last night how is mr i am so glad to hear such a good account mrs told me you were here oh then said i i must run across i am sure miss will allow me just to run across and entreat her to come in m mother will be so to see her and now we are such a nice party she cannot refuse ay pray do said mr frank miss s opinion of the instrument will be worth having but said i i shall be more sure of succeeding if one of ou will go with me oh said he wait half a minute till i have finished m job for would ou believe it miss there he is	26
present but with eye the past or heedless of the riches th t surround him stands on to foresee the future he cannot be happy and strong until be too lives with nature in the present above time this should be plain enough yet see what strong dare not yet hear god himself unless he speak the of i know not what david or or paul we shall not set so great a price on a few on a few lives we are like children who repeat by the sentences of and and as they older of the men of talents and character they i to see � painfully the exact they spoke afterwards when they come into the point of view which those had who uttered these sayings they understand them and are willing to let the words go for at any time they can use i� as good when occasion comes if we live truly we shall see truly it is as easy for the strong man to be strong as it is for the weak to be weak when we have new perception we shall gladly the memory of its treasures as � � ii old rubbish when a man lives with god lis shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and the rustle of the com and now at last the highest truth on this remains probably cannot be said for all that we say is the far off remembering of the that thought by what i can now nearest approach to say it is this when good is near you when you have life in yourself it is not by any known or accustomed way you shall not discern the foot prints of any other you shall not see the face of man you shall not hear any name � the way the thought the good shall be strange and new it shall example and experience you take the way from man not to man all persons that ever existed are its foi ministers fear and hope are alike beneath it there is somewhat low even in hope in the hour of vision there is nothing that can be called gratitude nor properly joy the soul raised over passion identity and eternal the self existence of truth and right and itself with knowing that all things go well vast spaces of nature tlie atlantic ocean the south sea � long intervals of lime years centuries � are of no account this which i think and feel every former state of life and circumstances as it does my present and what is called life and what is called death self reliance life only not the having lived power ceases in the of repose it in the moment of transition from a past to a new state in the shooting of the gulf in the darting to an aim this one fact the world hates that the soul becomes for that for ever the past turns ill riches to poverty all reputation to a shame tne saint with the rogue and equally aside why then do we of self reliance inasmuch as the soul is present will he power not confident but agent to talk of reliance is a poor external way of speaking speak rather of that wliich because it and is who has more obedience than i me though he should not raise his finger round him i must by the of spirits we fancy it when we speak of eminent virtue we do not j et see that virtue h and that a man or a company of men md to principles by the law of nature and ride all cities nations kings � men poets who are not this b the ultimate fact which we so quickly each on this as on every topic the resolution of all the ever blessed one self existence is the of the supreme cause and it the of good by the degree in which it enters in o au lower forms all things real are so by so much ii virtue as they contain commerce hunting war eloquence personal are somewhat and engage my respect as examples of its presence and action i see the same law working in nature for and i power is in nature the essential measure of right nature suffers nothing to remain in her which cannot help itself the and tion of a planet its and the tree recovering itself from the strong wind the resources of every animal and vegetable are of the self and therefore soul thus all let us not let us sit at home with the cause let us and astonish the of men and books and institutions by a simple declaration of the divine fact bid the take the shoes from off their feet for god is here within let our simplicity judge them and our to our own law the poverty of nature and fortune beside our native riches but now wc are a mob man does not stand in awe of man nor is his genius to stay at home to put itself in communication with the internal but it goes abroad to beg a cup of water of thi of other men we must go alone i like tho church before the service begins better any preaching how far off how cool how self the persons look each one with a or so let us always sit why should e assume the faults of our friend or wife or or child because they sit around our hearth or re said to have the same blood ah men have my and i have all men s not for that will i their or folly even to the extent f being ashamed of it but your must ot be mechanical but spiritual that is must be at times the whole world seems to be conspiracy to you with emphatic tries friend child sickness	37
king fighting fiercely with his battle ax and when all his had forsaken him attended faithfully to the last by his youngest son philip only sixteen years of age father and son fought well and the king had already two wounds in his face and had been beaten down when he at last delivered himself to a banished french knight and gave him his right hand glove in token that he had done so the black prince was generous as well as brave and he invited his royal prisoner to supper in his tent and waited upon him at table and when they afterward rode into london in a gorgeous procession mounted the french king on a fine cream colored horse and rode at his side on a little pony this was all very kind but i think it was perhaps a little theatrical too and has been made more than it deserved to be especially as i am inclined to think that the greatest kindness to the king of france would have been not to have shown him to the people at all however it must be said for these acts of the third politeness that in course of time they did much to soften the horrors of war and the passions of it was a long long time before the common soldiers began to have the benefit of such deeds but they did at last and thus it is possible that a poor soldier who asked for quarter at the battle of or any other such great fight may have owed his life indirectly to edward the black prince at this time there stood in the strand in london a palace called the which was given up to the captive king of france and his son for their residence as the king of scotland had now been king edward s captive for eleven years too his success was at this time tolerably complete the business was settled by the prisoner being released under the title of sir david king of scotland and by his engaging to pay a large the state of france encouraged england to propose harder terms to that country where the people rose against the unspeakable cruelty and of its where the rose in turn against the people where the most frightful were committed on all sides and where the of the called the of the from a common name among the country people of france awakened terrors and that have scarcely yet passed away a treaty called the great peace was at last signed under which king edward agreed to give up the greater part of his and king john to pay within six years a of three million crowns of gold he was so beset by his own and for having yielded to these conditions � though they could help him to no better � a child s history of england he came back of his own will to his old palace prison of the and there died there was a sovereign of at that time called the cruel who deserved the name remarkably well having committed among other a variety of this amiable monarch being driven from his throne for his crimes went to the province of where the black prince � now married to his cousin a pretty widow � was and his help the prince who took to him much more kindly than a prince of such fame ought to have taken to such a readily listened to his fair promises and agreeing to help him sent secret orders to some troublesome soldiers of his and his father s who called themselves the free companions and who had been a to the french people for some time to aid this the prince himself going into spain to head the army of relief soon set on his throne again � where he no sooner found himself than of course he behaved like the villain he was broke his word without the least shame and abandoned all the promises he had made to the black prince now it had cost the prince a good deal of money to pay soldiers to support this king and finding himself when he came back disgusted to not only in bad health but deeply in debt he began to tax his french subjects to pay his they appealed to the french king charles war again broke out and the french town of which the prince had greatly went over to the french king upon this he the province of which it was the capital burnt and edward the third and killed in the old sickening way and refused mercy to the prisoners men women and children taken in the offending town though he was so ill and so much in need of pity himself from heaven that he was carried in a litter he lived to come home and make himself popular with the people and parliament and he died on sunday the eighth of june one thousand three hundred and seventy six at forty six years old the whole nation mourned for him as one of the most renowned and princes it had ever had and he was hurled with great in cathedral near to the of edward the his monument with his figure carved in stone and represented in the old lying on its hack may be seen at this day with an ancient coat of mail a and a pair of hanging from a beam above it which most people like to believe were once worn by the black prince king edward did not his renowned son long he was old and one a beautiful lady had contrived to make him so fond of her in his old age that he could refuse her nothing and made himself ridiculous she little deserved his love or � what i dare say she valued a great deal more � the jewels of the late queen	8
real but i would hardly walk from this room to the next look at the raw of those who have not been bred the trade � a set of gentlemen and ladies who have the of education and decorum to through after a short pause however the subject still and was discussed with eagerness every on inclination increasing by the discussion and a of the inclination of the rest and though nothing v settled but that tom would prefer a comedy a his sisters and henry a tragedy and that in the world could be easier than to find a piece j an f ill please them all the resolution to act or ther seemed so decided as to make quite he was determined to prevent it if possible his mother who equally heard the conversation passed at table did not the least the same evening afforded him an opportunity of trying lis strength maria henry and mr in the room tom returning from them into he drawing room where was standing by the fire while lady was on the sofa at a distance and close beside her arranging her thus began as he entered � such a horribly vile table as ours is not to be net with i believe above ground i can stand it no and i think i may say that nothing shall ever me to it again � but one good thing i have just it is the very room for a theatre precisely the and length for it and the doors at the farther end with each other as they may be made to lo in five minutes by merely moving the in my s room is the very thing we could have desired if ire had set down to wish for it and my father s room be an excellent green room it seems to join the room on purpose you are not serious tom in meaning to act said in a low voice as his brother approached the fire not serious never more so i assure you what is here to surprise you in it i think it would be very wrong in a general light private are open to some objections but as we ire i must think it would be highly and more than to attempt any thing f the kind it would show great want of feeling on my s account absent as he is and in some degree of x danger and it would be i think with regard to maria whose situation is a very delicate one every thing extremely delicate you take up a thing so seriously i as if we were to act three times a week till my father s return and invite all the country but it is not to be a that sort we mean nothing but a little ourselves just to vary the scene and exercise o in something new we want no audience no we may be trusted i think in choosing some perfectly and i can conceive i harm or danger to any of us in conversing in tl language of some respectable author than in words of our own i have no fears and no and as to my father s being absent it is so objection that i consider it rather as a motive expectation of his return must be a very anxious my mother and if we can be the means of ami anxiety and keeping up her spirits for the i shall think our time very well spent and so he it is a very anxious period for her as he said this each looked towards lady sunk back in one comer of the picture of health wealth ease and tranquillity falling into a dose while was the few difficulties of her work for her smiled and shook his head by jove this won t do cried tom � into a chair with a hearty laugh to be dear mother your anxiety � i was unlucky ther what is the matter asked her in tone of one half roused � i was not asleep oh dear no ma am � nobody well � he continued returning to tl subject posture and voice as soon as lady to nod again but this i will maintain be doing no harm i cannot agree with you � i am father would totally it � and i am convinced to the contrary of the exercise of talent in young it more than my father and for any thi acting kind i think he has taste i am sure he encouraged it in us as bo many a time have mourned over the dead park s and to not to he d in this very room for his amusement and i am sure my name was every evening of my life through one christmas holidays it was a very different thing you must see the difference yourself my father wished us as to well hut he would never wish his grown up daughters to be acting plays his sense of decorum is strict i know all that said tom displeased i know father as well as you do and i take care that his daughters do nothing to distress him manage your own and i ll take care of the rest of the family if you are resolved on acting replied the � i must hope it will be in a very small and way and i think a theatre ought not to be attempted it would be taking liberties with my father s house in his absence which could not be justified for every thing of that nature i will be said tom in a decided tone his house shall not be hurt i have quite as great an interest in being careful of his house as you can have and as to such alterations a i was suggesting just now such as moving a or a door or	26
know her � mrs trumpets without great heavens here s the army coming back � this affairs this must be enter and one word i pray i ask but courtesy from you to day permit me at least to call why certainly if that is really all you had to say you might have said it sooner to night mamma and i ll be glad to have you come and may we walk with no one by but you may if when i bid you you be dumb cloak get me a bid for this reception too ask her if your friend may come with you the deuce if thou dost not i call the note oh well i will stop on my coat miss i d like to bring a friend he knew your father well while in was with him when he met his end and with him later in � that is why certainly sees is that he there all dressed in red from foot to hair he makes my blood run cold er i see him let him call on ma then you and i can flee him to that all is right dances with joy as soft music is heard without and the of enter cheering to rear j but here are the boys returning from the war a an a tion with floating in the wind and dear at their head i spy you know s captain of company i her and looks down the road confound the luck i wish i d thought of before i d have left him on the field all in i greatly fear that s just the man to put a small on our plan cheer enter company with at their head rushes in and throws her arms about him as soldiers sing chorus company � back to the home of our joyous youth back from the glorious fight for truth our deeds are writ in letters of flame afar o er the sea and the land of the free is spreading our glorious name our heads we carry high glad the trumpets sound when company i upon the battle ground never a coward here never a single one to tremble with fear when the foe draws near or to run back to the home of our joyous youth back from the glorious fight for truth in letters of fire our glory is writ on history s pages where men of all ages may read of it ii country new enter with a sigh ah me i fear i m very much in love my heart is fluttering like a dove � are known to flutter that mr is just too utter exit enter i thought i saw her walking here i think that satan s right the dear doth love me with a heart and it s safe to i do my part a g in distance exit after her enter it seemed to me i saw my daughter trip along the road a by a of a modern lad this thing never do i ii have to keep an eye on her so � excuse the french � exit enter in his hand ah there she great scott i m out of breath this miserable business will be my death i d like to meet the lady before this eve when she and are to receive t were well to rouse her kindly interest and with these jewels for assistance belt and of jewels from by e en t would be at once confessed she s like to offer slight resistance puts belt around his waist fills fingers with rings and places about his shoulders and off after enter and company single jo company halt shoulder arms tis queer i thought i saw the devil coming here and what was worst of all by far i thought the villain did pursue my ma carry arms now i submit that it were best for me at once his horrid schemes t arrest � present arms � and seek at once the and ask the fellow just what he s about carry arms conclusions with the man i d try particularly as i m backed by company i and chorus t is hard returning from the to find we still have got to fight � that while we ve been far far away a putting alien foes to flight old satan has been on the scene a working plans quite against my ma more fearful far such are but with my gallant company a i fight the foe who e er he be and satan e en i soon will and put to flight his sinful majesty i thought i d have a rest from war when home to i d come to take up practice of the law and make the silent hum my one ambition was and now to plunge right in another row by much more is than bullets close by one s but with my gallant company i fight the foe who e er he be and satan e en i soon will put to flight and his sinful majesty and so my boys please carry arms present the same likewise i pray prepared be all for satan s charms right about face and let s away this instant march against the foe nor back return till lying low the the very dust his clothing his power bust for with my gallant company we meet the foe where er he be and we and put to flight his sinful majesty iii garden about s house house at l entrance to g at r tree its trunk enter at l while walking to day in the i met a young fellow in red sir who straightway set beating my fluttering heart completely a my head sir most taking his style with a smile and a glance that was truly his eye was as clear as	27

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