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this house where must we go in order to see the ground under the house we must go down into the cellar is there ground under the and rivers do you suppose there is ground under the sea do you know how people can find out how deep the sea is i will tell you how they tie a heavy piece of lead upon the end of a long line and let it down till it touches the bottom then they know how deep the water is by the length of the line do you know what a mountain is a mountain is land that rises very high into the air did you ever see a mountain did you ever see a hill a mountain is like a hill only it is a great deal higher a mountain is very high indeed trees and forests grow all over its sides and the top is very often covered with snow the sides are so steep and rocky too and the way is so rough that it is often very difficult to get to the top would you like to see a picture of some mountains we will turn over the leaf and see one see how high the mountains are the tops of them are covered with do yon the white snow the dark places on tlie sides of the forests hut they are so off that we can not see the trees there are some trees near that we can see they very high trees but the mountains are a great deal higher why is the ground formed with and and because such a variety makes the country look more agree earth able and the water runs off in and rivers and plants grow better did you know that there were a great many different kinds of ground it is a fact that there are a great many different kinds what is clay it is a very fine kind of earth or ground that is very when it is wet and very hard when it is dry what is it good for bricks are made of it and and milk how do they make the bricks and the and the milk they shape them first in soft day and then bum them hard in a hot fire what are rocks and stones good for they are used to build houses with and bridges and walls why are stones better than wood for bridges and walls because they never will rot what is sand it is than clay and does not stick together when it is wet what is it made up of of very small hard like little stones and generally with sharp edges can we see these little in sand yes we can if we look very what is sand good for it is good to things with and it makes roads where is it found it is generally found very deep in the ground and in the of and rivers what good does it do in these places the water that comes down in the rain gets strained through it and so becomes clear in the wells and springs and if it were not strained in this way it would not be good to drink what color is sand it is of different colors � black white yellow gray and red what is gravel it is a very coarse kind of earth of stones the air and pebbles what is gravel good for it makes very hard walks and roads what other things that are useful are brought up out of the ground iron and salt and marble and lead and water and a great many other things what other things come up out of the ground all trees and grass and flowers ix the air is there any thing in this room besides the and the things which you can see yes it is of air where is the air in the room it fills the room above us and around us every where how do you know that there is air in the room when we walk fast or run about we can feel it against our faces swing your hand about fast can you feel it how does it fed why do we not always feel it when we walk about because it is so light and thin why do we not see it because it is so perfectly transparent is there air in the other rooms of the house is there air out of doors does the air from out of doors ever come into the house how it comes in through the windows and through the doors when they are open what is air called when it is moving it is called wind if it moves very fast it is a high wind does the air out of doors move is it ever perfectly still how the air s can yon tell that it ib moving i can see uttle of moving in it does it ever move very fast when it moves very slowly is it called wind � no not if it moves bo very slowly that we do not feel it we only call it wind when it moves so fast tliat we can feel it and when it makes the leaves wave on the trees is it always windy i oe the wind ever blow when it rains does it always blow when it rains does it ever blow when it is pleasant does it always blow when it is pleasant does the wind always blow when it is cold t it ever blow when it is warm do you think that the wind always blows the same way no indeed sometimes it blows in one way and sometimes in another way how can we tell which way the wind blows we can tell by which way the smoke goes a chimney or by a we can tell by | 22 |
like having your house in the middle of a road to take away the fence which slight as it may be is a round your home more things than one may come in without being asked we americans had better build more fences than take any away from our lives there should be gates for charity to go out and n and kindness and sympathy too but his life and his house are together each man s and castle to be kept and defended i was much amused once at thinking that the fine old solid doors were being faster than ever nowadays since so many front gates have disappeared and the click of the latch can no longer give notice of the approach of a now the sounds or the bell without note o country by ways warning and the village housekeeper cannot see who is coming in until they have already reached the door once the guests could be seen on their way up the walk it must be a satisfaction to look through the clear spots of the figured ground glass in the new doors and i believe if there is a covering inside few doors will be found with a peep hole it was better to hear the gate open and shut and if it caught and dragged as front gates are very apt to do you could have time always for a good look out of the window at the approaching friend there are few of us who cannot remember a garden which seemed to us a very paradise in childhood it was like a miracle when the yellow and white came into bloom in the spring and there was a time when tiger lilies and the taller rose bushes were taller than we were and we could not look over their heads as we do now there were always a good many lady s delights that grew under the bushes and came up anywhere in the of the walk or the door step and there was a little green called that was a famous stray away outside the fence one was not unlikely to see a company oi french which were forbidden standing room inside as if they were tiresome poor relations of th� flowers i always felt a sympathy for french from a mournful � they have a fresh sweet look as if they resigned themselves to their lot in life and made the best of it and remembered that they had the sunshine and rain and could see what was going on in the world if they were i like to remember being sent on errands and being asked to wait while the mistress of the house picked some flowers to send back to my mother they were almost always flat in those days the larger flowers were picked first and stood at the back and looked over the heads of those that were shorter of stem and stature and the always sent a message that they had not stopped to arrange them i remember that i had even then a great dislike to and that i would have waited patiently outside a gate all the afternoon if i knew that some one would kindly give me a of in the evening and lilies did not seem to me but it was easy for me to believe that solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like a great yellow or even the dear little single ones that were yellow and brown and until the snow came i wish that i had lived for a little while in those days when were a new fashion and it was a great distinction to have some growing in a front country by ways yard it always seems as if and belonged to the same generation with a certain kind oi new english gentlemen and ladies who were and severe in some of their fashions while in others they were more given to and mild than either their ancestors or the people who have lived in their houses since fifty years ago there seems to have been a last wave of which swept over the country and drowned for a time the sober and dancing which before had been considered no in the larger villages playing was clung to only by the most worldly citizens and as for dancing it was made a sin in it self and a reproach as if every step was taken in seven boots toward a place which is to be the final destination of all the wicked a single may have a severe and look but a row of them suggests the antique and pleasing pomp and ceremony of their early days before the were only used to keep the boxes of strings and nails aud the the best were put on a high shelf while ones were used for in the kitchen c there is far less social visiting from house to than there used to be people in the s have more acquaintances who live at a distance from a mournful was the case before the days of and there are more guests who come a distance which has something to do with making tea parties and the entertainment of one s neighbors less frequent than in former times but most of the new england towns have changed their characters in the last twenty years since the have come in and brought together large numbers either of foreigners or of a different class of people from those who used to make the most of the population a certain class of families is rapidly becoming extinct there will be found in the older villages very few persons left who belong to this class which was once far more important and powerful the oldest churches are apt to be most attended simply because a different sort of ideas even of heavenly things attract the i suppose that elderly people | 40 |
ever chapter ix from tne hospitable home of the i made a sudden and almost startling transition to the residence of my most aristocratic perhaps i ought rather to say my acquaintance for mrs had never possessed enough of ttie milk of human kindness to our intercourse into l friendship she was however a very desirable sort of person to keep on good terms with for those who wished to catch now and then a glimpse at what is called good society and were willing to sacrifice the warm comfort of the heart for this uncertain privilege mr was pleased to send his carriage to accommodate me for which i should have been more thankful could he have compelled his coachman o look pleased but there is something in the services which the of the wealthy render to their poor friends and poor relations which makes them to the any thing but agreeable obligations on at the door of my new i was greeted with no kindly welcome a looking woman showed me up stairs to my own room where i was left to myself with the information that the bell would ring for dinner in the course of an hour dinner i had ridden ten miles having of an early tea but there was no need to expose my late i had only to prepare for one of mrs s hot and like many other extreme cases about which so much wonder and alarm is expressed there would be little except in name before an hour had expired mrs was graciously pleased to send her own woman to assist me in performing the duties of my toilet thus conveying the first intimation that she was conscious of my arrival nor was it with gratitude at all to the favour that i accepted the services of mrs james whose sharp eyes seemed to flash and peep about penetrating through my ill wardrobe with most scrutiny to spy out the of the land has this woman come thought i but i submitted myself to the magic of her fingers as the only chance i had of appearing in such a manner as would not make me wish myself up stairs again after i had been seated at table once during this tedious operation i opened my lips and ventured to ask if mrs had any visitors at present staying in the house oh yes replied the woman with a look suited to the importance of her information lady and sir charles have been here some time aching as i was from head to foot with curiosity no less than with the various and of my i still could not bring myself to ask who these illustrious visitors were whether the gentleman was young or old nor whether his relationship to the lady was filial or the woman looked so to my ignorance that i determined to receive no further information from her and drawing down a curl to hide the worst part of my forehead where an was threatening to mar its polished and casting one lingering look of satisfaction towards the mirror i followed her to receive my long expected welcome in the dressing room of mrs only think my dear she exclaimed an embrace which i could well have done without lady and sir charles here well i dare say they will not frighten you away you will find them the best people in the world to do with if you can but be natural and easy with them � so happy together it is really quite to see a mother and son so united i wish would take a lesson of politeness from sir charles there is nothing so in private life i ventured to remark that mr had once been admired for his politeness ah a fiddle way that he has which nobody cares for that is not what i mean i mean something that makes you feel handsome and good humoured and as if every one liked you without a word being said directly to the point and when you know that it is not so sir charles must be very clever no not so clever either in the way of reading or politics or any thing of that kind but just the sort of man to make a woman happy and she sighed all this while my friend was ring in a tall mirror her face her figure her all that could be studied without the upon whom these charms were to be played off sometimes her head was tossed backwards so as to create a sudden trembling and glittering amongst the glossy curls � sometimes a was carefully placed as if in the act of falling or just caught up by the and snowy arm � and sometimes a glance was thrown over the graceful shoulder to ascertain whether the bend of the back was made evident to all admirers i thought my labours at tlie toilet that day had been but they were nothing to those of my friend and she was a married woman what can be the meaning of this of charms thought i the husband has always been represented to me as tne very of and surely married ladies are not to charm elsewhere sir charles young handsome accomplished and graceful was too every one was insignificant when compared with lady she was still beautiful though in the of life her dress was that of a though not of the deepest shade but it needed no peculiar costume to indicate that tlie widow s grief had not her weeds a profusion of light flowing hair mingled with the honours of her brow and when she smiled it was with the gracious condescension of one who is so rich in happiness liberal of that she can dispense them to all without any there was something in her whole appearance so magnificent that when she first entered the room i could not | 41 |
the desired result i say i do a little in that way myself one she calls it lip another she calls it gloves another she calls it another she calls it a fan i call it whatever they call it i supply it for em but we keep up the trick so to one another and make believe with such a face that they d as soon think of laying it on before a whole drawing room as before me and when i wait upon em they say to me sometimes � with it on � thick and no mistake � how am i looking am i pale ha ha ha ha isn t that refreshing my young friend i never did in my days behold anything like as she stood upon the dining table intensely enjoying this refreshment rubbing busily at s head and at me over it ah she said such things are not much in demand that sets me off again i t seen a pretty woman since i ve been here no said not the ghost of one replied miss we could show her the substance of one i think said addressing his eyes to mine eh of david yes indeed said i cried the little creature glancing sharply at my face and then peeping round at s the first exclamation sounded like a question put to both of us and the second like a question put to only she seemed to have found no answer to either but continued to rub with her head on one side and her eye turned up as if she were looking for an answer in the air and were confident of its appearing presently a sister of yours mr she cried after a pause and still keeping the same look out aye aye no said before i could reply nothing of the sort on the contrary mr used � or i am much mistaken � to have a great admiration for her why hasn t he now returned miss is he oh for shame did he every flower and change every hour until his passion � is her name the suddenness with which she upon me with this question and a searching look quite disconcerted me for a moment no miss i replied her name is she cried exactly as before what a rattle i am mr ain t i her tone and look implied something that was not agreeable to me in with the subject so i said in a graver manner than any of us had yet assumed she is as virtuous as she is pretty she is engaged to be married to a most worthy and deserving man in her own station of life i esteem her for her good sense as much as i admire her for her good looks well said cried hear hear hear now i the curiosity of this little my dear by leaving her nothing to guess at she is at present miss or or whatever it may be to and and so forth in this town do you observe and the promise of which my friend has spoken is made and entered into with her cousin christian name ham occupation boat also of this town she lives with a relative christian name unknown occupation also of this town she is the prettiest and most engaging little fairy in the world i admire her � as my friend does � exceedingly if it were not that i might appear to her intended which i know my friend would not hke i would add that to me she seems to be throwing herself away that i am sure she might do better and that i swear she was born to be a lady miss listened to these words which were very slowly and distinctly spoken with her head on one side and her eye in the air as if she were still looking for that answer when he ceased she became brisk again in an instant and rattled away with surprising oh and that s all about it is it she exclaimed his whiskers with a little restless pair of that went glancing round his head in all directions very well very well quite a long story ought to end and they lived happy ever afterwards t it ah what s that game at i love my love with an e because she s i hate her with an e because she s engaged i took her to the the personal history and experience sign of the exquisite and treated her with an her name s and she lives in the east ha ha ha mr ain t i merely looking at me with extravagant and not waiting for any reply she continued without drawing breath there if ever any was trimmed and touched up to perfection you are if i understand any in the world i understand yours do you hear me when i tell you that my darling i understand yours peeping down into his face now you may as we say at court and if mi will take the chair operate on him what do you say inquired laughing and his seat will you be improved thank you miss not this evening don t say no returned the little woman looking at me with the aspect of a a little bit more thank you i returned some other time have it carried half a quarter of an inch towards the temple said miss we can do it in a fortnight no i thank you not at present go in for a tip she urged no let s get the up then for a pair of whiskers come i could not help blushing as i declined for i felt we were on my weak point now but miss finding that i was not at present disposed for any within the range of her art and that i was for the | 8 |
them breathe he said holding up his hand they have not him yet let them breathe i must tell who comes we have him in the trap he put his hands to his mouth and shouted down the � it was almost like shouting down a � and the echoes jumped from rock to rock after a long time there came back the sleepy of a full fed tiger just awakened the book who calls said and a splendid fluttered up out of the i cattle thief it is time to come to the council rock down � hurry them down down down the herd paused for an instant at the edge of the slope but gave tongue in the full hunting yell and they pitched over one after the other just as shoot the sand and stones up round them once started there was no chance of stopping and before they were fairly in the bed of the and ha ha said on his back now thou and the torrent of black horns foaming and staring eyes whirled down the like in flood time the weaker being shouldered out to the sides of the where they tore through the they knew what the business was before them � the terrible charge of the herd against which no tiger can hope to stand heard the thunder of their hoofs picked himself up and down the looking from side to side for some way of escape but the walls of the were straight and he had tiger tiger � � keep on heavy with his dinner and his drink willing to do anything rather than fight the herd through the pool he had just left till the narrow cut rang heard an answering from the foot of the saw turn the tiger knew if the worst came to the worst it was better to meet the than the cows with their and then tripped stumbled and went on again over something soft and with the at his heels full into the other herd while the weaker were lifted clean off their feet by the shock of the meeting that charge carried both herds out into the plain and stamping and watched his time and slipped off s neck laying about him right and left with his stick quick break them up scatter them or they will be fighting one another drive them away hai hai hai my children softly now softly it is all over and gray brother ran to and fro the legs and though the herd wheeled once to charge up the again managed to turn and the others followed him to the us the book needed no more he was dead and the were coming for him already brothers that was a dog s death said feeling for the knife he always carried in a round his neck now that he with men but he would never have shown fight his hide will look well on the council rock we must get to work swiftly a boy trained among men would never have dreamed of a ten foot tiger alone but knew better than any one else how an animal s skin is fitted on and how it can be taken off but it was hard work and and tore and for an hour while the wolves out their tongues or came forward and as he ordered them presently a hand fell on his shoulder and looking up he saw with the tower the children had told the village about the and went out angrily only too anxious to correct for not taking better care of the herd the wolves dropped out of sight as soon as they saw the man coming what is this folly said angrily to think that thou skin a tiger where did the kill him it is the lame tiger � tiger i tiger i too and there is a hundred on his head well well we will overlook thy letting the herd run off and perhaps i will give thee one of the of the reward when i have taken the skin to he in his waist cloth for flint and steel and stooped down to s whiskers most native hunters a tiger s whiskers to prevent his ghost haunting them hum said half to himself as he back the skin of a fore so thou wilt take the hide to for the reward and perhaps give me one now it is in my mind that i need the skin for my own use old man take away that fire what talk is this to the chief hunter of the village thy luck and the stupidity of thy have helped thee to this kill the tiger has just fed or he would have gone twenty miles by this time thou not even skin him properly little beggar and i must be told not to his whiskers i will not give thee one of the reward but only a very big beating leave the by the bull that bought me said who was trying to get at the shoulder must i t the book stay to an old all noon here this man me who was still stooping over s head found himself on the grass with a gray wolf standing over him while went on as though he were alone in all india ye es he said between his teeth thou art altogether right thou wilt never give me one of the reward there is an old war between this lame tiger and myself � a very old war and � i have won to do justice if he had been ten years younger he would have taken his chance with had he met the wolf in the woods but a wolf who obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man eating was not a common animal it was magic of the worst kind thought and he wondered | 39 |
tell you what i come pretty dose to � ninety miles an hour � yes and a hundred now listen i was going to make a trial tomorrow but it won t take two hours to start today i ll tackle it this afternoon keep that money give me the pigeon and i follow her to her wherever it is hold on let me talk to the he called up the and in crisp sentences gave his orders in a way that went to winged the older man s heart truly his one son was a oflf the old block and peter had no meek notions concerning the value of said old block timed to the minute the young man two hours later was ready for the start in a at his hip for instant use cocked and with the safety on was a large pistol with a final inspection and he took his seat in the he started the engine and with a wild of gas the beautiful fabric darted down the ways and lifted into the air as he rose to the west he wheeled about and and for the real start of the race this start depended on the pigeon peter held it nor was it with shot this time instead half a yard of bright ribbon was firmly attached to its leg � this the more easily to enable its flight being followed peter released it and it arose easily enough despite the slight drag of the ribbon there was no uncertainty about its movements this was the third time it had made this particular passage and it knew the course at an of several feet it winged straightened out and went due east the a straight course from its last curve and followed the race was on peter looking up saw that the pigeon was the machine then he saw something else the suddenly and instantly became smaller it had its hi speed plane design was now revealed instead of the generous spread of surface with which it had taken the air it was now a lean and balanced on long and exceedingly narrow wings when yoimg down so suddenly he received a surprise it was his first trial of the new device and while he was prepared for increased speed he was not prepared for such an astonishing increase it was better than he dreamed and before he knew it he was hard upon the pigeon that little creature frightened by this the most monstrous hawk it had ever seen immediately darted upward after the manner of that strive always to rise above a hawk in great curves the followed upward higher and higher into the blue it was winged from underneath to see the pigeon and young dared not lose it his sight he even shook out his in order to rise more quickly up up they went until the pigeon true to its instinct dropped and struck at what it took to be the back of its pursuing enemy once was enough for evidently finding no life in the smooth cloth surface of the machine it ceased soaring and straightened out on its east ward course a pigeon on a passage can achieve a high rate of speed and again and again to his satisfaction he found that he was beating the pigeon but this time he quickly shook out a portion of his surface and down in time from then on he knew he had the chase safely in hand and from then on a chant rose to his lips which he continued to sing at intervals and for the rest of the passage it was going some going some what did i tell you � going some even so it was not all plain sailing the air is an medium at best and quite without warning at an acute angle he entered an tide which he recognized as the gulf stream h winged of wind that poured the golden gate his right wing caught it a sudden sharp puff that lifted and the and threatened to il but he rode with a sensitive loose and quickly but not too quickly he shifted the angles of his wing tips depressed the front and swung over the rear to meet the thrust of the wind as the machine came back to an even and he knew that he was now wholly in the invisible stream he the wing tips swung back the a few more yards of surface and lit out after the pigeon which had drawn rapidly away from him during the several moments of his discomfiture the pigeon drove straight on for the county shore and it was near this shore that had another experience he fell into an air hole he had fallen into air holes before in previous flights but this was a far larger one than he had ever encountered with his eyes strained on the ribbon attached to the pigeon by that fluttering bit of color he marked his fall down he went at the pit of his stomach that old sinking sensation which he had known as a boy when winged he first quick starting but among other secrets of had learned that to go up it was sometimes necessary � first to go down the air had refused to hold him instead of struggling and against this lack of he yielded to it with steady head and hand he depressed the forward � just enough and not a more � and the and sharply down the void it was falling with the of a knife blade every instant the speed thus he accumulated the that would save him but few were required when abruptly shifting the double forward and he shot upward on the tense and straining plane and out of the pit at an of five hundred feet the pigeon drove on over the town of and lifted its flight to the hills | 21 |
no family sir i shook my head i was aware that you sustained a sir some time ago said mr i heard it from your father in law s sister very decided character there sir why yes said i decided enough where did you see her mr are you not aware sir returned mr with his smile that your father in law is a neighbour of mine no said i lie is indeed sir i said mr married a young lady f that part with a very good little property poor thing � and this action of the brain now sir t you find it fatigue you said mr looking at me like an admiring robin i that question and returned to the i was ware of his being married again do you attend the family i asked not regularly i have been called iu he replied strong david development of the organ of firmness in mr stone and his sister sir i replied with such an expressive look that mr was by that and the together to give his head several short shakes and thoughtfully exclaim ah dear me we remember old times mr and the brother and sister are pursuing their old course are they said i well sir mr a medical man being so much in families ht to have neither eyes nor ears for anything but his profession still i must say they are very severe sir both as to this life and the next the next will be regulated without much reference to them i dare say i returned what are they doing as to this mr shook his head stirred his and it she was a charming woman sir he observed in a plaintive manner the present mrs a charming woman indeed sir said mr as amiable i am sure as it was possible to be mrs s opinion is that her spirit has been entirely broken since her marriage and that she is all but melancholy mad and the ladies observed mr are great sir i suppose she was to be subdued and broken to their detestable mould heaven help her said i and she has been well sir there were violent quarrels at first i assure you said mr but she is quite a shadow now would it be considered forward if i was to say to you sir in confidence that since the sister came to help the brother and sister between them have nearly reduced her to a state of i told him i could easily believe it i have no hesitation in saying said mr himself with another of between you and me that her mother died of it � or that tyranny gloom and worry have made mrs nearly she was a lively young woman sir before marriage and their gloom and destroyed her they go about with her now more like her than her husband and sister in tliat was mrs s remark to me only david last week and i assure you sir the ladies are great and mi s herself is a great observer does he gloomily profess to be i am ashamed to use the word in such association religious still i inquired you anticipate sir said mr his eyelids getting quite red with tlie unwonted in which he was indulging one of mrs s most impressive remarks mrs he proceeded in the and manner quite me by pointing out that mr sets up an image of himself and calls it the divine nature you have knocked me down on the flat of my back sir with the feather of a pen i assure you when mrs said so the ladies are great sir said i to his extreme delight i am very happy to receive such support in my opinion sir he rejoined it is not often that i venture to give a non medical opinion i assure you mr public addresses sometimes and it is said � in short sir it is said by mrs � that the darker tyrant he has lately been the more ferocious is his doctrine i believe mi s to be perfectly right said i mrs does go so far as to say pursued the of little men much encouraged that what such people their religion is a vent for their bad s and and do you know i must say sir he continued mildly laying his head ou one side that i don t find authority for mr and miss in the new testament i never found it either said i in the meantime sir said mr they are much disliked and as they are very free in everybody who them to we really have a good deal of on in our neighbourhood however as mrs says sir they undergo a continual punishment for they are turned inward to feed upon their own hearts and their own hearts are very bad feeding now sir about that brain of yours if you ll excuse my returning to it don t you expose it to a good deal of excitement sir i found it not difficult in the excitement of mr s own david brain under his of to divert his attention from this topic to his own affairs on which for the next half hour he was quite giving me to understand among other pieces of information that he was then at the gray s inn coffee house to lay his professional evidence before a commission of touching the state of mind of a patient who had become from excessive drinking and i assure you sir he said i am extremely nervous on such occasions i could not support being what is called sir it would quite me do you know it was some time before i recovered the conduct of that alarming lady on the night of your birth mr t told him that i was going down to my aunt the of that night early | 8 |
surrounded only by those who paying no regard to her individual tastes and feelings in the minute circumstances of life perpetually crossed her inclination and upon her prejudices by addressing her on topics the most � her of which she could make no use � helping her to food which she was not in the habit of � proposing for which her health was entirely � choosing for her for which she had no relish � and thus upon her the greatest of life without the least idea that she was not made happy and we some of us well know that there have been those so stripped so destitute of all human sympathy that a voice in the multitude amongst whom they believed themselves to be alone suddenly touching their individual feelings by some reference however simple to things which they had sought or approved or rejected in former has filled their eyes with tears and their hearts with gratitude that any one should be remembering them at the time when they felt themselves most and forlorn lady had charged walter if possible to take his cousin back with him promising that nothing should be wanting to make her residence in town agreeable and that she � be treated with the greatest liberality as money was no object with her this lady was bom in india where at a very early age she married sir william her senior by thirty years at whose death she was led in the possession of more wealth than wisdom to enjoy it she had been the mother of several children who had died in infancy all except one daughter sent over soon after her birth to benefit by � ll pictures op private life the air of scotland amongst her father s relations whether from a want of felicity in her matrimonial connection or from a combination of circumstances which attended the formation of her character the unfortunate mother had suffered a amiable temper to become completely an l having at the same time given way to a general of her fellow creatures she had consequently few friends in india to regret her departure for england and still fewer to welcome her to the shores of that country where she now her sad and isolated existence without the energy or even the desire to make it more happy by being more active and useful companions she had tried in numbers almost incredible but in her opinion they had all treated her some and she had parted from every one with mutual dislike she was now entirely alone � a situation of all others the most dreadful to her and from walter s description of his cousin she caught at the proposition with such that she considered herself extremely when informed that she must a few weeks before could possibly appear in town the appointed day however came at last and weary and somewhat from a coach with her cousin walter who wished for the first time in his life that he could have driven her up to the door in his own carriage if only to inspire the with a little more respect for her who in his opinion deserved the richest honours of an admiring world lady was a handsome woman of that indescribable age about which you feel sorry that any one should make exact dark indolent and perfectly in all her habits to have appeared entirely in character she should have worn a crimson or yellow and slaves should have been crouching at her feet or her with the gorgeous feathers of some indian bird as it was the and the slaves alone were wanting � for she on a couch with all the luxurious of a more sunny and her apartment was furnished with a degree of costly elegance that would scarcely have a tier dark eyes half hid beneath their languid and long shadowy lashes were slowly raised on the entrance of and she stretched forth a delicate white hand that dropped by her side after her effort to perform a welcome as if weighed down with its burden of rings and glittering gems felt all that uncomfortable sensation with which we open out from the of a journey in the presence of those whose has been more recent and who appear never to have known the touch of vulgar dust she therefore begged permission as soon as walter had departed to retire at an early hour her lodging room that of a woman s comfort was prepared with the greatest taste and elegance so that she almost dreaded to her simple wardrobe in such charmed but weariness does much to overcome the influence of finery and though the visions which flitted before her mind as she tossed upon the bed which vainly invited her to repose were many and strange her thoughts were at lest composed and settled for she had not applied in vain to the fountain of all consolation whose healing waters were ever ready for her utmost need one great difficulty amongst many which attend what is called a is the doubt about the actual occupations of the day which every one must feel at first from not knowing what is expected what will please or what will disappoint nor can any thing be altogether more pitiable than the fate of her who goes forth into the world to be agreeable for hire she may possibly have been tenderly in a pleasant home � her wishes gratified � her tastes er feelings indulged � the idol of a partial circle to which her very have her but the stroke of has fallen her father s are suddenly reduced or his life the of his family is taken away and with either of these sad events and the breaking up of the whole establishment have come the usual falling away of summer friends the settlement of the sons in trade and the daughters in the | 41 |
to his relations at as well as to certain of our most substantial dutch citizens he expired in the arms of his friend the his remains were according to his own request in st mark s churchyard close by the bones of his favourite hero peter and it is that the historical society have it in mind to erect a wooden ment to his memory in the green to t� e public to rescue from oblivion the memory of for incidents and to render a just tribute of renown to the many great and wonderful actions of our dutch native of the city of new york historical essay like the great father of history whose words i have just quoted i treat of times long past over which the twilight of uncertainty had already thrown its shadows and the night of forgetfulness was about to descend forever with great solicitude had i long beheld the early history of this venerable and ancient from our grasp trembling on the lips of narrative old age and day by day dropping into the tomb in a ht tie while thought i and those reverend who serve as the tottering monuments of good old times will be gathered to their fa s s xxiv preface children engrossed by the pleasures or insignificant transactions of the present age wiu neglect to treasure up the recollections of the past and posterity will search in vain for of the days of e the origin of our city will be buried in eternal oblivion and even the names and achievements of van william and peter be enveloped in doubt and fiction like those of and of king arthur and of determined therefore to if possible this threatened misfortune i set myself to work to gather together all the fragments of our infant history which still existed and like my where no written records could be found i have endeavoured to continue the chain of history by well traditions in this undertaking which has been the whole business of a long and life it is incredible the number of authors i have consulted and all but to little purpose strange as it may seem though such multitudes of excellent works have been written about this country there are none which give any full and account of the early history of new or of its dutch j have gained much e it d c preface xxv fr an elaborate manuscript written in exceeding pure and classic low dutch excepting a few errors in which was found in the of the family many legends letters and other documents have i likewise in my among the family and lumber of our respectable dutch citizens and i have gathered a host of well traditions from divers excellent old ladies of my acquaintance who requested that their names might not be mentioned nor must i neglect to acknowledge how greatly i have been assisted by that admirable and institution the new york historical society to which i here publicly return my sincere in the conduct of this work i have adopted no individual model but on the contrary have simply contented myself with and the of the most approved ancient like i have maintained the utmost and the to truth throughout my history i have enriched it after the manner of with various characters of ancient w n at full length and faithfully ed i have it with profound political speculations like it with the graces of sentiment like and into the whole the dignity the tn m of xxvi r i am aware that i shall the censure of numerous very learned and judicious critics for indulging too frequently in the bold manner of my favourite and to be candid i have found it impossible always to resist the of those pleasing which like banks and fragrant beset the dusty road of the historian and him to turn aside and refresh himself from his but i trust it will be found that i have always resumed my staff and addressed myself to my weary journey witli spirits so that both my readers and myself have been by the indeed though it has been my constant wish and uniform endeavour to rival himself in observing the requisite unity of history yet the loose and manner in which of the facts recorded have come to hand rendered such an attempt extremely difficult this difficulty was likewise increased by one of tlie grand objects contemplated in my work which was to trace the rise of sundry customs and institutions in this best of cities and to compare them when in tlie of infancy with what sky are in the present old age of knowledge and improvement but the chief merit on which i value myself and found my hopes for future regard is that faithful with which have this pr ace invaluable little work carefully away the of and the of fable which are too apt to spring u and choke the seeds of truth and wholesome knowledge � had i been anxious to the throng who like over the surface of literature or had i been anxious to commend my writings to the of literary i might have availed myself of the obscurity that the infant years of our city to introduce a thousand pleasing but i have discarded many a tale and marvellous adventure whereby the drowsy ear of summer might be jealousy maintaining that fidelity gravity and dignity wliich should ever distinguish the historian for a writer of this class an elegant critic must sustain the character of a wise man writing for the instruction of posterity one who has studied to inform himself well who has pondered his subject with care and addresses himself to our judgment rather than to our imagination thrice happy therefore is this our renowned city in having incidents worthy of swelling the of history and doubly thrice happy is it in having such an historian as myself | 48 |
are none the worse for your exertions to night mr in reply shook his head with a gloomy air tapped his chest times with great and drawing his cloak more closely about him said but no matter � no matter come it is that when people upon the stage are in any strait the yery last extremity of weakness and exhaustion they invariably perform of strength requiring great ingenuity and muscular power thus a wounded prince or chief who is bleeding to death and too to move except to the music and then only upon his hands and knees shall be seen to approach a cottage door for aid in such a series of and and with such up of the legs and such over and over and such up and down again as could never be achieved save by a very strong man skilled in posture making and so natural did this sort of performance come to mr that on their way out of the theatre and towards the tavern where the supper was to be he the severity of his recent and its wasting effects upon the nervous system by a series of performances which were the admiration of all witnesses why this is indeed a joy i had not looked for said mrs when was presented nor i replied it is by a mere chance that i have this opportunity of seeing you although i would have made a great exertion to have availed myself of it here is one whom you know said mrs thrusting forward the phenomenon in a blue frock and trousers of the same and here another � and another presenting the masters and how is your friend the faithful said forgetting at the instant that this had been s theatrical name oh yes he s quite � what am i saying � he is very far from how mrs with a tragic i fear said his head aad an attempt to smile that your better half would be more with him now than ever what mean you rejoined mrs in her most popular manner whence comes this altered tone i mean that a enemy of mine has struck at me through him and that while he thinks to torture me he on him such agonies of terror and suspense as you will excuse me i am sure said checking himself i never speak of this and never do except to those who know the facts but for a moment i forgot myself with this hasty apology stooped down to salute the phenomenon and changed the subject inwardly cursing his and very much wondering what mrs must think of so sudden an explosion that lady seemed to think very little about it for the supper being by this time on table she gave her hand to and repaired with a stately step to the left hand of mr had the honour to support her and mr was placed upon the s right the phenomenon and the masters sustained the vice the company in to some twenty five or thirty being composed of such members of the theatrical profession then engaged or disengaged in london as were numbered among the most intimate friends of mr and mrs the ladies and gentlemen were pretty equally balanced the expenses of the entertainment being by the latter each of whom had the privilege of inviting one of the former as his guest it was upon the whole a very distinguished party for of the lesser theatrical lights who clustered on this occasion round mr there was a literary gentleman present who had in his time two hundred and forty seven novels as fast as they had come out � some of them than they had come out � and was a literary gentleman in consequence this gentleman sat on the left hand of to whom he was introduced by his j the african from the bottom of the table with a high upon his fame and reputation life and of i am to know a of such great said politely sir replied the wit you re very welcome i m sure the honour is sir as i usually say when i a book did you ever hear a definition of fame sir i have heard several replied with a smile what is yours when i a book sir said the literary gentleman that � � for its author oh indeed rejoined that s sir said the literary gentleman so richard tom king and have handed down to fame the names of those on whom they committed their most impudent said i don t know anything about that sir answered the literary gentleman stories which had previously appeared in print it is true observed meaning bill sir said the literary gentleman so he did bill was an certainly so he was � and very well he adapted too considering i was about to say rejoined that derived some of his plots from old tales and legends in general circulation but it seems to me that some of the gentlemen of your craft at the present day have shot very far beyond you re quite right sir interrupted the literary gentleman leaning back in his chair and his human intellect sir has since his time � is � will progress � shot beyond him i mean resumed in quite another respect for whereas he brought within the magic circle of his genius traditions peculiarly adapted for his purpose and turned familiar things into which should the world for ages you drag within the magic circle of your subjects not at all adapted to the purposes of the stage and as he exalted for instance you take the books of living authors fresh j om their hands wet j om the press cut hack and them to the powers and of your actors and the of your theatres finish unfinished works hastily and up not yet worked out by their | 8 |
humble love at you mean me she said looking up at companion yes he replied earnestly that is just what i mean was the one who first thought of you but i saw in an instant what a fine thing it would be neither of us has anything to of in the way of expectations but we shall do our best if you say it is settled we will look for immediately and begin to pick out the and for your new kitchen wanted to think of the matter for another day but was so persistent and represented the scheme in such bright colors that before he left her that night she had given her full consent within a week the flat was secured a set of rooms up three flights of stairs on sixth street overlooking some picturesque if not over clean back yards of the neighborhood when s furniture was moved in and the necessary purchases made the place looked remarkably there was a striking between some of the expensive things he brought and some of the very cheap ones they had to purchase but all three of the new tenants were in too good humor to find anything but amusement in this fact a diamond pin had been sacrificed at the first start to the and it was announced with positive glee that a balance of was in the treasury with everything paid for including an advance month s rent of the premises it was admitted on all sides that developed wonderful capacity declared with his p that he had never dined better even in the days when he made the grand tour the coffee she prepared in the morning was decidedly superior he solemnly to that served by any de in dear he liked to sit in the kitchen and watch her with her sleeves rolled up at the dish pan or the bread board when was out the town in search of something to do and his manners were so good and his temper so that he became as agreeable a companion as could be asked he had a shrewd way of seeming to admit s in though he never actually made any allusion to it believing that they enjoyed themselves better alone he got into the habit when the six o clock dinner was over of going out to see a friend and seldom returning before ten at the earliest but if he heard that intended to walk out with he would take a book or magazine and settle himself in their of a parlor announcing that he would spend the evening at home the apprehensions that had felt were soon into perfect repose by the admirable conduct of his friend though did not apply in person for any situation he wrote a number of letters in response to newspaper one of the reasons he gave for remaining at home so much during the day was that he wanted to be in when the mail arrived if he were sent for in haste he wished to be ready to respond but the letters he deposited in the box over the way were much more numerous love at seventy than those which the brought the only one he was sure of came three times a week from and was answered as regularly in one of these letters he learned of the visit that mr made to though she did not give a full account of all that passed between them he assured me she wrote that you were a very naughty fellow but i refused to listen though i fear he had some basis of truth for what he wanted to say i told him to his face that i loved you that nothing would ever make me change and that as soon as you were ready for me i should marry you then he threatened saying that he had intended to leave me all his money but that now i shall get nothing as if that would make any difference i fear he will be unpleasant to mamma and perhaps she will join forces with him people used to say he meant to marry her i wish he would for she me very much she is so afraid of poverty that she lies awake nights thinking of it keep up good courage darling all will come out right in time in a subsequent letter she made the interesting statement that tom had asked for s address and that the girl suspecting some trick of mr s had given him an reply pretending that she did not know it this set to thinking he had known tom from they had been unusually good friends and he did not believe anything would persuade the old man to injure him if wanted his address it must be for some good reason at dinner that evening he talked the matter over with his he is a shrewd old fellow said he and there is a possibility that he has something of importance to tell me he s a poor hand at letter writing and the best way to get at the bottom of the matter would be to see him personally but the trouble is he s not much of a traveller he would consider a journey to new york as serious a matter as i should one to i don t think he s been ten miles from in thirty years for me to go to him has its difficulties and dangers so you see i really don t know what to do looked as if the problem was too deep for him while on the other side of the table expressed sympathy in her sober face i say couldn t you run up there for a day or two exclaimed suddenly i said to be sure you would not run the slightest risk may have something to say that we ought to hear and then i | 1 |
time was probably given to it for the press but on the th of the following according to the date on her own manuscript she began a new novel and worked at it up to the th of march the chief part of this manuscript is written in her usual firm and neat hand but some of the latter pages seem to have been first traced in pencil probably when she was too weak to sit long at her desk and written over in ink afterwards the quantity produced does not indicate any decline of power or industry for in those seven weeks twelve chapters had been completed it is more difficult to judge of the quality of a work so little advanced it had received no name there was scarcely any indication what the course of the story was to be nor was any heroine yet perceptible a of jane who like price or anne might draw her the sympathies of the reader such an unfinished fragment cannot he presented to the hut i am persuaded that some of jane s admirers will he glad to learn something the latest which were forming themselves in her mind and therefore as some of the principal characters were already in with a hand i will try to an idea of them illustrated hy from the work the scene is laid at a village on the coast just struggling into as a bathing place under the patronage of the two principal of the parish mr and lady mr was an man with more enthusiasm than judgment whose somewhat shallow mind with the one idea of the prosperity of together with a jealous contempt of the rival village of where a similar attempt was going on to the regret of his wife he had left his family mansion with all its comforts of gardens and shelter situated in a valley some miles inland a new residence � a on the hare of the hill overlooking and the sea exposed to every wind that hut he will confess to no nor suffer his family to feel any from the change the following extract him the reader mounted on his � he wanted to secure the promise of a visit and to get as many of the family as his own house a of jane would hold to follow him to as soon as possible and healthy as all the were he foresaw that every one of them would be by the sea he held it indeed as certain that no person however for the present by of exercise and spirit in a semblance of health could be really in a state of secure and permanent health without spending at least six weeks by the sea every year the sea air and sea bathing together were nearly one or other of them being a match for every disorder of the stomach the lungs or the blood they were anti anti and anti nobody could catch cold by the sea nobody wanted appetite by the sea j nobody wanted spirits nobody wanted strength they were healing softening and seemingly just as was wanted sometimes one sometimes the other if the sea breeze failed the sea bath was the certain and when bathing the was evidently designed by nature for the cure his eloquence however could not prevail mr and mrs never left home the maintenance education and fitting out of fourteen children demanded a very quiet settled careful course of life and obliged them to be stationary and healthy at what prudence had at first was now rendered pleasant by habit they never left home and they had a gratification in saying so lady s was a very different character she was a rich vulgar widow with a sharp but a of jane narrow mind who cared for the prosperity of only so far as it might increase the value of her own property she is thus described � lady had been a rich miss bom to wealth but not to education her first husband had been a mr a man of considerable property in the country of which a large share of the parish of with and mansion house formed a part he had been an elderly man when she married him her own age about thirty her motives for such a match could be little understood at the distance of forty years but she had so well nursed and pleased mr that at his death he left her everything � all his estates and all at her disposal after a of some years she had been induced to marry again the late sir harry of park in the neighborhood of succeeded in removing her and her large income to his own but he could not succeed in the views of permanently his family which were attributed to him she had been too wary to put anything out of her own power and when on sir harry s death she returned again to her own house at she was said to have made this boast that though she had got nothing but her title from the family yet she had given nothing for it for the title it was to be supposed that she married lady was indeed a great lady beyond the common wants of society for she had many thousands a year to and three distinct sets of people to be by � her own q � ov who might very reasonably wish for her original thirty thousand pounds among them the legal of mr who might hope to be more indebted to her sense of justice than he had allowed them to be to his and those members ol the family for whom her second husband had hoped to make a good bargain by all these or by branches of them she had no doubt long and still continued to be well attacked and of these three divisions mr did not hesitate | 26 |
he isn t at home where is he said he is out in the lot falling trees said the boy how far is it from here asked o about a good half mile which way said on � in out yonder said the boy and he pointed back of the house where a rough road led into the woods you can hear his axe listened and he heard distinctly the sound of an axe in the woods behind it ceased immediately after there was a prolonged crash which echoed back from the mountains there goes a tree said the boy was sorry to have to leave so long but he wished to until he should find the man as he knew that the was very desirous of having the business done that day so he told the boy that he believed he would go and see if he could find mr and then he set off in the direction which the boy had in this road was so sheltered by the woods that the snow was not much drifted and besides it had been kept open by the which had been employed in out pine logs when got in to the end of the road he heard the strokes of the axe at a short distance on the right difficulty he looked that way and found that the man was standing at the foot of a tall tree of very large size and he was cutting through the trunk of it about two feet from the top of the snow he saw that it was nearly oflf and so he thought he would wait a moment where he was and see it fall he observed that mr occasionally looked up the stem of the tree between the strokes of his axe as if to see whether it was beginning to fall after a few strokes more he stepped back from the foot of the tree to one side wondered why he left his work before the tree fell he looked up to the top of it and he perceived that it was moving it was bending over very slowly indeed it moved however faster and faster and presently began to come tearing down between the branches of the other trees and at length descended with a mighty crash to the ground thought that it was a very fine spectacle indeed he wished that had been there to see it then went to mr and his business successfully accord on a farm in winter ing to the farmer s directions then he turned around and began to walk back as fast as he could go i am afraid said he to himself that is almost out of patience waiting for me chapter x � a surprise walked on until he came out of the woods at the house where he had seen the boy cut wood as he approached tlie place he saw that the boy was there still but there was a man with him the man had a stick in his hand he is driving a team somewhere said to himself i wonder where his oxen are a moment afterwards came in sight of the oxen which were in the road having been hid from his view before by the wood pile the man and the boy looked at as he walked towards them the man smiled a little as if he knew but thought that he had never seen him before well said the man did you find mr i on a in winter yes sir replied he wondered how the man happened to know his name i m glad of it said he and you d better make back is almost tired of waiting for you you mean said no said the man � he said his name was said his name is i don t see what made him tell you that hi name was so saying walked away wondering what this could mean he had never known to do any such thing before he thought would not tell a falsehood on any account he was not inclined to say any thing of that kind by way of jest he was a very sober and as well as honest boy besides he could not think what should have put into s head he did not recollect that he had said any thing of for a long time in fact he had seldom told any thing about him and what could have induced him to call himself he could not � however he had nothing to do but to go on for the more he attempted to imagine some explanation of the mystery the more he was puzzled so he walked on as il as he could he came at length in sight of the spot where he had left the horse and the horse was there but was not to he has got tired of waiting and has gone away said or perhaps he is playing about near this last supposition was pretty soon for a moment confirmed for saw very soon after a boy s head on the bank of the brook at a little distance below there he is now said to himself no it isn t he that toy isn t dressed like i wonder who it is the boy had a long pole in his hand and was pushing cakes of ice with it he was so intent upon this amusement that at first he did not see but presently looking up his eye suddenly caught a view of coming and he instantly dropped his pole and ran towards him shouting � on a farm in winter why exclaimed in his turn how came you to be here it was indeed was astonished he could scarcely believe his senses is it possible that this is you said he yes said laughing with great delight i believe it is and how came you | 22 |
person who having fifty dollars to spend on the luxury of a journey feels the worth of every sixpence expended in a return of either advantage or enjoyment if any of my readers have chanced to hear a gentleman curse his tailor who has sent home at uie last moment some new exquisite articles of apparel for a journey when they were found to be a hair s too tight or loose or if they have assisted at the perplexed of a fine lady as to the colour and material of her new dresses and new hat and have witnessed her with and we invite them to peep into the dwelling of our young friends and witness the actual happiness a friend in from the and infinite ingenuity of the poor of the long wished for journey had been announced to uncle and they were entering upon about the when their father beginning as need was at the crown of his head exclaimed i declare i never told you my bad luck about my hat i laid it down by the door just for a minute last sabbath and our run off with it into a mud � it was the worse for wear before and it looks like all now let us look at it father said there are not many people that know you in new york and maybe we can smooth it up and make it do the hat was brought and examined and heads mournfully shaken over it no domestic process would make it decent and decency was to be attained suddenly remembered that during her only well week that spring she had bound some hats for mr the and was despatched to ascertain if her amounted to enough to pay for the re dressing of her father s hat could scarcely have returned quicker than did indeed her little seldom went on such pleasant errands everybody in the world is kind to us said as she re entered breathless mr has sent full pay for your work and says he ll dress father s hat over for nothing i m so glad for now you can get a new for your bonnet after all the necessaries are provided anybody but you would call that a necessary do look at this old � all c the poor rich man � tc out it has been turned and died and and now it is not fit to wear in � what will they say to it in new york we ll see how we come out father s sunday coat mast be turned the coat was turned and the girls ware delighted to see it look almost as well as new and even was satisfied to pay the hat money to sally the a long deliberation followed upon father s garments and they came to the conclusion they were quite too bad to be worn where father was not known and respected and to get new ones must give up buying a new cloak and make her old one do there is a lively pleasure in this making do that the rich know not of the cloak was turned and new and said considering what a pretty colour it was and how natural looked in it she did not know but what she liked it better than a new one and now after had and her five year old her dress was in order for the expedition � all b the on which s mind was still intent not but just left said she to after the last little debt for the was paid won t buy the that s certain though mr is selling off so cheap why can t you break into the fifty dollars i do hate to have you seen in new york with that old but i must � for i told harry i would not touch the fifty dollars till we started well give me the then s � friend in face brightened she had as a last resort to invest in the a certain precious quarter of a dollar which harry had given her ages and ages ago and which she had ever since worn a she left her sister abruptly and as she slid the coin from the dear little said she i suppose you will seem to other folks just like any other quarter and they will just pass you from hand to hand without thinking at all about you � how foolish i am � she dashed a tear from her eye � sha n t i love harry just as well and won t he love me just as well and i think of him more than ever now he has been so kind to without having this to me in mind of him this point settled to er own satisfaction she turned as usual to the bright side how lucky mr is selling off � i wonder what colour i had best would like brown it s so � but she so pretty in pink it takes off her pale look and casts such a rosy shadow on her cheek but i am afraid she will think pink too gay for her thus weighing utility and against taste and entered the shop and walking up to the counter in a glass case a pink and brown her own taste was gratified and s economy and preference of modest colours would be satisfied � in short it was all women will understand me just the thing she was satisfied delighted and had not the master of the shop kept her waiting five minutes she would have forgotten the value of that quarter tl t in addition to the must be paid but in e the poor man etc the feelings go many changes and when mr fuller said here is your may was standing with her back to the counter and looking at the quarter as | 6 |
be a fur day an night o there s a glory o the moon an a glory o the stars but the glory o the angels shines beyond our prison bars he sang this verse in a rich sweet digging the while and patting the sides of the grave smooth as he worked sat down on one of the grassy and stared at him thoughtfully how can you believe all that nonsense he asked with solemnity � such a big man as you are too the grave stopped abruptly in his toil and turning round surveyed the little lad with astonishment how can i believe all that nonsense he repeated at last slowly � nonsense is a like you a o the blessed sure an certain hope o heaven as nonsense god ha mercy on ye ye poor little thing who has had the of ye up anyway flushed deeply and his eyes with repressed tears he was very lonely and he to talk to this cheery looking man who had such a soft musical voice and such a kindly smile but now he feared he had offended him i my name is � he said in low rather tremulous tones � i am the only son of mr who has taken the big house over there for the summer � that one � you can just see the chimneys through the trees � and he indicated the direction by a little wave of his hand � and i have always had very clever men for ever since i was six years old � i shall be eleven next birthday � and they have taught me lots of things and why i said the next world was nonsense was because i have always been told so one would be very glad of course if it were true but then it isn t true it is only an idea � a sort of legend my father says nobody with any sense nowadays believes it scientific books prove to you you know that when you go into a grave like that and he pointed to the hole in which the stood listening and inwardly � you are quite dead for ever � you never see the sun any more or hear the birds sing and you never find out why you were made at all which i think is very curious and very cruel � and you are eaten up by the worms now it surely is nonsense isn t it to think you can come to life again after you are eaten by the worms � and that is what i meant when i asked how you could believe such a thing i hope you will excuse me � i didn t wish to offend you the grave still stood silent his fine resolute features expressed various emotions � wonder pain pity and something of indignation � then all at once these flitting shadows of thought melted into a sunny smile of tenderness offend me no indeed � ye couldn t do that my little if ye tried � ye re too much of a an so ye re mr s son eh � well i m the o th church here an an road an carpenter an anything else my hand finds to do i does it with my might it nobody an me a now ye see these arms o mine � and he raised one of the brown muscular limbs alluded to � they ha served me well � they ha earned bread an clothing an wife an child an please god they ll serve me yet many a long day an i m grateful to have em for use an hard labour � but i know the time come when they be laid down in a grave like this ere an stiff an away to the bone a soil fur vi lets an to grow over me but what o that i ll not be a of cm then � no more than i m a now the long clothes i wore when our me at t old yonder i who am at present owner o these arms will be else � an an please the lord too for work s divine an wholesome � i ll better limbs an stronger � but body i get into ye may depend on t little it ii be as right an for the ways o the next world as the body i ve got now is right an fur this one an my soul will be the same as keeps me up at this moment bad or good � i pray it may get a bit wiser an better an not go down like he raised his clear blue eyes to the bright expanse above him and murmured half � him that he take heed lest he fall � and seemed for a moment lost in meditation please mr � mr what do you mean by your soul asked gravely brought his gaze down from the shining sky to the quaint and solemn little figure before him what do i mean my dear he echoed with a note of compassion in his rich voice � � i mean the part o me � the vital spark o heavenly flame in all of us that our dear lord died to save that s what i mean � an that s what you ll mean too ye poor pale little chap when ye se up and begins to all the o god s goodness to us ungrateful to think o the blessed sunshine should be enough fur the o thanks � but lord pity us � we re sore forgetful of all our daily and � your friend � mother � hinted almost � had she what you call a soul aye that she had � an a great one an a true one an an angel one � fur all | 33 |
the struggle slavery mr of mass moved that the whole bill be stricken oat and another inserted instead all the laws of rejected bell of n h foster and mr moved to strike out the whole bill and instead one admitting as a free state under the constitution defeated � � as follows messrs bell of new foot foster hale and messrs bell of bright brown clay hunter johnson jones of of and the bill was now reported as and the made in committee of the whole in the bill was then a m ordered to be engrossed and read a third time and on the question of its final passage the vote stood � � as messrs bell of bright brown clay hunter johnson jones of of and messrs bell of new foot foster hale and the bill was then sent to the house in the following shape an act to the people of the territory of to form a constitution and state preparatory to their admission into the union on an equal footing with the original states be it by the and house of representatives of the united states of america tn assembled that for the purpose of making an of the inhabitants to vote under the provisions of this act an and an election of members of a to form a state constitution for as provided five competent persons shall be appointed by the president by and with the advice and consent of the to be a majority of whom shall constitute a for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions ot this act each ot whom before entering upon the duties of his office shall take and an oath or that he will support the constitution of the united states and faithfully and exercise and the duties on him by this act according to the best of his skill and judgment which oath or shall be administered to them and be duly by a judge clerk or of a court of the united states and filed and recorded in the office of the secretary of the territory of and be it further that it shall bo the duty of said under such at the secretary of the interior may to cause to be made a full and faithful of the legal resident in each county in the said territory on tho fourth day of july eighteen hundred and fifty six and make returns thereof during the month of august next or as soon thereafter as practicable one of which returns shall be made to the office of the secretary of the interior and one to the secretary of the territory of which shall also exhibit the names of all such legal in such manner as shall be prescribed by the of the secretary of the interior sec and be it further that it shall be the duty of the secretary of the interior immediately after the passage of this act to and forms to be observed in making the and to furnish the same with all necessary to each of the as soon as may be after their ap and the shall meet without delay at the seat of government of territory and proceed to the discharge of the duties imposed upon them and a secretary to the board and such other persons as shall be necessary to aid and assist them in taking the provided for who must also be duly sworn faithfully and truly to discharge the duties assigned them by the sec and be it further that said board of shall so soon as said shall be completed and returns made to make an of the for a among the different in said territory in the following manner the whole number of legal shall be divided by fifty two and the product of such division any of a shall be the or rule of of members among the several and if any county shall not have a number of legal thus ascertained equal to the it shall be attached to some adjoining county and thus form a representative district the number of said in each county or district shall then be divided by the and the product shall be the number of representatives to such county or district provided that tho loss in the number of members caused by the remaining in the several in the division of the legal thereof shall be by to so many as have the largest an additional member for its as may be necessary to make the whole number of representatives fifty two sec and be it further that the said board immediately after the of the members of said shall cause a sufficient number of copies thereof and of the returns of the the name of each legal in each county or district to be published and distributed among the inhabitants of the several and shall one copy of the said and duly by then to each clerk of a court of record within the territory who shall file the same and keep open to the inspection of every who shall desire to examine it and shall also cause other copies to be posted up in at least three of the most public places in each to the end that every may inspect the same and apply to the board to correct any error ho may find therein in the manner provided sec and be it further that said board shall remain in each day sundays from the time of making said until the twentieth day of october � the struggle t t next at such places as shall be most convenient to the inhabitants of said territory and shall proceed to the inspection of said returns and hear correct and finally determine according to the facts without unreasonable delay under proper to be made by the board for the of disputed facts concerning said all questions concerning the of any person from said returns | 19 |
pleasure of gratifying him helped to some opposing reasons i shall get into a rage at something or other had said i ve told you one of my weak points where i have any particular business i must the risks my nature brings but i ve no particular business at however i ll make a holiday and go by dint of seeing folly i shall get lessons in patience the weak point to which referred was his to be carried completely out of his own mastery by indignant anger his strong health his of selfish claims his habitual with large thoughts and with purposes independent of every day secured him a fine and even temper free from or he was full of long suffering toward his unwise mother who pressed him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was vexed he had chosen to fill his days in a way that required the utmost exertion of patience that required those little like of goodness which in minds of great energy must be fed from deep sources of thought and passionate in this way his energies served to make him gentle and now in this twenty sixth year of his life they had ceased to make him angry except in the presence of something that roused his deep indignation when once exasperated the of his nature threw off the yoke of a consciousness in which thought and emotion had been more and more completely mingled and concentrated itself in a rage as as that of boyhood he was aware of the and knew that in such circumstances he could not answer for himself sensitive people with feeble frames have often the same sort of fury within them but they are themselves shattered and nothing had a terrible arm he knew that he was dangerous and he avoided the conditions that might cause him as he would have avoided drinks if he had been in danger of the day was a great epoch of successful or to speak in a more manner of war on the part of agents and mr had his share of inward and self approval as one who might justly expect increasing renown and be some day in as general request as the great himself to have the pleasure and the praise of ingenuity and also to get paid for it without too much anxiety whether ingenuity will achieve its ultimate end perhaps gives to some select persons a sort of satisfaction in their superiority to their more agitated fellow men that is worthy to be with those generous i the of having the truth chiefly to yourself and of seeing others in danger of drowning while you are high and dry which seem to have been regarded as privileges by and lord bacon one of mr johnson s great was this the hated manager of the in careless confidence that the and other under him would follow his orders had provided carts to carry some loads of enthusiasm to on behalf of enthusiasm which being already paid for by the recognized benefit of s existence as a with a share in the mines was not to cost much in the form of treating a was held worthy of pious honor as the cause why working men existed but mr did not sufficiently consider that a cause which has to be proved by argument or testimony is not an object of passionate devotion to a visible cause of beer acts on them much more strongly and even if there ba been any love of the far off hatred of the too immediate would have been the stronger motive hence johnson s made long ago with the remarkable had been well founded and there had been care to supply treating at in the name of after the election was over it was not that there would be much friendly joking between and johnson as to the success of this trick against s employer and johnson would be conscious of rising in the opinion of his celebrated senior for the show of hands and the cheering the and the the roaring and the hissing the hard with small and the with small jokes were strong enough on the side of to balance the similar for even with the interest in his favor and the inconvenient presence of was early got rid of by a managed accident which sent him bruised and from the scene of action mr had never before felt so thoroughly that the occasion was up to a level with his talents while the clear daylight in which his virtue would appear when at the election he as his duty to himself bound him for only gave him thorough repose of conscience was the only person looking on at the senseless of this day who knew from the beginning the of the trick with the he had been aware all along that the treating at s had been continued and that so far e s promise had produced no good fruits and what he was observing to day as he watched the crowd convinced him that the whole scheme would be carried out just as if he had never spoken about it he could be fair enough to allow that he might have wished and yet have been unable with his notions of success to keep his promise and his bitterness toward the candidate only took the form of contemptuous pity for was not in his contempt for men who put their inward honor in by seeking the of the world his scorn fell too readily on the fortunate but he saw johnson passing to and fro and speaking to on the he felt himself getting angry and jumped off the wheel of the stationary cart on which he was mounted that he might no longer be in sight of this man whose cant had made his blood hot and his fingers on the | 14 |
a chilly and atmosphere with all its melancholy gazed and gazed till she wa wearied out and then she turned within and opened her box of which had pleased her so often but now they failed in producing any other effect than a slight touch of pain � it might be a faint apprehension that what had been would never be again which had well nigh brought the tears into her eyes so she asked for her music but music without either voice or instrument is the thing in the world and this failed her too what could she do swallow her sleeping draught two hours before the time and beg of to assist her into bed for she was weary of herself and every thing beside in a few days however had so far recovered as to regain the tone of her mind and with this transient and came busy thoughts of that world in which she had been so bright a star � that ungrateful world that never missed nor mourned her as soon as her strength would permit amused herself with looking through her wardrobe one by one her rich dresses were unfolded the was called in to alter them to her present shape and ah it was like a mockery of the grave to see her tall thin figure out in the of fashion and folly and to hear her difficult and laborious and the short quick cough that perpetually interrupted her directions as she told how the the and the folds were to be so placed as to conceal the alteration in her wasted person oh it needs religion to us from the things of earth i pictures of private life chapter iv there is nothing like a return to the domestic scenes and pursuits of a family for giving spirits to an invalid and when released from the prison of her own room really fancied she was gaining strength with her returning spirits the hopes of the family returned and with their hopes the longing to be again in the world just to tell lady b that dear was recovering and then the party at sir robert long s could they refuse that now that pa and sir robert had had a difference about their game it would look as if the ladies of the family wished to keep it up � no they must go and not one of them only but all would sit with so they dressed themselves and kissed her very kindly and left her and she sat for a long time listening to the sound of the carriages as they rolled along the street each conveying its rich freight to the door of the wealthy it so happened on that day that had not been invited and hearing that his mistress was again visible and having nothing else to do he went and knocked at that busy door that was for ever turning on its hinges oh how well did know his step as he lightly up the stairs she tried to meet him at the door of the drawing room but her breath failed her and she could only look a welcome kinder than words when her lover first beheld her he started back for there is a disease which makes rapid upon beauty in the course of a few days without the sufferer being aware of any change but he soon recovered himself and began to for his long absence by a thousand excuses which often interrupted by her exclamations of pleasure that he had come at last and so i began to think that you would never come again it is so long since you have been here oh i am so glad to see you it is so dull shut up here alone when they all leave me but come sit down and be as happy as you can and tell me all that you have seen and heard since we last met but do not make me laugh for i have a wretched feeling here laying her hand upon her breast and laughing hurts me worse than anything so they sat down together and fixed their eyes upon the fire and were both silent for a long time did you ever see any one in a consumption was the first question which asked and her lover started for he had been thinking of the very same thing no i never did and hope i never shall your illness is not consumption dear it is not it shall not be then what can be the meaning of all this fever and why i get rid of this horrid cough i strive against it indeed i do and sometimes i think it is all fancy i feel so well but oh harry if it should be and she fixed her eyes upon him with such an expression of wild and agony that he almost shrank was not entirely a stranger to the thought but he had only thought of dying as a man or a soldier in the cause of honour or on the field of battle the certain symptoms of a lingering and fatal malady never before been present to his observation and now when he looked upon the being he had regarded as least mortal and met the glaring of the hollow eye and saw the falling away of the fair cheek the wasting of the once rounded lips and felt the earnest pressure of the thin and feverish hand his spirits failed within him for it was beyond what his imagination had ever pictured what his fortitude was able to endure and he felt that he had no consolation to offer in such an hour as this it is true he loved her � but how not as a fellow pilgrim through a of tears on towards a better land � not as a creature of high hopes and whose talents are to | 41 |
of that condition look upon work on a railroad or in a city as opportunity poor country boys of and formerly owed what knowledge tliey had to their to the southern states and the pacific coast is now the university of this class as virginia was in old times to have some chance is their wo id and the phrase to know the world or to travel is with all men s ideas of advantage and superiority no doubt to a man of sense travel offers advantages as many languages as he has as many friends as many arts and trades so many times is he a man a foreign country is a point of comparison to judge his own one use of travel s to recommend the books and works of home culture � for we go to europe to be and an other to find men for as nature put fruits apart in a new fruit in every degree so knowledge and fine moral quality she in distant men and thus of the six or seven teachers whom each man wants among his it often happens that one or two of them live on the other side of the world moreover there is in every constitution a certain when the stars stand still in our inward and when there is required some foreign force some diversion or to prevent and as a medical remedy travel seems one of the best just as a man witnessing the admirable effect of to lull pain and meditating on the cf of wounds in dr s discovery so a man who looks at paris at or at london says if i should be driven from my own home here at least my thoughts can be consoled by the most prodigal amusement and occupation which the human race in ages could contrive and akin to the benefit of foreign travel the value of is to unite the advantages of town and country life neither of which we can spare a man should live in or near a large town because let his own genius be what it may it will quite as much of agreeable and valuable talent as it draws and in a city the total attraction of all the citizens is sure to conquer first or last every and drag the most improbable within its walls some day in the year in town he can find the swimming school the the dancing master the shooting gallery oi era theatre conduct of life and the s shop the museum of natural history the gallery of fine arts the national in their turn foreign ti the and his club in the country he can find solitude and reading manly labor cheap living and his old shoes for game hills for and proves for devotion writes i have heard thomas say that in the earl of s house in there was a good library and books enough for him and his stored the library with what books he thought fit to be but the want of good conversation was a very great inconvenience and though he conceived he could order his as well as another yet he found a great defect in the country in long time for want of good conversation one s understanding and invention contract a moss on them like an old in an orchard cities give us collision tis said london and new york take the nonsense out of a man a great part of our education is sympathetic and social boys and girls who have been brought up with well informed and superior people show in their manners an grace fuller says that william earl of won a subject from the king of spain every time lie put off his hat you cannot have one well bred man without a whole society of such they keep each other up to any high point especially women � it requires a great many cultivated women � of bright elegant reading women accustomed to ease and refinement to spectacles pictures poetry and to elegant society � in order that you should have one culture madame de the head of a commercial house or a leading lawyer or is brought into daily contact with troops of men from all parts of the country and those too the driving wheels the business men of each section and one can hardly suggest for an apprehensive man a more searching culture besides we must remember the high social possibilities of a million of men the best bribe which london offers to day to the imagination is that in such a vast variety of people and conditions one can believe there is room for persons of romantic character to exist and that the poet the mystic and the hero may hope to their i wish cities could teach their best lesson � of quiet manners it is the especially of american youth � the mark of the man of the world is absence of he does not make a speech he takes a low business tone all is nobody dresses plainly promises not at all much speaks in his fact he calls his employment by its lowest name and so takes from evil tongues their weapon his conversation to the weather and the news yet he allows himself to be surprised into thought and the of his learning and philosophy how the imagination is by anecdotes of some great man passing as a king in gray clothes � of napoleon affecting a plain suit at his glittering of burns or scott or or or or any of power passing for nobody of who never says anything but will listen of conduct of life preferred trifling subjects and common expressions in intercourse with strangers worse than better clothes and to appear a little more capricious than he was there are advantages in the old hat and box coat i have heard that throughout this country a certain respect | 37 |
cruel a man can be you think only of yourself not of me if your life is ruined what of mine do you deem for a moment that money will mend my broken heart i would tell you all but i dare not she made no answer do you know what i intend to do he said resolutely i intend to ask lord the meaning of this mystery you refuse me an explanation he will not dare to do so he had nearly reached the door but on hearing her appealing cry looked back with a frown her in london were outstretched as to take him to her breast aud all his anger at the sight he sprang back to her side my darling my poor darling he whispered holding her tightly to his heart i do not blame you i have been harsh and cruel to speak as i have done but think what your refusal means to me i will not accept your answer of to day at once i will see your father and if he freely to our marriage � i will marry no one but you she whispered interrupting him hurriedly he wants me to become the wife of sir but i will never consent he shall not wreck our happiness for his selfish pleasure i owe a duty to you � to myself as well as to him go and see him and tell him all he must consent in the end go go pressed a kiss on her lips and not trusting himself to speak ran quickly out of the room hastened to the window and saw him walk rapidly down the street then in a state of utter exhaustion went to her room to lie down the ordeal had been too much for her and torn by conflicting doubts she did not know how to act her father her lover � it was impossible to obey both and the more she thought over the situation the more did it become despite the transparent selfishness of lord s character his daughter loved him dearly and unfortunately her spirit was too weak to stand against his strong will she was no to fight her own battles but a tender and loving woman with many of the weaknesses of a up to date feminine nature so in the present she felt absolutely helpless between the two men yet though was not of the stuff of which are made neither did her character on the side of she was simply a woman of strong affections unable to decide between father and lover besides she was but twenty years of age and had no mother to take her part lord was very angry when from behind the pink sheet of the globe he saw enter the club he instinctively guessed that there was trouble in the wind and scenes would have given a great deal to have avoided the meeting as it was he hoped to escape observation behind his paper but recognized him at once and walked straight up to his chair the young man s was so that lord thought he would make a scene there and then however was too wise to lose his temper and saluted his in a bland manner well my dear said the peer uneasily i trust you have had a satisfactory interview lord i wish to speak to you in private replied taking no notice of the remark � an which by no means reassured the old gentleman by all means said his l with alacrity getting on his legs come to the smoking room there is no one there if there was to be a scene it was as well to get it over at once the old did not lack in london age and had fully made up his mind that should not come off best in the encounter was young and hot tempered lord cool and so he had little doubt but that the result would be in his favor however did not know the temper of his adversary and found him more of a match than he expected but what could youth do against thoughtful age especially when the latter was selfish and in the extreme well my dear fellow began his when they were seated in the and what is it you wish to say � i asked miss to be my wife and she has refused me am deeply sorry but i cannot interfere you had my best wishes you know yes believe i had replied but they did not do me much good it is no use beating about the bush lord i know too much to take your daughter s refusal seriously i am at a loss to understand your meaning sir that is not impossible however i can easily make it clear miss loves me and would marry me but for you but for me said lord with well acted surprise my dear sir why bring me into the matter my daughter s choice rests with herself oh no t doesn t she did not explain her meaning at any great length but from what she said i gathered that you wish her to make a rich up to date u every father wishes to do the best he can for his child returned lord as a matter of fact you must admit you are not well off i have the offer of a in good lord i said indignantly do you think for a moment mr that i will permit my daughter to go to it s a very pleasant island stammered finding himself at some disadvantage for he could not but be aware that his offer sounded very far from tempting a yellow fever island corrected lord with great disdain let us speak plainly mr i gave you permission to ask my daughter to be your wife she has refused you so as a gentleman you must retire | 12 |
might not be seen the pain of her mind had been much beyond that in her head and the sudden change which s kindness had then occasioned made her hardly know how to support herself viii s rides the very next day and as it was a pleasant fresh feeling morning less hot than the weather had lately been trusted that her losses both of health and pleasure would be soon made good while she was gone mr rush worth arrived his mother who came to be civil and to show her civility especially in urging the execution of the plan for visiting which had been started a fortnight before and which in consequence of her subsequent absence from home had since lain mrs and her were all well pleased with its revival and an early day was named and agreed to provided mr should be disengaged the young ladies did not forget that and though mrs would willingly have answered for his being so they would neither the liberty nor run the risk and at last on a hint from miss mr discovered that the thing to be done was for him to walk down to the directly and call on mr and inquire whether wednesday would suit him or not before his return mrs grant and miss came in having been out some time and park taken a different route to the house they not met him comfortable hopes however were given that he would find mr at the scheme was mentioned of it was hardly possible indeed that else should be talked of for mrs waa in high spirits about it and mrs a civil woman who thought of consequence but aa it related to her own and her son s concerns liad not yet given over pressing lady to be of the party lady constantly declined it but her placid manner of refusal made mrs still think she wished to come till mrs n s more numerous words and louder tone convinced her of the truth the fatigue would be too much for my sister a great deal too much i assure you my dear mrs ten miles there and ten back you you must excuse my sister on this occasion and accept of our two dear girls and without her is the only place that could give her a wish to go so far hut it cannot e indeed she will have a companion in rice you know so it will all do very well and i for as he is not here to speak for i will answer for his being most happy to join the party he can go on horseback jou know mrs being obliged to yield to lady s staying at home could only be sorry the loss of her s company would be m and she should have been i z park � � � � � � happy to have seen the young lady too miss price who had never been at yet and it was a pity she should not see the place you are very kind you are all kindness my dear madam cried mrs but as to she will have opportunities in plenty of seeing she has time enough before her and her going now is quite out of the question lady could not possibly spare her h no � i cannot do without mrs proceeded next under the conviction that everybody must be wanting to see to include miss in the invitation and though mrs grant who had not been at the trouble of visiting mrs on her coming into the neighborhood declined it on her own account she was glad to secure any pleasure for her sister and mary properly pressed and persuaded was not long in accepting her share of the civility mr came back from the successful and made his appearance just in time to learn what had been settled for wednesday to attend mrs bush worth to her carriage and walk half way down the park with the two other ladies on his return to the breakfast room he found mrs trying to make up her mind as to whether miss s being of the party were desirable or not or whether her brother s would not be full without her the miss park laughed at the idea assuring her that the would hold four perfectly well independent of the box on which one might go with him but why is it necessary said that s carriage or his only should be employed why is no use to be made of my mother s chaise i could not when the scheme was first mentioned the other day understand why a visit from the family were not to be made in the carriage of the family cried go up three in a in this weather when we may have beats in a no my dear that will not quite do besides said maria i that mr depends upon taking us after what passed at first he would claim it aa a promise and my dear added mrs taking out two carriages when one will do would te trouble for nothing and between ourselves coachman is not very fond of the roads between this and he always bitterly of tlie narrow lanes scratching his carriage and you know one should not like to have dear sir thomas when he comes home find all the i scratched off that would not be a very handsome reason for using mr s said maria but the truth is that is a stupid old fellow and does not know how to drive i will answer for it i that we shall find no inconvenience from i on wednesday park there is no hardship i suppose nothing unpleasant said in going on the box unpleasant cried maria oh dear i believe it would be generally thought the favorite seat there can be no comparison as to one s | 26 |
did not long to be out with them under the red cross flag but now that peace had come and the which had swept the channel and the were in our there was less to draw one s fancy it was london now of which i thought by day and by night the huge city the home of the wise and the great from which came this constant stream of carriages and those crowds of dusty people who were for ever flashing past our window pane it was this one side of life which first presented itself to me and so as a boy i used to picture the city as a gigantic stable with a huge of which were for ever streaming off down the country roads but stone then champion told me how the fighting men there and my ther how the heads of the navy lived there and my mother how her brother and his grand were there until at last i was consumed with impatience to see this marvellous heart of england this coming of my then was the breaking of light through the darkness though i hardly dared to hope that he would take me with him into those high circles in which he lived my mother however had such confidence either in his good nature or in her own powers of persuasion that she already began to make preparations for my departure but if the of the village life my easy spirit it was a torture to the keen and ardent mind of boy jim it was but a few days after the coming of my uncle s letter that we walked over the downs together and i had a peep of the bitterness of his heart what is there for me to do he cried i a shoe and i fuller it and i it and i it and i knock five holes in it and there it is finished then i do it again and again and blow up the and feed the and a or two and there is a day s work done and every day the same as the other was it for this only do you think that i was bom into the world buck i looked at him his proud eagle face and his figure and i wondered whether in the whole land there was a finer man the army or the navy is the place for you jim said i that is very well he cried if you go into the navy as you are likely to do you go as an officer and it is you who do the ordering if i go in it is as one who was bom to receive orders an officer gets his orders fix m those above him but an officer does not have the lash over his head i saw a poor fellow at the inn here � it was some years ago � who showed us his back in the tap room all cut into red diamonds with the s whip who ordered that i asked the captain said he and what would you have had if you had struck him dead said i the yard arm he answered then if i had been you that s where i should have been said i and i spoke the truth i can t help it rod i there s something here in my heart something that is as much a part of myself as this hand is which holds me to it i know that you are as proud as said i it was bom with me and i can t help it life would be easier if i could i was stone made to be my own master and there s only one place where i can hope to be so where is that in london miss has told me of it until i feel as if i could find my way through it fi om end to end she loves to talk of it as well as i do to listen i have it all laid out in my mind and i can see where the are and how the river runs and where the king s house is and the prince s and the place where the fighting men live i could make my name known in london how never mind how rod i could do it and i will do it too wait says my uncle � wait and it will all come right for you that is what he always says and my aunt the same why should i wait what am i to wait for no i ll stay no longer eating my heart out in this little village but i ll leave my apron behind me and i u seek my in london and when i come back to s oak it will be in such style as that gentleman yonder he pointed as he spoke and there was a high crimson mail coming down the london road with two bay fashion before it the reins and were of a light colour and the gentleman had a driving coat to match with a servant in dark buck livery behind they flashed past us in a rolling cloud of dust and i had just a glimpse of the pale handsome face of the master and of the dark features of the man i should never have given them another thought had it not chanced that when the village came into view there was the mail again standing at the door of the inn and the busy taking out the horses jim i cried i believe it is my uncle i and taking to my heels i ran for home at the top of my speed at the door was standing the dark faced servant he carried a cushion upon which lay a small and you will excuse me young sir said he | 4 |
and took up a gun with a brass bound stock do you know this said he making as if he would take aim at me do you know where you saw it afore speak wolf yes i answered you cost me that place you did speak what else could i do you did that and that would be enough without more how dared you to come me and a young woman i liked when did i when didn t you it was you as always old a bad name to her you gave it to yourself you gained it for yourself i could have done you no harm if you bad done yourself none you re a liar and you ll take any pains and spend any money to drive me out of this country will you said he repeating my words to in the last interview i had with her now i ll tell you a piece of information it was never so well worth your while to get me out of this country as it is tonight ah if it was all your money twenty times told to the last brass as he shook his heavy hand at me with his mouth like a tiger s i felt that it was true great expectations what are you going to do to me i m a going said he bringing bis fist down upon the table with a heavy blow and rising as the blow fell to give it greater force i m a going to have your life he leaned forward staring at me slowly his hand and drew it across his month as if his mouth watered for me and sat down again ton was always in old s way since ever you was a child you goes out of his way this present night hell have no more on you you re dead i felt that i had come to the brink of my grave for a moment i looked wildly round my trap for any chance of escape but there was none more than that said he folding his arms on the table again i won t have a rag of you i won t have a bone of you left on earth i ll put your body in the � i d carry two such to it on my shoulders � and let people suppose what they may of you they shall never know nothing my mind with inconceivable rapidity followed out all the consequences of such a death s father would believe i bad deserted him would be taken would die me even would doubt me when he compared the letter i had left for him with the fact that i had called at miss s gate for only a moment joe and would never know how sorry i had been that night none would ever know what i had suffered how true i had meant to be what an agony i had passed through the death close before me was terrible but far more terrible than death j x of being after death and so quick were � saw myself despised by generations � s great expectations and their children � while the wretch s words were yet on his lips now wolf said he u afore i kill you like any other beast � which is i mean to do and i have tied you up for � i ll have a good look at jou and a good at you oh you enemy it had passed through my thoughts to cry out for help again though few could know better than i the solitary nature of the spot and the of aid but as he sat over me i was supported by a scornful of him that sealed my lips above all things i resolved that i would not entreat him and that i would die making some last poor resistance to him softened as my thoughts of all the rest of men were in that dire extremity humbly pardon as i did of heaven melted at heart as i was by the thought that i had taken no farewell and never never now could take farewell of those who were dear to me or could explain myself to them or ask for their compassion on my miserable errors still if i could have killed him even in dying i would have done it he had been drinking and his eyes were red and around his neck was a tin bottle as i had often seen his meat and drink about him in other days he brought the bottle to his lips and took a fiery drink from it and i the strong spirits that i saw into his face wolf said he folding his arms again old s a going to tell you it was you as did for your sister again my mind with its former inconceivable rapidity bad exhausted the whole subject of the attack upon great expectations my sister her illness and her death before his w and hesitating speech had formed these words it was you villain said l w i tell a it was your doing � i tell you it was done through you he retorted catching up the gun and making a blow with the stock at the vacant air between us i come upon her from behind as i come upon you to night i it her i left her for dead and if there had been a lime as nigh her as there is now nigh you she shouldn t have come to life again but it warn t old as did it it was you you was favored and he was and beat old and beat eh now you pays for it you done it now you pays for it he drank again and became more ferocious i saw by his of the bottle that there was no great | 8 |
looks and the time they had surrendered to something outside of life evidently struck them as being strangely the sunlight laughed along the sea � the young com was thick in the fields leaves were beginning in the branches rose higher and higher disappearing in the pale air and as we approached the the of the sounded pleasantly in the ear the appearance of death in the at the moment when the world its life touched my soul with that anguish which the familiar spectacle has always and will never fail to cause as long as a human heart beats beneath the heavens and dropping behind the chattering crowd that in mourning weed its way through the sad spring landscape i thought of her whom i had loved so long and should never see again i thought of memory as a shrine where a remembrance we can worship without shame of friendship and of the pure it offers us from our natural instincts i remembered that there is love other than that which the young man offers to her he would take to wife and i knew how much more intense and strangely personal was my love of her than the love which that day i saw the world offering to creatures s chapter xi in i foe many days there has not been a wind in the trees and the landscape reminds me of a � the same silence the same mystery the same awe the thick foliage of the ash never even the leaves hanging out from the twigs are still the growing out of a tumbled wall are turning yellow and brown the are over the are beginning last night a faint pink sky melted into the solemn blue of midnight there were few stars brilliant overhead red hung above the horizon under a round moon � � � the last days of september and every day the light dies a few minutes earlier at half past five one a about one s feet no doubt there is a touch of frost in the air that is why the leaves hang so there is certainly a touch of frost in the air and one is tempted to put a match to the fire it is difficult to say whether one feels cold or whether one desires the company of the blaze tea is over the dusk and the brute despondency in the comers at the close of day when one s work is over s bring in the lamp ing thoughts arise in the study and in the think of a painter of architecture finishing the thirty sixth pillar there are forty three the dusk has interrupted his labour and an ache begins in his heart as he rises from the be his talent great or uttle he must ask himself who will care should he leave the last seven pillars unfinished think of the writer of stories two three or four more stories are required to make up a requisite number of pages the dusk has interrupted his labour and he rises from his writing table asking who wiu care whether the last stories are written or left if he write them his ideas will green for a brief they will enjoy a little summer when his garden is fading in the autumn his leaves will be well nigh forgotten winter will overtake them sooner than it his garden perhaps the flowers he deemed immortal are more mortal than the rose why he asks should any one be interested in my stories any more than in the thousand and one stories published this year mine are among the number of trivial things that compose the which we call life his thoughts will back over the past and his own life will hardly more real than the day s work on the if he be a painter on the if he be a writer he wiu seem to himself like a horse going round and round a well but the horse is water � water is necessary but art even if his work is good enough to be called art is not so far as he knows necessary to any one he may be proof is not wanting that the world can do well s of my dead life without his work but however sure he may feel that that is so and in the hours i describe it seems sure indeed he will have to continue his labour man was bom to labour as the oldest say he must continue to drive his to the end of the field otherwise he would lie down and die of sheer or go mad he asks himself why he became a maker of an idol maker an idol maker he cries who can find no for his wares better the sailor before the mast or the soldier in the field his thoughts break away and he begins to dream of a life of action it would be a fine thing he thinks to start away in a ship for south america where there are forests and mountain almost unknown he has read of the wild of the so are they to horseback that they cannot walk a mile without resting and sitting by the fire at the end of the autumn day he can see them galloping through the long grass of the whirling three balls attached by leather the weapon is called the and flying through the air it the legs of the bringing it to the earth but if he went to america would he find content in a hunter s life can the artist put by his dreams find content in the hunter s life his dreams would follow him and sitting by the camp fire in the evening he would begin to think how he might paint the shadows or tell of the uncouth life of those who sat around him eating of jerked meat | 15 |
a monotonous chant consisting only of the note and third are the only in tbe way of music among the more remote of which have any knowledge mrs s singing has been described as the table beer of singing is something more the beer has become flat by the addition of ice one of onr who is quite a on his instrument with a view to see what effect music would have on the savage breast but his best efforts at rendering madame aud the were wasted before an audience who showed as little appreciation of his performance as some people do when listening to s music of the future where tbey have come in contact with civilization their musical taste is more developed at saint michael s i was told that some of their songs are so characteristic that it is much to be regretted that some of them cannot be op in a and sent to a musical of steamer in the on the coast of i heard an boy sing correctly a song he had learned while on rd a vessel and on several of the islands the natives play the quite well b ve nd even whistle strains from from to dancing the transition is obvious no matter whether the latter be i in a sense as a device to attract the opposite sex or as the expression of joyous excitement this of feeling in its bodily discharge which moses and and david indulged in which is with poetry by and which old says is the sweetest and most perfect of human is a much in among the and it required but little provocation to start a dance at any time on the s decks when a party happened to be on board their dancing however had not the of a wave of the sea nor was there the harmony of double in a series of graceful curves to strains like those of or on the contrary there was something and about all the dancing i saw both among the men and women it is the custom at some of their after the hunting is over for the men to indulge in a kind of performance at the same time relating in style the heroic deeds they have done at other times the women more than our beauties at the german for they strip to the waist do all the dancing and the men take the part of spectators only in this performance instinct the shown by in and drawing has been noticed by all travellers among them some i have met with show a degree of intelligence and appreciation in regard to and pictures scarcely to be expected from such a source from ivory they figures of birds marine animals and even the human form which display considerable individuality notwithstanding their crude and imperfect detail i liave also seen a fair carving of a whale in evidences of are sometimes seen on their on which are found rude pictures of c and they have a kind of picture writing by means of which they certain events in their lives just as sitting bull has done in an that may be seen at the army medical museum when we were searching for the missing off the coast some natives were come across with whom we were unable to communicate except by signs and wishing to let them know the object of our visit a ship was drawn in a note book and shown to them with accompanying which they quickly comprehended and one fellow taking the pencil and drew correctly a pair of horns on the ship s boom � a fact which identified beyond doubt the vessel they had seen at point hope an who had allowed us to take sketches of him desired to sketch one of the party and taking one of our note books and a pencil neither of which he ever had in his hand before produced the accompanying likeness of professor at saint michael s there is an boy who draws remarkably well having taught himself by from the illustrated london news he made a correct pen and ink drawing of the and another of the group of buildings at saint michael s which though creditable in many respects had the defect of many chinese pictures being in perspective as these drawings equal those in dr s book done by artists i regret my inability to them here f as evidences of culture they show more advancement than the of english that a clergyman has caused to be placed on exhibition at the museum sir john speaks highly of his as an artist says that the knowledge of the coast obtained by him from maps was of the greatest value while hall and others show their knowledge to be as perfect as that possible of by civilized men by instruments had frequent opportunities to observe these ideas of they not only understood reading a of the coast when showed to them but would make of the part as i knew a native to do in the case of an river the mouth only of which was laid down on our of the art which is found among tribes less intelligent is rare among the of ik the ocean in fact the only thing of the kind seen was some rude at saint island the design of which showed but crude development of ornamental ideas the same state of advancement was shown in some drinking cups carved from ivory and a made from the horn of a mountain sheep in one of the acts of shakespeare s seven ages the plays a very unimportant r e perhaps in no other race is the instinct less in none is of disposition and jealousy more absent and in none does the desire for the renown of war exist in a more and state perhaps the constant fight with cold and hunger is a | 28 |
both faithful and careful the beans and the peas were readily obtained and were distributed among the members of the league with the necessary secrecy some of the independent needed a little persuasion to induce them to vote when informed that the choice was between tlie only but they yielded the point and entered heartily into the excitement of the event for secret as were the proceedings they were attended with no little of feeling the commenced in the afternoon watch the second part of the watch being off duty gave in their peas and beans first the without even knowing all the members of the league took whatever was handed to them on the sly and looked as careless and indifferent as though nothing was going on the only responsibility that rested outward bound or upon them besides the general duty of and fidelity was to see that no one twice vote early and vote often was not and one acted as a check upon the other the election so secretly that no occasion for suspicion was given and though the were deposited under the eyes of the principal and the professors they saw nothing and had not the remotest idea that anything wrong was in progress in the last half of the first dog watch began to be excited he was too much of a to be idle while any was going on and so far as his duty would permit he had watched the since the commenced he had seen seven or eight vote of whose in the chain he had no previous knowledge he saw that had made more than he had been willing to acknowledge apparently concealing the facts for the purpose of his own election he observed that all the officers of his rival s quarter watch and he was almost certain that he had been defeated was angry and indignant when he discovered the treacherous of his fellow but he had solemnly promised to abide the result of the election and he could not from his position without a of the honor among thieves which is said to exist the would not be closed for half an hour and as he had been cheated he deemed it quite right to restore the by a resort to the same policy i have been cheated said he angrily as he met his old in the waist how do you know you have i know it i will explain by and by something must be done i am beaten as sure as you live well can t help it if you are you and have fixed things to suit yourselves and now you must fight it out between you replied as he turned on his heel and left the mighty mischief maker alone and disconcerted where do all these beans come from said paul as he noticed the rejected of the which they had not even taken the trouble to throw over the rail if s a new game the fellows are replied with apparent indifference as he walked aft with the second lieutenant what s that asked paul curiously it s called don t know beans answered in deep thought the fellows have a good deal of sport out of it in the off time don t know beans i never heard of such a game before tell me about it you see and yes well they are the as we call them all the fellows in our watch have some beans added taking a handful of them from his pocket what do they do with them you try it yourself take two of these beans paul took them now you must give one to and the other to without letting any fellow see you j bound or do it if any fellow does see you give it to either of them he will say in a low tone don t know beans and then the butt must drop it on deck when the even bell strikes and must count their beans the one who has the most must the next two pots or and the one who has the smaller number must pick up all the beans that have been dropped on the deck there is fun in it though perhaps you wouldn t think so i will try it at any rate paul did try it and succeeded as all others did in giving the beans to the without any one uttering the warning words he w as rather pleased with the game so suddenly invented and the two officers of his watch were induced to try the experiment then and were supplied with beans by who instructed his that not a word must be said about tlie matter to the or to any one in the waist the last three were as successful as the first three then and were equally finally captain s attention was attracted and he descended so far from his dignity as to deposit the beans was satisfied he had procured nine and he was confident that he had thus defeated his rival as a matter of precaution he directed to pick up the beans scattered in the waist and the who had cast the nine believed that he was the unlucky butt who had been beaten in the game young america afloat the captain and half the officers whispered at four bells certainly that s all right you and will meet and me in the waist at eight bells replied as he went below outward bound or chapter the result of the the first part of the port watch went on duty at eight o clock when the secret for the choice of a captain under the new order of events was closed was in this watch but as neither his trick at the wheel nor his turn on the the first hour he had an opportunity to attend to the important business of tlie league and | 36 |
all those years i am sure i never bored him i have hoped as if he had loved me you mustn t think of him though as having been f tied to my skirts he came and went as be pleased did his fancies there was a girl once i am � telling you everything a lovely being who called the muse s tragedy poetry deep and gave him on his y he followed her to one summer and all the time that he was dangling after her a little too i always thought for a great man he was writing to me about his theory of � or was it his experiments in english the letters were dated from the very places where i knew they went and sat by together and he thought out for her hair he talked to me l about it quite frankly afterwards she was perfectly beautiful and it had been a pure delight to watch her but she talk and her mind he said elbows and yet the next year when her marriage was announced he went away alone quite suddenly and it was just afterwards that he published � s men are queer after my husband i am putting you i had a return of hope it w cause he loved me i argued that he had never spoken because he had always hoped some day to make me his wife because he wanted to spare me the reproach j rubbish i knew well enough in my heart of that my one chance lay in the force of habit he had grown used to me he was no longer young he dreaded new people and new ways ii avail son would it not be e o marry i i don t believe he ever thought of it he wrote i the muse s tragedy what people a beautiful letter he was kind considerate decently then after a few weeks he slipped into his old way of coming in every afternoon and our interminable began again just where they had left off heard later that people thought i had shown such good taste in not him � we on for five years longer perhaps they were the best years for i had given up hoping then i he died after his death � this is curious � there came to me a kind of of love ah the books and articles written about him all the of the life were i full of discreet allusions to i became again the of the glorious days sentimental girls and dear lads like you turned pink when somebody whispered that was you were talking to begged for my � urged me to write my reminiscences of him � critics consulted me about the reading of doubtful lines and i knew that to all these people i was the woman bad loved after a while that fire went out too and i was left alone with my past alone � quite alone for he had never really been with me the intellectual union counted for nothing now it had been soul to soul but never hand in hand and there were no little things to remember him by the muse s tragedy then set in a kind of winter crawled into myself as into a snow hut i hated m solitude and yet dreaded any one who disturbed it that phase of course passed like the others took j up life again and began to read the papers and the cut of my gowns but there was one tion that i could not be rid of that haunted night and day why had he never loved me had i been so much to him and no more was i s ugly so essentially that though a ma might cherish me as his mind s comrade he could not care for me as a woman i can t tell you how i that question tortured me it became an my poor friend do you begin to see i had to find out what some man thought of me don t be too hard on me listen first � consider when i first met i was a young woman who had married early and led the kind of life i had had no experiences from the hour of our first meeting to the day of his death i never looked at a other man and never noticed whether any other man i looked at me when he died five years ago i knew the extent of my powers no more than a baby was it too late to find out should i never know forgive me be an episode a mere me you are so young it will document to you s and besides it v t as s cold blooded the muse s tragedy s these lines have made it appear i didn t plan it like a in a book life is so much more complex than any rendering of it can be liked you from the first � i was drawn to you you must have i seen that � i wanted you to like me it was not a experiment and yet in a sense it i was that too i must be honest i had to have an er to that question it was a ghost that had to be i laid at first i was afraid � oh so much afraid � that you cared for me only because i was that you loved i me because you thought had loved me i be i to think there was no escaping my destiny how happy i was when i discovered that you were growing jealous of my past that you actually hated my heart beat like a girl s when you told me you meant to follow me to after our parting at villa d my old doubts re i asserted themselves what | 10 |
press had created a general impression that the american was a failure and when even some of the americans in europe taking their cue from that press were declaring themselves ashamed of their country because of such failure of course these letters were written to correct the errors more recently the tide has completely turned until the danger now imminent is that of extravagant if not exultation so that this fair would be treated somewhat differently if i were now to write about it the truth lies between the extremes already indicated our share in the exhibition was creditable to as a nation not yet a century old situated three to five thousand miles from london it embraced many articles of great practical value though uncouth in form and utterly to the mere sight other nations will profit by it and we shall lose no credit but it fell far short of what it might have been and did not fairly the progress and present condition of the useful arts in this country we can and must do better next time and that without calling on the treasury to pay a dollar of the expense friends in europe i may never again meet the greater number of you oa earth allow me thus to tender you my hearty thanks for many well remembered acts of kindness and unexpected hospitality that your future years may be many and prosperous and your on the great voyage which the journey of life may be serene and hopeful is the fervent prayer of yours sincerely h g new york october ut contents i crossing the atlantic � � � � � � n opening of the fair m the great exhibition iv england � court v the future of day vi british progress vn london � new york the exhibition ix sights in london x political economy as studied at the world s exhibition xi royal sunshine xii the cotton revolution xiii leaving the exhibition london to paris xv the future of france xvi paris social and moral xvii paris political and so the palaces of france xix france central and eastern xx to xxi freedom tower t vm contents first day in the states xxiv the eternal city xxv st peter s xxvi the of to day central � eastern the po xxx to germany paris to london universal peace america at the world s fair england central and northern xl west of ireland � atlantic south prospects of ireland glances at europe i crossing the atlantic april th� the leaden skies the chilly rain the general out door aspect and prospect of discomfort prevailing in new york when our good cast loose from her dock at noon on the th were not particularly calculated to inspire and the goodly number who were then bidding adieu for months at least to home country and friends the most sanguine of the inexperienced however appealed for solace to the wind which they so long as the city completely sheltered us on the east insisted was blowing from a point west of north � whence very that the north east storm now some thirty six to forty eight hours old had spent its force and would soon give place to a serene and atmosphere i believe the at no time this which a brief experience most to before we had passed island it was abundantly certain that our breeze hailed directly from and the beyond and had no idea of changing its quarters time we were fairly outside of hook we were struggling with as glances at europe and a cross sea as had ever enlarged my experience and in the course of the next hour the high the of the scores who had embarked in the settled determination that they would not be sea sick had been exchanged for pallid faces and heaving of our two hundred passengers possibly one half were able to face the dinner table at p m less than one fourth to supper at while a stern but scanty remnant � perhaps twenty in all � answered the summons to breakfast next morning i was not in any one of these so long as i was able i walked the deck and sought to occupy my eyes my limbs my brain with something else than the sea and its the attempt however proved a signal failure by the time we were five miles off the hook i was a decided case another hour laid me prostrate though i refused to leave the deck at six o clock a friend finding me and hopeless in the room persuaded and helped me to go below there i and swayed into my berth which endured me for the next twenty four hours i then summoned strength to crawl on deck because while i remained below my were barely less than while walking above and my recovery hopeless i shall not up the souls nor the of as yet in ignorance of its with any description of sea sickness they will know all in ample season or if not so much the better but naked honesty requires a of the error that this malady is necessarily transient and easily overcome thousands who imagine they have been sea sick oh some river or lake or even during a brief ride are putting to sea with as little necessity or as to send them on a to or the white mountains they suppose they very probably he for a few hours but that the atlantic they fancy will but the general enjoyment of the voyage now it is quite true that any green sea may be sick for a few hours only he may even not be sick at all but the probability is very far from this especially when the voyage is undertaken in any other than one of the four months in the year of every hundred who cross the atlantic for the first time | 19 |
not in the hotel but in a quiet cottage a yards up the hill who had heard all did not show or say what she felt at the news but after breakfast on meeting the landlady in a passage alone she asked with some anxiety if there were a really skilful medical man in and on being told that there was and his name she went back to look for mr but he had gone they heard nothing more of young all that morning but towards evening while sat at her window looking over the heads of upon the beyond she saw the painter walk by she immediately went to her aunt and begged her to go out and ask mr if his son had improved i will send or said mrs i wish you would see him yourself he has gone on i shall never find him he has only gone round to the front persisted do walk that way and ask him thus pressed mrs and brought back intelligence to miss power who had watched them through the window that his son did not positively improve but that his american friends were very kind to him having made use of her aunt seemed particularly anxious to rid of her again and when that lady sat down to write letters went to her own room hastily dressed herself without assistance asked privately the way to the cottage and went off unobserved at the upper end of the lane she saw a little house answering to the description whose front garden window and door step were literally a with in bloom she entered this inhabited quietly asked for the invalid and if he were well enough to see miss power the woman of the house soon returned and she was conducted up a crooked staircase to s modest apartments it appeared that some rooms in this dwelling had been furnished by the landlady of the inn who hired them of the tenant during the summer season to use as an to the hotel admitted to the outer room she beheld her looking as as possible lying on a small couch which was drawn up to the open whence he had a back view of the window flowers and enjoyed a green through the of the same leaves that presented their faces to the without when the latch had again into the catch of the closed door went up to the invalid upon whose pale and interesting face a flush had arisen simultaneously with the announcement of her name he would have sprung up to receive her but she i pressed him down and throwing all reserve on one side for the first time in their intercourse she crouched beside the sofa whispering with solicitude her face not too far from his own how foolish you are george to get ill just now when i have been wanting so much to see you again � i am so sorry to see you like this � what i said to you when we met on the shore was not what i had come to say took her by the hand then what did you come to say he asked i wanted to tell you that the mere wanton wandering of a capricious mind was not the cause of my from you there has been a great deception practised � the exact nature of it i cannot tell you plainly just at present it is too painful � but it is all over and i can assure you of my sorrow at having behaved as i did and of my sincere friendship now as ever there is nothing i shall value so much as that it will make my work at the castle very pleasant to feel that i can consult you about it without fear of on you against your wishes yes perhaps it will but � you do not comprehend me you have been an always and you have been provoking but never so provoking as now i wouldn t for the world tell you the whole of my fancies as i came hither this evening but i should think your natural would suggest what they were it does but there are motives of delicacy which prevent my acting on what is suggested to me delicacy is a gift and you should thank god for it but in some cases it is not so precious as we would persuade ourselves not when the woman is rich and the man is poor oh george � be cold or angry or anything but don t be like this it is never worth a woman s while to show regret for her injustice for all she gets by it is an accusation of want of delicacy indeed i don t accuse you of that � i warmly tenderly thank you for your kindness in coming here to see me well perhaps you do but i am now in i cannot a tell what mood � i will not tell what mood for it would be more than i ought this finding you out is a piece of weakness that i shall not repeat and i have only one thing more to say i have served you badly george i know that but it is never too late to mend and i have come back to you however i shall never run after you again trust me for that for it is not the woman s part still before i go that there may be no mistake as to my meaning and misery on us for want of a word tu add this that if you want to marry me as you once did you must say so for i am here to be asked it would be superfluous to s reply and the remainder of the scene between the pair let it suffice that half an hour afterwards when the sun had almost gone | 45 |
was shell work and then t was pine and bead work s had its day and now she s much concerned with worked with silk i tell you that best room s a sight to see but you must n t look for anything elegant continued mrs after a moment s reflection mis martin s always been in very poor circumstances she had ambition for her children though they took right after their father an had little for themselves she wa n t over an above well married however kind she may see fit to speak she s been patient an hard by the queen s twin all her life and always high above mean complaints of other folks i expect all this business about the queen has her over many a place in life yes you might say that d been a slave but there ain t any slave but has some freedom iv presently i saw a low gray house standing on a grassy bank close to the road the door was at the side facing us and a of bushes and roses grew to the level of the window on the stood a bent shouldered little old woman there was an air of welcome and of unmistakable dignity about her she sees us coming exclaimed mrs in an excited whisper there i told her i might be over this way again if the weather held good and if i came i d bring you she said right off she d take great pleasure in a visit from you i was surprised she s usually so even this did not a faint apprehension on our part there was something distinctly formal in the occasion and one felt that consciousness of by the twin which is never easy for the pride to bear on the way i had torn my dress in an unexpected encounter with a little and i could now imagine how it felt to be going to court and forgetting one s feathers or her court train the queen s twin was of such trifles she stood waiting with a calm look until we came near enough to take her kind hand she was a beautiful old woman with clear eyes and a lovely and of manner there was not a trace of anything about her or as mrs would say beauty in age is rare enough in women who have spent their lives in the hard work of a but and withered as this woman may have looked her features had kept or rather gained a great refinement she led us into her old kitchen and gave us seats and took one of the little straight backed chairs herself and sat a short distance away as if she were giving audience to an it seemed as if we should all be standing you could not help feeling that the habits of her life were more but that for the moment she assumed the of the occasion by tee queen twin mrs was always mrs too great and self possessed a soul for any occasion to i admired her calmness and presently the slow current of neighborhood talk carried one easily along we spoke of the weather and the small adventures of the way and then as if i were after all not a stranger our hostess turned almost affectionately to speak to me the weather will be growing dark in london now i expect that you ve been in london dear she said oh yes i answered only last year it is a great many years since i was there along in the said mrs martin t was the only voyage i ever made most of my neighbors have been great my brother was master of a vessel and his wife usually sailed with him but that year she had a young child more frail than the others and she dreaded the care of it at sea it happened that my brother got a chance for my husband to go as being a good and came one day to urge him to take it he was very ill disposed to the sea but he had met with losses and i saw my own opportunity and by the queen twin persuaded them both to let me go too in those days they did n t object to a woman s being aboard to wash and mend the voyages were sometimes very long and that was the way i come to see the queen mrs martin was looking straight in my eyes to see if i showed any genuine interest in the most interesting person in the world oh i am very glad you saw the queen i hastened to say mrs has told me that you and she were bom the very same day we were indeed dear i said mrs martin and she leaned back comfortably and smiled as she had not smiled before mrs gave a satisfied nod and glance as if to say that things were going on as well as possible in this anxious moment yes said mrs martin again drawing her chair a little nearer twas a very remarkable thing we were bom the same day and at exactly the same hour after you allowed for all the difference in time my father figured it out sea fashion her majesty and i opened our eyes upon this world together say what you may t is a bond between us mrs assented with an air of by the queen s twin and her hat strings and threw them back over her shoulders with a gallant air and i married a man by the name of just the same as she did and all by chance for i did n t get the news that she had an too till a fortnight afterward news was slower coming then than it is now my first baby was a girl and i called her victoria | 40 |
she will have her orders in a day or two and mr was here at four o clock to ask you he has got one of the s boats and ia going o to her at six and hoped you would be here in time to go with him a stare or two at as william helped her out of the carriage was all the voluntary notice which this brother bestowed but he made no objection to her kissing him though still entirely engaged in further particulars of the s going out of harbor in which he had a strong right of interest being to commence his career of in her at this very time another moment and was in the narrow entrance passage of the house and in her mother s arms who met her there with looks of true kindness and with features which loved the more because they brought her aunt s before her and there were her two sisters � a well grown fine girl of fourteen and the youngest of the family about five � both glad to see her in their way though with no advantage of manner in receiving her but manner did not want would they but love her she should be satisfied she was then taken into a parlor so small that her first conviction waa of its being only a passage room to something better and she stood for a moment expecting to be invited on but when she saw there was no other door and that there were signs of habitation before her she called back her thoughts herself and grieved lest they should have been suspected her mother however could not stay long enough to suspect anything she was gone again to the street door to welcome william oh my dear william how glad i am to see you but have you heard about the she is gone out of harbor already three days before we had any thought of it and i do not know what i am to do about sam s things they will never be ready in time for she may have her orders to morrow perhaps it takes me quite unawares and now you must be off for too has been here quite in a worry about you and now what shall we do i thought to have such a comfortable evening with you and here everything comes upon me at once her son answered cheerfully telling her that everything was always for the best and making light of his own inconvenience in being obliged to hurry away so soon to be sure i had much rather she had stayed in harbor that i might have sat a few hours with you in comfort but as there is a boat ashore i had better go at once and there is no help for it whereabouts does the lie at near the but no matter here s in the parlor and why d we stay in the passage come mother you haye hardly looked at your own dear yet in they came and mrs price having kindly kissed her daughter again and commented a little on her growth began with very natural solicitude to feel for their and wants as travellers poor i how tired you must both be i and now what will you have i began to think you would never come and i have been watching for you this half hour and when did you get anything to eat and what would you like to have now i could not tell whether you would be for some meat or only a dish of tea after your journey or else i would have got something ready and now i am afraid will be here before there is time to dress a and we have no butcher at hand it is very inconvenient to have no butcher in the street we were better off in our last house perhaps you would like some tea as soon as it can be got they both declared they should prefer it to anything then my dear run into the kitchen and see if has put the water on a id tell her to bring in the tea things as soon as she can i wish we could get the bell mended � but is a very handy little messenger went with alacrity proud to show her abilities before her fine new sister dear me continued the anxious mother what a sad fire we have got and i dare say you are both starved with cold draw your chair nearer my dear i cannot think what has been about i am sure i told her to bring some coals half an hour ago you should have taken care of the fire i was upstairs mamma moving my things said in a fearless self defending tone which startled you know you had but just settled that my sister and i should have the other room and i could not get to give me any help further discussion was prevented by various first the driver came to be paid then there was a between sam and about the manner of carrying up his sister s trunk which he would manage all his own way and lastly in walked mr price himself his own loud voice preceding him as with something of the oath kind he kicked away his son s and his daughter s in the passage and called out for a candle no candle was brought however and he walked into the room with doubting feelings had risen to meet him but sank down again on finding herself in the dusk and of with a friendly shake of his son s hand and an eager voice he instantly began ha welcome back my boy glad to see you have you heard the news the went out of harbor this morning sharp is the word you see by g | 26 |
opinion mr that there s half a stone of on him at this minute the young put his fingers on the assistant s upper arm then with his other hand on his wrist he bent the sharply and felt the as round and hard as a ball spring up under his fingers feel that said he the and felt it with an air of reverence good he ll do yet cried gentlemen said i think that you will acknowledge that i have been very patient with you i have listened to all that you have to say about my personal appearance and now i must really beg that you will have the goodness to tell me what is the matter they all sat down in their serious way that s easy done mr said the but before anything we had to wait and see whether in a way of there was green etc any need for us to say anything at all mr there is mr who has the same right to his opinion also a and one o the committee thinks the other way i thought him too light built and i think so now said the still tapping his prominent teeth with the metal head of his riding whip but happen he may pull through and he s a fine made chap so if you mean to back him mr which i do and you i ain t one to go back well i ll to my share of he purse and well i knew you would said for it would be new to find as a well then we make up the hundred for the stake among us and the fight stands � always the man is excuse all this rot mr said the university man in a genial voice we ve begun at the wrong end i know but we ll soon it out and i h e that you will see your way to in with our views in the first place you remember the man whom you knocked out this morning he is � the famous ted tm sure sir you may well be proud to have him in one round said the why it took lis the ten stone x champion a deal more trouble that before he put to sleep you ve done ne performance sir and happen you ll do a finer if give yourself the chance the i never heard of ted beyond seeing the name on a medicine said the assistant well you may take it from me that he s a said the you ve taught him a lesson that he needed for it was always a word and a blow with him and the word alone was worth five in a public court he won t be so ready now to shake his in the face of he meets however that s neither here nor there looked at them in bewilderment for goodness sake gentlemen tell me what it is you want me to do he cried we want you to fight better known as the master of but why because ted was to have fought him next saturday he was the champion of the coal and the other was the master of the iron folk down at the we d matched our man for a purse of a hundred against the but you ve our man and he can t face such a battle with a two inch cut at the back of his head there s only one thing to be done sir and that is for you to take his place if you can ted you may the master of ci but if you don t we re done for there s no one else who is in the street with him in this district it s twenty two gloves rules and a decision on points if you fight to the finish for a moment the absurdity of the thing drove every other thought out of s head but then there came a sudden a hundred pounds � all he wanted to complete his education was lying there ready i the green flag etc to his hand if only that hand were strong enough to pick it up he had thought bitterly that morning that there was no market for his strength but here was one where his muscle might earn more in an hour than his brains in a year but a chill of doubt came over hint how can i fight for the coal said he i am not connected with them eh lad but thou art cried old we ve got it down in and it s clear enough anyone connected with the coal doctor is the club doctor thou art his assistant what more can they want yes that s right enough said the it would be a very sporting thing of you mr if you would come to our help when we are in such a hole of course you might not like to take the hundred pounds but i have no doubt that in the case of your winning we could arrange that it should take the form of a watch or piece of plate or any other shape which might suggest itself to you you see you are responsible for our having lost our champion so we really feel that we haye a claim upon you give me a moment gentlemen it is very unexpected i am afraid the doctor would never consent to my going � in fact i am sure that he would not but he need never know � not before the fight at we are not bound to give the name of our man so long as he is within the weight limits on the day of the fight that is all that concerns anyone the adventure and the profit would either of them have attracted the two combined were irresistible the master | 4 |
kept by the iron heel but little did she realize even then as she hid the manuscript and prepared to flee how terrible had been the of the second little did she realize that the and distorted of the next three centuries would compel a third revolt and a fourth revolt and many all drowned ir of blood ere the world movement of labor should come into its own and little did she dream that for seven long centuries the tribute of her love to would repose undisturbed in the heart of the ancient oak at wake robin lodge november b o m the heel the heel chapter i my the soft summer wind the and wild water sweet over its stones there are in the sunshine and from everywhere arises the drowsy hum of bees it is so quiet and peaceful and i sit here and and am restless it is the quiet that makes me restless it seems unreal all the world is quiet but it is the quiet before the storm i strain my ears and all my senses for some of that impending storm oh that it may not be premature that it may not be premature small wonder that i am restless i think and think and i cannot cease from thinking i have been in the thick of life so long that i am oppressed by the peace and quiet and i cannot forbear from dwelling upon that the second revolt was largely the work of em t he of course with the european leaders the capture and secret execution of was the great event of the spring of a d yet so thoroughly had he prepared for the revolt that his fellow were able with little confusion or delay to carry out his plans it was after s execution that his wife went to wake lodge a small m the b the iron heel mad of death and destruction so soon to burst forth in my ears are the cries of the stricken and i can see as i have seen in the past all the and of the sweet beautiful and the souls torn with violence from proud bodies and hurled to god thus do we poor attain our ends striving through and destruction to bring lasting peace and happiness upon the earth and then i am lonely when i do not think of what is to come i think of what has been and is no more � my eagle beating with wings the void soaring toward what was ever his sun the flaming ideal of human freedom i cannot sit idly by and wait the great event that is his making though he is not here to see he devoted all the years of his manhood to it and for it he gave his life it is his he made it and so it is in this anxious time of waiting that i shall write of my husband there is much light that i alone of au persons living can throw upon his character and so noble a character cannot be forth too brightly his was a great soul and when my love grows my regret is that he is not here without doubt she here to the with all respect to it must be pointed out that was but one of many able leaders who planned the second revolt and we to day looking back across the centuries can safely say that even had he lived the second revolt would not have been less in its than it was my eagle to witness to morrow s dawn we cannot fail he has built too stoutly and too surely for that woe to the iron heel soon shall it be thrust back from prostrate humanity when the word goes forth the labor hosts of all the world shall rise there has been nothing like it in the history of the world the of labor is ed and for the first time will there be an revolution wide as the world is wide you see i am full of what is impending i have lived it day and night utterly and for so long that it is ever present in my mind for that matter i cannot think of my husband without thinking of it he was the soul of it and how can i possibly separate the two in thought i as i have said there is much light that i alone can throw upon his character it is well known that he toiled hard for liberty and suffered sore how hard he toiled and how greatly he suffered i well know for i have been with him during these twenty anxious years and i know his patience his effort his infinite the second revolt was truly it was a colossal plan � too colossal to be wrought by the genius of one man alone labor in all the of the world was prepared to rise at the signal germany italy france and all were labor states they were ready to lend aid to ttie revolution gallantly they did and it was for this reason when the second revolt was crushed that they too were crushed by the united of the world their being replaced by the iron devotion to the cause for which only two months gone he laid down his life i shall try to write simply and to tell here how entered my life � how i first met him how he grew until i became a part of him and the tremendous changes he wrought in my life in this way may you look at him through my eyes and learn him as i learned him � in all save the things too secret and sweet for me to teu it was in february that i first met him when as a guest of my father s at dinner he came to our house in i | 21 |
the love that for a brief while it i say i loved and in proportion to the sincerity of that love i afterwards measured the intensity of my hate i a brilliant may had begun in paris the foliage was all in its beauty of pale green leaf the were bright with flowers and the gay city looked its loveliest my father was still ed by his affairs in england but i knew he would not remain away much longer now as he was anxious to relieve me of some of the more cares of business before the time for my marriage came too close at hand st was also expected back daily her mother had recovered and she had therefore nothing to detain her any longer in told me this news and i noticed that she did not seem at all over enthusiastic concerning her cousin s return like a fool i flattered myself that this was because i had now become the first in her affections and that as a perfectly natural consequence the once adored was bound to occupy a lower and vastly inferior place i was full of my own joy my own triumph and i was blind to anything else but these true i did remark on one or two occasions during my visits to her that my was sometimes not quite so brilliant as usual that there was a certain and ethereal delicacy about her features that was suggestive of hidden suffering that her deep blue eyes seemed larger than the used to be � larger darker and more intense in their of expression that now and then her lips quivered when i kissed her and that there were moments when she appeared to be on the verge tears put i attributed all these signs of subdued ro emotion to the nervous excitement a young girl would feel at the swift approach of her marriage day i knew she wa exceedingly sensitive and for this reason i rather looked forward to the return of as i felt certain that she with her womanly tact quiet wa s and strong tenderness for would by her very presence in the house do much to soothe my little s highly strung and over wrought condition and would also take a great deal of the fatigue of preparation for the wedding off her hands still i did not really think very deeply about it any and i was rather taken by surprise one afternoon when on calling to leave some flowers for en the servant begged me to enter and wait in the drawing room for a few minutes as the de had expressed a particular wish to see me alone on a matter of importance i crossed the familiar threshold i remember that day with a strange dull sensation at my heart and as the doors of the great were thrown open for me a shiver seized me as though it were winter instead of spring the room looked bare and blank in spite of its rich furniture and no came in to greet me and i stood hat in hand leaning against the edge of the grand piano gazing through the window and wondering foolishly to myself why the gardener usually so neat had left a heap of the past winter s dead leaves in one corner of the outside gravel path there they were an ugly brown pile of them and every now and then the light may wind fluttered them blowing two or three off to whirl like dark against the clear blue sky i was still meditating on this trifle and comparing those swept up of decay with the cluster of rich red roses i had just brought for my and which i had laid carefully down on a side table near me when the door was opened softly and closed again with equal care and the de approached she looked worn and anxious and there was a puzzled pain and sorrow in her eyes that filled me with alarm i caught my breath � is she ill i faltered i knew not what she is not well began the co gently then paused my heart beat violently it is something dangerous you have sent for a physician you here my attempted self control gave and i exclaimed let me see her i must � i madame i have the right to see her why do you hinder me the laid her hand on my arm in a manner and smiled a little be tranquil there is nothing serious the matter to day it is true she is not well she has been weeping violently re � such tears � and the mother s voice quivered slightly as she spoke � i have asked her a hundred times the cause of her distress and she me it is nothing � always nothing but i think there must be some reason she who is generally so bright and happy would scarcely weep so long and without cause � and this is why i wished to speak to you mon � to ask ou � is the love between j ou both as great as ever i stared at her amazed what a silly woman she was i thought to make such an odd and altogether unnecessary inquiry most mt is madame i replied with emphatic earnestness it is even greater on ni part and of her tenderness i have never had a moment s occasion to doubt that she sheds tears at all is of itself distressing news to me � but nevertheless it is true that girls will often weep for nothing especially when they are a little over strung and excited as may be at the time she � with a very natural regret for which i should be the last to blame her � that ver soon she will have to leave her home and your care � the change from | 33 |
private banker s account with the papers of the business the disclosure was made and the storm raged fearfully thousands of people were wildly staring about for somebody alive to heap reproaches on and this notable case set the living somebody so much wanted on a when people who had nothing to do with the case were so sensible of its people who lost money by it could scarcely be expected to deal mildly with it letters of reproach and in from the and mr who sat upon the high stool every day and read them all informed his within a week that he feared there were out i must take the consequences of what i have done said the will find me here on the very next morning as he was turning into bleeding heart yard by mrs s corner mrs stood at the door waiting for him and mysteriously him to step into happy cottage there he found mr i thought i d wait for you here i wouldn t go on to the this morning if i was you sir why not mr there are as many a five out to my knowledge it cannot be too soon over said let them take me at once u yes but said mr getting between him and the door little hear reason hear reason they ll take you soon enough mr i don t doubt but hear reason it almost always happens in these cases that some insignificant matter itself in front and makes much of itself now i find there s a little one out � a mere palace court � and i have reason to believe that a may be made upon that i wouldn t be taken upon that why not asked i d be taken on a full grown one sir said mr it s as well to keep up appearances as your professional adviser i should prefer your being taken on a writ from one of the superior courts if you have no objection to do me that favor it looks better mr said arthur in his my only wish is that it should be over i will go on and take my chance another word of reason sir cried mr now this is reason the other may be taste but this is reason if you should be taken on the little one sir you would go to the now you know what the is very close excessively confined whereas in the king s bench mr waved his right hand freely as expressing abundance of space i would rather said be taken to the than to any other prison do you say so indeed sir returned mr then this is taste too and we may be walking he was a little offended at first but he soon overlooked it they walked through the yard to the other end the bleeding hearts were more interested in arthur since his than formerly now regarding him as one who was true to the place and had taken up his freedom many of them came out to look after him and to observe to one another with great that he was pulled down by it mrs and her father stood at the top of the steps at their own end much depressed and shaking their heads there was nobody visibly in waiting when arthur and mr arrived at the counting house but an elderly member of the persuasion preserved in rum followed them close and looked in at the glass before mr had opened one of the day s letters oh said mr looking up how do you do step in � mr i think this is the gentleman i was mentioning the gentleman explained the object of his visit to be a ob and executed his legal function shall i accompany you mr asked mr politely rubbing his hands i would rather go alone thank you be so good as send me my clothes mr in a light airy way replied in the affirmative and shook hands with him he and his attendant then went downstairs got into the first conveyance they found and drove to the old gates where i little thought heaven forgive me said to himself that i should ever enter thus mr was on the lock and young john was in the lodge either newly released from it or waiting to take his own spell of duty little bit both were more astonished on seeing who the new prisoner was than one might have thought would have been the elder mr shook hands with him in a shame faced kind of way and said i don t call to mind sir as i was ever less glad to see you the younger mr more distant did not shake hands with him at all he stood looking at him in a state of so that it even came within the observation of with his heavy eyes and heavy heart presently afterwards young john disappeared into the jail as knew enough of the place to know that he was required to remain in the lodge a certain time he took a seat in a corner and feigned to be occupied with the perusal of letters from his pocket they did not so his attention but that he saw with gratitude how the elder mr kept the lodge clear of prisoners how he signed to some with his keys not to come in how he others with his elbow to go out and how he made his misery as easy to him as he could arthur was sitting with his eyes fixed on the floor recalling the past brooding over the present and not attending to either when he felt himself touched upon the shoulder it was by young john and he said you can come now he got up and followed young john when they had gone a step or two within the inner iron | 8 |
i want to be alone but felt ho had too far to turn back now it is impossible for me to leave you in this condition he said quietly as your friend mrs i have a right to stay till you are calmer it will do no good elizabeth answered bitterly you can not help me nobody can help me i must bear my trouble alone people don t die of grief they say � or of repentance either for that matter she added still i shall stay said a look of dead indifference settled down on elizabeth s face if he would stay he must after the first flash of womanly anger had died away she did not really care very much whether he staid or not she was absorbed in her own emotions that she was almost of the presence of another person there was no trace of the about elizabeth she did not pose � she simply felt she sat down in the arm chair stood waiting for some time there was silence between them at last he said mrs this is dreadful tou must tell me what has happened i can not tell you she answered speaking slowly and with some difficulty i can not tell any one then she added after a minute or two i have had a terrible experience to night can you fancy what it is suddenly in as moment to be with self reproach to have built yourself a fair dwelling house and in the time of your utmost need to find that it is built on the sand to see it crack and around you to see it washed away for ever while you stand and desolate oh robert robert she cried breaking suddenly into a wild passion of grief oh my darling forgive me i i have tried to forget you i have wanted to fling all the past behind me i have wanted so desperately to be happy yon who have entered into that perfect peace where all our miserable selfish desires and fade away forgive me pardon me elizabeth stood up the flood gates were open and utterly regardless of s presence she poured forth her heart in speech to night she went on i have learned the truth too late i have seen my fatal mistake i have looked back at my past life i see that i have missed the meaning of it all and that self self nothing but self a sketch in black and white is written across every page of it i might have found of joy in wedded love bitter sweet joy in mourning and joy in duty and i have rejected it all ah believe she turning suddenly to him ood is merciful soiled and weary but we may still creep into heaven at last but he is terribly just what we sow that and that only can we reap i have to myself and i reap the fruit of my � sorrow a fearful sense of waste yet i can not complain it is bitter r no one else can ever know how bitter but it is all my own doing and it is only just to there was something almost sublime in this submission he thought of our lady of sorrow again and could have down and the woman who stood before him crowned with the glory and the anguish of her utter self after a little time she looked up again all the hardness had melted out of her face and there was something very wistful and tender in its expression if i had only lived two or three hundred years ago she said i should have gone away now and buried my mistakes and repentance in some i should have put on coarse garments have brought my body into with and penance have hardened my hands with labor and � don t cried suddenly with a shudder pray don t mrs i can t stand this elizabeth smiled faintly but her lips were tremulous why not she asked gently i thinks do you know i could be very peaceful and contented in some � r i where ant out tbe and i might tend poor old folk and teach little children this ia a mere dream with lore again � i can t do thia no thank sod yon can t he said under his i do in a way far harder than this she went on something quite commonplace and i must go back to tomorrow and try to please and comfort those whom in my selfish pride i thrust aside and scorned � i have made a great f � now i shall be content with yery simple � i shall be humble in future i think and quite willing to take the lowest room there are better things in life than happiness perhaps � but it is sad she added looking away and speaking more to herself than to him it is all very sad it is all over for me and tbe long years stretch out so gray and level into the distance and i shall be all alone � and i am so young tbe last few words moved strangely she was very young and tbe mystery and tragedy of it all seemed to him infinite as ho looked at her in her piteous beauty and sorrow read his own heart � friendship seemed to him a very pale and good his took to themselves wings and flew away all his doubts and resolved themselves into one passionate desire his face grew thin and eager and a great light came into his eyes he forgot everything else he only knew that amid warmth and light and the penetrating sweetness of flowers he was standing alone face to face with the woman ho loved a m black and white threw back his head and took a long deep breath it seemed to | 32 |
her living now � but she loves him and is as true to him as if he were still alive what do you say to that i say that the lady in question must be a charming person replied the perfectly charming i but of course she is deceiving herself and she takes pleasure in the self deception she knows that the man had deserted her and was quite unworthy of her devotion � but she to herself that she does not know and it it is charming of course but women will do that kind of thing it is extraordinary � but they will they all deceive themselves in matters of love even you deceive yourself started i she exclaimed yes � you � why not and the treated her to one of his particularly paternal smiles you are to � but no man ever had or ever could have all the virtues with which you this excellent he is a delightful creature � a good artist � unique in his own particular line � but you think him something much greater than even artist or man � a sort of god though the gods themselves were not only fit to be now i am not a in the gods � but of course it is delightful to me to meet those who are or needs neither praise nor defence said with a slight touch of all the world knows what he is yes precisely that is just it � all the world knows what he is � and the rubbed his forehead with an air of irritation and i am you by my a r ig i loo the master christian i can see well well � you must forgive my � i admit my faults � i am old � i am a � i talk too much � i have a bad opinion of man and an equally bad opinion of the forces that him by the way i met that terrible and at the the other day � the man who is making such a sensation in england with his addresses to the people he is quite an do you know he believes in everything and everybody � even in me i laughed and her laughter sweet and low thrilled the air with a sense of music that is wonderful she said gaily � even in you i and how does he manage to believe in you i do tell me i a little frown wrinkled the s brow well i in a strange way he responded you know he is a very strange man and believes in very strange things when i treat humanity as a jest � which is really how it should be treated � he looks at me with a grand air of oh you will progress he says you are passing through a phase my dear sir i assure him i have lived in this phase as you call it for forty years i used to pray to the angels and saints and to all the different little that live in different places till i was twenty then i dropped all the pretty at once � and since then i have believed in nothing � myself least of all now i am sixty � and yet you tell me i am only passing through a phase quite so he answered me with the utmost coolness your forty years � or your sixty years are a moment merely � the moment will pass � and you will find another moment coming which will explain the one which has just gone nothing is and when i ask him which will be the best moment � the one that goes or the one that comes � he says that i am making the coming moment for myself � which is so satisfactory he adds with that bright smile of his because of course you will make it pleasant pour de et inevitable i do not find the e � but this man me it is because i do not trouble to look for it what do you think about it the master christian loi s eyes were full of dreamy i think mr s ideas are beautiful she said slowly i have often heard him talk on the subject of religion � and of art and of work � and all he says seems to be die expression of a noble and sincere mind he is gifted yes � and he is becoming rather an alarming personage in england so i hear � returned the � he writes books that are distinctly dangerous because true he wants to upset like our writer you know will never be satisfied till like he has brought about another french revolution he is only a peasant they say but he writes with the pen of a prophet and this englishman is of the same � only his work is directed against religious more than social ones i that is why i always feel so uneasy in his presence i and laughed lightly for the rest he is a brilliant creature enough and thoroughly manly the other evening at the club that little de was chattering in his usual offensive manner about women and astonished by the way in hich he pulled him up there was almost a very pretty � but a stray man happened to mention casually that was considered one of the finest shots in england after that the dear vanished and did not return laughed poor de i i yes � i have heard that mr in ever that is distinctly english � riding shooting and all that kind of thing he is not few englishmen are said the � and yet to my mind there is something not altogether english in this man he has none of the heavy british mental and physical he is strong and muscular certainly � but also light | 33 |
pretext for escape in her own room she sank for a moment under a rush of self disgust but it soon before the forces of her nature leaving only a of pity for the poor creature whose secret she had surprised she had never before suspected of taking a nor did she now suppose that he did so habitually but to see him even under such an influence explained her instinctive sense of his weakness she felt now that what would have been an insult on other lips was only a cry of distress from his and once more she blamed herself and forgave him but if she had been inclined to any of self reproach she would have been saved from it by other cares for the moment she was more concerned with s fate than with her own � her poor friend seemed to have so much more at stake and so much less strength to bring to the defence of her happiness was always saved from any excess of self compassion by the sense within herself of forces of growth and self renewal as though from every a fresh shoot of energy must spring but she felt that had no such sources of and that every disappointment left an arid spot in her soul even without her friend s confidences would have had no difficulty in following the successive stages of the inner history she knew that had resigned his rule at the fruit of the tree and that his wife in return for the sacrifice was to to the way of life she thought he preferred and the of both attempts was more visible to than to either of the two concerned she saw that the failure of the marriage lay not in any accident of outward circumstances but in the lack of all natural points of contact as she put it to they met neither nor overhead practical necessities united them no more than imaginative joys there were moments when thought hard to as she suspected that he had once been hard to his mother � as the leader of men must perhaps always be hard to the sex yet she did justice to his efforts to accept the and to in his wife some capacity for sharing in his minor interests since she had none of her own with which to fill their days had always been a reader not like herself a flame like of the page but a slow of its essence and in the early days of his marriage he had fancied it would be easy to make share this taste though his mother was not a woman he had breathed at her side an air rich in allusion and filled with the bright of romance and he had rs regarded this commerce of the imagination as one of the normal conditions of hfe the discovery that there were no books at save a few sets imprisoned behind the brass of the library had been one of the many surprises of his new state but in his first months with there was no room for books and if he thought lo the fruit of the tree of the matter it was only in a glancing vision of future evenings when he and she in the calm of happiness should lean together over some cherished page her lack of response to any reference outside the small circle of daily facts had long since that vision but now that his own mind felt the need of inner he began to ask himself whether he might not have done more to rouse her imagination during the long evenings over the library fire he tried to lead the talk to books with a now and again from the page beneath his eye and met the experiment with eagerness she showed in especial a hopeful but preference for poetry leaning back with dreaming and lovely parted lips while he rolled out the immortal measures but her outward signs of attention never into any expression of opinion or any after allusion to what she heard and before long he discovered that was his only listener it was to her that the words he read began to be unconsciously addressed her comments directed him in his choice of subjects and the restored him to some semblance of mental activity true to her new ro e of acquiescence shone silently on this of ideas even detected in her a vague admiration for his power of conversing on subjects which she regarded as and this approval combined with her submission to his will him with a sense of recovered power over her he could not but note that the new phase in their relations had with his first assertion of and he concluded that with the removal the of the tree of the influences tending to separate them his wife might gradually be won back to her earlier sympathy with his views to accept this theory was to apply it for nothing could long divert from his main purpose and all the strength of his will was only gathering to itself fresh stores of energy he had never been a skilful lover for no woman had as yet stirred in him those feelings which call the finer into play and there was no instinct to tell him that s sudden to his wishes was as as her surrender to his first kiss he fancied that he and she were at length reaching some semblance of that moral harmony which should grow out of the accord and that poor and as the understanding was it must lift and strengthen their relation he waited till early winter had brought solitude to l the hunting colony to various points of the compass and sending mr to egypt and the while mrs as usual took up her annual tour of a social circuit whose extreme points were marked by boston and � and then | 10 |
took with some of the indians who was now called the lady and her husband went to england with was called a princess in england and received much attention but when about to start back to the colony she died leaving a little son one of the first for the success of a colony is some that may be to pay for clothing and those other necessaries of life which must be bought from older countries the attempts to find gold or silver in virginia had proved vain silk cotton and many other things were attempted at james the starving time l town from the very start but the only product that was found really profitable was tobacco this weed as it was even then called was like indian corn and the unknown to europe until after america was discovered it was introduced under the belief that it was of great value as a medicine when had made its use fashionable in england the english people bought their tobacco from spain but john the same who married and who seems to have been fond of new experiments thought that if the virginia indians could grow tobacco for their own use he might grow it in virginia for the english market he tried tobacco culture in and it was immediately so sue that tobacco became in three or four years the money by which trade was carried on and debts paid and it remained the recognized of virginia and for about a hundred and fifty years tobacco history of the states brought a large price in and for years afterward and as it furnished the first means by which people in virginia might gain a living it helped to make the colony successful but in when gave up the government there were only about three hundred and fifty english people in virginia and none besides in north america chapter vi the great ok virginia and the first by the indians during all the early years of the virginia colony the people were fed and clothed out of a common stock of provisions they were also obliged to work for this stock no division was made of the land nor could the industrious man get any profit by his hard work the man was as well oft as the one who worked hardest and under this arrangement men neglected their work and the colony was always poor the had been promised that after five years they should have land of their own and be free but this promise was not kept in sir thomas gave to some who had been longest in virginia three acres of ground apiece and allowed them one month in the year to work on their little patches for this they must support themselves and give the rest of their work to the common stock even this arrangement made them more industrious but the cruel military laws put in force by the the great of virginia ii governor made virginia so that men to be hanged for petty refused pardon when offered to them on condition of their going to the colony who came after was a greedy rascal th� oi who governed very badly and virginia was almost ruined in i i many new came out and lord de la was again sent as governor but he died on the way the virginia company of london which had the government of the colony about this time began to come under the control of certain great with liberal ideas among them was sir and the earl of these men were engaged in parliament in resisting the tyranny of king james s government and in trying to establish liberty in england this was slow work in an old country where the sovereign had long had almost absolute power but and and their friends probably thought it best to begin rightly in virginia and so to make that country a refuge for those who suffered from oppression in england the virginia company taking advantage of the power which the king had given to it granted to virginia in november a great under which the people of the colony were allowed a voice in making their own laws this was the beginning of free government in america under the the government of virginia was put into the hands of a governor a council of estate and a general assembly the members of the general assembly were chosen to represent the different or in virginia the other american colonies afterward took pattern from this government history of the united states of the government that remain division of land in virginia sending of wives to virginia the government of the united states by a president a and a house of representatives shows that the ideas put into the great have left their mark on the constitution of our country the of all our states also show traces of the same idea each state has a governor a and a house of representatives so that the plan arranged in for a few hundred people in virginia was a tiny stream that has spread out into a great river the great also gave the people of virginia the right to divide the land into farms and to own and work ground each for himself when the new governor sir george got to virginia in the spring of bringing this good news that the were to live under laws of their own making were to cultivate their own land and enjoy the fruits of their own labors they thought themselves the happiest people in the world at this time there were but few women in virginia and none of the men intended to remain there long it was thought that the colony would be more firmly planted if the had wives young women were therefore sent out to be married to the but before any man could marry one of these he was obliged to gain | 11 |
the table of his father the of the from his youth had associated with all classes and tions of men indeed it was there that he made the acquaintance of who him in the street had asked him t dinner after the dishes were cleared one of the spanish officers rose and begged to be excused pleading some military duty when he had saluted his and gone suggested that they should play a game of cards this was an invitation which would have liked to decline but when it came to the point he did not for fear of seeming peculiar in the eyes of these brilliant men of the world so they began to play and as the game was simple very soon he picked up the points of it and what is more found them amusing at first the were not high but they doubled themselves in some fashion till was astonished to find that he was gambling for sums and winning them towards the last his luck changed a little but when the game came to an end he found himself the richer by about three hundred and fifty what am i to do with this ho asked colouring up ns with sighs which in one instance were genuine enough the pushed the money across to liim do with it laughed did anybody over hear such an innocent why buy your lady or somebody else s lady love a present no i ll tell you a better use than this you give us to morrow night at your lodging the best dinner that can produce and a chance of winning some of this coin back again is it agreed if the other gentlemen wish it said modestly though my apartment is but a poor place for such company of course we wish it replied the three as with one voice and the hour for meeting having been fixed they parted the walking with to the door of his lodging i was going to call on yon to morrow he said to bring to you a letter of introduction from my father though that should scarcely be needed as in fact we are cousins � second cousins only our mothers having been first cousins oh yes of the of whom my mother used to speak saying that they were to be proud of although she had met them but little well welcome cousin i trust that we shall be friends i am sure of it answered and putting his arm through s he pressed it in a peculiar fashion that caused him to start and look round hush muttered not here and they began to talk of their late companions and the game of cards which they had played an amusement as to the propriety of which intimated that he had doubts young shrugged his shoulders cousin he said we live in the world so it is as well to understand the world if the of a few pieces at play which it will not ruin us to lose helps us to understand it well for my part i am ready to risk them especially as it puts us on good terms with those who aa things are it is wise we should cultivate only cousin if i may venture to say it be careful not to take more wine than you can carry with discretion better lose a thousand than let drop one word that you cannot remember i know i know answered thinking of s supper and at the door of his lodgings they parted like most when made up his mind to do anything he did it thoroughly thus having under the dream of taken to give a dinner party he determined to give a good dinner in ordinary his first idea would have been to consult his cousins and after that monstrous story about the however which by inquiry from the coachman of the house whom he happened to meet he ascertained to be perfectly false this for the young man had some pride he did not feel inclined to do so in place of it he talked first to his landlady a worthy dame and by her advice afterwards with the first of a man of resource and experience the well knowing that this customer would pay for anything which he ordered threw himself into the affair heartily with the result that by five o clock of and other attendants were to be seen streaming up s staircase carrying every variety of dish that could be supposed to tempt the appetite of high class s apartment consisted of two rooms situated upon the first floor of an old house in a street that had ceased to be fashionable once however it had been a fine house and according to the ideas of the time the rooms themselves were fine especially the sitting chamber which was oak low and spacious with a handsome fireplace carrying the arms of its out of it opened his sleeping room � which had no other doorway � likewise with tall built into the wall and a magnificent carved not unlike the of a tomb in shape and general appearance the hour came and with it the guests the feast began the streamed up and down bearing of dishes from the inn above the table hung a six armed brass and in each of its a candle furnishing light to the company beneath although outside of its bright ring there was shadow more or dense towards the end of dinner a portion of the rush of one of these candles fell into the brass be the to burn up fiercely as it chanced by the light of this sudden who was sitting opposite to the door thought that he caught sight of a tall dark figure gliding along the wall towards the bedroom for one instant he saw it then it was gone my friend he said addressing whose | 18 |
the personal history and experience name your and gave you it s the name i like best to call you by � and i wish i wish i wish you could give it why so i can if i choose said i if anything should ever separate us you must think of me at my best old boy come let us make that bargain think of me at my best if circumstances should ever part us tou have no best to me said i and no worst you are always equally loved and cherished in my heart so much for having ever wronged him even by a thought did i feel within me that the confession of having done so was rising to my lips but for the reluctance i had to betray the confidence of but for my uncertainty how to approach the subject with no risk of doing so it would have reached them before he said god bless you and good night in my doubt it did not reach them and we shook hands and we parted i was up with the dull dawn and having dressed as quietly as i could looked into his room he was fast asleep lying easily with his head upon his arm as i had often seen him he at school the time came in its season and that was very soon when i almost wondered that nothing troubled his repose as i looked at him but he slept � let me think of him so again � as i had often seen him sleep at school and thus in this silent hour i left him � never more oh god forgive you to touch that passive hand in love and friendship never never more xxx a loss i got down to in the evening and went to the inn i knew that s spare room � my room � was likely to have occupation enough in a little while if that great visitor before whose presence all the living must give place were not already in the house so i myself to the inn and dined there and engaged my bed it was ten o clock when i went out many of the shops were shut and the town was dull when i came to and s i found the shutters up but the shop door standing open as i could obtain a perspective view of mr inside smoking his pipe by the parlor door i entered and asked him how he was why bless my life and soul said mr how do you find yourself take a seat � smoke not disagreeable i hope by no means said i i like it � in somebody else s pipe what not in your own eh mr returned laughing all the better sir bad habit for a young man take a seat i smoke myself for the of david mr had made room for me and placed a chair he now sat down again very much out of breath gasping at his pipe as if it contained a supply of that necessary without which he must perish i am sorry to have heard bad news of mr said i mr looked at me with a steady countenance and shook his head do you know how he is to night i asked the very question i should have put to you sir returned mr but on account of delicacy it s one of the of our line of business when a party s ill we ask how the party is the had not occurred to me though i had had my apprehensions too when i went in of hearing the old tune on its being mentioned i recognised it however and said as much yes yes you understand said mr nodding his head we t do it bless you it would be a shock that the of parties t recover to say and s compliments and how do you find yourself this morning � or this afternoon � as it may be mr and i nodded at each other and mr his wind by the aid of his pipe it s one of the things that cut the trade off from attentions they could often wish to show said mr take myself if i have known a year to move to as he went by i have known him forty year but i can t go and say how is he i felt it was rather hard on mr and i told him so i m not more self interested i hope than another man said mr look at me my wind may fail me at any moment and it ain t likely that to my own knowledge i d be self interested under such circumstances i say it ain t likely in a man who knows his wind will go when it does go as if a pair of was cut open and that man a grandfather said mr i said not at all it ain t that i complain of my line of business said mr it ain t that some good and some bad goes no doubt to all what i wish is that parties were brought up stronger minded mr with a very complacent and amiable face took several in silence and then said his first point accordingly we re in how goes on to limit ourselves to em ly she knows what our real objects are and she don t have any more or suspicions about us than if we was so many and have just stepped down to the house in fact she s there after hours helping her aunt a bit to ask her how he is tonight and if you was to please to wait till they come back they d give you full will you take something a glass of and water now i smoke on and water myself said mr taking up | 8 |
or nearly the same time there was a dominant party which in with some wealthy known as the built what is now known as the or in what is now known as the which i think is perfect it is not a fortress like the or the at but it is a perfect thing the charm of which remains with me fresh and keen it is a beautiful structure � one that serves the uses to which it is put � that of a public for officials and a picture gallery it was in one of these rooms devoted to a collection of art that i found a collection of the work of the one really important painter who ever lived or worked in � and the little city now makes much of him if i felt like the long art of comparatively trivial things the charm and variety of the town and its present day life was in no wise lost upon me the things the things which the do not talk about are sometimes so charming i found it to descend of a morning by lovely cool stone passages from the of to the of the army and watch the soldiers principally cavalry their ground was a space about five acres in extent as flat as a table set high above the plain with deep descending on either hand and the quaint houses and public institutions of looking down from above to the left as you looked out over the plain across the intervening was another spur of the town built also on a flat ridge with the graceful church of st peter and its beautiful italian tower and the whole road that swept along the edge of the cliff making a delightful way for carriages and i took delight in seeing how wonderfully the deep green separate one section of the town from another and in watching the soldiers italy then being at war with you could stand your arms resting upon some old green wall and look out over intervening fields a at forty to distant of mountains or tower like and the variety of the of the plain below was never this italian valley was so beautiful that i should like to say one more word about the skies and the wonderful landscape effects north of here in and they do not occur so persistently and with such glorious warmth at this season of the year at this height the nights were not cold but cool and the mornings burst with such a blaze of color as to defy the art of all save the greatest painters they were not so much lurid as richly being shot through with a strange electric radiance this did not mean as it would so often in america that a cloudy day was to follow rather the radiance slowly gave place to a glittering field of light that brought out every slope and olive orchard and distant and pine with amazing clearness the bells of the churches in and in the valley below were like calling to each other from their praying towers as the day closed the features of the landscape seemed to be set in crystal and the and and to have at times a quality outside the walls in the distance were churches and always with a or two sometimes with many which stood out with great distinctness and from distant you would hear singing in the bright sun well might they sing for i know of no place where life would present to them a fairer aspect chapter the makers of all the treasures of my historic reading in mind from the lives of the and to that of and the school of artists i was keen to see what would be like mrs q had described it as the most individual of all the italian cities that she had seen she had over its narrow dark shaded streets its fortress like palaces its highly individual churches and the way the drivers of the little open plied their until she said it sounded like a fourth of july in i was keen to see how large the dome of the cathedral would look and whether it would really tower over the remaining buildings of the city and whether the would look as picturesque as it did in all the photographs the air was so soft and the sun so bright although sinking low in the west as the train entered the city that i was pleased to accept instead of the ancient atmosphere which i had anticipated the wide streets and rows of f six family apartment houses which all the sections they have the rich and of the earlier portion of but they are very different in their suggestion of the distant hills as i could see from the car windows were dotted with houses and occupying delightful positions above the town suddenly i saw the and although i knew it only from photographs i recognized it in an instant it spoke for itself in a large dignified way over the it like a great a at forty and some flying in the air gave it the last touch of beauty we wound around the city in a circle � i could tell this by the shifting position of the sun � through great yards of railway tracks with scores of engines and lines of small box cars and then i saw a small stream and a bridge � nothing like the of course � a canal and the next thing we were rolling into a long crowded railway station the guards calling i got up gathered my overcoat and bags into my arms a and gave them to him and then i sought a vehicle that would convey me to the hotel for which i was bound � the hotel de on the i sat behind a fat driver while he cracked his | 43 |
was for sale and she ascertained that this report was true the present possessor was a very good man in a moral point of view but indolent and and he had been drifting down the stream for some time and was now under the necessity of selling his place our heroine s calculations in respect to the possibility of her being able to be the too were not so as she expected there was her present house and farm worth as she thought full one half of the other for there was a great deal more land then she had quite a little sum laid by in notes on interest and in money all safe in a little tin or the his mother goes to inquire about the house familiar scenes box in the keeping of a farmer down in the valley this she thought from a rough calculation would be enough for half of the remainder then for the other quarter she thought she might gradually work that off with the help of and the blessing of god one day when she was down at the corner she concluded with great fear and trembling to go and see the present owner of the house and ascertain exactly how the case stood it was the middle of the afternoon and as she walked slowly up toward the house she almost expected that he would be away at his work she would however at any rate have an opportunity to see the house again and this was a great point she walked slowly along the little avenue looking at every object and building bright castles in the air and at length gave a gentle knock at the front door come in was the answer from the room and she opened the door the house consisted of two good rooms with a above the door opened at once into the larger one and as the visitor entered it a thousand recollections and associations crowded at once upon her mind there was the chimney corner where she had spent the first years of her married life and the great fire place with its and unchanged the window looking out upon the lot the back door and even the poles over head suspended from the ceiling were the same in the corner which was formerly occupied by her spinning wheel sat a middle aged man in a lounging attitude with his hat upon his head and his in his waistcoat pockets he was a good man in the main honest benevolent and kind but and in fact was his sin and had been his ruin and yet he was perfectly self satisfied and self complacent for he considered all his and head interview with the owner of the doom ity as only a habit of trusting in god his losses and almost altogether from want of industry or good management he called mysterious and though he was dejected and unhappy yet he was not dissatisfied with himself he invited his visitor to walk in and take a seat without however changing his position she began to tell him that she understood he wished to sell his farm and they entered into conversation about it presently his wife came in from the other room she sat down near a window and occupied herself with looking at the stranger a great boy with his hat upon his head and a long in his hand sauntered in soon after and followed his mother s example the conversation went on however without any interruption from these causes and the visitor learned that the man wished to sell his house and had no objection to take her farm in part pay as he must have some farm to go to of land than this i have had rather a hard time of it said he by way of himself for being obliged to sell his house we have been sick a good deal and have lost a good deal of stock in these hard but i don t complain it is all for the best i know she asked him what kind of payment he would require for the balance and he replied that he must have the rest in money in fact said he the place is to squire and i want to sell it so as to raise the money to pay off that and buy me another cheaper farm if i can i have been getting for a long time and he lent me the money to pay up every thing with and took a he is a fine man he has done every thing to help me squire has the necessity of raising the money for the whole of the balance seemed at first to put an end to the mother s hopes or the � v conversation in the evening about buying the house s promises though she had the good sense not to say so the man said that he had nearly given up the idea of selling his house before the next season and as squire was willing to wait he should probably not sell till fall but that some time in the course of the spring or summer he would come and look at his visitor s farm and see whether they could trade she walked slowly home turning round many a time as she moved out toward the main road so as to get a glimpse of the premises from every new position and point of view she in her mind the possibility of raising the money in any way and was calculating how much her own and s united industry might be made to produce in the course of the coming season when she arrived at her own door that evening while she was busy at her spinning wheel and sat upon the broad hearth with his feet out toward the fire she told him of the result of | 22 |
as it could only have been by noble and generous hearts in whom the spirit of god dwelt for three years continued his fruitful in blessed and helped by his sweet wife then he was called to a different sphere after his uncle s death he saw the it was for a of to be also minister in and the injustice it did to some man still looking for his life work so he laid his of office down but only god knew what the sacrifice cost him for he was a bom preacher and happier in his calling than most but what is life � the higher life at least � made up of after all but sacrifice which is the crown of every noble effort of course there did not lack the evil minded and the who attributed other motives to him and his yet what need we care even if the finger of scorn points at us if we be at peace with the god who the reins and the hearts of the children of men mercy not judgment mercy not judgment i have had occasion more than once to mention which was the great house in the was a comparatively small place and the had never been but simple kindly folk making no boast of their though they might have done so without reproach the were cast in a different mould certainly their family was old and part of the mansion house dated from the twelfth century the estate had passed in direct descent from father to son without a break all through these centuries which had witnessed the rise and fall of many a great house it almost seemed as if were from the ordinary of life there had never been nor a ne er do in the family but they were not a race only one or two children at a time were seen in the great house which had sore need of something i � the c the to br it it open to visitors as a place at certain times of the year but never i a long space for like all who have been bred the the lo ed their home and wi not happy away from it the had never ma themselves or homely among fo though those who had dealings with them well of them as just kind but distant seeming to forget that between the ai ordinary folks there was a great gulf fixed tht never had been a title in the family though mai a one had been offered plain mr of inn hall each head of the house had lived and died when i was a wild of adam school playing sometimes with a other kindred spirits pursuing fearful joys in t shape of and in the woods i was in mortal terror of meeting i the young who had no for the evil and looked as if it were not pi that he could ever have been a he was an only child and grew up t kind mothers of many pitied the poor lit lad at who by reason of his rank a estate was shut off from the homely pleasures mercy not judgment life and i know that some prayed for him i have heard my mother say that my grandmother never forgot in her prayers though i suppose his proud father would have resented such a liberty on the part of his tenant s wife little grew up and became a shy reserved man fond of his books and content apparently among the seclusion of his own woods taking a keen interest in the management of his estate hut not seeking to be or or to take his proper place in the county the seldom married young and was forty years of age before he brought a wife to well do i remember the excitement in the first sabbath he appeared in the in the parish church and how the free was that day almost deserted in the anxiety to behold the new lady of the she was a sweet gentle creature looking sadly young and girlish to have the burden of a great estate upon her and many wondered afterwards how she had ever fancied such a grave solemn forbidding looking husband as we soon heard the ins and of the story for gossip travels far and quickly especially when it concerns folk that the land o the the world calls great she was the an english connected with some of best english families and had come from a lu home where there was a merry band of and sisters it was also told that she had b given no voice in the matter but had been take the rich and well born lover who came her yet if it were true she did not t miserable just at first i remember well how sat that day between her father in law and husband their stem faces seeming to her gentle the old man looked at much and often and it was my fancy to thi that an unwonted tenderness softened his cut haughty features and that the piercing e under the shaggy white brows gleamed less han than usual as for himself he did i look like a newly married husband sitting his fair young wife he had married to pie his father so that there might be an heir to inn hall and had chosen one young and gentle that she might not be a trouble to him but wo do his bidding in all things so they shut sweet young creature up in the great house the of their lonely woods and mercy not judgment went on as before sometimes during the first few months she might have been seen riding about the roads near never strangely enough in the company of her own husband who might have been proud to ride by the side of one so | 17 |
cautiously admitted as additional testimony it appears i say and i make the assertion deliberately without fear of contradiction that this globe really was created and that it is composed of land and water it further appears that it is curiously divided and out into and islands among which i boldly declare the renowned island of new will be found by any one who seeks for it in its proper place new york chap iii how far that famous was and how he committed an in not having four sons with the great trouble of philosophers caused thereby and the discovery of america who is the first man we read of three sons ham and authors it is true are not wanting who affirm that the had a number of other children thus makes him father of the gigantic gives him a son called or who was the first of cakes and others have mentioned a son named from whom descended the or or in other words die dutch nation i regret exceedingly that the nature of my plan will not permit me to gratify the curiosity of my readers by the history of the great indeed such an undertaking would be attended with more trouble than many people would imagine for the good � id seems to have been a great traveller in his day and to have passed under a different name in every country that he visited the for instance give us his story merely his name into � a trivial alteration which to an historian skilled in will appear wholly unimportant it appears likewise that he had exchanged his and among the for the gorgeous of and appears as a monarch in their annals the him under the name of the indians as the greek and roman writers con found him with and the with and but the chinese who rank history of among the most extensive and inasmuch as they have known the world much longer than any one else declare that was no other than and what gives this assertion some air of is that it is a fact admitted by the most enlightened that travelled into china at the time of the building of the tower of probably to improve himself in the study of languages and the learned dr gives us the additional information that the ark rested on a mountain on the of china from this mass of rational conjectures and sage many satisfactory might be drawn but i shall content myself with the simple fact stated in the bible that three sons ham and it is astonishing on what remote and obscure the great affairs of this world depend and how events the most distant and to the common observer are inevitably consequent the one to the other it remains to the philosopher to discover these mysterious and is the triumph of his skill to detect and drag forth some latent chain of which at first sight appears a to the inexperienced observer thus many of my readers will doubtless wonder what the family of can possibly have with this history � and many will stare when informed that the whole history of this quarter of the world has taken its character and course from the simple circumstance of the s having but three sons � but to explain we are told by sundry very becoming sole heir and proprietor of the earth in fee simple after the like a good father out his estate among his children to he gave asia to ham africa and to europe now it is a thousand times to be lamented that he had but three sons for had there been a fourth he would doubtless have new york inherited america which of course would have been dragged forth from its obscurity on the occasion and thus many a hard working historian and philosopher would hare been spared a prodigious mass of weary conjecture respecting the first discovery and population of this country however having provided for his three sons looked in all probability upon our country as mere wild unsettled land and said nothing about it and to this of the may we the misfortune that america did not come into the world as early as the other quarters of the globe it is true some writers have him from this towards posterity and asserted tbat he really did discover america thus it was the opinion of mark a french writer possessed of that of thought and of reflection so peculiar to his nation that the immediate descendants of peopled this quarter of the globe and that the old himself who still retained a passion for the life the the pious and enlightened father a french remarkable for his aversion to the marvellous common to all great travellers is of the same opinion nay he goes still further and upon the manner in which the discovery was effected which was by sea and under the immediate direction of the great i have already observed the good father in a tone of becoming indignation that it is an arbitrary supposition that the of were not able to penetrate into the new world or that they never thought of it in effect i can see no reason that can justify such a notion who can seriously believe that and his immediate descendants knew less than we do and that the and pilot of the greatest ship that ever was a ship which was formed to an unbounded ocean and had so many and to guard against should be hi tory of of or should not hare communicated to his descendants the art of sailing on the ocean therefore they did sail on the ocean � therefore they sailed to america � therefore america was discovered by now all this exquisite chain of reasoning which is so strikingly characteristic of the good father being addressed to the faith rather than to the understanding is opposed by | 48 |
lead my present life paused but you be a gentleman s wife and it seems hardly fair that you live like this o yes it is quite fair though i am very well well he married you � and you can be unhappy wives are unhappy sometimes from no fault of their husbands � from their own you ve no faults that i m sure of and he s none so it must be something outside ye both dear will you do me a good turn without asking questions my husband has gone abroad and i have my allowance so that i have to fall back upon my old work for a time do not call me mrs but as before do they want a hand here o yes they ll take one always because few care to come tis a starve acre place com and are all they grow though i be here i feel tis a pity for such as you to come the woman pays � but you used to be as good a as yes but i ve got out o that since i took to drink lord that s the only comfort i ve got now if you engage you ll be set that s what i be doing but you won t like it � � anything will you speak for me you will do better by speaking for yourself very well now remember � nothing about him if i get the place i don t wish to bring his name down to the dirt who was really a girl though of grain than promised anything die asked this is pay night she said and if you were to come with me you would know at once i be real sorry that you are not happy but tis because he s away i know you couldn t be unhappy if he were here even if he d ye no money � even if he used you like a that s true i could not they walked on together and soon reached the which was almost sublime in its there was not a tree within sight there was not at this season a green pasture � nothing but and everywhere in large fields divided by hedges to waited outside the door of the till the group of work folk had received their wages and then introduced her the farmer himself it appeared was not at home but his wife who represented him this evening made no objection to on her agreeing to remain till old lady day female field labour was seldom offered now and its made it profitable for tasks which women could perform as readily as men having signed the agreement there was nothing more for to do at present than to get a lodging and she found one in the house at whose wall she had warmed herself it was a poor of the d that she had but it afford a shelter for the winter at any rate that night she wrote to inform her parents of her new address in case a letter should arrive at from her husband but she did not tell them of the of her situation it might have brought reproach upon him there was no exaggeration in s definition of ash farm as a starve acre place the single fat thing on the soil was herself and she was an of the three classes of village the village cared for by its lord the village cared for by itself and the village for either by itself or by its lord in other words the village of a resident squire s the village of free or copy and the owner s village with the land this place ash was the third but set to work patience that of moral courage with physical timidity was now no longer a minor feature in mrs and it sustained her the field in which she and her companion were set was a stretch of a odd acres in one patch on the highest ground of the farm rising above stony or � the of veins in the chalk formation composed of of loose white in and shapes the upper half of had been eaten off by the live stock and it was the business of the two women to up the lower or half of the root with a fork called a that it might be eaten also every leaf of the vegetable having already been consumed the whole field was in colour a desolate it was a complexion without features as if a face from chin to brow should be only an expanse of skin the sky wore in another colour the same likeness a white of countenance with the gone so these two upper and op the d confronted each other all day long the white face looking down on the brown face and the brown face looking up at the white face without anything standing between them but the two girls crawling over the surface of the former like flies nobody came near them and their movements showed a mechanical regularity their forms standing in � brown tied behind to the bottom to keep their gowns from blowing about � scant revealing boots that reached high up the ankles and yellow gloves with the pensive character the hood lent to their bent heads would have reminded the observer of some early italian conception of the two they worked on hour after hour of the forlorn aspect they bore in the landscape not thinking of the justice or injustice of their lot even in such a position as theirs it was possible to exist in a dream in the afternoon the rain came on again and said that they need not work any more but if they did not work they would not be paid so they worked on it was so high a situation this field that | 45 |
an unusual exhibition the troops were drawn up in a hollow square and the look of on every face showed that something unusual was about to occur a dead silence prevailed for some seconds and then there emerged from a military prison near by a small file of soldiers guarding a man and marching him at a toward the main body the man under guard was dressed in clothing the coat of which was of military cut and color he was evidently in great disgrace for he was hurried along in and about by his escort those behind him carrying their close to his legs it was now evident that the soldiers were drawn up for no other reason than to witness this spectacle the drums began to beat a tune to which the kept time twice was he marched around the square and then the that was with him halted in front of the chief officers of the military bodies present a man in the uniform of a general stepped forward and in a very haughty and severe tone addressed some remarks to the prisoner for such he undoubtedly was my to the parties was not so great that i could hear distinctly what was said but i gathered that the prisoner was a sentence for some of rules and that this public disgrace was part of the penalty that had been pronounced upon him at the end of his the officer deliberately cut the military buttons from the coat worn by the other evidently that he was from wearing those of the service he had then the man was marched back into his jail the band struck up a lively tune and the soldiers were soon out of sight much impressed with the entire affair i could not take my eyes from the disgraced prisoner it struck me that he bore his position with extraordinary fortitude considering the trying circumstances of the case there was nothing of the look in his face nothing in fact but determination and courage by this i do not mean either he marched to the step set for him by the drums as if il were the thing to do knowing that any other course would be met with the treatment out of he listened respectfully to the insulting words ot the officer while a thousand of what were probably his old comrades looked on when all was over he obeyed the order to return to the place of his just as it seemed to me he would have marched to the knife of a had that been the destiny in store for him during the major portion of his march the eyes of the prisoner were fixed on the ground on the way back to the jail however he looked about him like one who knows his present trial is nearly ended and allows his eyes to assume their natural position i was so situated on the outskirts of the crowd that i could now see him plainly the impression i had formed of his being above the ordinary soldier in intellectual was strengthened as he passed near me his gaze met mine i suppose my face reflected the sympathy i felt perhaps the only sentiment of the kind in all that throng either civil or military the prisoner had but a of a second to return my look but in that brief moment he had shot a glance of gratitude that moved me to the utmost when he had passed i turned away with more than a suspicion of moisture in my eyes i wanted to ask the history of this man for it interested me greatly but i could not bring myself to do so i dreaded too much the possibility of hearing that he had done something which would lower him beyond repair in my estimation his pathetic figure and proud face had made an impression on my rather susceptible imagination that i did not wish i decided that it was better to retain this picturesque figure in my memory in and about to have it and by such an as truth for the next three months i wandered over and more and more with the of the climate and the people especially do i love the race whose sons combine the stature of the north american indian with the gentleness of the and the intelligence of the at i never tired of the where the dancing girls of that desert tribe which has furnished entertainment of this sort for centuries sway their bodies to the music of weird instruments wholly in form and tone one of the dancers a creature of sixteen or who combined in her pretty face the attributes of the and the european the latter slightly and bore in her eyes a trace of some ancient of blood was as pretty as any piece of ware i met her in the market place one morning with a baby in her arms even prettier than herself which it took but a glance to see was her own sen fire f i asked and she answered with all imaginable le from all these pleasures i tore myself as spring approached though the delicious climate had not yet begun to be warm returning to i spent a few days in trying for the last time to learn something new about miss s stay there but without avail and to cap the climax i finally received a letter from the lady herself in which the irony was too evident to be mis taken she had learned of my visit to this part of africa and had guessed that it might not be out of with a desire to penetrate the she had guarded so well the letter had made the rounds having been forwarded a dozen times and the envelope was well covered with miss had learned of my whereabouts from a newspaper paragraph confound the who wrote it | 1 |
of engagement with him nor sacrifice one of your own respectability even in the opinion of the world for his sake such a sacrifice would be to you and could be of little service to him for such are the necessary laws for the protection of the female character that should a woman descend but one step from her proper station to draw up a man who has fallen below his she is not only unable to assist him who will not assist himself but becomes inevitably involved in his degradation i was sitting with late one evening my sister having agreed to call for me on her return from a party when my friend closed to me more than she had ever done before of her past life and of fortune i do not like to dwell much upon this theme she said for when i speak of my parents and the home i once enjoyed i feel my failing health too keenly the want of those comforts which a weakly frame is apt to make us pine for the natural heart is affected by natural things and human tenderness ever human weakness thus while i weep too when i think of my own mother and turn too fondly to her past kindness when treated harshly by strangers my desire is to think more and more of that parent whose arm is still near to support me of that home where the weary may find everlasting rest and of those comforts which are provided for the helpless and the i replied that we did well to look to the rest that was eternal for this world had little to offer pictures of private ufe i believe she continued that the true christian may enjoy a degree of peace which almost deserves the name of rest even in this life it is not so much the fault of the world as of our own hearts that we are so tossed about by interests and worn by paltry cares and if we first love god and then the creatures he has formed his own image we shall be able to regard the world of which they form a part without either to it the importance that is ht only by minds or the contempt which h assumed along with a pretence to superior wisdom but if we first love the world we shall find neither time nor ability to devote our to the author of it and however faithful our service may be we must look to the world for our reward and to a jealous god for our punishment let me warn you my dear friend against too great a sacrifice the sake of pleasing it is an amiable desire which leads you on but you must have learned by this time the utter impossibility of gratifying all the wishes of all your friends and there is an economy of time and thought which is necessary in order that we may our powers for more purposes nothing can look more like virtue at first sight than to spend your time your thoughts and talents in the service of others but may not these valuable faculties and possessions be away in things of very trifling importance when they might with just the same degree of kind and generous be more employed the evening was now growing late and as hour hour passed on became more grave and silent until her cheerfulness entirely gave way and she could speak on no theme but one my said she you are with me now for the first time in my hour of weakness � the midnight hour � when my brother has not returned she was pacing to and fro in her narrow apartment and i had no consolation to offer except a few empty words of hope that he would soon be here he will i doubt not she answered � � but h v i had never beheld him except am a man of dignity and wait unable to picture him even to my imagination in any other character we are all that are left of a fallen family she went on the last of a name but this would be nothing if my poor brother could but lay down his head at night with the blessing of heaven upon his the midnight hour was now passed and was still pacing to and fro with weary and irregular steps help hollow cheeks had grown more pale and haggard from the want of natural repose and her dark eyes more bright and flashing with the fever burning in her veins her long locks had been thrown back from her forehead as if to the burden of her brain and it might be with a slight touch of impatience arising from her disorder and the many many times she had paced the floor at the same hour of night na eye was upon her save that which in darkness as at noon day oh t were it possible for man to penetrate the recesses of woman s heart to know all her fervent love her deep anxiety her burning hopes her aching fears her her zeal her of self he would surely sometimes tear himself away from that which is not of the heart to her anguish and snatch her from a premature but lingering death the brother of this woman came at last � aod howl we heard the tread of many feet and one rude laugh before the bell was wrung with a violence that made us start for had been so careful that all the inmates of the should be asleep and unconscious of what might pass that we had spoken softly and seldom for the last hour she took up the lamp in silence and beckoned me to follow did so and received it from her hand when we had reached the which she as i the pains of pleasing | 41 |
be disappointed there are some people to whose minds the distribution of scandal is as great a delight as the sweetest morsel is to the tongue besides there was one person who had a reason for spreading the report had returned and was doing his best to give it circulation received in his mail one morning a thin letter over which a frown clouded his brow the address was in a he had received a letter in the same handwriting not long an letter it related to his wife and to one whom he had held in high esteem he had torn it up furiously in little bits and had dashed them into the waste basket as he had dashed the matter from his mind he was near tearing this letter up without reading it but after a moment he opened the envelope a society notice in a paper the day before had contained the name of his wife and that of mr and this was not the only time he had seen the two names together as his eye glanced over the single page of disguised writing a deeper frown grew on his brow it was only a few lines but it contained a arrow that struck and when the cat s away the will play if you have cut your wisdom teeth you ll know your mouse his name is � it was signed true crushed the paper in his hand in a rage for having read it but it was too late he could not banish it from his mind so many things with it he had heard that was there a great deal why had he ceased speaking of it of late when next met there was a change in the latter he was cold and almost answered and after a little while rose and left him rather when this had occurred once or twice determined to see and have a full explanation accordingly a misunderstanding one day he went his office mr was ont but said he would wait for him in his private office on the table lay a newspaper picked it up to glance over it his eye fell on a marked passage it was a notice of a dinner to which he had been a few evenings before mrs s name was marked with a blue pencil and a line or two below it was his own name marked felt the hot blood into his then a grip came about his throat could this be the cause f could this be the reason for s could have this opinion of after ail these years he rose and walked from the office and out into the street it was a blow such as he had not had in years the friendship of a lifetime seemed to have down in a moment walked home in deep reflection that could treat him so was impossible except on one theory that he believed the story which concerned him and mrs that he could believe such a story seemed absolutely impossible he passed through every phase of regret wounded pride and anger then it came to him clearly enough that if were laboring under any such it was his duty to it he should go to him and clear his mind the next morning he went again to s office to his sorrow he learned that he had left town the evening before for the west to see about some business matters he would be gone some days to see him as soon as he returned had little difficulty in the scandalous story to its true source though he did an injustice in laying the whole blame on him meantime determined that he would not go to mrs s again until after he had seen even though it deprived him of the chance of seeing it was easier to him as he was very busy now pushing through the final steps of his deal with the english this he was the more in as his last visit south had shown him that old mr was beginning to fail i am just now to hear about said the old man � and to settle with that man he added his deep eyes burning under his shaggy brows had little idea that the old man would ever live to hear of her again and he had told him so as gently as he could then i shall kill him said the old man quietly was in his office one morning when his attention was arrested by a heavy step outside his door it had something familiar in it then he heard his name spoken in a loud voice some one was asking for him and the next moment the door opened and squire stood on the threshold he looked worn but his face was serene s told him why he had come and the old man did not leave it in any doubt his greeting was brief he had gotten to new york only that morning and had already been to s office but the office was shut i have come to find her he said and i ll find her or i ll drag him through this town by his neck he took out a pistol and laid it by him on the table was aghast he knew the old man s resolution his face showed that he was not to be moved from it began to argue with him they did not do things that way in new york he said the police would arrest him or if he should shoot a man he would be tried and it would go hard with him he had better give up his pistol let me keep it for you he urged the old man took up the pistol and felt for his pocket i ll find her or i ll kill him he said i have come to do | 46 |
west a bad business � a bad business there was always something in west s stolid face that used to amuse me you should have heard him i don t think spring days she could help it she never loved another man � i really don t but i was going to tell you i once knew a servant a married man he in love with a young woman and they waited long years and when the wife died they married that was all very well long ago west but wives don t die nowadays so aunt mary talked and giving expression to both the pathos and the comedy of her story then feeling that she was at too great length she strove to from the particular incident which she had related and get back to the theme of the conversation i don t know what we shall do i don t know what we are coming to servants are getting too strong for us my last cook gave us no end of trouble the butler used to have to lock up in the and yet i had to give her a character of course it was very wrong of me to enable her to thrust herself upon another family but what was i to do i could not deprive her of the means of earning her living she ll give trouble wherever she goes there is no remedy there really is not i don t know what is to be done unless we ladies combine and refuse to give them characters here aunt mary s thoughts and words began to fail her for she felt she was not getting back to the point where she had entered on her various and without further and quite she said but i forget where i was what were we talking about h we were talking about dear sally and and the need they stand of counsel and help their conduct is to be deeply regretted but theirs is only youthful folly they have not done anything i am sure that � days quite so of course but at the same time a stop must be put to all this nonsense it cannot be allowed i have only to look round to take all in they are worrying their father into his grave his position is a very trying one he has no one whom he can depend on � no one i am alone since poor � aunt mary and aunt looked at each other and they wondered if the terrors of the carving knife were completely forgotten poor james said aunt mary her hands is obliged to go to london every morning from ten till i may say half past six i am never home before seven these girls are their own they go out when they like they order the carriage whenever they like and they invite here every one it pleases their fancy to invite without consulting their father i believe he doesn t even � i know none of the young men who come to my house all i know of them is that they come from the road don t be so silly james put up that handkerchief of course the is one of the great of the place those villa have brought into a host of people that a man living in a big place like the house cannot know � little people who have � not two hundred pounds invested no nor yet a hundred well i don t wish to offend them i ll say small spring days they are all devoured with envy and all they think of is what goes on at the house a lot of young every morning i see them at the station watching me over the tops of their newspapers you must understand poor james up in london toiling not knowing what is going on in his own home and pleasure going on morning noon and i may say night for when james returned home unexpectedly about ten o clock at night he found them � how many were there about a dozen the others had gone drinking his champagne � his very best the last few bottles of port were drunk the that the gardener has been forcing so carefully for months past were all eaten i returned home unexpectedly i had intended to spend the night in london � you know i went there to see about starting on the stock exchange he has drawn three thousand more out of the i hope he won t lose it well i met in pall and he said if i would return by the late train that he would spend the night here and we would go up to town together in the morning i suspected nothing i went into my dining room and there i found them all at supper had it not been for it would not have mattered he was indignant when he saw one of those with his arm round the ba k of grace s chair he says that such company is not fit for the lady that is going to be his wife and he now on fixing the day the and everything or of breaking ofi the match spring days then why don t you fix the day and the grace is not willing she is quite she says she does not know whether she wiu have him or not sally tries to set her against him she laughs at him calls him foolish and the way in which he talks of his things of course it is quite true that he thinks everything he has is better than anybody else s she says he is old and says that kissing him would be like rubbing your face in a the fact is said aunt mary sally ought to have been a man had she been a man it would have | 15 |
therefore remain without risk he had views of his own to be improved by my delay which rendered him rather an interested adviser and in truth we had own so intimate by our late associations that i felt it somewhat difficult to bring myself to the necessary resolution of taking leave but go i must � or inflict upon my good mother and sisters that feminine torture which visits the of this sex when once their apprehensions are excited on any question of health i therefore announced my fixed determination on the subject to the family and met all the arguments which were directed to my resolve with that hardy denial of assent which is the only refuge of a man in such a case my preparations were made and the day of my departure was named for my plan the elements made war against it the very day before my allotted time there came on a soft clouds rain which began soon after breakfast and when we met at dinner hazard came to me rubbing his hands and smiling with a look of triumph to tell me that however obstinate i might be in my purpose here was a flat upon it we generally have said he what we call a long spell in august the rain has begun and you may consider yourself fortunate if you get away in a week i took it as a jest but the next morning when i went to my chamber window i found that ned s exultation was not without some reason it had rained all night not in hard showers but in that gentle noise less of the heavens which showed that they meant to take their own time to themselves of their far as my eye could reach the was clad in one broad heavy gray robe the light was equally over this mass so as entirely to conceal the position of the sun and somewhat nearer to earth small of clouds floated across the sky in swift as if hastening to find their place in the ranks of the sombre army near the horizon i came down to breakfast where the family were assembled at a much later hour than usual a small fire was burning in the hearth the ladies were in and something of the complexion of the sky seemed to have settled upon the countenances of all around me � quiet sober that was not so frequently disturbed as before with of merriment my cousin poured out our coffee with a more and careful attention prudence looked as if she had herself � hung longer over the newspaper than common and permitted us to take our seats at table some time before he gave up reading the news the little girls had a world of care upon their shoulders � and parson his meal with unwonted expedition and then his hands into his pockets went into the ball and walked to and fro thoughtfully clouds hazard was the only one of the party who appeared untouched by the change of the weather and he kept his spirits up by frequent of directed to me on the prospect i had before me after breakfast we went to the door the rain from the down upon the rose bushes the walk was by little rivers that also ran along its borders and the grass plots were filled with lakes the old willow with rain wept tears down every upon the ground the ducks were gathered at the foot of this venerable monument and rested in profound quiet with their heads under their wings beyond the gate an old spent his holiday from labor in undisturbed idleness � his head downcast his tail close to his and his position motion less as some thing only giving signs of life by an occasional slow lifting up of his head � as if to observe the weather � and a short horse like the rain poured on and now and then some one affirmed that it grew brighter and that perhaps at mid day it would clear up but mid day came and the same continual dripping fell from leaf and roof and fence there was neither light nor shade all the picturesque had vanished from the landscape the was full of falling drops and the perspective was mist the dogs crept beneath the porch or with their shaggy and coats into the hall leaving their footsteps marked upon the floor wherever they walked the negro women ran across the yard with their thrown over their heads the working men moved leisurely along like water gods dripping from every point their hats softened into cloth like and their faces beneath them long sober and during the day made frequent excursions out of doors and returned into the house with shoes covered with mud much to the annoyance of clouds mrs who kept up a quick and fire of reproof upon the young as for hazard and myself we ourselves to the library whither had gone before us and there through the thousand by paths of miscellaneous literature changing our topics of study every moment and continually interrupting each other by reading aloud whatever passages occurred to provoke a laugh this grew tedious in turn and then we repaired to the drawing room we found the ladies in a similar mood making the like experiments upon the piano we were all nervous thus came and went the day the next was no better when i again looked out in the morning there stood the weeping willow the same vegetable as before and there the meditative ducks there the same horse � or another like him � looking into the inscrutable recesses of a fence comer and there the dogs and the muddy footed to vary the scene we took and walked holding our way over the wet towards the bridge the like ourselves tired of keeping the house had ranged themselves | 29 |
thing under any circumstances but particularly so in a lonely road where no assistance can be procured papers of what am i to do shouted mr after the had been prolonged for a considerable time what am i to do i can t get on him you had better lead him till we come to a replied mr from the chaise but he won t come roared mr do come and hold him mr was the of kindness and humanity he threw the reins on the horse s back and having descended from his seat carefully drew the chaise into the hedge lest anything should come along the road and stepped back to the assistance of his distressed companion leaving mr and mr in the vehicle the horse no sooner beheld mr advancing towards him with the chaise whip in his hand than he exchanged the motion in which he had previously indulged for a movement of so very determined a character that it at once drew mr who was still at the end of the bridle at a rather quicker rate than fast walking in the direction from which they had just come mr ran to his assistance but the faster mr ran forward the faster the horse ran backward there was a great of feet and kicking up of the dust and at last mr his arms being nearly pulled out of their fairly let go his hold the horse paused stared shook his head turned round and quietly trotted home to leaving mr and mr gazing on each other with countenances of blank dismay a rattling noise at a little distance attracted their attention they looked up bless my soul exclaimed the mr there s the other horse running away the clue i it was but too true the animal was startled by the noise j and the reins were on his back the result may be guessed he tore off with the four wheeled chaise behind and mr and mr in the four wheeled chaise the beat was a short one mr threw himself into the hedge mr followed his example the horse dashed the four wheeled chaise against a wooden bridge separated the wheels from the body and the bin from ihe perch and finally stood stock still to gaze upon the ruin he had made the first care of the two friends was to their unfortunate companions from their bed of � a process which gave them the satisfaction of discovering that they had sustained no injury beyond sundry rents in their garment and various from the the next thing to be done was to the horse this complicated ss having been effected the party walked slowly forward leading the horse among them and the chaise to its fate an hour s walking brought the travellers to a little road side public house with two elm trees a and a sign post in front one or two hay behind a kitchen garden at the and rotten sheds and out houses in strange all about it a red headed man was working in the garden and to him mr called � � � there the red headed man raised his body shaded his eyes with bis hand and stared long and coolly at mr and his companions there repeated mr u was the red headed man s reply papers of how far is it to better er seven mile is it a good road no ta n t having uttered this brief reply and apparently satisfied himself with another scrutiny the red headed man resumed his work we want to put this horse up here said mr i suppose we can can t we want to put that ere horse up do ee repeated the red headed man leaning on his of course replied mr who had by this time advanced horse in hand to the garden rails � roared the man with the red head emerging from the garden and looking very hard at the horse � a tall bony woman � straight all the way down � in a coarse blue with the waist an inch or two below her responded to the call can we put this horse up here my good woman said mr advancing and speaking in his most tones the woman looked very hard at the whole party and the red headed man whispered something in her ear no replied the woman after a little consideration i m on it afraid exclaimed mr what s the woman afraid of it got us in trouble last time said the woman turning into the house i t have to say to un most extraordinary thing i ever met with in my life said the astonished mr i � i � really believe whispered mr as the club his friends gathered round him that they think we have come by this horse in some manner what exclaimed mr in a of indignation mr modestly repeated his suggestion a you fellow said the angry mr u do you think we stole this horse i m sure ye did replied the red headed man with a grin which agitated his countenance from one organ to the other saying which he turned into the house and the door after him it s like a dream � ejaculated mr a hideous dream the idea of a man s walking about all day with a dreadful horse that he can t get rid of the depressed turned away with the tall for which they all felt the most disgust following slowly at their heels it was late in the afternoon when the four friends and their four footed companion turned into the lane leading to farm and even when they were so near their place of destination the pleasure they would otherwise have experienced was materially as they reflected on the of their appearance and the absurdity of their situation torn clothes faces dusty shoes exhausted looks | 8 |
paul for the first time put his foot upon the of in holland and chapter and where shall we go first paul asked dr they landed upon the i don t know sir i think i shall be interested wherever we go this is a big city � isn t it its population is hardly more than half of what it was in the days of its greatest prosperity in the of charles v it is said that twenty five hundred vessels were frequently seen at one time in ttie river it had two hundred thousand inhabitants and was then the richest and most commercial city in europe you perceive that this long line of affords plenty of wharf room indeed the name of the city is said to be derived from a phrase which means on the wharf or on the mr tells another story about its name he says the people claim that the city is very old and that a giant by the name of established himself on the river at this place and set up a kind of custom house he required half the of those who went up the river he used to cut off the hands of those who attempted to and throw them into the river in this way hand a or hand throwing came to be the name ol the place said the young commander i suppose that story is as true now as it ever was but where shall we go asked the doctor i want to get a little nearer to tliat cathedral replied paul that is really the most noted thing in and we will walk up there and i think we shall be able to see the pictures on the church which are required to produce an income the cathedral used to be open till one o clock free to the public but the curtains were carefully drawn over these great works of art after this hour visitors were admitted upon the payment of one and the pictures were exhibited doubtless the same is in a walk of a few moments brought them to the place a little park enclosed with a colossal statue of in the centre everything in is sa id the doctor the people believe in him still and worship his memory why should they he was only a great painter � was he added paul he was more than that he was quite distinguished as a and a he was to england holland and other countries his as an artist and his influence with the crowned heads of several nations caused him to be regarded with deep interest by the people he lived in a splendid mansion for the immense income which he derived from his pencil enabled him to support an i and and i i elegant establishment he had a great number of pupils and at one period in his career they painted part of his pictures he had orders from all the crowned heads of europe and in many of his he only make the designs and give the finishing touches to them he was veiy industrious and painted rapidly as he must have done to produce so many pictures he his customers then � didn t he his did only the heavy work furnished the design and gave the work its finishing touches the celebrated do not m all the of out a statue wherever you go in you will hear of you will find his works in all the galleries you will visit his house in the his pictures will be shown to you in every church and you will see his tomb in st they have on the brain as wc should s iy at home laughed paul yes and they have it badly from this point you have a good view of the cathedral added the doctor as they paused near the statue of where they could see the building over the tops of the trees the is very handsome it is of the most beautiful and delicate you will see i should think it would blow down it is b together with a of iron and the stones are held together with copper how high is it asked paul as he gazed up at the lofty spire there you have me paul i don t know in s guide book it is set down at four hundred and three feet the man up in the tower there it is four hundred and sixty six authorities put it at less than four hundred my guide assured me it was one hundred and forty seven french in but this reduced to english measure would give four hundred and eighty feet my own idea is that is right replied dr as they walked over to the church this asked paul pointing to a beautiful iron in style near the foot of the church tower that s a draw well it is the of i don t know him he was a blacksmith until he was twenty years old when he fell in love with the fair daughter of a painter the story goes that the father would not permit his daughter to marry any man that was not an artist aud the blacksmith abandoned his for the he had a genius for better than his masters he � achieved a great reputation in picture of the which i castle was executed by him they bought a couple of tickets and were admitted to the church the interior was grand and imposing but the chief attraction was the pictures which were now and a small audience was present examining them several artists were making copies of them in the south hangs a the descent from the cross i id soon pa his bride and new art the at young america in holland and i paul did not pretend to be a in paintings and could understand nor appreciate tlie fine | 36 |
wickedness of strikes and again he saw himself as a prominent citizen his clubs and associations were food comfortable to his spirit of a decent man in it was required that he should belong to one two or three of the and prosperity lunch clubs to the the or the to the odd fellows red men knights of knights of and other secret orders by a high degree of sound morals and reverence for the constitution there were four reasons for joining these orders it was the thing to do it was good for business since lodge brothers frequently became customers it gave to americans unable to become or such as high worthy and grand to add to the commonplace distinctions of colonel judge and professor and it permitted the american husband to stay away from home for one evening a week the lodge was his his pavement he could shoot pool and talk man talk and be and was what he called a for all these reasons behind the gold and scarlet banner of his public achieve ments was the background of office routine lists of properties to rent the evenings of and and stimulated him like brandy but every morning he was sandy week by week he accumulated he was in open with his outside and once though her charms had always kept him polite to her he at miss for changing his letters but in the presence of paul he relaxed at least once a week they fled from maturity on saturday they played as a you re a fine player or they all sunday afternoon stopping at village to sit on high at a counter and drink coffee from thick cups sometimes paul came over in the evening with his and even was silent as the lonely man who had lost his way and forever crept down roads spun out his dark soul in music n nothing gave more and than his labors for the sunday school his church the road was one of the largest and richest one of the most and in the was the reverend john drew m a d d ll d the ma and the d d were from university the ll d from college he was eloquent efficient and he presided at meetings for the of or the elevation of domestic service and confided to the that as a poor boy he had carried newspapers for the saturday edition of the evening advocate he wrote on the manly man s religion and the dollars and sense value of christianity which were printed in bold t e surrounded by a border he often said that he was proud to be known as a business man and that he certainly was not going to permit the old satan to all the and punch he was a thin rustic faced young man with gold spectacles and a bang of dull brown hair but when he hurled himself into he glowed with power he admitted that he was too much the scholar and poet to imitate the monday yet he had once awakened his fold to new life and to larger by the challenge my brethren the real cheap is the man who won t lend to the lord he had made his church a true community it contained everything but a bar it had a nursery a thursday evening supper with a short bright missionary lecture afterward a a motion picture show a library of books for young workmen � though unfortunately no young workman ever entered the church except to wash the windows or repair the furnace � and a sewing circle which made short little for the children of the poor while mrs drew read aloud from earnest novels though dr drew s was his was gracefully as he said it had the most features of those noble monuments of grand old england which stand as of the eternity of faith religious and civil it was built of cheery iron spot brick in an improved style and the main had lighting from electric in lavish on a december morning when the went to church dr john drew was unusually eloquent the crowd was immense ten brisk young in morning coats with white roses were bringing folding chairs up from the there was an impressive musical conducted by of the y m ca who also sang the cared less for this because some person had taught young mr to smile smile smile while he was singing but with all the appreciation of a fellow orator he admired dr drew s sermon it had the intellectual quality which distinguished the road congregation from the on smith street at this abundant harvest time of all the year dr drew when though stormy the sky and laborious the path to the yet the hovering and spirit back o er all the labors and desires of the past twelve months oh then it seems to me there sounds behind all our apparent failures the golden chorus of greeting from those passed happily on and lo on the dim horizon we see behind clouds the mighty mass of mountains � mountains of melody mountains of mirth mountains of might i certainly do like a sermon with culture and thought in it meditated at the end of the service he was delighted when the shaking hands at the door oh brother can you wait a want your advice sure doctor you bet drop into my office i think you ll like the cigars there did like the cigars he also liked the office which was distinguished from other offices only by the spirited change of the familiar wall to this is the lord s busy day came in then william w mr was the seventy year old president of the first state bank of he still wore the delicate patches of side whiskers which had been the uniform of in if was envious of the smart set of | 42 |
modesty s sake moreover she saw that she could not save her life if she must fight for it against like this so she put on the forbidden garments knowing what the end would be she was weary of the struggle poor thing we had followed in the wake of the vice and the others � six or eight � and when i saw sitting there forlorn and still in chains when i was expecting to find her situation so different i did not know what to make of it the shock was very great i had doubted the perhaps possibly i had believed in it but had not realized it s victory was complete he had had a harassed and irritated and disgusted look for a long time but that was all gone now and contentment and serenity had taken its place his purple face was full of tranquil and happiness he went trailing his robes and stood in front of with his legs apart and remained so more than a minute over her and enjoying the sight of this poor ruined creature who had won so lofty a place for him in the service of the meek and of the world lord of the universe � in case england kept her promise to him who kept no promises himself presently the judges began to question one of them named who was a man with more insight than prudence remarked upon s change of clothing and said there is something suspicious about this how mark twain could it have come about without on the part of others perhaps even something worse thousand devils screamed in a fury will you shut mouth traitor shouted the soldiers on guard and made a rush for with their it was with the greatest difficulty that he was saved from being nm through the body he made no more attempts to help the inquiry poor man the other judges proceeded with the why have you resumed this male habit i did not quite catch her answer for just then a soldier s slipped from his fingers and fell on the stone floor with a crash but i thought i to say that she had resumed it of her own motion but you have promised and sworn that you would not go back to it i was full of anxiety to hear her answer to that question and when it came it was just what i was expecting she said � quite quietly i have never intended and never understood myself to swear i would not resume it there � i had been sure all along that she did not know what she was doing and saying on the platform and this answer of hers was proof that i had not been mistaken then she went on to add this but i had a right to resume it because the promises made to me have not been kept � promises that i should be allowed to go to mass and receive recollections of f arc the communion and that i should be freed from the bondage of these chains � but they are still upon me as you see nevertheless you have and have especially promised to return no more to the dress of a man then held out her hands sorrowfully toward these men and said i would rather die than continue so but if they may be taken off and if i may hear mass and be removed to a prison and have a woman about me i will be good and will do what shall seem good to you that i do at that honor the compact which he and his had made with her fulfil its conditions what need of that conditions had been a good thing to temporarily and for advantage but they had served their turn � let something of a sort and of more consequence be considered the of the male dress was sufficient for all practical purposes but perhaps could be led to add something to that fatal crime so asked her if her voices had spoken to her since thursday � and he her of her yes she answered and then it came out that the voices had talked with her about the � told her about it i suppose she the heavenly origin of her mission and did it with the mien of one who was not conscious that she had ever it so i was convinced once more that she bad had no mark twain notion of what she was doing that thursday morning on the platform finally she said my voices told me i did very wrong to confess that what i had done was not well then she sighed and said with simplicity but it was the fear of the fire that made me do so that is fear of the fire had made her sign a paper whose contents she had not understood then but understood now by revelation of her voices and by testimony of her she was sane now and not exhausted her courage had come back and with it her loyalty to the truth she was bravely and serenely speaking it again knowing that it would deliver her body up to that very fire which had such terrors for her that answer of hers was quite long quite frank wholly free from or it made me shudder i knew she was sentence of death upon herself so did poor and he wrote in the margin abreast of it fatal answer yes all present knew that it was indeed a fatal answer then there fell a silence such as falls in a sick room when the by the dying draw a deep breath and say softly one to another all is over here likewise all was over but after some wishing to this matter and make it final put this question do you still believe that voices are st | 34 |
all the evil consequences that he can foresee will happen to himself there is too a chance of escaping these evil consequences and as by this system he is not bound to take anything else into consideration he will enter without hesitation upon bis desired course of action thus much will not have been said in vain if it serve to show the need of some work upon that shall take higher and more spiritual views than are presented in the popular it seems to us that m could not have taken a better method to communicate his views to the world than the one he has actually taken he begins by the false systems and showing wherein they are he would thus prepare the way for the true system we shall be obliged to be very brief in our analysis of the book our object in making the analysis is � to recommend the book to our readers and show them what a rich treasure it is � and to afford an opportunity for sundry remarks of our own upon the same topics in his first lecture m speaks of the different relations which a man his relation to god his relation to himself his relation to things his relation to his kind a knowledge of what b implied in and required by these four relations the whole of his philosophy the volumes before us are only an introduction to the great subject they consist mainly in a review of the systems of philosophy which make a system of impossible and a criticism of the and systems of that have been taught i the first system that m is that of necessity by denying that we can choose what we will do it the possibility of a law which shall to us what we ought to do one might as well speak of a moral law for the the great s translation of july ment for the doctrine of necessity is the of god to a thing that that thing is tain else it could not be but freedom of will that he thing about which the freedom is to be exercised is then requires that all things be certain and necessary � freedom of will on the other hand requires that they be the problem is to reconcile the two if god events then he has made them certain or there is a fate behind him that has made them so and they are no longer upon the election of the will it seems impossible to solve this problem without greatly our view of god many do not feel its difficulty but of those that do feel it some adopt the doctrine of and necessity others get what they consider a solution while others like m say that they prefer to give up the of god if either must be given up they think they feel more sure of the freedom of their will than of the of god our only hope of a solution to this problem is by the foreign and contradictory element philosophy has now recognised the fact that time and space are only forms or modes of understanding things and not qualities of things themselves hence things only appear to us to sustain a relation to time and space the time element must therefore be from this problem as foreign and to it we should not then say that god but simply that he knows then there will appear to be no contradiction between god s knowledge and man s freedom ii the next false system which m takes up is the objection to is that it one from all his obligations to men and things and leaves only the relation of man to god and himself and not even these he says that rests upon two facts with all our efforts we cannot attain to more than a very small part of the good which our nature or accomplish except in an imperfect degree our destiny we cannot in this life secure even that measure of good which is actually within our reach except on condition of for the natural action of our faculties another mode of action whose characteristic is s of and whose consequence is fatigue we do not believe that the will acknowledge that these facts are the basis of their system actions like the walls of our houses have two faces which are totally unlike an outside face seen by the observer and an inside one seen by the of the actions only m not being himself a mystic and of course not having seen the inside of cannot represent it to their satisfaction he like everybody else must interpret others by himself it is very likely that a perception of these two facts would make m a mystic if anything would therefore he that it is the cause of wherever it appears we suspect that there must be some facts in the consciousness of a mystic which owing to a constitutional difference are not to be found or at least have not been found in s m however aims at nothing farther than to give an account of in so far as it influences in so far as it proceeds from the facts to which he its origin and leads to the consequences that he points out his remarks are quite satisfactory we should give another account of we should say that it originated in a great of the reason the faculty of insight over the understanding the faculty for explaining and things this constitution of mind is also usually accompanied with a large development of the imagination the mystic up so high as though to god face to face that his feet cannot touch the ground by so doing he sees truths or what he calls truths which his feeble understanding cannot and state he can only his impressions his imagination immediately presents image or series of | 37 |
like the shadow of a hovering kiss mother do not grieve he said i will be great and our fortunes high and you shall wear the longest train at court and look so all the lords shall say she is a royal there s some crown the right head since hers wears naught but oh he is coming now � but i am gray and he � on the st of september in the memorable year some one was expected at court as early as two o clock in the afternoon the aged lodge keeper had opened the heavy gate green as the tree trunks were green with nature s paint deposited year after year already in the village of little which lay on the side of a steep hill not far t ff the lodge gates the elder sat in their best gowns at the few cottage doors the road that they might be ready to get up and make their courtesy when a carriage should come in sight v and beyond the village several small boys were stationed on the look out intending to run a race to the barn like old church where the waited in the ready to set the one bell in joyful agitation just at the right moment the old lodge keeper had opened the gate and left it in the charge of his lame wife because he was wanted at the court to sweep away leaves and perhaps to help in the stables for though court was a large mansion built in the fashion of queen anne s time with a park and grounds as fine as any to be seen in there were very few servants about it especially it seemed there must be a lack of for except on the ter race surrounded with a stone in front of the house where there was a kept with some neatness grass had spread itself over the gravel walks and all the low once carefully cut as black beds for the shrubs and larger plants many of the windows had the shutters closed and under the grand scotch fir that stooped toward one corner the brown fir needles of many years lay in a small stone balcony in front of two such darkened windows all round both near and far there were grand trees motionless in the still sunshine and like all large motionless things seeming to add to the stillness here and there a leaf fluttered down fell in a silent shower a heavy floated by and when it settled seemed to fall wearily the tiny birds alighted on the walks and about in perfect tranquillity even a stray rabbit sat a leaf that was to its liking in the middle of a grassy space with an air that seemed quite impudent in so timid a creature no sound was to be heard louder than a sleepy hum and the soft monotony of running water hurrying on to the river that divided the park standing on the south or east side of the house you would never have guessed that an arrival was expected but on the west side where the carriage entrance was the gates under the stone were thrown open and so was the double door of the entrance hall letting in the warm light on the pillars the marble statues and the broad stone staircase with its worn into large holes and stronger sign of expectation than all from one of the doors which surrounded the entrance hall there came forth from time to time a lady who walked lightly over the polished stone floor and stood on the and watched and listened she walked lightly for her figure was slim and finely formed though she was be fifty and sixty she was a tall proud looking woman with abundant gray hair dark eyes and eyebrows and a somewhat eagle like yet not face her fitting black dress was much worn the fine lace of her thb radical and collar and of the small veil which fell backward over her high comb was visibly mended but rare jewels flashed on her hands which lay on her folded black clad arms like finely cut many times mrs went to the door steps w and listening in vain each time she returned to the same room it waa a moderate sized comfortable room with low book shelves round it and it formed an room to a large library of which a glimpse could be seen through an open doorway partly by a heavy curtain drawn on one side there was a great deal of and on the walls and furniture of this smaller room but the pictures above the book cases were all of a cheerful kind portraits in of ladies with hair powder blue ribbons and low a splendid portrait in of a in the gorgeous dress of the restoration another of a in his boyhood with his hand on the neck of a small pony and a large battle piece where war seemed only a picturesque blue and red accident in a vast sunny expanse of plain and sky probably such cheerful pictures had been chosen because this was mrs s usual sitting room it was certainly for this reason that near the chair in which she seated herself each time she re entered there hung a picture of a youthful face which bore a strong resemblance to her own a but masculine face with rich brown hair hanging low on the forehead and beside each cheek down to the loose white near this same chair were her writing table with covered account books on it the cabinet in which she kept her neatly arranged her basket for her a volume of from which she took her patterns a number of the north herald and the cushion for her fat which was too old and sleepy to notice its mistress s restlessness for just cow mrs could not the | 14 |
that it was any one s fault i do � it was your fault when i ordered you to back water you tossed the oars the oars were right over the man s head if we had backed they would have sent him to the bottom you always know better than your officers if you had obeyed your superior in the boat that man would not have been lost i don t think it was my fault you mean b hat it was my fault i didn t say so replied who was by this time satisfied that it was useless to argue the point that is what you mean and what you have been saying to all the fellows then you left your place and went into the bow of the giving me the lines � a piece of impudence which i should have resented at any other time i should not have done it at any other time mr � you actually took command of the boat and winked me out of sight palace and cottage or i did not intend any perhaps you didn t and i should not have thought anything of it if it hadn t been for the stories which have been told since replied you may be a bigger man than i am but it don t become you to ay so the lieutenant turned on his heel and left very much annoyed by the sharp words of his superior during the interview he had done nothing to justify the speech of the officer he s a said little stepping up to him after hearing a portion of the conversation he is very unfair answered more in grief than in anger he came within one of using me up and i don t feel much obliged to him we shouldn t have saved any one if it hadn t been for you when you took the command out of his hands and managed the boat yourself did you think i took the command away from him i did and all the fellows so and were glad you did was more annoyed than before as little desired he should be he had not intended to his superior though perhaps he had spoken in the excitement of the moment for this offence he was summoned into the presence of the principal had complained of him to the captain it was hard after he had done so well to be accused or even suspected of to his officer and the old adam of his nature prompted him to resent this treatment young america in france and chapter v the bag of gold was the lion of the day but it made very little difference what the thought of him if he had failed to secure the approbation of the principal and the officers the fact that he had been called to the bar after what had passed between himself and to answer to charges indicated that he had incurred the displeasure of mr the complaint against him had at least been heard and notice enough taken of it to call him up he was a young man and he had been struggling for months to overcome the evil in his nature he had been tempted on every hand but thus far he had conquered the very efforts he made to live a good and true life rendered him sensitive to every besides striving to keep his conduct above reproach morally he was also struggling to attain a high position in the ship he had studied very hard and been exceedingly careful in the discharge of all his routine duties so that during the two months of the present term which had elapsed not a single mark for bad conduct and hardly a failure in the lessons had been noted against his name this was his record and anything better was scarcely possible now he was palace and cottage or to be charged with of orders he was willing to acknowledge that he was and guilty he had in the enthusiasm of his humane labors asked to take the and had gone into the fore sheets without orders the better to do the work for which the had been sent out if was troubled and embarrassed the principal was more so the second lieutenant had made a formal complaint to the officer which had been reported to the captain and by him referred to the highest authority on board it was patent to mr and to the officers that was not equal to the position to which he had been assigned in the ordinary routine of the ship he was faithful and capable but when left to his own resources he lacked energy and judgment he was a particular friend of captain haven who had ordered him to the satisfied that the skill of the would the deficiency of the officer it was evident that somebody had been making trouble in the ship but the boys were so ready to talk and to that the special agency of little had not been noticed for it was true that he had been very industrious in stirring up strife the rogue had directed the thoughts of his until poor was under a heavy cloud at the same time was and it was generally understood through the vessel that if the had not taken the command out of the hands of the second lieutenant miss grace would certainly have been drowned by s the complaint which the second lieutenant felt young america in france and obliged to make in self defence had come to the principal and he was compelled to notice it little had actually forced the case into the cabin where he had from the first intended it should go it would be very hard to censure but if an inferior were permitted to take the command away from his officer all discipline would soon be at an | 36 |
eight hours work i p the people of the abyss she made match boxes and earned less her and thread last year mr thomas a police court missionary of note after writing about the condition of the women workers received the following letter dated april � sir pardon the liberty i am taking but having read what you said about poor women working fourteen hours a day for ten shillings per week beg to state my case i am a tie maker who after working all the week cannot earn more than five shillings and have a poor afflicted husband to keep who hasn t earned a penny for more than ten years imagine a woman capable of writing such a clear sensible letter supporting her husband and self on shillings per week mr visited her he had to squeeze to get into the room there lay her sick husband there she worked all day long there she cooked ate washed and slept and there her husband and she performed all the functions of living and dying there was no space for the missionary to sit down save on the bed which was partially covered with ties and silk the sick man s lungs were in the last stages of decay he and constantly the woman ceasing from her work to assist him in his the silken from the ties was not good for his sickness nor was his sickness wages good for the ties and the and of the ties yet to come another case mr visited was that of a young girl twelve years of age charged in the police court with stealing food he found her the mother of a boy of nine a crippled boy of seven and a younger child her mother was a widow and a maker she paid f i a week rent here are the last in her housekeeping account tea i sugar i cent bread cent cents oil cents and i cent good of the soft and tender folk imagine yourselves and keeping house on such a scale setting a table for five and keeping an eye on your mother of twelve to see that she did not steal food for her little brothers and sisters the while you at a nightmare line of which stretched away into the gloom and down to the s coffin a for you i chapter xix the is it well that while we range science in ihe time city children and soul and sense in there among tlie gloomy progress halls on feet crime and hunger cast our maidens by the thousand on the street there the master his haggard of her daily bread there a le sordid holds the living and the dead there the fire of fever across ihe rolled floor and the crowded couch of in the of the poor � at one time the nations of europe confined the jews in city but to day the dominant class by less but none the less methods has confined the yet necessary workers into of remarkable meanness and east london is such a where the rich and the powerful do not dwell and the traveller not and where two million workers swarm and die it must not be supposed that all the workers of london are crowded into the east end but the tide is setting strongly in that direction the poor quarters of the city proper are constantly being destroyed and the main stream of the is the toward the east in the last twelve years one district london over the border as it is called which lies well beyond and mile end has increased or over sixty per cent the churches in this district by the way can seat but one in every thirty seven of the added population the city of dreadful monotony the east end is often called especially by well fed who look over the surface of things and are merely shocked by the intolerable and meanness of it all if the east end is worthy of no worse title than the city of dreadful monotony and if working people are unworthy of variety and beauty and surprise it would not be such a bad place in which to live but the east end does merit a worse title it should be called the city of degradation while it is not a city of as some people imagine it may well be said to be one gigantic from the of simple decency and clean manhood and womanhood any mean street of all its mean streets is a where sights and sounds abound which neither you nor i would care to have our children see and hear is a place where no man s children should live and see and hear where you and i would not care to have our wives pass their lives is a place where no other man s wife i i the people of the abyss should have to pass her life for here in the east end the and brute of life are there is no privacy the bad the good and all together innocent childhood is sweet and beautiful but in east london innocence is a fleeting thing and you must catch an east them before they crawl out of the cradle or you will find the very as wise as you the application of the golden rule that east london is an unfit place in which to live where you would not have your own babe live and develop and gather to itself knowledge of life and the things of life is not a fit place for the the of other men to live and develop and gather to themselves knowledge of life and the things of life it is a simple thing this golden rule and all that is required political economy and the of the can go hang if they say otherwise what is not good enough for you | 21 |
ned s you have a deal to learn she said and they lingered by the gate talking of the revival of the language and how the people would find new inspiration in it maintaining that if ireland had not yet achieved any great literary work it was not because the race was not literary but because it had unfortunately been looking for a long while towards an alien literature he accompanied her to her gate and just as she was about to bid him good bye she begged him to come to supper next sunday and he returned home thinking of her eyes her hair and all her person which so far as he could judge it under her dress seemed well chap iii it was nearly midnight and he lingered in the avenue listening to a in the meadows � a bird it seemed to him in the dusky with a round moon hanging above a line of distant trees a dog in the village and ned remembered that mrs had told him that � mrs s parlour maid � looked upon it as a great treat to be allowed to sleep at home he had learnt from her that eight or nine lived in the cabin two or three sleeping in each bed and they were all sleeping now huddled together he suspected that it was the mystery of the silent night that had caused his thoughts to stray to these lowly lives huddled in sleep yonder at the turn of the road he could just distinguish up in the sky the roll of the mountains dim and grey and he asked himself if he would like to live in this queer empty country accepting its destiny as part of his destiny the last remnant of barbarous europe out notwithstanding all might say to the contrary she was a pretty girl and an interesting girl and he had not discovered a single in her except perhaps her love of music for she didn t like music she only said she did to please him her attempt to accompany him was most unfortunate he hadn t been able to go on and the big girl who had taken s place at the piano hadn t succeeded much better had no doubt been at great pains to learn a little music but one cannot learn music and to rid himself of the memory of his he felt he would like to play something in this avenue under the elm trees � something of s it seemed to him that he had never played so well and on turning his head he saw what he had never seen before � a rainbow i like playing to the moon a much better audience than yonder even the silence seems grey he added everything is hushed mountains and meadows everything except that noisy again he began to think of the lowly lives huddled in sleep in the village and the glimmering panes in the square house under the mountains reminded him that behind one of those windows was probably letting down her red he wished he were with her in a way and began to wonder if he were moving towards some destiny for if he were not why had he come into this queer country among these queer people was it chance that had brought him here or was it that he was going to marry this pretty girl it takes two to make a marriage but ned did not doubt that he would be able to marry if he were so minded and fell to thinking what kind of a wife she would make and if he could love a woman who didn t care for music but it may have been because i was by her she was nervous on another occasion she may play better or is it that she has never lived with musical people a few weeks later he was glad to escape from her music and walk with her under the trees that about the house the rambling airs bore a delicious sweetness and while listening to who was talking about her life in the lonely he wondered whence the sweetness came but did not dare to interrupt her and they passed out of the wood towards the garden the sweetness becoming more intense every minute at last he saw it � a great large as a house covered with white blossoms ah the is it you or the that fills the night with fragrance she raised her eyes in gratitude and the scent became so that they walked into the wood again a seat appeared under a tree and side by side they sat looking at the on the moon the moonlight had taken the out of s eyes and a great deal of the red out of her hair but her hands drooped prettily as they moved along her fan and her face was pointed and pretty and her voice musical and her intense faith in ireland s destiny seemed to have awakened a response in him he believed while he was with her that perhaps the twentieth century would reveal to the world ireland s personality and that the race would pass out of a pastoral into an artistic period and perhaps find a great literary period too now that ireland had returned to her own language perhaps all she says is true about ireland ned muttered to himself as he pursued his way down the long avenue and he began to wonder if he could do as these people of ireland as if she had an independent existence apart from the people in it that was criticism and he would try to put criticism behind him and yield himself to ireland and her language which he had promised to learn � a promise given after seeing for the third time she had however promised to teach him and on the morrow he | 15 |
body believe so in our days grandfather asked possibly there are some who believe it said grandfather but they have not so much power to act upon their belief as the and ministers had in the days of they had the power to deprive this good man of his home and to send him out from the midst of them in search of a new place of rest he was banished in and went first to colony but as the people there held the same opinions as those of he was not suffered to remain among them however the wilderness was wide enough so took his staff and travelled into the forest and made with the indians and began a plantation which he called providence i have been to providence on the railroad said it is but a two hours ride yes replied grandfather but by ic s chair when travelled thither over hills and valleys and through the tangled woods and across and streams it was a journey of several days well his little plantation is now grown to be a city and the inhabitants have a great veneration for his name is familiar in the mouths of all because they see it on their bank bills how it would have perplexed this good clergyman if he had been told that he should give his name to the bank when he was driven from said and began his journey into the woods he must have felt as if he were burying himself forever from the sight and knowledge of men yet the whole has now heard of him and will remember him forever yes answered grandfather it often happens that the of one generation are those who are as the wisest and best of men by the next the fame is that which comes after a man s death but let us return to our story when was banished he appears to have given the chair to mrs anne at all events it was in her possession in she was a very sharp and well instructed lady and was so conscious of her own wisdom and abilities that she thought it a pity that the world should not have the benefit of them she therefore by ic grandfather s used to hold lectures in boston once or twice a week at which most of the women attended mrs presided at meetings sitting with great state and dignity in grandfather s chair grandfather was it positively this very chair demanded laying her hand upon its carved elbow why not my dear said grandfather well mrs s lectures soon caused a great disturbance for the ministers of boston did not think it safe and proper that a woman should publicly instruct the people in religious doctrines moreover she made the matter worse by declaring that the rev mr cotton was the only sincerely pious and holy clergyman in new england now the clergy of those days had quite as much share in the government of the country though indirectly as the themselves so you may imagine what a host of powerful enemies were raised up against mrs a was that is to say an assemblage of all the ministers in they declared that there were opinions on religious subjects diffused among the people and that mrs s opinions were of the number if they had eighty two wrong opinions observed i don t see how they could have any right ones by ic s chair mrs had many zealous friends and continued grandfather she was favored by young henry who had come over from england a year or two before and had since been chosen governor of the colony at the age of twenty four but and most of the other leading men as well as the ministers felt an of her doctrines thus two opposite parties were formed and so fierce were the that it was feared the consequence would be civil war and but and the ministers being the most powerful they and imprisoned mrs s she like was banished dear grandfather did they drive the poor woman into the woods exclaimed little who contrived to feel a human interest even in these of divinity they did my darling replied grandfather and the end of her life was so sad you must not hear it at her departure it appears from the best authorities that she gave the great chair to her friend henry he was a young man of wonderful talents and great learning who had the religious opinions of the and left england with the intention of spending his life in the people chose him governor but the about mrs and other troubles caused him to by ic s chair leave the country in you may read the subsequent events of his life in the history of yes grandfather cried and we may read them better in mr s biography of and what a beautiful death he died long afterwards beautiful though it was on a many of the most beautiful deaths have been there said grandfather the enemies of a great and good man can in no other way make him so glorious as by giving him the crown of in order that the children might fully understand the all important history of the chair grandfather now thought fit to speak of the progress that was ma e in settling several colonies the settlement of in has already been mentioned in mr and mr stone two ministers went on foot from to through the woods taking their whole congregation along with them they founded the town of in mr a very celebrated minister went with other people and began a plantation at new haven in the same year some persons who had been persecuted in went to the isle of since called island and settled there about this time also many had gone to and were by ic grandfather s chair living without any regular government | 35 |
g j g ar m f in with this particular that the coat of the ih high priest was of kind vii the view the has b� en already in the p f op is dependent on the manner in wliich each interpreted that supposed prophecy in the the less does a sure knowledge appear to have had any share in their representation and hence we remain ignorant were cast on the distribution of the clothes of nay whether in general a distribution of clothes took place the cross of confidently as appeals in support of this very particular to the acts of lie had never seen of the conduct of the jews who were present at the of john tells us nothing represents the people as standing to look on and only the rulers nod the soldiers as by the summons to save himself if he were the to which the latter adds the offer of the v ff and mark have nothing here of mockery on part of the soldiers but in compensation they make not only the chief priests and elders but also the vent v ff ff expressions of these i e partly refer to former and actions of thus the sarcasm thou that destroy est the temple and it again in three days save and mark is an allusion to the words of that tenor ascribed to while the reproach he saved others himself he cannot save or save in all ee to his partly however the conduct of the jews towards on the cross is depicted after the same of which says that it contains when it is said in and and they that passed by him their and saying ol je i l mi says of the they him i ov this is certainly nothing else than a mere o of what stands in xxii all that see me laugh me to scorn they shoot out the lip and the head ol i iv and the words which are lent to the in in god let him deliver him now if he will have him m t iv el are the same with those of the following verse in that trusted in the that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him i now the and shaking ot the head on the part of the enemies of may notwithstanding that the description of them is drawn according to the above old testament passage still very probably have really happened it is quite otherwise with the which are attributed to these words which like those above quoted are in the old testament put into the mouth of the enemies of the could not be adopted by the without their voluntarily i so f ot th� ufe of je u tlie of the which they would surely have taken cure to avoid only the christian legend if it once tlie to the of and especially to his last hours attribute these words to the sh rulers and find the fulfilment of a prophecy the first do not tell us that any one of the twelve was present at the of they merely several women three of whom they namely mar the of james the less ami of and as the third according to the mother of the sons of according to mark both are commonly understood to relate to the same person v f mark v f according to these the twelve not yet to have after their flight on the arrest of in on the contrary among all hu acquaintance ol whom he represents as beholding the v the twelve would seem to be included but tl c fourth gospel expressly out from among the the one ir loved i e john as present and among the women together with mary and the wife of as names instead of the of james and john the mother of himself moreover while according to all the other accounts acquaintances of stood off according to the john tlie mother ol have been in the i to the cross since it represents as addressing them from the cross and to be his substitute in the relation to his mother v believes th� it he can remove the contradiction which exists between the s statement and of the th gospel as to the position of the of by the conjecture that at first they did indeed stand at a distance but that some a near to the cross it is to be observed however in opposition to this that the mention that position of the of just at the close of the scene of and death before the taking down from the and thus that had this until the end of the scene a state of tlie case which but be held entirely consistent with the wliich filled the minds of the during those days and still more with feminine timidity if tlie heroism of a nearer approach might perhaps be ex from maternal tenderness still the total silence of as of the common tradition renders reality of that particular doubtful the cannot have known any thing of the presence of the of at the cross otherwise they would have mentioned her as the chief person before all the other women j any thing appear to have been go and even speaks of u l oa the part e au the of je u known of a more intimate relation between her at least in the acts i f the mother of is supposed to be with the twelve in general his brothers and the women of the society it is at least not so easy to understand how the memory of that affecting presence and remarkable relation could be lost as to conceive how the idea of them might in the circle from which the fourth if this circle be imagined as one in the john enjoyed peculiar veneration on which account our | 14 |
of the overhanging waved his enormous boots in above our heads us with tales of love and war and strange experiences of cities and men private s story � landed at last in the little stuff for which your soul longed � back again in the smoky stone north amid the of the � tender and very wise on the of a central india line � judge if i have forgotten old days in the trap as thinks he more than other said she wasn t a real but a i don t as her was a bit like but she was a why she rode iv a carriage an good too an her air was that as you could see your in it an she wore di rings an a chain an silk an satin dresses as a cost a deal for it isn t a cheap shop as keeps enough o one pattern to fit a figure like hers her name was mrs an t i to be acquainted wi her was along of our colonel s s dog i ve seen a vast o dogs but was t prettiest of a fox at i set eyes on he could do you like but an t colonel s set more store by him than if he been a christian she of her but they was england and seemed to get all t and as belonged to a by good right but were a bit on a an a habit o out o like and round t as if he were t magistrate round the colonel him once or twice but didn t care an kept on his rounds wi his a as if he were flag i private s story to t world at lai e at he was on nicely thank yo and how s yo sen an then t colonel as was sort of a hand wi a dog him a real of a dog an it s wonder yon mrs should a fancy him s one o t ten says yo t your s ox nor his but it doesn t say about his dogs an happen s t reason why mrs tho she went to church lar along wi her husband who was so darker at if he t such a good his back yo might ha called him a black man and nut tell a lee they said he his brass i an he d a rare lot on it well you seen when they up t poor lad didn t enjoy very good so t colonel s sends for me as ad a for bein about a dog an what s wi him why says i he s t an what he wants is his an like t rest on us happen a rat or two ud him it s low says i is rats but it s t nature of a dog an s round an another dog or two an t time o day an a bit of a turn up wi him like a christian so she says her dog fight an christians fought then what s a soldier for says i an i explains to her t qualities of a dog at when yo to think on t is one o t things as is for they to behave like gentlemen born fit for t o � they tell private s story me t herself is fond of a good dog and one when she sees it as well as body then on t other hand a round after cats an mixed i all manners o street rows an rats an like t colonel s says � well i t agree wi you but you re right in a way o an i should like yo to out a wi you sometimes but yo t let him fight nor chase cats nor do an them was her very an me out a o s he bein a dog as did credit a man an i catches a lot o rats an we a bit of a match on in an dry bath at back o t an it was none so long afore he was as bright as a button again he a way o at them big dogs as if he was a a bow an though his weight were he em so they rolled over like in a an when they he stretched after em as if he were with cats when he get t cat o one him an me was a compound wall after one of them at he d started an we was busy round a bush an when we looks up there was mrs wi a her shoulder a us oh my i she sings out there s that dog would he let me stroke him soldier ay he would i for he s fond o here an to this kind an at t c i private story clean up like t gentleman he was a shy nor oh you beautiful � you dog she says an her speech in a way them has o their i would like a dog like you you are so � so an all sort o talk at a dog o sense thinks on tho he it by reason o his an then i him my an hands an beg an lie dead an a lot o them tricks as dogs though i t with it for it s a fool o a good dog to do such like an at length it out at she d been sheep s eyes as t is at for many a day yo see her was grown up an she d to do an were fond of a dog she me if i d to an we goes into t drawn room her was a they a fuss t dog an i has a bottle o an he gave | 39 |
out than would have recalled them he had ao a young man of forty felt in a moment that they his cause mother loved you said gazing at him yes he murmured you were not her false young man surely that one yes yes say no more about it who ran away from her almost then i can never y never like you again i didn t know it was a gentleman � i � i it wasn t a gentleman then oh sir please go away i can t bear the sight of ee at this moment perhaps i shall get to � to like you as i did but � no i m d� d if til go away said thoroughly irritated i have been candid with you you ought to be the same with me what do you want me to tell enough to make it clear to me why you don t accept this offer everything you have said yet is a reason for the reverse now my dear i am not angry yes you are the well beloved no i m not now what is your reason the name of it is down home how i mean he me and led me on to island custom and then i went to chapel one morning and married him in secret because mother didn t care about him and i didn t either by that time and then he quarrelled with me and just before you and i came to london he went away to then i saw a soldier i never knew his name but i fell in love with him because i am so quick at that still as it was wrong i tried not to think of him and wouldn t look at him when he passed but it made me cry very much that i mustn t i was then very miserable and you asked me to come to london i didn t care what i did with myself and i came heaven above us said his pale and distressed face showing with what a shock this announcement had come why have you done such extraordinary things or rather why didn t you tell me of this before then at the present moment you are the wife of a man who is in whom you do a young man of forty not love at all but instead of him love a soldier whom you have never spoken to while i have nearly brought scandal upon us both by your letting me love you really you are a very wicked woman no i am not she still looked pale and rather frightened and did not lift her eyes from the floor i said it was nonsense in you to want to have me she went on and even if i hadn t been married to that horrid i couldn t have married you after you told me that you was the man who ran away from mother i have paid the penalty he said sadly men of my sort always get the worst of it somehow now � i ll call you dear for your mother s sake and not for your own � i must see what i can do to help you out of the difficulty that unquestionably you are in why can t you love your husband now you have married him looked aside at the as if the of her organization were not very easy to define was he that black bearded typical local character i saw you walking with one the day the same as mine though of course you don t notice that in a place where there are only half a dozen yes that was ike it was that evening we he me again and i answered him and the next day he went away well as i say i must consider what it will be best to do for you in this the first thing it seems to me will be to get your husband home she impatiently shrugged her shoulders i don t like him then why did you marry him i was obliged to after we d proved each other you shouldn t have thought of such a thing it is ridiculous and out of date nowadays ah he s so old fashioned in his notions that he doesn t think like that however he s gone ah � it is only a between you i dare say i ll start him in business if he ll come is the cottage at home still in your hands yes it is my is taking care o it for me a young man of forty good and back there you go straightway my pretty madam and wait till your husband comes to make it up with you i won t go i don t want him to come she sobbed i want to stay here or anywhere except where he can come you will get over that now go back to the flat there s a dear and be ready in one hour waiting in the hall for me i don t want to but i say you shall she found it was no use to precisely at the moment appointed he met her there himself only with a and umbrella she with a box and other things directing the porter to put and her into a four wheeled cab for the railway station he walked out of the door and kept looking behind till he saw the cab approaching he then entered beside the astonished girl and onward they went together they sat opposite each other in an empty and the tedious railway journey began regarding her closely now by the light of her revelation he wondered at himself for never her secret whenever he an the well beloved looked at her the girl s eyes grew rebellious and at last she wept i don | 45 |
the man took one of the glasses from the little rack and filled it by turning one of the when the boy had taken his drink and paid the money the man wiped the glass with a which he kept for the purpose and then putting it back in its place on the rack he went on his little bell in the mean time the crowd of people seemed to increase and it appeared to and the fields how to find the way to in a strange city they came to observe particularly that they were nearly all walking one way and that was up the avenue as if there were some place in that direction where they were all going e ii supposed that of course it was a church he had been told by his father when they were travelling in england that when he was in any strange place on sunday and wished to find the way to church one good method was to observe in the streets whenever he saw any considerable number of people moving in the same direction and to join and follow them he would in such cases his father said be very sure to be conducted to a church and after going in he would generally find some one who would show him a seat and had often practised on this plan in fact they took a particular interest and pleasure in going to church in this way as there was something a little of the nature of adventure in it when accordingly the children observed that the great mass of the people that filled the two side avenues as well as the carriages that were in the central one were all moving steadily onward together paying little attention to the and and other places and means of amusement which were to be seen under the trees on either hand he concluded that while some of the people of paris were willing to amuse them in paris and conclude to go to church and selves with sports and on sunday the more respectable portion would not stop to look at them but went straight forward to church and he and resolved to follow their example i should like to see all these things very much said some other day but now we will go on to the church where the rest of the people are going very cordially approved of this plan and so they walked on together it happened that at the time when they came to this determination there was walking just before them a party consisting apparently of a father and mother and their two children the father and mother walked together first and the two children hand in hand followed the oldest child was a girl of about s age the other was a very small boy just beginning to learn to talk and came immediately behind these children and were very much interested in hearing them talk together especially to hear the little one in french he called his sister and she called him thus and knew the names of the children but they had no way of finding out what were the names of the father and mother now said in a low tone i the fields tlie machine a theatre witli images for actors think we had better follow this party and keep close to them all the time and then when we get to the church perhaps they will give us a seat liked this proposal very much and so she and walked along after and not too near them but so near as to keep them always in sight sometimes the party turned aside from the avenue to walk under the trees and sometimes they stopped a few minutes to look at some curious exhibition or spectacle which was to be seen at one place a man had a square marked off and enclosed with a line to keep the crowd back and in the middle he had an machine with which he gave to any of the who were willing to take them a boy kept turning the machine all the time at another place was a little theatre mounted on a high box so that all could see with little images about as large as dancing on the stage or holding with each other the words were really spoken by a man who was concealed in the box below but as the little images moved about continually and made all sorts of corresponding with what was said it seemed to the precisely as if they were speaking themselves besides this the images would walk about in paris whirling machines hunting each other quarrel and fight each other run out at little doors and come in again and do a great many other things which it was very wonderful to see such little figures do there were places too where there were great whirling machines under splendid tents and with horses and boats and ships and at the of them all of which were made to sail round and round through the air carrying the children that were mounted on the horses or sitting in the ships and boats there were also several places for shooting at a mark with little spring guns which were loaded with peas instead of there were figures of bears lions ducks deer and other animals at a little distance which were kept moving along all the time by machinery for the children to shoot at with the peas if they hit any of them they drew a prize consisting of cake or or of some sort of or toy of which great numbers were hanging up about the shooting place all these and a great many other similar for amusing people and jane saw as they passed along but they did not stop to look at them excepting when the gentleman and lady stopped whom they | 22 |
she is well at home in life and she has the traditions and prejudices of the service at her er ends � literary world a charming volume in this clever writer s best style very few story ve us more real children than john strange winter and no one gives us soldiers more real and life like � mrs s stories will always appeal to a certain section of the public red coats is a collection of short tales in her usual easy going style she has proved before now that she knows army life on the very tips of her fingers john strange winter has what few writers possess the power of making commonplace people interesting and stupid people � the june grown vo cloth s d boards s each my or experiences of a lady help my is bright and often amusing the story is full of shrewd observation and lively character sketches � post july a capital tale of society life the is extremely good and like all the s books the story is written � � � r july my is another pleasantly written story we are glad to see the lesson enforced that the best hearts and even the best manners do not belong exclusively to blue blood and that even a man who drops his h s may be a truer gentleman than the who looks down upon him the tale is entertaining john strange winter can never be dull � july only human only human is a powerful story true to its title in that it with human passion human weakness and human suffering it strikes an ever sensitive of human sympathy and is in every respect worthy of the genial and author of � daily telegraph april this novel is well named it is very human and it is for that reason one of if not the best that john winter has written since harvest � lady s may f v white co street strand w c works by john strange winter crown vo cloth s d each aunt a very amusing and told tale � daily april if anybody wants a novel which will not bore him by elaborate analysis and tiresome descriptions but will simply provide him with a few hours of light and bright entertainment let him put aunt at the head of his library list and like the baby in the advertisement refuse to be happy until he gets it � spectator f john strange winter has surpassed herself in aunt which is as fresh bright genial and one may almost say jovial a story as anyone would wish to read � june the soul of the bishop the last person from whom we should have expected a religious novel is the writer who signs herself john strange winter but the story proves to be by far the best and most thoughtful piece of work that its writer has yet attempted suffice it to say that both the bishop and are powerfully drawn and that john winter has given a skilful and thoughtful setting to the problem she has put before herself and her readers � standard a powerful story quite off the beaten track and worthy of the fame of the writer � lady s we have read few things of the kind that are better than the story of bishop s courtship � s it is in our opinion the best and strongest work she has ever done � herald a seventh child the experiences of a this remarkably successful novel is suggested by the old superstition that the seventh child of a seventh child is gifted with the second sight it may assuredly be said of the idea on which mrs s new novel is based that if not true it is imagined and developed whose gift causes so many painful is made to tell her own story which she does with a simplicity not with malice � august one of the best stories john strange winter has written ia a seventh child � telegraph august a seventh child is of absorbing interest and is certainly one of her best efforts � times august f v white co street strand w o works b y john winter in one vol crown vo cloth gilt s a born soldier i re mental life is as truly and happily hit off in a born soldier as in any work of the brilliant series that has given john strange winter her high and unique reputation we remember for instance nothing better than the drawing of amongst the many practical jokes that her soldier boys have played from time to time our chief quarrel with the book is tliat it gives us comparatively little of the life in what however is done in this way is done well and there is certainly no other writer who could give such an appearance of vitality to the of outlines and by a few bold swift and touches produce a picture of life in a crack cavalry regiment upon one character indeed the author has expended a more careful and will bear comparison with the best of the soldier servants whom john strange winter has depicted for us with a finely humorous appreciation of their and yet with an accuracy that never from the subject line the story is full of interest from the first to the last it is written in a bright lively natural and often vein � county y an unusually bright wholesome and interesting story � truth john strange winter has never written a tale of more sustained interest it is full of go presents some very excellent character sketches and is altogether a delightful and characteristic piece of literary work � and ds october the s w small crown vo paper covers is cloth is d like all mrs s books it is just the thing to read when one is tired she is never heavy if | 30 |
with him the the waiting supper position in which she was placed would he call upon her on sunday afternoon when she was sure to be alone she wrote on what a you are i expected to find my old still but i was quite awed in the presence of such a citizen of the world did i seem rusty and ah � you seemed so once to me tender words the old was in them she said sunday afternoon and it was now only saturday morning he wished she had said to day that short revival of her image had to sudden heat feelings that had almost been whatever she might have to explain as to her position � and it was awkwardly no doubt � he could not give her up miss or mrs what mattered it � she was the same he did not go outside the inn all saturday he had no wish to see or do anything but to wait the coming interview so he smoked and read the local newspaper of the previous week and himself in the chimney comer in the evening he felt that he could remain indoors no longer and the moon being near the full he started from the inn on foot in the same direction as that of yesterday with the view of contemplating the old village and its and hovering round her house under the of night with a stout stick in his hand he climbed over the five miles of in a comparatively short space of time had seen many strange lands and trodden many strange ways since he last walked that path but as he he seemed wonderfully like his old self and had not the slightest difficulty in finding the way in descending to the the streams perplexed him a little some of the old having been removed but he ultimately got across the larger water courses and pushed on to the village avoiding her residence for the moment lest s the waiting supper she should him and think he had not respected the time of her appointment he found his way to the churchyard and first ascertained where lay the two relations he had left alive at his departure then he observed the of other inhabitants with whom he had been well acquainted till by degrees he seemed to be in the society of all the elder population as he had known the place side by side as they had lived in his day here were they now they had moved house in mass but no tomb of mr was visible though as he had lived at the house it would have been natural to find it here in truth was more anxious to discover that than anything being curious to know how long he had been dead seeing from the glimmer of a light in the church that somebody was there cleaning for sunday he entered and looked upon the walls as well as he could but there was no monument to her husband though one had been erected to the squire addressed the young man who was sweeping i don t see any or tomb to the late mr o no sir you won t see that said the young man � why pray because he s not buried here he s not anywhere as far as we know in short perhaps he s not buried at all and between ourselves perhaps he s alive sank an inch shorter ah he answered then you don t know the peculiar sir i am a stranger here � as to late years mr was a traveller � an � it was his calling you may have heard his name as such i remember recalled the fact that this the waiting supper very bent of mr s was the to his own well when he married he came and lived here with his wife and his wife s father and said he would travel no more but after a time he got weary of quiet here and weary of her � he was not a good husband to the young lady by any means � and he himself again to his old trick of � with her money away he went quite out of the realm of human foot into the of asia and never was heard of more he was murdered it is said but nobody knows though as that was nine years ago he s dead enough in principle if not in his widow lives quite for between her husband and her brother she s left in very lean age went back to the buck s head without hovering round her dwelling this then was the explanation which she had wanted to make not dead but missing how could he have expected that the first fair promise of happiness held out to him would remain she had said that she was free and she was free no doubt moreover from her tone and manner he felt himself justified in concluding that she would be willing to run the risk of a with him in the of her husband s existence even if that husband lived his return was not a event to judge from his character a man who could spend her money on his own personal adventures would not be anxious to b her poverty after such a lapse of time well the prospect was not so as it had seemed but could he even now give up vii two months more brought the year nearly to a close and found long tenant of a spacious house in the market town nearest to a man the waiting supper of means genial character and a bachelor he was an object of great interest to his neighbours and to his neighbours wives and daughters but he took uttle note of this and had made it his business to go twice a week no matter | 45 |
upon all that and cheered their earthly path but they are to a better land and they have only to press onward in the simplicity of humble christians and the gates of the celestial city will soon be won religion with the world s contempt and hunted from the earth by the powerful of public authority is ever the religion of the heart and the were it otherwise it could not stand its ground but dignity and disgrace and even life and death become as nothing in comparison with that righteous cause which men feel themselves called upon faithfully to before a people for the glory of god and the benefit of their fellow creatures if it be a test of the love which a man bears for his brother that he will lay down his life for him the test of must also apply to his and pure and devoted must be the love of him who holds himself at all times in a state of readiness to lay down the last and dearest sacrifice upon the altar of his faith yes that must be love indeed which all earthly and natural which the mother from her weeping child the husband from his wife of yesterday the friends who had been wont to take sweet counsel together and last but not least which tears away the fond thoughts of promised happiness from the heart around which they cling when it beats with the of youth the poetry op religion fill hope and in the anticipated sunshine of bright days to come in which the lovely and the loved may dwell together in peace and safety even upon earth it is not a light or love that can thus the strongest ties of life and the soul not only to endure all that our nature from but to resign all that our nature teaches us to hold dear from the worship of e heart we turn to that of the � from religion robbed of its external attributes restrained and per and driven inward to the centre of and sealed up in the fountains of spiritual life to that which powerful nations combine to support before which bow and which supreme above the sends forth its awful and imperious through distant regions of the peopled world we enter the magnificent and stately edifice consecrated to the worship of a no longer partially acknowledged or at the risk of life and we mark the pomp and the designed to that worship to the general acceptance of mankind through the richly windows bright beams of golden splendor are glancing on the marble floor and lighting up the of departed worth deeds of heroic virtue long since but for that faithful record are dimly out upon the and the forms that bend in silent beauty over the unbroken of the dead point with an awful warning to the inevitable doom of man above around and beneath us are the pages on which human labour has inscribed the memorial of its power � the raised by art against the of time � the upon stone which the intellectual progress of past ages we gaze up i on the aisle with alternate and shadow where the stately i columns in the solemn arch rise hke tall palm trees in the desert plain i whose graceful branches meet in stately grandeur above the head of the i r while he pauses to bless their come shade and thinks how lovely are the green spots of in the wilderness � the fertile islands that a waste and t troubled sea we listen and the measured tread of sober feet is the only sound that the silence of that sacred place � we listen till the beating of our own hearts becomes audible and we almost fear that a stir � a should break the of the dead � we listen and suddenly the tremendous peal of the deep toned organ bursts upon our ear and sweet yoimg voices like a of pure spirits join the heavenly as it rises in a louder strain of harmony and echoes though every arch of the pile the ceases and the of prayer from a thousand hearts as formed as the lips from whence that prayer proceeds yet all in the worship of one god � all acknowledging his right to reign and rule with sway perhaps it is the hour of evening worship and instead of the bright glancing through the many tinted windows and penetrating into the distant recesses of the cathedral pile artificial lights of inferior lustre gleam out here and there like stars in the midnight sky making the intervening darkness more palpable and profound it is the hour when every soft and solemn influence is poured most upon the prostrate soul when the sordid and cares of the day are over and religion like an angel of peace upon the troubled spirit that knows no other resting place than her � ho other shelter than her brooding wing it is the hour when all our warmest purest and forth like of sweetness and refreshment watering the of the path of life and producing fresh loveliness and renewed delight it is the hour when prayer is the natural language of the devoted soul and here the humble penitent is kneeling to the pardon promised to the broken and heart � there the parent devoutly asks a blessing upon his family and his household upon the wife of his bosom and the children of his love � here the poor his pale brow before the eye of heaven and stands without a blush in that presence to which wealth is no and from which poverty no plea for � there the rich of law humbly the poetry op life i his knee and that without the sanction of divine authority the judgment of man must be vain and his sentence void � here the miserable outcast from society | 41 |
directly look for comfort to her cousin and he told her such charming things of what william was to do and be hereafter in consequence of his profession as made her gradually admit that the separation mi t have some use s friendship never her his leaving for oxford made no change in his kind dispositions and only afforded more frequent opportunities of proving them without any display of doing more l than the lest or any fear of doing too he was always to her interests and considerate of her to make her good qualities understood and to conquer the which prevented their being more apparent giving her advice consolation and encouragement kept back as she was by everybody else his single support could not her forward but his attentions were otherwise of the highest importance in assisting the improvement of mind and extending its pleasures he knew her to be clever to have a quick apprehension as well as good sense and a fondness for reading which properly directed must be an education in itself miss lee taught her french and heard her read the daily portion of history but he recommended the books which charmed her leisure hours he encouraged her taste and corrected her judgment he made reading useful by talking to her of what she read and hei its attraction by judicious praise in return for such services she loved him better than anybody in the world except william her heart was divided between the chapter in the first event of any importance in the family was the death of mr which happened when was about fifteen and necessarily introduced alterations and mrs on the removed first to the park and afterwards to a small house of sir thomas s in the village and consoled herself for the loss of her husband by considering that she could do very well without him and for her of income by the evident necessity of economy the living was hereafter for and had his uncle died a few years sooner it would have been duly given to some friend to hold till he were old enough for orders but tom s extravagance had previous to that event been so great as to render a different disposal of the next and the younger brother must help to park i for the pleasures of the there was another living for but this had made the arrangement somewhat easier to sir thomas s conscience he not but feel it to be an act of injustice and he earnestly tried to impress his eldest son with the same conviction in the hope of its producing a better effect than he had yet been able to say or do i for you tom said he in his most dignified manner i blush for the expedient which i am driven on and i trust i may pity your feelings as a brother on the occasion you have robbed for ten twenty thirty years perhaps for hfe of more than half the income which ought to be his it may hereafter be in my power or in yours i hope it will to procure him better but it must not be forgotten that no benefit of that sort would have been beyond his natural claims on us and that nothing can in fact be an equivalent for the certain advantage which he is now obliged to forego through the of your debts tom listened with some shame and some sorrow but escaping as quickly as possible could soon with cheerful selfishness reflect first that he had not been half so much in debt as some of his friends secondly that his father had made a most tiresome piece of work of it and that the future incumbent whoever he might be would in all probability die very soon on mr s death the became the right of a dr grant who came consequently to reside at and on proving to be a hearty man of forty five seemed likely to disappoint mr s calculations but no he was a short sort of fellow and plied well with good things would soon pop off he had a wife about fifteen years his junior but no children and they entered the neighbourhood with the usual fair report of being very respectable agreeable people the time was now come when sir thomas expected his sister in law to claim her share in their niece the change in mrs s situation and the improvement in s age seeming not merely to do away any former objection to their living together but even to give it the most decided c park and u his own were rendered lot fail than heretofore by some recent losses on his west india estate in addition to his eldest son s extravagance it became not to himself to be relieved from the a of her support and the of her future pro vision in fulness of his belief that such a thing must b he mentioned its probability to his wife and the first time of the subject s to her again happening to be when was present she calmly observed to her so you are going to leave us and live with my sister how shall you like it i was too much surprised to do more than repeat her aunt s words going to leave you i yes my dear why should you be astonished yoa have been five years with us and my always meant to take you when mr died but you must come up and tack on my patterns all the same the news was as disagreeable to as it had been unexpected she had never received kindness from her aunt and could not love her i shall be very sorry to go away said she with a voice yes i dare say you will natural enough i suppose you have had as little to vex you since you | 26 |
her father s release from prison by the hand of death � the only change of circumstance he could foresee that might enable him to be such a friend to her as he wished to be by her whole manner of life her rough road and giving her a home � he regarded her in that perspective as his adopted daughter his poor child of the hushed to rest if there were a last subject in his thoughts and it lay towards its form was so indefinite that it was little move than the atmosphere in which these other subjects floated before him � little he had crossed tho heath and was leaving it behind when he gained upon a figure which had been in advance of him for some time and which as he gained upon it he thought he knew he derived this impression from something in the turn of the head and in the figure s action of consideration as it went on at a sufficiently sturdy walk but when the man � for it was a man s figure � pushed his hat up at the back of his head and stopped to consider some object before him he knew it to be daniel how do you do mr said him i am glad to see you again and in a place than the office ha mr s friend exclaimed that public criminal coming out of some mental he had been making and offering his hand i am glad to see you sir will you excuse me if i forget your name readily it s not a celebrated name it s not no no said daniel laughing and now i know what it is it s how do you do mr i have some hope said arthur as they walked on together that we maybe going to the same place mr meaning returned daniel i am glad to hear it they were soon quite intimate and lightened the way with a variety of conversation the ingenious was a man of great modesty and good sense and though a plain man had been too much accustomed to combine was original and daring in conception with what was patient and minute in execution to be by any means an ordinary man it was at first difficult to lead him to speak about himself and he put oft arthur s advances in that direction by admitting slightly oh yes he had done this and he had done that and such a of his making and such another thing was his discover but it was his trade you see his trade until as he gradually became assured that his companion had a real interest in his account of himself he frankly yielded to it then it appeared that he was the son of a blacksmith and had originally been by his mother to a lock maker that he had struck out a few little things at the lock maker s which had led to his being released from his with a present which present had enabled him to gratify his ardent wish to bind himself to a working engineer under whom he had labored hard learned hard and lived hard seven years his time being out he bad worked in the shop at weekly wages seven or eight years more and had then himself to the banks of the where he had studied and filed and and improved his knowledge and practical for six or seven years more there he had had an offer to go to which he had accepted and from had been engaged to go to germany and in germany had had an offer to go to st and there had done very well indeed � never better however he had naturally felt a preference for his own country and a wish to gain distinction there and to do whatever service he could do there rather than elsewhere and so he had come home and so at home he had established himself in little business and had invented and executed and worked his way on until after a dozen years of constant suit and service he had been in the great british of honor the of the of the office and had been decorated with the great british order of merit the order of the disorder of the and it is much to be regretted said that you ever turned your thoughts that way mr true sir true to a certain extent but what is a man to do if he has the misfortune to strike out something serviceable to the nation he must follow where it leads him hadn t he better let it go asked he can t do it said shaking his head with a thoughtful smile it s not put into his head to be buried it s put into his head to be made useful you hold your life on the condition that to the last you shall struggle hard for it every man holds a discovery on the same terms that is to say said arthur with a growing admiration of his quiet companion you are not finally discouraged even now i have no right to be if i am returned the other the thing is as true as it ever was when they had walked a little way in silence at once to change the direct point of their conversation and not to change it too abruptly asked mr if he had any partner in his business to relieve him of a portion of its anxieties no he returned not at present i had when i first entered on it and a good man he was but he has been dead some years and as i could not easily take to the notion of another when i lost him i bought his share for myself and have gone on by myself ever since and here s another thing he said | 8 |
than shirt making and your plain sewing is so beautiful said that i think i shall beg a few specimens of you to show as work your exquisite sewing is quite a mystery to me � you used to dislike that sort of work so much in old days it is a mystery easily explained dear said looking up quietly plain sewing was the only thing i could get money by so i was obliged to try and do it well good and simple as she was could not help blushing a little she did not quite like that should know that � need not have mentioned it perhaps there was some pride in the confession the pride of poverty that will not be ashamed of itself but if had been the queen of she could hardly have invented a means of giving greater to her beauty in s eyes i am not sure that the quiet admission of plain sewing and poverty would have done alone but assisted by the beauty they made more unlike other women even than she had seemed at first but i can knit went on if that will be of any use for your oh yes of infinite use i shall set you to work with scarlet wool to morrow but your sister is the most ok the person continued turning to to have the talent of she is doing a wondering bust of dr entirely from memory why if she can remember to put the eyes very near together and the comers of the mouth very r apart the likeness can hardly fail to be striking in st s now that is very wicked of you said looking rather hurt i didn t think you would speak of dr i say anything of dr heaven forbid but i am not bound to respect a bust of him i think one of the finest fellows in the world i care much about the tall he has put on the table and i shouldn t like to spoil my temper by getting up to early prayers every morning but he s the only man i ever knew personally who seems to me to have anything of the real in him � a man who has eight hundred a year and is contented with deal furniture and boiled beef because he gives away two thirds of his income that was a very fine thing of him � taking into his house that poor lad who shot his mother by accident he sacrifices more time than a less busy man could spare to save the poor fellow from getting into a morbid state of mind about it he takes the lad out with him constantly i see that is beautiful said who had let her work fall and was listening with keen interest i never knew any one who did such things and one that sort of action in all the more said because his in general are rather cold and severe there s nothing and about him oh i think he s a perfect character i said with pretty enthusiasm no there i can t agree with you said shaking his head with sarcastic gravity now what fault can you point out in him he s an well those are the right views i think said gravely that settles the in the abstract said but not fi om a point of view he has set the and the church people by the ears and a rising like myself of whose services the country is very much in need will find it inconvenient when he puts up for the honor of representing st s in parliament do you really think of that said her eyes bright the mill on the with a proud pleasure that made her neglect the interests of decidedly � whenever old mr s public spirit and induce him to give way my father s heart is set on it and gifts like mine you know � here drew himself up and rubbed his large white hands ever his hair with playful self admiration � like mine involve great don t you think so miss � � yes said smiling but not looking up so much and self possession should not be wasted entirely on private occasions ah i see how much penetration you have said you have discovered that am and impudent now superficial people never discern that � owing to my manner i suppose she doesn t look at me when i talk of myself he thought while his listeners were laughing i must try other did intend to be present at the meeting of the book club next week was the next question then followed the recommendation to choose s life of unless she were inclined to be philosophical and the ladies of st s by for one of the of course wished to know what these learned books were and as it is always pleasant to improve the minds of ladies by talking to them at ease on subjects of which they know nothing became quite brilliant in an account of s which he had just been reading he was rewarded by seeing let her work fall and gradually get so a in his wonderful story she sat looking at him leaning forward with crossed arms and with an entire absence of self consciousness as if he had been the of old professors and she a he was so by this clear large gaze that at last he forgot to look away from it occasionally towards but she child was only rejoicing that was proving to how clever he was and that they would certainly be ood friends after all i will you the book shall i miss said when he found the stream of recollections running rather shallow there are many illustrations in it that you will like to see oh thank you said blushing with returning consciousness at | 14 |
i don t think there is any danger now but had rushed into the sick room and was bending over the cradle trying in vain to choke back her sobs as she lifted her little one in her arms i � i can t help it she said to oh my poor little babies i and then she was kissing and crying softly over him and patting s pillow and her and talking to all at once what should i have done without you she said how can i thank you and oh i my best patient dear look at your pale cheeks after her excitement was somewhat she insisted on in a soft shawl and making her lie down on the sofa to rest to tell the truth now that the burden of was taken from her this before b an to feel and when she was fairly on the sofa fell asleep and slept with most it was late when she awakened and hy the light of the fire she saw sitting by her in the rocking chair rocking to and fro and evidently waiting impatiently for her awakening i am glad you have finished your sleep she said i am so impatient to talk everything over what did you think when you got s letter i always told him it would turn out so it is like a romance only there was so little mystery about it they say mr was killed on the spot he had always been a fast man yoa know � miss sat up in her with a little extra color on her cheeks and not a little extra beating at her heart what did all this mean i beg your pardon mrs she said but i don t understand i never received any letter from mr i never � broke in upon her you don t understand she echoed you never received a letter wrote to you the day we left washington just then and not till then did something of flash across s mind what about the envelope she had laid aside and forgotten in her anxiety she got up and went to the mantel piece yes there it was just as she had left it without breaking the seal she did not sit down she stood up just where she was and tore it open and glanced at the signature alfred and then she read the letter through when she had finished she looked up at blood in her cheeks rising a great flash of something in her eyes at last at last fortune had turned the tables once more her father s brother who had never even seen her had died from a fall from his horse died without children and without a will and she was his heir oddly enough the thought that rose highest in the tumult of her mind was the most commonplace of thoughts she was not to be a middle aged after all she was not to grow old and bitter and over music lessons and french this of course but permit me to say it was very natural if she wished now she might go away from this terrible and humiliation and perhaps forget it all i never read this letter before she said to i was so anxious that i laid it down and forgot it i don t know what to say i can hardly believe it is my uncle was so angry with pa for ma that he would never even see me got up quietly and went to her and kissed her on both cheeks i hope it will make you happy my dear she said i must congratulate you but i cannot congratulate myself i shall lose my friend and my twice in four years had fate flung a golden into s hands the first time it had only added fresh bitterness to her lot this second time it brought her relief not happiness mr was dead � killed by a fall from a wild horse and whether she deserved it or not miss was an again representing twenty thousand a year and two there was no excitement in her manner as she sat by mr at the table in the library that night and entered into the particulars of her business her was quite calm and business like and while she listened to his statements and replied to his inquiries she was playing with a pen and smiling now and then faintly mr had heard all the points of the case and only some few legal must be gone through before she could take possession it was ten o clock before their work was finished and then the gentleman congratulated her warmly had been sitting with them and as his brother in law spoke he glanced up quickly and looked at miss she was standing by the table resting one hand upon it and with the pen her downcast eyes a little thoughtful the bright was concentrated upon her and showed the white face and head poised half half carelessly her long black dress made her look white and slender with its sombre the great waves of hair were twisted in a massive knot on the slim neck and there was a deep scarlet spot on either cheek she was a beautiful woman as much the as ever she was a beautiful picture and the touching tenderness of her smile made her dazzling does money make people happy she asked lifting her soft eyes if it does you know i shall be happy for i can buy twenty thousand dollars worth of happiness every year but then if it don i might only be a rich after all in spite of your kind wish � and the thousands she only spoke half seriously but when she ended her shook a little in the face of her smiles and there was a touch of truth in the almost | 13 |
continued in the but i have mentioned to the board of his wish to be in a and when a proper opportunity offers and it is judged that he has taken his turn in a ship i hope he will be removed with regard to your son now in the london i am glad i can give you the assurance that his promotion is likely to take place very soon as lord has been so good as to say he would include him in an arrangement that he making in a short time relative to some in that quarter there i may now finish my letter and go and hang myself for i am sure i can neither write nor do anything which will not appear to you after this i really think he will soon be made and only wish we could communicate our of the event to him whom it principally concerns my father has written to to desire that he will inform us if he can when the commission is sent your chief wish is now ready to be accomplished and could lord give happiness to at the same time what a joyful he rt he would make of yours letters of j i have sent the same extract of the sweets of to charles who poor fellow though he sinks into nothing but an humble attendant on the hero of the will i hope be contented with the prospect held out to him by what the admiral says it appears as if he had been designed kept in the but i will not torment myself with conjectures and facts shall satisfy me frank had not heard from any of us for ten weeks when he wrote to me on november in consequence of lord st being removed to when his commission is sent however it will not be so long on its road as our letters because all the government are forwarded by land to his from with great regularity i returned from this morning and found my mother certainly in no respect worse than when i left her she does not like the cold weather but that we cannot help i spent my time very quietly and very pleasantly with miss is agreeable enough i do not want people to be very agreeable as it me the trouble of liking them a great deal i found only and her when i got to on thursday we dined together and went together to to seek the protection of mrs with whom were lady her eldest son and mr and mrs letters of se our ball was very thin but by no means unpleasant there were thirty one people and only eleven ladies out of the number and but five single women in the room of the gentlemen present you may have some idea from the list of my partners � mr wood g rice a mr belonging to the temples a sailor and not of the th light mr temple not the horrid one of all mr wm cousin to the man mr john and mr who appeared as usual with his hat in his hand and stood every now and then behind and me to be talked to and abused for not dancing we him however into it at last i was very glad to see him again after so long a separation and he was altogether rather the genius and of the evening he inquired after you there were twenty dances and i danced them all and without any fatigue i was glad to find myself capable of dancing so much and with so much satisfaction as i did from my slender enjoyment of the balls as for dancing i had not thought myself equal to it but in cold weather and with few couples i fancy i could just as well dance for a week together as for half an hour my black cap was openly admired by mrs and secretly i imagine by everybody else in the room letters of jane poor edward it is very hard that he who has everything else in the world that he can wish for should not have good health too but i hope with the assistance of stomach complaints and he will soon be restored to that blessing likewise if his nervous complaint proceeded from a of something that ought to be thrown out which does not seem unlikely the first of these may really be a remedy and i sincerely wish it may for i know no one more deserving of happiness without than edward is the lords of the will have enough of our at present for i hear from charles that he has written to lord himself to be removed i am afraid his serene will be in a passion and order some of our heads to be cut off you deserve a longer letter than this but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve god bless you yours affectionately jane � the snow came to nothing yesterday so i did go to and returned home at nine o clock at night in the little carriage and without being very cold miss park letters of jane xl friday december my dear � frank is made he was yesterday raised to the rank of commander and appointed to the now at a letter from has just announced this and as it is confirmed by a very friendly one from mr to the same effect one from admiral to the general we have no reason to suspect the of it as soon as you have cried a little for joy you may go on and learn further that the india house have taken captain s petition into consideration � this comes from � and likewise that lieutenant charles john is removed to the � this comes from the admiral we cannot find out where the is but | 26 |
as i lay my couch weak and weary the priest of came to my chamber he stood in the circle of the and he looked down upon me with eyes which were bright with a mad joy a why did you let the maiden die he asked why did you not strengthen her as you strengthened me r was too late i answered but i had forgot you also loved her you are my fellow in misfortune is it not terrible to think of the centuries which must pass ere we look upon her again fools fools that we were to take death to be our enemy o the ring of you may say that he cried with a wild laugh the words come well from your lips for me they have no meaning what mean you i cried raising myself upon my elbow surely friend this grief has turned your brain his face was with joy and he and shook like one who hath a devil do you know whither i go he asked nay i answered i cannot tell i go to her said he she lies in the further tomb by the double palm tree beyond the city wall � why do you go there i asked to die i he shrieked to die i am not bound by but the is in your blood i cried i can defy it said he i have found a stronger principle which will destroy it it is working in my veins at this moment and in an hour i shall be a dead man i shall join her and you shall remain behind as i looked upon him i could see that he of truth the light in his eye told me that he was indeed beyond the power of the you will teach me i cried never he answered i you by the wisdom of by the majesty of it is useless he said coldly then i will find it out i cried you cannot he answered it came to me by the ring of chance there is one which you can never get save that which is in the ring of none will ever more be made in the ring of repeated where then is the ring of that also you shall never know he answered you won her love who has won in the end i leave you to your sordid earth life my chains are broken i must go i he turned upon his heel and fled from the chamber in the morning came the news that the priest of was dead my days after that were spent in study i must find this subtle poison which was strong enough to undo the from early dawn to midnight i bent over the test and the furnace above all i collected the and the of the priest of alas i they taught me little here and there some hint or stray expression would raise hope in my bosom but no good ever came of it still month after month i struggled on when my heart grew faint i would make my way to the tomb by the palm trees there standing by the dead from which the jewel had been i would feel her sweet presence and would whisper to her that i would her if mortal wit could solve the riddle had said that his discovery was connected with the ring of had some remembrance of the it was a large and made not of gold but of a and heavier metal brought from the mines of mount you call the ring of it the ring had i remembered a hollow crystal set in it in which some few drops of liquid might be stored now the secret of could not have to do with the metal alone for there were m ny rings of that metal in the temple was it not more likely that he had stored his precious poison within the of the crystal i had scarce come to this before in hunting through his papers i came upon one which told me that it was indeed so and that there was still some of the liquid unused but how to find the ring it was not upon him when he was stripped for the of that i made sure neither was it among his private effects in vain i searched every room that he had entered every box and and that he had owned i the very sand of the desert in the places where he had been wont to walk but do what i would i could come upon no traces of the ring of yet it may be that my labours would have overcome all obstacles had it not been for a new and for misfortune a great war had been against the and the captains of the great king had been cut off in the desert with all their and the shepherd tribes were upon us like the in a dry year from the wilderness of to the great bitter lake th re was blood by day and fire by night was the of egypt but we could not keep the savages back the city fell the governor and the the ring op r soldiers were put to the sword and i with many more was led away into for years land years i tended cattle in the great plains by the my master died and his son grew old but i was still as far from death as ever at last i escaped upon a swift and made my way back to egypt the had settled in the land which they had conquered and their own king ruled over the country had been torn down the city had been burned and of the great temple there was nothing left save an mound everywhere the had been and the monuments destroyed of my s grave no sign was | 4 |
flesh never thought of him as a possible but there may be that danger too i still think father o that you might have warned of her danger forgive me i m sure you did all that was necessary you do forgive me the men s eyes met and father o said as if he wished to change the subject you were bom at were you not yes i was bom in father repeated mechanically almost as if he had not heard the question and your sisters are yes yes tell me how it all came about how all what came about father asked for he was a little and troubled in his mind and was therefore easily led to relate the story of the shop in his very early religious and how he remembered himself always as a pious lad on looking into the years gone by he said that he saw himself more often than not by his bedside in innocent little prayers and afterwards at school he had been considered a pious lad he on telling his story almost unconsciously getting more thoughtful as he advanced into it relating carefully the absurd episode of the in which to the piety of the old time he chose castle island as a suitable spot for him to live in father o listened seriously moved by the story and father continued it telling how coming to see the priest in him gave up her room to him as soon as their cousin the bishop was consulted and it was at this point oi the narrative that father o put a question was no attempt he asked made to marry you to some girl with a big fortune and father told of his liking for mc and of his aversion for marriage that aversion might be too strong a word indifference would more represent him i wasn t interested in nor in any woman as far as i can remember until this unfortunate conduct of mine awakened an interest in and it would be strange indeed if it hadn t awakened an interest in me he muttered to himself father o suppressed the words that rose up in his mind now i m beginning to understand and father continued like one talking to himself i m � that i was singularly free from all of the e especially those represented by i was ordained early when i was twenty two and as soon as i began to hear the things that surprised me the most were the stories relating to those that men experience for women and women for men � which sometimes are so intense that if the sufferer cannot obtain relief by the acquiescence of the object of their affections he if it be he she if it be she cannot refrain from suicide there have been cases of men and women going mad because their love was not and i used to listen to these stories unable to understand bored by the relation if father had looked up at that moment father o s eyes would have told him that he had revealed himself and that perhaps father o now knew more about him than he knew himself but without withdrawing his eyes from the fire he continued talking till s step was heard outside she s coming to lay the cloth for our tea father said and father o answered i shall be glad of a cup of tea must you really go after tea father asked and again he begged father o to stay for dinner but father o as if he felt that the object of his visit had been accomplished spoke of the drive back to and of the convenience of the branch line of railway it was a convenience certainly but it was also an inconvenience owing to the fact that the trains run from sometimes missed the mail train and this led father to speak of the work he was striving to accomplish the of abbey and many other things and the time passed without their feeling it till the car came round to take father o away he goes as a dream goes father said and a few minutes afterwards he was sitting alone by his turf fire asking himself in what dreams differed from reality for like a dream father o had come and he had gone never to return but does anything return he asked himself and he looked round his room wondering why the chairs and tables did not speak to him and why life was not different from what it was he could hear at work in the kitchen preparing his dinner she would bring it to him as she had done yesterday he would eat it he would sit up smoking his pipe for a while and about eleven o clock go to his bed he would lie down in it and rise and say mass and see his all these things he had done many times before and he would go on doing them till the day of his death � until the day of my death he repeated never seeing her again never seeing him why did he come here and he was surprised that he could find no answer to any of the questions that he put to himself chap viii nothing will happen again in my nothing of any interest this is the end and if i did go to london of what should i speak to him it will be better to try to forget it all and return if i can to the man i was before i knew her and he stood stock still thinking that without this memory he would not be himself father o s coming had been a pleasure to him for they had talked together he had confessed to him had been at that moment he caught sight of a newspaper upon his table illustrated | 15 |
in his youth he produced a witty and improper novel which everybody said it was impossible to read and everybody promptly read it affected to be now he has ceased to be � at all events in print � laid to heart the golden that public confession of the sins of others is on the whole an even more paying speculation than public confession of sins of your own i am afraid he has also ceased to be witty that is a matter for regret looked hard at me sounds a bit of a i think he said but very likely i m wrong i see i don t catch on to a whole heap of subjects you are all talking about i have stayed out of england too long and your ideas at home have run clean away from me you are all speaking a language i don t know half the time he stared at the stool still lying wrong way up on the marble floor and then kicked it aside with a sudden why the didn t i come home six years ago for good he said i was worth a tidy lot even then i was younger was younger � one was more in touch and then perhaps too the i should never have seen that brute of a � oh well i beg your pardon i must have bored you enough and to spare with my own already meet you at dinner all right � vm going for my walk chapter iv i was called away to for a couple of days to meet a friend � who does not enter into this history so we will if you please leave her out of it i returned rather depressed by an afternoon boat that was packed with an plain headed selection of of all nations they named the mountains by the help of red the beauties of nature smoked tobacco freely and were otherwise objectionable to almost every sense yet if you could your mind from the of surrounding humanity the aspect of nature was very rain had fallen in the early morning and the fresh washed landscape wore a delightfully clean and youthful look the hotels and on the north shore of the lake shone out among their rich and gardens while the lake itself a heavenly floor showing all shades from to was turned up with the most bottle green at the edges the were likewise shot with lights upon their and with a the bloom of woods about their feet the are nothing but a nation of de granted but it must be they have the merit of selling the contents of their stock pots in an admirably pretty country on the first person i saw � the heavy porter in top trousers who managed the gang plank � was mr he appeared worried he up and down over the black of the pier and clung to the rusty the lovely of the lake with irritable eyes at intervals he hailed some � to me � object in the far distance and with a white umbrella catching sight of me he saluted me with of this instrument ah i you are back again mr he cried and all our little society will be most happy to welcome you back � i m sure most happy even in so purely an association of our fellow creatures even in the passing relations of an hotel we miss the accustomed face the vacant place at table raises a regret i expressed my sense of for these polite observations but mr had returned to his agitated survey of the lake excuse me he exclaimed i think i perceive them he climbed upon the cross bar of the rails with surprising and gave forth a really howl coming in that direction you must have seen them in passing mr in the steamer he said turning suddenly and almost angrily upon me after waiting vainly for some response to this terrible noise did you not them who and what are they i ventured to inquire has taken my daughter out � mr descended from his perch � no i was in error i did not perceive them nor evidently did you he removed his hat and wiped his forehead i may mention that mr invariably wore a tall hat at this period and black clothes after which ceremony he somewhat recovered his no no he cried we must school ourselves we must school ourselves � to wait and hope and still to hope and wait last lesson by man of heaven directed fate but i am not among the mr i can look forward i am thankful to say and look up all of which unquestionably was very on the part of mr but a little too large so it struck me for the immediate situation i pointed out that the young people were in no the danger that disaster was wholly improbable the sky being absolutely clear the water as smooth as a ah you me mr rejoined � he carried his head on one side and nodded looking up from under his eyebrows � you me i fear other dangers than material ones just now � a father s anxieties natural and not i think where the future of so dear an object as an only daughter is concerned frankly then � for in speaking to you i speak to a man of the world mr � our charming friends mrs and mr have called they are actually here they are indoors with mamma and it me he said i cannot disguise from myself that it me profoundly my daughter should not be at home to receive them shows himself in her so long i thought it probable our friends would visit us this afternoon and i gave him a pretty broad hint on the subject i regret to say but you must have observed it | 32 |
conspiracy of the king s sons and their foreign friends took the opportunity of the king being thus employed at home to lay siege to the capital of but the king who was quick and active in all his movements was at too before it was supposed possible that he could have left england and there he so defeated the said earl of that the peace and his bad sons henry and submitted richard resisted for six weeks but being beaten out of castle after castle he at last submitted too and his father forgave him to forgive these unworthy princes was only to afford them breathing time for new they were so false and that they were no more to be trusted than common thieves in the very next year prince henry again and was again forgiven in eight years more prince rich ard against his elder brother and prince said that the brothers could never agree well together unless they were united against their father in the very next year after their reconciliation by the king prince henry again against his father and again submitted swearing to be true and was again forgiven and again with but the end of this prince was come he fell sick at a french town and his conscience terribly him with his he sent henry the second messengers to the king his father imploring him to come and see him and to forgive him for the last time on his of death the generous king who had a royal and mind toward his children always would have gone hut this prince had heen so unnatural that the the king suspected treachery and represented to him that he could not safely trust his life with such a traitor though his own eldest son therefore the king sent him a ring from ofi his finger as a token of forgiveness and when the prince had kissed it with much grief and many tears and had confessed to those around him how had and wicked and a son he had been he said to the attendant priests o tie a rope about my body and draw me out of bed and lay me down upon a bed of ashes that i may die with prayers to in a manner and so he died at twenty seven years old three years afterward prince being at a had his brains trampled out by a crowd of horses passing over him so there only remained prince richard and prince john � who had grown to be a young man now and had solemnly sworn to be faithful to his father richard soon again encouraged by his friend the french king philip the second son of louis who was dead and soon submitted and was again forgiven swearing on the new testament never to rebel again and in another year or so again and in the presence of his father knelt down on his knee before the king of france and did the french king homage and declared that with his aid � child s history of england he would possess himself by force of all his father s french and yet this richard called himself a soldier of our i and yet this richard wore the cross which the kings of france and england had both taken in the previous year at a meeting underneath the old wide spreading elm tree on the plain when they had sworn like him to devote themselves to a new for the love and honor of the truth i sick at heart wearied out by the falsehood of his sons and almost ready to lie down and die the unhappy king who had so long stood firm began to fail but the pope to his honor supported him and obliged the french king and richard though successful in fight to treat for peace richard wanted to be crowned king of england and pretended that he wanted to be married which he really did not to the french king s sister his promised wife whom king henry detained in england king henry wanted on the other hand that the french king s sister should be married to his favorite son john the only one of his sons he said who had never against him at last king henry deserted by his one by one distressed exhausted consented to establish peace one final heavy sorrow was reserved for him even yet when they brought him the proposed treaty of peace in writing as he lay very ill in bed they brought him also the of the from their whom he was required to pardon the first name upon this list was john his favorite son in whom he had trusted to the last henry the second o john child of my heart exclaimed the king in a great agony of mind o john whom i have loved the best i o john for whom i have through these many troubles have you betrayed me too and then he lay down with a heavy groan and said now let the world go as it will i care for nothing more after a time he told his attendants to take him to the french town of � a town he had been fond of during many years but he was fond of no place now it was too true that he could care for nothing more upon this earth he wildly cursed the hour when he was born and cursed the children whom he left behind him and expired as one hundred years before the followers of the court had abandoned the conqueror in the hour of his death so they now abandoned his the very body was stripped in the plunder of the royal chamber and it was not easy to find the means of carrying it for burial to the abbey church of richard was said in after years by way of flattery to | 8 |
trial concluded do not know how much the gentle reader may feel in bud with me he is a favorite and i venture to hope that there are some among my readers who will wish the of his actions explained the first dash of disappointment had well nigh upset him and when a man to throw overboard his good resolutions he always seeks to avoid the witness of those resolutions hence bud after that tuesday evening on which miss had given him the sack wished to see less than any one else and yet when he came to suspect small s his whole nature at it but having broken with he thought it best to maintain an attitude of apparent hostility that he might act as a and perhaps save his friend from the mischief that threatened him as soon as he heard of s arrest he determined to make the walter johnson tell his own secret in court because he knew that it would be best for that walter should tell it bud s telling at second hand would not be and he sincerely desired to save walter from prison for walter johnson was the victim of dr small or of dr small and such novels as the s bride the wild of the west indies and the cheap of such men as small found him with his imagination by the history of such heroes and opened to him the path to glory for which he longed the whole morning after s arrest bud was working on walter s conscience and his fears the poor fellow unable to act for himself was torn asunder between the old of small and the new of bud means bud finally frightened him by the fear of the into going to the place of trial but once inside the door and once in sight of small who was more to him than god or rather more to than the devil � for the devil was walter s god or perhaps i should say walter s god was a devil � once in sight of small he refused to move an inch farther and bud after all his perseverance was about to give up in sheer despair fortunately just at that moment small s desire to relieve himself from the taint of suspicion and to crush as completely as possible made him the mark by asking that walter be called to the stand as we have before he knew that he had no tool so as the cowardly walter in the very language of the request he had given walter an intimation of what he wanted him to swear to walter listened to small s words as to his doom he felt that he should die of the of a man of the school master stamp is to have to make up his mind such men generally fall back on some one more positive and take all their resolutions ready made but here walter must decide for himself for the was already calling his name the court the spectators and most of all dr small were waiting for him he moved forward mechanically through the dense crowd bud following part of the way to whisper tell the truth or go to walter shook and shivered at this the witness with difficulty held up his hand long enough to be please tell the court said whether you know anything of the whereabouts of dr small on the night of the robbery at peter s small had detected walter s agitation and taking alarm had edged his way around so as to stand full in walter s sight and there with keen eye on the weak of the young man he was able to assume his old position and sway the fellow absolutely on the night of the robbery � walter s voice was weak but he seemed to be reading his answer out of small s eyes � on the night of the robbery dr small came home before here the witness stopped and shook and shivered again for bud the of small s gaze had pushed his great in front of small and had fastened his eyes on walter with a look that said tell the truth or go to i can t i can t o � k d what shall i do the witness exclaimed answering the look of bud for it seemed to him that bud had spoken to the people and the court this agitation was inexplicable e s wig got his eye turned in toward his nose and he had great difficulty m the trial concluded keeping his teeth from falling out the excitement became fully was on his feet looking at the witness and feeling that somehow bud and dr small � his good angel and his demon � were playing an awful game of which he was the stake the crowd swayed to and fro but remained utterly silent waiting to hear the least whisper from the witness who stood trembling a moment with his hands over his face and then fainted the fainting of a person in a crowd is a signal for everybody else to make fools of there was a rush toward the fainting man there was a cry for water everybody asked everybody else to open the window and everybody wished else to stand back and give him air but nobody opened the window and nobody stood back the only perfectly cool man in the room was small with a quiet air of professional authority he pushed forward and felt the patient s pulse remarking to the court that he thought it was a sudden attack of fever with delirium when walter revived dr small would have removed him but insisted that his testimony should be heard under of watching his patient small kept close to him and walter began the same old story about dr having arrived at the office before eleven | 11 |
his sword now a maiden kneeling at his feet then rising addressing him in dumb show and pointing upward then placing a crown upon his head leading him to his and bidding him ride forth to conquer a change came o er the scene which seemed enveloped in clouds deepening into a noble purpose absolute darkness � then gradually melting to a soft silvery grey tint by an exquisitely clear light that grew brighter and brighter to an almost dazzling intensity floating figures then appeared � figures not of this earth but heavenly fair majestic and saint like � figures that looked on her with pitying love and tender sweetness and that at length spoke was by this time in a deep sleep or trance whether in the body or out of the body she had gently sunk on the turf like a tired child and lay there with closed eyes relaxed limbs and a smile of sweetness on her lips tears presently from beneath her closed and her hands made a faint movement as if to grasp and retain some receding object then she half raised herself with a start and looked wistfully around and above her nobly won they are gone said she softly and after a pause full of solemnity she covered her face and bent her knees in prayer s breakfast that morning had been two apples and though her mother had given her a of bread to stay her young appetite till the family supper she had privately slipped it into the soldier s nothing is more of wild fancies than crude food or an empty stomach for my part it is my settled belief that at least half the supernatural of famous whether coming in the guise of spirits of darkness or angels of light might be traced td the vegetable diet which filled their brains with and but this by the way when looked about her all her sheep were gone this instantly brought her down from things celestial to things and a noble purpose sticking her into her and up her she sped away after them two long hours passed before the poor girl could get the flock together again it was then full time to drive it to the fold and by the time she had done this and was returning hot and weary to her home the sun had set again she encountered said he as he came up to her fm sorry i spoke ho roughly this morning there s no one for whom i care more then you cannot care much for anybody said but it does not signify nay but i care for you a great deal said and � in short if you ll have me for your husband so you shall i wonder at you said angrily i have no thoughts of marriage and if i had should never marry you go your ways my thoughts were full of heavenly nobly won things and you have brought them down to earth if you were not a i could tell you something tell me by all means said he standing across her path so that she could not pass no it is not for such ears as yours said she trying to push by him � oh there s the bell and i shall be quite too late how and tears of mortification started into her eyes one kiss and then you shall go said t� take that said giving him such a box on the ear that the light flashed from his eyes he could not help laughing but she was in anything but a laughing mood and ran home while he stood looking after her and rubbing his ear why what s the matter said as she shot into the cottage how a noble purpose late you are i wanted you to fetch water from the spring and the milk and feed the pigs and chickens have you done a good day s spinning what s this and she picked up s with the lock of all in a like an s string which he has not taken the trouble to wind up why now troubled me and would not let me pass said colouring oh said with a significant look � but what � you have scarcely spun a quarter of your the sheep strayed mother � the sheep strayed and wherefore i pray you came you to let them stray your back has been turned on them miss while you with that idle girl � no indeed mother i have not seen her all nobly won or with that idle fellow � truly he is an idle fellow said but yet i saw him but two minutes going and coming � j then you ve been dreaming of him may no indeed mother the truth is � and her eyes and voice dropped oh now we are going to have the truth said and then awaiting her communication with some curiosity well � mother if you look in that way i cannot tell you come come said softening however mother i was keeping the sheep when all at once a bright light around me well it was not the light of sun or moon i a noble purpose think but softer yet brighter than either and then i heard a rustling like as of garments and i was ware of � what two bright ladies said with awe two bright ladies and with them a noble gentleman � un way and who was the way i think said faltering that he was the michael cried with will you never have done with such nonsense mother i saw him with these eyes as plainly as i see you now and what might he say to you he told me i should crown the king and raise the siege of this passes patience exclaimed her nobly won mother hark you i have done my | 2 |
position for i should have to tell certain friends of mi to whom i recommended her that she was not all that imagined her to be but all s well that ends well i yon will be glad to hear that i have appointed her in my church it remains therefore only for to thank yon for your manly letter acknowledging mistake yon have made i can imagine the anxiety it must have caused y and the relief it must have been to yon to get letter although miss spoke with bitterness did not try to persuade me that you were naturally ha hearted or cruel the impression that her story on my mind was that your allusions to her in your i mon were your letter is proof tha was not mistaken and i am sure the lesson yoa h received will bear fruit i trust that you will use y influence to restrain other priests from similar it is only by gentleness and kindness that we can good i shall be glad to see you if you come london i am sir very sincerely yours michael o all s well that ends well so that s how he a different point of view and feeling that he betraying himself to he put both letters his pocket and went out of the house but he had gone many yards when he met a with a story to tell happily not a sick call only a dispute a land so he invented an excuse his inter tion until the morrow and when he returned home i with he stopped on his door step the ter is over now her letter is final he said awoke in a different mood next morning everything to him in a different lights and he wondered surprised to find that he could forget so easily and taking her letter out of his he read it again it s a hard letter but she s a wise woman much better for us both to forget each other good bye father she said good bye say i and he walked about his garden tending his flowers wondering at his light she thought of her own interests and would get on very well in london and father o had been lucky too was an excellent but if he went to london he would meet her a meeting could hardly be avoided � and after that letter perhaps it would be wiser if he didn t go to london what excuse o would write again he had been so kind in any case he must answer his letter and that was but was he obliged to answer it o wouldn t his silence but there had been enough and before he had walked the garden s length half a dozen reasons for writing occurred to him first of all father o s kindness in writing to ask him to stay with him added to which the fact that would of course tell father o she had been invited to teach in the her vanity would certainly urge her to do this and heaven only knows what account she would give of his proposal there would be his letter but she t show it so perhaps on the whole it would be better that he should write telling o what had happened and after his dinner as he sat thinking a letter came into his mind the first sentences themselves so suddenly that he was compelled to go to his writing table m f from father to father o oar � father o i a letter which i received three days i from miss and i think yon will agree n me that the letter is a harsh one and that all things e it would have been better if she had h self to saying that i had committed an error of which she forgave she did not however choose to this as regards my sister s invitation to her to co over here to teach she was of course quite right to o her own interests she can make more money london than she could in ireland i forgot that i couldn t bring her baby with her remembering only tl my eldest sister is mother in the g vent � a very superior woman if i may venture to my own sister the was very poor at one but she has made the school a success and hearing tl she wanted who would teach music and i proposed to her that the should engage miss with whose story she was already acquainted she did think that miss would return to ireland and this opinion she showed her good judgment she v always a wonderful judge of character but she see that i was anxious to for any wrong thai might have done miss and after some she consented saying well if you wish it miss did not accept the proposal and i si pose that the episode now ends so far as i am concern she has fallen into good hands she is making her thanks to your kindness but i dare not think might not have happened if she had not met you p when you have time you will write again i si be glad to hear if she in improving your my conscience is now at rest there is a term though it not be at the parish boundary when our responsibility ceases thanking yon again and hoping one of these days to have the pleasure of making your acquaintance i am very truly yours from father to father june � tt t father thank you for sending me miss s letter and i agree with you when you describe it as harsh but i understand it in a way miss came over to london almost and expecting the birth of her child she suffered all that a woman suffers in such circumstances i | 15 |
about us now which rise two hundred feet above the water s level there are above head plenty of birds ashore or on the ice are bears and in the sea there are innumerable animals we shall not see so much life near the north pole that is certain it would be worth while to go ashore upon an there near bang o i � a ns o the ducks notes of travellers nests are so abundant that one cannot avoid upon them when the duck is driven by a hungry fox to leave her eggs she covers them with down in order that they may not during her absence and moreover the down into a ease with a supplied to her by nature for that purpose the deserted eggs are safe for that has an very disagreeable to the intruder s nose we still sail northward among sheets of ice whose boundaries are not beyond our vision from the mast head � these are between them we find easy way it is sailing ice in the clear sky to the north a streak of white light is the reflection from an icy surface that is ice in the language of these seas the glare from snow is yellow while open water gives a dark reflection northward still but now we are in fog the ice is troublesome a gale is rising now if our ship had they would crack and if she had a bell it would be if we were shouting to each other we should not hear the sea is in a fury with wild force its dash against a heaped up wall of broken ice that and strains and battles fiercely with the water this is the pack the edge of a great ice field broken by the swell it is a perilous and an exciting thing to push through pack ice in a gale now there is ice as as eye can see that is an ice field masses are forced up like colossal on all sides our sailors call them here and there the broken ice large holes of water shall we go on upon this field in with his men north pole if that should be possible with and boats they on through snow and over i xx � l c the world here and there or their boats over the larger holes of water with stout hearts by toil or danger they went boldly on though hy degrees it became clear to the leaders of the expedition that thej were almost like upon a tread mill cage making a great expenditure of leg for little gain the ice was floating to south with them as they were walking to the north still they went on sleeping by day to avoid the glare and to get greater warmth during the time of rest and travelling by night � days and nights for it was all one day the men soon were unable to distinguish noon from midnight the great event of one day on this dreary waste was the discovery of two flies upon an ice these says became at once a topic of ridiculous importance presently r twenty three miles walking they only had gone one mile forward the ice having floated twenty two miles in the opposite direction and then after walking forward eleven miles they foimd themselves to be three miles behind the place from which they started the party accordingly returned not having reached the pole not having reached the eighty third parallel for the of which there was a reward of a thousand pounds held out by government they reached the parallel of eighty two degrees forty five minutes which was and still is the most point trodden by the foot of man from that point they returned in those high they met with a phenomenon common in regions as well as at the pole red snow the red colour being caused by the abundance of a minute plant pf low development the last on the borders of the vegetable kingdom most interesting to the sailors was a fat she bear which they killed and devoured with a zeal to be repented of for on sea and pushing in their to table island notes of travellers some stones were left found that the had eaten their whereon the men agreed that was now square with them an next to table island � they are both mere rocks is the most northern land discovered therefore applied to it the name of lieutenant � now sir james � this compliment sir james has acknowledged in the most emphatic manner by discovering on his part at the other pole the most southern land yet seen and giving to it the name of it very probably would not be difficult under such as sir w has since recommended to reach the north pole along this route then especially if it be true as many believe that there is a region of open sea about the pole itself we might find it as easy to reach s straits by travelling in a straight line over the north pole as by the strait and north of america we turn our course until we have in sight a portion of the eastern coast of island somewhere about this spot in the seventy fifth parallel is the most northern part of that coast known to us colonel � then captain � in the was landed there to make and other observations for the same purpose he had previously visited that is where we from our fore they hardy seaman to encounter peril for the search of gold ore or for a near road to but our peril is encountered for the gain of knowledge for the highest kind of service that can now be rendered to the human race before we the northern sea we must not omit to mention the voyage by northward in of | 8 |
more of human nature than other men in so far as that goes therefore he is more n than i am myself we fed that superiority in all our intercourse with great men � whether philosophers poets or saints in kind we are the same different m degree in nature we find individuals not orders and but for our own convenience in understanding and we do a little violence to nature and put die individuals into classes in this way we understand better both the whole and each of its parts human nature us with individual great men for convenience we put them into several classes corresponding to their several modes or forms of greatness it is well to look at these classes before we examine any one great man this will render it easier to see where he belongs and what be is worth actual service is the test of actual greatness he who renders of himself the greatest actual service to mankind is actually the greatest man there may be other for the greatness of men or the essential this is the christian rule for the actual greatness let us arrange these men in the natural order of work first of all there are great men who discover general truths great ideas universal laws or invent methods of thought and action in this class the of a man s genius may be measured and his relative rank ascertained by the of his ideas by the of us truth by its practical value and the difficulty of it in us time and under his peculiar circumstances in literature it is such who thoughts and put them into forms john adam � they are the great men of letters in we meet with such � and thej are the great men of science thus discovered the philosophical method of minute analysis which distinguished his school and led to the rapid advance of knowledge in the various and even which held this method in common but iq plied it in various ways weu or ill and to various of human inquiry thus discovered the law of universal in nature and by the discovery did immense service to mankind in politics we find or men who discover yet other laws of ood which bear the same relation to men in society that bears to the in heaven or to the dust and stones in the street men that discover the first truths of politics and teach the true method of human society such are the great men in politics we find corresponding men in on men who discover an idea so central that of parties or of nations seems little in its light who discover and teach the universal law which e binding man to man and man to ood who the true method of on conducting to natural worship without to free goodness free piety free thought to our such are the greatest of great men when measured by the of their doctrine and the service they render to all by the influence of idea letters philosophy and politics become nobler and more beautiful both in their forms and their substance such is the class of � men who get truth at first hand � truth either especially to literature or at the same time to each and all of them the next class consists of such as these ideas methods truths and laws they the abstract the general they apply to practical purposes the discoveries of science into a a mill a and by work an idea becomes fact they love into families justice into a state piety into a church wealth is power knowledge is power power they all these powers � wealth knowledge religion � into common life making divinity humanity and that society this genius is a very great one and in various forms one man us t out on the soil john adam the land with bread corn another applies his mind to the rivers of new d making spin and for the human race this man will a t into a machine with his idea joining together fire and water iron and wood them into a new creature ready to do man s bidding that with audacious hand ike lightning of heaven us thought within thai fire and sends it of hia errands to fetch and carry tidings between the ends of the earth another form of this mode of greatness is seen in politics in men the man his thought out on mankind puts men into true relations with one another and god he strength wisdom justice love piety the conflicting forces of a nation so that each man has his natural liberty as complete as if the only man yet living in society advantages from all the rest the highest degree of this power is the genius for le which can justice and eternal right into and the divine thought into human laws making absolute on common life and daily custom and the power of the mass with the il power of the into a well state as god has balanced these two forces into the above our heads it need not be disguised that politics are the hi est business for men of this class nor that a great or le is the greatest example of skill it requires some ability to manage the brute forces of nature or to combine nine and thirty clerks in a shop how much more to arrange twenty millions of intelligent free men not for a special purpose but for all the ends of universal life such is the second class of great men � the men of heads who form the institutions of the world the and the great the next class of men who administer the tions after they are founded to do this effectually and even it requires no genius for al organization of truths fr discovered none for the discovery of truths | 37 |
if i were you i would certainly get him myself i had almost forgot to you my opinion of mr de lady an i am really delighted with him he is fall as handsome i think as and with such an open good countenance that one cannot help loving him at first sight mr johnson and he are the greatest friends in the world adieu my dearest i wish matters did not go that unlucky visit to but i dare say you did all for the best and there is no destiny your sincerely attached lady to mrs johnson mt b � i yield to the necessity which parts us under circumstances you could not act otherwise our friendship cannot be by it and in happier times when your situation is as independent as mine it will unite us again in the same intimacy as ever for this i shall impatiently wait and meanwhile can safely assure you that i never was more at ease or better satisfied with myself and everything about me than at the present hour your husband i i despise and i am secure of never seeing either again have i not reason to rejoice is more devoted to me than ever and were we at liberty i doubt if i could resist even matrimony offered by him this event if his wife live with you it may be in your power to hasten the violence of her feelings which must lady wear her ont may be easily kept in irritation i rely on your friendship for this i am now satisfied that i never could have brought myself to marry and am equally determined that never shall to morrow i shall fetch her from and let maria tremble for the consequence shall be sir james s wife before she my house and she may and the may storm i regard them not i am tired of my will to the of others of my own judgment in deference to those to whom i owe no duty and for whom i feel no respect i have given up too much have been too easily worked on but shall now feel the difference adieu dearest of friends may the next attack be more favorable and may you always regard me as yours s lady de to mrs my dear � i have charming news for you and if i had not sent off my letter this morning you might have been spared the vexation of knowing of s being gone to london for he is returned is returned not to ask our consent to his marrying lady but to tell us they are parted forever he has been only an hour in the house and i have not been able to learn particulars for he is so very low that i have not the heart to ask questions but i hope lady we shall soon know all this is the most joyful hour he has ever given us since the day of his nothing is wanting hut to have you here and it is our particular wish and entreaty that you would come to us as soon as you can you have owed us a visit many long weeks i hope nothing will make it inconvenient to mr and pray all my and your dear niece is included of course i long to see her it has been a sad heavy winter hitherto without and seeing nobody from i never found the season so dreary before but this happy meeting will make us young again runs much in my thoughts and when has recovered his usual good spirits as i trust he soon will we will try to rob him of his heart once more and i am full of hopes of seeing their hands joined at no great distance your mother c xix mrs to lady de mt � your letter has surprised me beyond measure can it be true that they are separated � and forever i should be if i dared depend on it but after all that i have seen how can one be secure and really with you i my surprise is the greater because on wednesday the very day of his coming to we had a most unexpected and un lady welcome visit looking all cheer and good humor and seeming more ag if she were to marry him when she got to london than as if parted � rom him she stayed nearly two hours was as affectionate and agreeable as ever and not a syllable not a hint was dropped of any or coolness between them i asked her whether she had seen my brother since his in town not as you may suppose any doubt of the fact but merely to see how she looked she immediately answered without any embarrassment that he had been kind enough to call on her on monday but she believed he had already returned home which i was very far from your kind invitation is accepted by us with pleasure and on thursday next we and our little ones will be with you pray heaven may not be in town again by that time i i wish we could bring dear too but i am sorry to say that her mother s errand hither was to fetch her away and miserable as it made the poor girl it was impossible to detain her i was thoroughly unwilling to let her go and so was her uncle and all that could be urged we did urge but lady declared that as she was now about to fix herself in london for several months she could not be easy if her daughter were not with her for masters etc her manner to be sure was very kind and proper and mr believes that will now be treated with affection i wish i could think so too the poor girl s heart was almost broke | 26 |
you satisfied was i so bad you are a great artist i wish your mother were here to hear you is that really true say it again father you are satisfied with me then i have succeeded he told her why she had sung well and he knew so well it was like walking with a man with a lantern when he raised the light she could see a little farther into the darkness but she had still the prayer to sing to him she wanted to know what he would think of her sing g of the prayer the voice of the call boy interrupted them she sang the prayer more purely than ever and the and led her up a shining road and when she walked up the stage she seemed to disappear amid the of the stars her father was waiting for her and on their way to the station she could see that he was absorbed in her art of singing his remarks were occasional and but she guessed his train of thought supplying easily the missing links his praise was all and this made it more delicate and delicious on bidding him good night he asked her to come to choir practice she would have liked to but her was coming at half past ten there were few days when she was not singing at night that she with her morning s work she con herself like a bound to go through her in private so as to assure herself of her power of being able to go through them in public even when she knew a part she did not like to sing it many times without studying it afresh she believed that once a week was as often as it was possible to give a opera and even then an occasional was indispensable if the first high level of excellence was to be maintained with her morning s work she allowed no one to inter was often sent away or retained for such a time as his criticism might be of use but to day she was expecting he had promised to go through the music with her so when came to tell her that the had arrived she hesitated uncertain whether she should send him away but after a moment s reflection she decided not to forego her serious study of the part she only wished to talk to about the music to sing bits of it here and there to question him regarding certain to get at his ideas concerning it all that was very interesting and very valuable in a way but it was not hard work and she moreover that hard work was just what she wanted before the of began there were certain passages where she was not sure of herself she thought of the cry in the third act when falls dead the comes in then in a way very for the singer and she had not yet succeeded in satisfying herself with those few bars teu the young man that i shall be with him in hour and when she had had her bath and her hair was dressed she tied a few round her waist and slipped on a morning that was enough she paid no heed to her treating him as if he were her she sang sitting dose at his elbow her arm familiarly laid upon the back of his chair a little grey shawl round her shoulders in the passages requiring the whole of her voice she got np and sang them right through as if she were on the stage listened to by � ve thousand people accustomed as he was to her voice sometimes couldn t help wondering at the power of it the volume of sound issuing from her throat drowned the piano threatening to break its strings her ear was so fine that it detected any slightest with the text you have given me a false she would say and sure enough the s fingers had ac softened some sometimes he ventured a slight criticism you should hold the note a little longer then she would sing the passage again after singing for about two hours she had lunch that day she was with lady and did not get away until after three o clock came to fetch her and they went away to see pictures but more present than the pictures were s dark eyes and noticed the shadow passing constantly behind her eyes twice she asked him what the time was and she told him she would have to go soon at last she said now i must say good bye she could see he was troubled and that she grieved him and at one moment it was uncertain whether she would not her visit and send a but she remembered that he had probably seen her father and would be able to tell her more of what her father thought of her elizabeth it was that feeble excuse that to decide her conduct and she bade him good bye standing on the threshold of her drawing room admired its s and beauty the wall paper a delicate harmony in pale brown and pink roses soothed the eye the design was a through which the flowers grew an oval mirror hung above the white marble chimney piece and the xv was a charming composition of two figures a muse in a simple attitude leaned a little to the left in order to strike the placed above the dial on the other side a listened attentive for the of the hour his hour there was a little in the lines of this dock and could not come into the room without admiring it on the chimney piece there were two filled with and the flowers partly hid the beautiful blue and the golden and on either side of the clock were two groups made out of dark | 15 |
he had seen some brilliant coloured snake lift its head from a thicket ready to sting she saw the movement and bit her rosy under lip how you hate me she murmured � not all the good i have tried to do for you would ever move you to a kind thought of me do you think you are quite just or even quite christian but there i will not worn you any more you shall go your own way you shall keep to your narrow round of work in � miserable mean little � i promise you that you shall be forgotten � even by me � after to day he bent his head so it will be best he answered suddenly she went straight up to him and laid a hand on his arm she raised her face � that lovely pure oval of perfect pearl and rose with the large eyes lighting it up like the tragedy of a quiet life parson she said in a half whisper � i believe you are afraid of me he met her glance with a sad he knew his own strength and weakness and made no pretence to himself of being not as other men are you are right he replied in cold quiet tones � i am afraid of you i am not such a coward as to refuse to admit it a smile trembled on the sweet mouth you might � even you � might love me a little some day she murmured his eyes looked down into hers if i were made drunk � as you were when you gave yourself to dan he said with stem and deliberate emphasis � i might love you as other men do � for the moment and that moment would be my soul s she drew herself away from him with a gesture of anger and offence her bosom heaved quickly oh you are cruel � you are brutal she said � you are not a true christian he caught at the words with a sudden passion of feeling true christian what is that do you know is it to be a man whose of so called christianity into is it to be like some of the true christian clergy who are so anxious for the social purity of the nation that they will crowd music halls to and approve a half is it to secretly in vice and yet present an external front of sham virtue to the world is it to without reproach women like you � men like your husband � who pay large sums of money to church in order that their of social vice may be covered and by the support of such members of the christian whose can be bought for so much cash down holy orders i the � been to stand for many a deed the hour in his t she stood g mr at him in a kind of surprise then she appeared to gather a sort of st e d f about her � an air such as thai by queen of id an axe too mr � she said a air � you take the sins of too and are on your own brethren tbey have a very part to you know i tbey have to preach a which very few people believe oi � and then of course society doesn t like to be preached at and told disagreeable truths unless u s done in a sort of theatrical way when they think it s rather � a sunday morning variety entertainment but really a clergyman needs to have plenty of tact to avoid take royal people for example i � suppose a parson were to dare to tell them the truth of themselves he would never he asked to preach before again think what a disgrace that d for him now � and she nodded at � if you had only let me go on helping you i would have had you preach before the king i could ea have arranged it he smiled coldly at her complete vou would have chosen a most preacher � he said not at all i could have told you exactly what to say and she laughed like an amused child � pretty and pleasant things � about peace nd universal things he wouldn t mind hearing just for ten minutes how kings are always the lord s and get their places in before any one else has a chance � and how their very faults only arise from the difficulties of their position that s the sort of thing that doesn t offend why with a little and push i would have made you a bishop in a the tragedy of a quiet life as one may prefer heaven to hell i prefer the obscurity of � he answered and you shall have it she said with a sudden burst of impatience � you shall never again come out of it be quite sure of that i but to day � just for to day � be kind to me he looked at her her eyes filled with tears they up and fell down her fair cheeks he hesitated � then went up to her gently and took her hand he said � i cannot be kind � to you i know you too well i doubt you too much you asked me to come and see you to day and i came simply as your former and in coming i intended to point out to you what i feel to be the truth � that if it had not been for your cruelty and and the secret wickedness of your relations with dan � my wife he paused and a shuddering sigh broke from him � my poor little wife would not have been murdered i have imagined � at times � that her death lies quite as much | 33 |
as soon as i ou please madam returned mr i trust you will shortly witness an mr i have your permission i believe to mention here that we have been in communication together it is undoubtedly the fact said to whom i looked in surprise mr has consulted me in reference to what he has in contemplation and i have advised him to the best of my judgment unless i deceive myself mr pursued mr what i contemplate is a disclosure of an important nature highly so said perhaps under such circumstances madam and gentlemen said mr you will do me the favor to submit yourselves for the moment to the direction of one who however unworthy to be regarded in any other light but as a and stray upon the shore of human nature is still your fellow man though crushed out of his original form by individual errors and the force of a combination of circumstances we have perfect confidence in you mr said i and will do what you please mr returned mr your confidence is not at the existing juncture ill bestowed i would beg to be allowed a start of five minutes by the clock and then to receive the present company inquiring for miss at the office of and whose i am my aunt and i looked at who nodded his approval i have no more observed mr to say at present with which to my infinite surprise he included us all in a comprehensive bow and disappeared his manner being extremely distant and his face extremely pale only smiled and shook his head with his hair standing upright on the top of it when i looked to him for an explanation so i took out my watch and as a last resource counted off the five the personal history and experience minutes my aunt with her own watch in her hand did the like when the time was expired gave her his arm and we all went out together to the old house without saying one word on the way we found mr at his desk in the office on the ground floor either writing or pretending to write hard the large office ruler was stuck into his waistcoat and was not so well concealed but that a foot or more of that instrument from his bosom like a new kind of shirt as it appeared to me that i was expected to speak i said aloud how do you do mr mr said mr gravely i hope i see you well is miss at home said i mr is ni bed sir of a fever he returned but miss i have no doubt will be happy to see old friends will you walk in sir he preceded us to the dining room � the first room i had entered in that house � and flinging open the door of mr s former office said in a voice miss mr david mr thomas and mr i had not seen since the time of the blow our visit astonished him evidently not the less i dare say because it astonished ourselves he did not gather his eyebrows together for he had none worth mentioning but he frowned to that degree that he almost closed his small eyes while the hurried raising of his hand to his chin betrayed some or surprise this was only when we were in the act of entering his room and when i caught a glance at him over my aunt s shoulder a moment afterwards he was as and as humble as ever well i am sure he said this is indeed an unexpected pleasure to have as i may say all friends round saint paul s at once is a treat unlocked for mr i hope i see you well and � if i may express self so � friendly towards them as is ever your friends whether or not mrs sir i hope she s getting on we have been made quite uneasy by the poor accounts we have had of her state lately i do assure you i felt ashamed to let him take my hand but i did not know yet what else to do things are changed in this office miss since i was a clerk and held your pony ain t they said with his smile but am not changed miss well sir returned my aunt to tell you the truth i think you are pretty constant to the promise of your youth if that s any satisfaction to you thank you miss said in his manner for your good opinion tell em to let miss know � and mother will be quite in a state when she sees the present company said setting chairs tou are not busy mr said whose eye the cunning red eye accidentally caught as it at once and us no mr replied his official seat and his bony hands laid palm to palm between his bony knees david not so so as i could but lawyers and are not easily satisfied you know not but what myself and have our hands pretty full in general on account of mr s being hardly fit for any occupation sir but it s a pleasure as well as a duty i am sure to work for you ve not been intimate with mr i think mr i believe i ve only had the honor of seeing you once myself � no i have not been intimate with mr returned or i might perhaps have waited on you long ago mr there was something in the tone of this reply which made look at the speaker again with a very sinister and suspicious expression but seeing only with his good natured face simple manner and hair on end he dismissed it as he with a jerk of his whole but especially his throat i am sorry for that mr you would | 8 |
hich reigned triumphant out of doors penetrated into the and there as elsewhere terror and alarm prevailed and ordinary forms were for the time forgotten on the thursday both houses had until the following monday se declaring it impossible to pursue their with the necessary gravity and freedom while they were surrounded by armed troops and now that t tlie were dispersed the citizens were beset with a new fear for the public and all their usual places of resort filled with soldiers with the free use of fire and sword they began to lend a greedy ear to the which were afloat of martial law being declared and to dismal stories of prisoners having been seen hanging on lamp posts in and meet street these terrors being promptly by a declaring that all the in would be tried by a special commission in due course of law a fresh alarm was by its being whispered abroad that french money had been found on some of the and that the had been by foreign powers who sought to compass the overthrow and ruin of england this report which was strengthened by the of hand bills but which if it had any foundation at all probably owed its origin to the circumstance of some few which were not english money having been swept into the pockets of the with other miscellaneous and afterwards discovered on the prisoners or the dead bodies � caused a great sensation and men s minds being in that excited state when they are most apt to catch at any shadow of apprehension was about with much all remaining quiet however during the whole of this friday and on this friday night and no new discoveries being made confidence began to be restored and the most timid and breathed again in no fewer than three thousand of the inhabitants formed themselves into a watch and the streets every hour nor were the citizens slow to follow so good an example and it being the manner of men to be very bold when the danger is over they were abundantly fierce and daring not to question the passenger with great severity and carrying it with a very high hand over all errand boys servant girls and as day deepened into evening and darkness crept into the and comers of the town as if it were in secret and gathering strength to venture into the open ways sat in his wondering at the silence and listening in vain for the noise and which had ushered in the night of late beside him with his hand in hers sat one in whose companionship he felt at peace she was worn and altered fall of grief and heavy but the same to him mother he said after a long silence how long � how many days and nights � shall i be kept here not many dear i hope not many you hope ay but your hoping wiu not these chains i hope but they don t mind that grip hopes but who cares for grip the gave a short dull melancholy it said nobody as plainly aa a could speak who cares for grip excepting you and me said the bird s feathers with his hand he never speaks in this place he never says a word in jail he sits and all day in this dark comer sometimes and sometimes looking at the light that in through the bars and shines in his bright eye as i� a spark those great fires had fallen into the room and was burning yet but who cares for grip the again � nobody and by the way said withdrawing his hand from the bird and laying it upon his mother s arm as he looked eagerly in her if they me � they may i heard it said they would � what will become of grip when i am dead the sound of the word or the current of his own thoughts suggested to grip his old phrase never say die but ho stopped short in the middle of it drew a dismal cork and subsided into a faint as if he lacked the heart to get through the shortest sentence will they take his life as well as mine said i wish they would if you and i and he could die together there would be none to feel sorry or to grieve for us but do what they will i don t fear them mother they will not harm you she said her tears choking her utterance they never harm you when they know all i am sure they never will oh don t you be too sure of that cried with a strange pleasure in the belief that she was self deceived and in his own sagacity they have marked me mother from the first i heard them say so to each other when they brought me to this place last night and i believe them don t you cry for me they said that i was bold and so i am and so i will be you may think that i am silly but i can die as weu as another � i have done no harm have i he added quickly none before heaven she answered why then said let them do their worst you told me once � you � when i asked you what death meant that it was nothing to be feared if we did no harm � mother you thought i had forgotten that his merry laugh and manner smote her to the heart she drew him closer to her and him to talk to her in whispers and to be very quiet for it was getting dark and their time was short and she would soon have to leave him for the night you will come to morrow said yes and every day and they would never part again he replied this | 8 |
poised nervous manner oh yes so you re new to england i envy you your early impression i am for the future the extreme pleasure of reading you these little opening always amuse me we are all on the � stage and we play our parts whether we do so or not it appeared that the had to be provided for sir had to be given a hasty lunch he seemed to fall in with the idea of a short run to before dark even if the day were gloomy and so after feeding him quickly before the grate fire in the drawing room we were off � sir and � s son � and myself sir sat with me in the and and in the front seat sir made no effort to strike up any quick relationship with me � remained quite aloof and talked in i could see that he took himself very seriously � as well he might seeing that as i understood it he had begun life with nothing there were remarks � familiar ones concerning well known painters and the social life of england a at forty this first afternoon trip was pleasant enough me as it did with the character of the country about level for miles and miles up to this time i had been on the fact that it was winter and i was seeing england under the worst possible conditions but i am not so sure that it was such a great disadvantage to day as we sped down some damp slippery where the river thames was to be seen far below twisting like a letter s in the rain i thought to myself that light and color � summer light and color � would help but little the villages that we passed were all rain soaked and solemn there were few if any people abroad we did not pass a single on the way to and but a single railroad track these little english villages for all the extended english railway system are practically without railway communication you have to drive or walk a number of miles to obtain suitable railway connection i recall the moss vine cottages of once red but now green brick half hidden behind high brick walls where curiously trees sometimes stood up in order and vines and bushes seemed in a conspiracy to the doors and windows in an excess of until you see them no words can suggest the of age and some old order of comfort once prevailing but now which these little towns and separate houses convey you know at a glance that they are not of this modern work a day world you know at a glance that no power under the sun can save them they are of an older day and an older thought � the thought perhaps that goes with gray s and s traveller and deserted village that night at dinner before and after we fell into a most stirring argument as i recall it started enter sir with sir s that st paul s of london which is a product of the skill of sir as are so many of the smaller churches of london was infinitely superior to the comparatively new and still unfinished roman catholic cathedral of westminster with that i could not agree i have always objected anyhow to the ground plan of the cathedral namely the cross as being the worst possible arrangement which could be devised for an interior it is excellent as a scheme for three or four � the arms of the cross being always invisible from the � but as one interior how can it compare with the straight lying which gives you one grand forward sweep or the solemn greek temple with its and rows of columns of all forms of architecture other things being equal i most admire the greek though the even more than has a tremendous appeal it is so airy and however st paul s is neither greek nor an else very much � a staggering attempt on the part of sir to achieve something new which is to me not very successful the dome is pleasing and the interior space is fairly impressive but the general effect is and i think i said as much naturally this was solid ground for an argument and the battle raged to and fro � through greece rome the east and the of europe and england we finally came down to the of new york and and the railway of various american cities but i shall not go into that what was more important was that it raised a question concerning the of england � the common people from whom or because of whom all things are made to rise and this was based on the final conclusion that all architecture is or should be an expression of i a at forty national temperament and this as a fact was partly questioned and partly denied i think it began by my asking whether the little low cottages we had been seeing that afternoon � the quaint windows varying ik but delicious angles and the battered time worn state of houses generally � was an expression of the english temperament mind you i love what these things stand for i love the of soul which somehow is conveyed by and and hardy and i would have none of change if life could be ordered so sweetly � if it could really stay alas i know it can not compared to the speed and skill which is required to the modem railway trains the express companies the hotels the newspapers all this is helpless pathetic sir s answer was yes that they were an expression but that nevertheless the english mass was a beast of muddy brain it did not � could not � quite understand what was being done above it were intellectual classes each smaller and | 43 |
the dim dawn in streaming literally for the dear life on a bell smaller than the steward s breakfast bell while somewhere close at hand a thirty foot steel stem was along at twenty miles an hour the bitterest thought of all was that there were folks asleep in dry who would never learn that they had a boat before breakfast so rang the bell yes they slow one turn o their blame said dan applying himself to s fer to keep inside the law an that s when we re all at the bottom hark to her she s a � � went the ir � � went the bell � went the while sea and sky were captains courageous all up in fog then felt that he was near a moving body and found himself looking up and up at the wet edge of a bow leaping it seemed directly over the a little feather of water curled in front of it and as it lifted it showed a long ladder of roman � xv xvi and so forth � on a salmon coloured gleaming side it forward and downward with a heart the ladder disappeared a line of brass port holes flashed past a jet of steam puffed in s helplessly uplifted hands a of hot water roared along the rail of the w re here and the little staggered and shook in a rush of screw tom water as a s stem vanished in the fog got ready to hint or be sick or both when he heard a crack like a trunk thrown on a and all small in his ear a far away voice heave to you ve sunk us is it us he gasped � no boat out yonder ring we re goin to look said dan running out a in half a minute all except and the cook were and away presently a s stump snapped clean across drifted past the bows then an empty green came by knocking on the re her s side as though she wished to be taken in then � captains courageous something face down in a blue but � it was not the whole of a man changed colour and caught his breath with a click at the bell for he feared they might be sunk at any minute and he jumped at dan s hail as the crew came back the said dan cut clean in half � up an on at that not a quarter of a mile away s got the old man there ain t any one else and � there was his son too oh i can t stand it i ve seen � he dropped his head on his arms and sobbed while the others dragged a grey headed man aboard what did you pick me up for the stranger groaned what did you pick me up for dropped a heavy hand on his shoulder for the man s eyes were wild and his lips trembled as he stared at the silent crew then up and spoke who was also or rich or when uncle forgot and his face was changed on him from the face of a fool to the countenance of an old wise man and he said in a strong voice the lord gave and the lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the lord i was � i am a minister of the leave him to me i oh you be be you said the man then pray my son back to me pray back a nine � � captains courageous thousand dollar boat an a thousand of fish if you d left me alone my widow could ha gone on to the an worked fer her board an never known � an never known now i ll to tell her � � there ain t to say said � better lie down a piece when a man has lost his only son his summer s work and his means of in thirty counted seconds it is hard to give consolation � all men wasn t they said tom helplessly with a � � oh that don t make no odds said wringing the wet from his beard � i ll be summer e t this fall he rolled heavily to the rail singing birds that ting and fly round o most high � � come with me come below said as though he had a right to give orders their eyes met and fought for a quarter of a minute � � i who you be but i ll come said � � i ll get back some o the � some o the � nine thousand dollars led him into the cabin and slid the door behind that ain t cried uncle � � it s captains courageous jacob an � he s remembered i never seed such eyes in any man s head what s to do what u i do they could hear s voice and s together then s went on alone and slipped off his hat for was praying presently the little man came up the steps huge drops of sweat on his face and looked at the crew dan was still sobbing by the wheel he don t know us groaned it s all to do over again and everything � an what u he say to me spoke they could hear that it was to strangers i have prayed said he our people believe in prayer i have prayed for the life of this man s son mine were drowned before my eyes � she and my eldest and � the others shall a man be more wise than his maker i prayed never for their lives but i have prayed for this man s son and he will surely be sent him looked at to see if he remembered how long have i been mad | 39 |
now � why he would be impossible � simply impossible she repeated with emphasis � i can see exactly what he s like at a glance one of those cold quiet clever men who women and never admire them � i know the kind of horrid university creature a sort of superior touch me not person who can barely a woman s presence in the room and in his heart of hearts the female sex generally to the lowest class of the animal creation i can read it all in his face he s rather good looking � not very � his hair curls quite nicely but it s getting grey and so is his moustache � he must be at least fifty i should think he has a good figure � for a clergyman � and his eyes no i m not sure that i like his eyes � i believe they re i must look at them again before i make up my mind but i know he s just as conceited and disagreeable as most � he probably thinks that he helps to turn this world and the next round on his little finger � and i he tells the p or village folk here that if they don t obey him they ll go to hell and if they do they ll fly straight to heaven and put on golden crowns at once dear me i what a ridiculous state of things fancy the dear old man in the who came to see me last night with a pair of wings and a crown i laughing again she s neck with the reins and started off at an easy swinging gallop turning out of the woods into the carriage drive and never checking her pace till she reached the house all that day she gave marked evidence that her reign as mistress of s had begun in earnest changing her riding dress for a sober little tailor made frock of she flitted busily over the old house of her ancestors visiting it in every part peering into shadowy comers opening antique presses and finding out the secret of sliding in the oak that covered the walls and leaving no room the apartment in which her father s body had lain in its was solemnly unlocked and disclosed to her view under the title of the ghost room � she was sorrowfully indignant � so much so indeed that mrs shivered in her shoes pricked by the sting of a guilty conscience for if the truth be told it was to mrs s own too tongue that this offending name owed its origin quietly entering the peaceful chamber with its harmless and almost holy air of beautiful darkened calm drew up the blinds threw back tho curtains and i god s good man opened the windows wide admitting a flood of and sweet air it must never be called the ghost room again � she said with a gravity which greatly disconcerted and mrs � otherwise it will have an evil reputation which it does not deserve there is nothing ghostly or about it it is a sacred room � sacred to the memory of one of the dearest and best of men i it is wrong to let such a room be considered as haunted � i shall sleep in it myself sometimes � and i shall make it bright and pretty for visitors when they come i would put a little child to sleep in it � for my father was a good man and nothing evil can ever be associated with him death is only dreadful to the ignorant and the wicked mrs wisely held her peace and followed her new mistress to the morning room where she had to undergo what might be called quite a stiff examination regarding au the household and housekeeping matters armed with a fascinating little velvet bound and pencil put down all the names of the different servants both and making a small private mark of her own against those who had served her father in any capacity and those who were just new to the place together with the amount of wages due every month to each � she over all the fine house linen much of which had been purchased for her mother s home coming and had never been used � she examined with all a s admiration the almost old china with which the shelves and were crowded � and finally after luncheon and an hour s deep by herself in the library she wrote out in a round hand certain rules and for the daily routine of her household and handed the document to mrs � much to that dame s and astonishment these are my hours she said � and it will of course be your business to see that the work is done and with proper method there must be no waste or extravagance � and you will bring me all the accounts every week as i won t have bills running up longer than that period i shall leave all the ordering in of provisions to you � if iti ever happens that you send something to table which i don t like i will tell you and the mistake need not occur again now is there anything else � and she paused finger on lip knitting her brows � you see i ve never done god s good man any housekeeping but always had notions as to how i should do it if i ever got the chance to try and i m just beginning i believe in method � and i like everything that has a place to be in in its place and everything tiiat has a time to come up to its time it ever so much worry and trouble now let me think � oh yes i � i there was another matter please let | 33 |
experienced in this region are not unworthy of mention a remarkable was noticed between two mountains at bay another noticed by our party in a cliff at cape gives back more than a dozen echoes and baron relates that a pistol fired near some cliffs on the river is echoed a hundred times the great distance to which small sounds are sometimes is also worthy of record the first time this clearness of the atmosphere came under observation was at saint where a conversation carried on at an incredible distance could be distinctly heard amid the grim silence and desolation of heretofore island at a time too when the air was for that latitude i distinctly heard our a small man with a voice of no great volume giving orders two miles away while laughter and sounds of the voice when any one spoke above the ordinary tone were heard with such amazing distinctness as to suggest communication where the conditions were so favorable to the reflection of waves it was natural to expect the occurrence of a phenomenon an echo at sea such as i once noticed in a fog off the banks while crossing the atlantic in a french steamer whose fog whistle was echoed in a surprising manner but at no time was it observed that the state of the atmosphere overhead or the of fog banks gave rise to anything like an echo although as a rule no very marked differences in the deep sea and surface were observed yet a few of the noticed are deserving of mention for instance near herald island on july the temperature at the bottom was o and � a few days later off the coast miles to the southward it measured � while later in sea over miles to the southward it fell to the of the sea water as observed by mr f e assistant engineer of the is shown in the accompanying table the instruments used in obtaining the results were a and a water was drawn at about feet below the surface and heated to a temperature of � f and the or specific gravity is shown by the depth to which the sinks in the water as sea water commonly contains one part of matter to parts of water the instrument is marked in thirty seconds as c and the are parts of one thirty second of i l at saint sea off bay asia ocean near straits ocean near ice on coast sea off saint island bay sea july sea between ring s island and ca e prince of wales july entrance to sound july cape ocean july icy cape july herald island in the ice july � cape august island surface in ice august island below surface feet august the use of the resulted in finding the usual forms that have been already described in works relating to ages in latitude � a spot known among the as the post office � the brought up some mud of a temperature of while the water near the measured examination of the mud revealed some shells of in passing straits the tint of the water was noticed it resembled that often seen in the water of mill which has been by leaves the of steamer in the ocean of the sea was also observed in september in latitude and several patches of red snow were seen at bay and at herald island but whether the tint was owing to the presence of some red or not am unable to say the records kept on board the being of use in connection with the of the vessel only are therefore so far as making any from them in regard to is concerned in connection with this subject it may be inferred from the absence of above straits and the existence of huge ones in the more southern part of compared with which the great of the is a mere that the amount of is much less in the higher of the pacific but the finding of and rock and other evidences of former as well as of coal which says is the sun s rays in form and also the remains of the along with luxuriant tropical or semi tropical vegetation would imply the existence at a remote period of a different condition a change in which has been brought about according to the explanation of the in long la of time through the change in the of the earth s in combination with the of the and the movement of the whether a climate existed in former days the to on vegetable food as suggested by professor or whether the in his personal while to overcome the influence of climate was detained in his present position by the sudden it is impossible to say sir charles seems to account satisfactorily not only for the of these animals in the northern parts of and america but for the permanent masses of ice known as his explanation is as follows this snow is commonly blown over the edges of steep cliffs so as to form an inclined hundreds of feet high and when a torrents rush from the land and throw down from the top of the cliff soil and gravel this new soil soon becomes covered with vegetation and the foundation of snow from the rays of the sun water occasionally into the and of the snow but as soon as it it serves the more to the mass into compact ice it may sometimes happen that cattle in a valley at the base of such cliffs on the borders of a river may be overwhelmed by drift snow and at length in solid ice and then transported toward the region or a herd of returning from their summer pastures in the north may have been surprised while crossing a stream by the sudden of the waters in the course of the summer we fell in | 28 |
s d from fc company s tower in a by h o author of the citizen reader c with illustrations by w h is of the cross by with numerous original illustrations i and ii s each a tear s by new and enlarged edition cloth gilt s d s dictionary of containing about nine thousand s d d s shilling m thousand is s popular with four coloured plates cloth as a manual of cheap and wholesome diet by a g is d cooking by the art o� by j illustrated cloth s d the jl aw of musical and dramatic by edward thomas smith and e s d countries of the world the by robert brown m a d c complete in six with about illustrations to s d each and urn burial or the of the future by w robinson with plates and illustrations is the man and his mission by j m p cheap edition with steel portrait s folk by the author of � john c s d s with subjects brought down to the latest date with about illustrations new and cheap edition s d s miniature containing subjects cloth s d half s d farming by j p with coloured plates and numerous wood to s david the romance of his life and loving by david s character sketches first second and third series with six original drawings in each by in each for description see letter religion bible mechanical phrase and fable english english history english literature domestic french german and latin see with works personal reminiscences o� by henry lake s d in outline by f ll d s d dog book of the by b a with coloured plates cloth s half s dog the by illustrated s d domestic dictionary the an for the household cloth s d gallery the with illustrations by to s s s illustrated by popular edition s s milton s paradise lost illustrated by to s earth onr and its story by dr robert brown f l s with coloured plates and wood complete in three s each old and new s with illustrations three os each library binding � the set egypt historical and by g translated by bell with notes by samuel ll i c two s a novel by henry cloth s d age of f m soul to by park d d practical by w k illustrated s d in the service of man a popular and practical with nearly illustrations cheap s for bo r on leading school guide to by w s beard � f r g s is d dictionary the complete in fourteen los d each or seven half s each half each england s ol with illustration ten to s each new and edition l ii iii a from fc company s vol i � shorter english poems vol ii � illustrations of english religion vol iii � english plays s containing of upwards of loo words and phrases vo i pages cloth gilt s d english history the ot cheap edition los d s english library of by henry complete in s d each vol iv � shorter works in english vol v � sketches of longer works in english verse and prose english literature s first sketch ot edition s d english literature the dictionary ot by w cheap edition s d los d english literature the story ot by s d english writers by henry i to viii s each s illustrated by cheap edition cloth s d boards gilt edges s etiquette of society is cloth is d eye ear and throat the management of the s d family physician by eminent and new and edition cloth s s father his life and times by frank j a cloth gilt s d father by hope author of � � a man of mark crown vo cloth gilt s o works by boards s each or cloth s d dutch the or a man s in i the parson o in boards only boards only i poverty comer � y i the s people in cloth only field s the by rev j g wood wood s s popular scientific works with several hundred illustrations in each s d each the human i i ocean world the world before the edition figure painting in water colours with coloured plates by and with full instructions s d flower de hundred the story of a virginia plantation by mrs author of the c s d flower painting with eight coloured plates s flower painting in water colours with coloured plates first and second series s each flower painting in water colours with coloured plates first and second series s each flowers and how to paint them by n with coloured plates s a history of british by sir richard k c b f r s c with plates in four � s france as it is by and paul with three maps crown vo cloth s d flowers familiar bv with coloured plates by f � f l s complete in five series cloth gilt s d each s popular illustrated s each drawing for army by h t y m a s first elements of by paul is d practical solid by major s elizabeth and her work for the blind by martin s d � rom popular authors two with original illustrations to s each two in one great eastern railway the official illustrated guide to the is cloth s great northern railway the official illustrated guide to the is cloth s great western the official guide to the new and edition is cloth s s with by cheap edition cloth s d cloth gilt s four tears in with hard labour by c w m p third edition and its the by w en r illustrated d from fe company s modem shot by w w illustrated s health at by | 38 |
projecting into the lake and its back built against the almost wooded cliff which it from the southern sun down this cliff a foaming mountain torrent from the di just beneath the peak of and this torrent the of the villa has captured in its descent to the lake and carried through the central apartment of the villa the effect produced is unlike anything else even in the of italian gardens the two wings of the house a plain and somewhat melancholy looking structure are joined by an open room against the back wall of which the torrent down over tremulous with moss and out again beneath the of the where it makes a great of glittering whiteness in the dark green waters of the lake the old house is with the freshness and with the flying spray of the torrent the bare rooms with it the stone floors are green with its the air with its cool incessant rush the contrast of this dusky dripping on its perpetually shaded bay with the blazing blue waters of the lake and their sun western shores is one of the most wonderful effects in sensation that the italian villa art has ever devised the not satisfied with a part of the torrent to cool his house has led the rest in a fall down the cliff immediately adjoining the villa and has designed winding paths through the woods from which one may look down on the bright rush of the waters on the other side of the house lies a long terrace between the lake and the hanging woods and here on the only bit of open and level ground near the house are the old formal gardens now much neglected but still full of a melancholy charm after the villa the other gardens of seem almost commonplace all along both shores are which amid many alterations have preserved traces of their old garden architecture such as the bishop of s villa south of with its saints and perched along the garden italian trade and the more famous villa at where the fine and the treatment of the bear witness to the former beauty of the grounds but almost everywhere the old garden magic has been driven out by a fury of modern the have made way for dotted with palms and the have been replaced by star shaped beds of and and the groves of laurel and by of grass and this description applies to all the principal gardens between and here and there indeed in almost all of them some undisturbed corner remains � a flight of steps in roses and descending to a shady water gate a with a pan or a laurel walk set with marble benches or a classic summer house above the lake � but these old bits are so scattered and under the new order of that it requires an effort of the imagination to from them an image of what the old lake gardens must have been before every rich proprietor tried to convert his marble into an english park almost to be included among lake is the beautiful villa at this charming old place lies in the lovely but little known hill country between the lake of and the southern end of the house of which the history appears to be unknown to the present owners is an early building of great beauty with a touch of in its design the plain front with deep projecting and widely windows might stand on some village square above the and the interior court with its two in purity and lightness of design the of s tradition so few country houses of the early sixteenth century are to be found in the that it would be instructive to learn whether the villa is in fact due to a hand or whether this mid italian style was at that time also in the villa is built against a and the interior court forms an enclosed on three sides by the house and continued on the fourth by a beautiful sunken garden above which runs a walk on a level with the upper story on the other side of the house is another garden consisting of a long terrace bounded by a high retaining wall which is down its whole length to form a shady walk lined with and dripping with of water at the back of the house the ground continues to rise and a d is built against the while beyond the terrace garden already described a gate leads to a hanging with shady walks from which at every turn there are views across the southern bay of lake the house itself is as interesting as the garden the italian walls of the court are in charming designs and the ceiling of the is painted in delicate work somewhat in the manner of the at the villa di papa several of the rooms also preserve their wall and much of their furniture while a series of smaller apartments on the ground floor are exquisitely decorated with ornament in the light style of the century so that the villa still gives a vivid idea of what an old italian country house must have been in its original state from the hill of the lakes to the country places of the rice fields the descent is somewhat abrupt but the student of garden architecture may the transition by carrying on his from the southern end of through the smiling landscape of the here there are many old in a lovely setting of and with distant views of the and of the sunny plain but of old gardens few are to be found there is one of great beauty belonging to the villa near the village of but as it is inaccessible to visitors only glimpses may be obtained of its statues and its walks and towering not far from is the now the property of the d and | 10 |
known besides that he has protested in vain against the charge for dr it is known that he has himself applied for an advance and been refused money is certainly a grave subject on but respect costs nothing and officials might have judged it wise to make up in extra politeness for what they of pomp or comfort one instance may suffice appeared last summer on a public occasion the president was there � and not even the president rose to greet the entrance of the sovereign since about the same period besides the monarch must be described as in a state of a white man an the true type of all that is most gallant humorous and reckless in his country chose to visit his majesty and give him some excellent advice to make up his difference with unhappily in vivid and language the adviser now sleeps in the pacific but the evil that he o eight years of trouble in chanced to do lives after him his majesty was greatly and i must say justly offended by the freedom of the expressions used he appealed to his white and these whether from want of thought or by design issued an intending visitors to the palace must appear before their and justify their business the majesty of buried was henceforth only to be viewed like a private collection under special permit and was thus at once cut off from the company and opinions of the self respecting to retain any dignity in such an abject state would require a man of very different virtues from those claimed by the not he is not designed to ride the or direct the storm rather to be the ornament of private life he is kind gentle patient as job well of charming manners and when he pleases he has one accomplishment in which he now begins to be alone � i mean that he can pronounce correctly his own beautiful language the government of accomplished a good deal and was continually and i and attempting more the government of our two has confined itself almost wholly to paying and receiving they have built indeed a house for the president they are believed if that be a merit to have bought the local newspaper with government funds and their rule has been by a number of into which i feel with relief it is unnecessary i should enter even if the three powers do not remove these gentlemen their absurd and disastrous government must perish by itself of native taxes except perhaps from true to his own private policy have long been beyond hope and only the other day may th on the expressed ground that there was no as to how the funds would be expended and that the president refused to allow the of his cash the council has the proposal to call up farther taxes from the all is well that ends even ill so that it end and we believe that with the last dollar we shall see the last of the last now when it is so nearly over we can afford to smile at this io eight years of trouble in passage though we must still sigh over the occasion lost the way to lies round the shores of bay and through a succession of pleasant groves and villages the road one of the works of is now cut up by pig fences eight times you must leap a barrier of posts the take off and the landing both in a patch of mire planted with big stones and the stones sometimes with the blood of horses that have gone before to make these obstacles more you have sometimes to wait while a black over the so called pig fence nothing can more thoroughly the worst side of the character than these useless which their only road it was one of the first orders issued by the government of after the coming of the chief justice to have the passage cleared it is the disgrace of that the thing is not yet done the village of is a scene of prosperity and peace in a very good account of a visit there published in the the writer f a and describes it to be fortified she must have been deceived by the appearance of some pig walls on the shore there is no no parade of war i understand that from one to five hundred fighting men are always within reach but i have never seen more than five together under arms and these were the king s guard of honour a sabbath quiet over the well green the horses the troops of pigs the round or oval native dwellings of these there are a surprising number very fine of their sort yet more are in the building and in the midst a tall house of assembly by far the greatest structure now in these islands stands about half finished and already makes a figure in the landscape no bustle is to be observed but the work accomplished to a still activity the centre piece of all is the high chief himself king � or not king � or king � of all goes to him all comes from him native bring him gifts and are in return white travellers to their indescribable irritation are on his approach waved from his eight years of trouble in path by his armed guards he summons his dancers by the note of a he sits nightly at home before a semi circle of talking men from many quarters of the islands delivering and hearing those and elegant in which the heart delights about himself and all his surroundings there breathes a striking sense of order tranquillity and native plenty he is of a tall and powerful person sixty years of age white haired and with a white moustache his eyes bright and quiet his jaw which gives him something of | 38 |
m � � � � � � � � m m � i ii � � � i� husband fixed upon me hemmed me round with himself me in with his own hands and of his own act repeated hundreds of times and thus � forced by the two from every point of rest i had � forced by the two to yield up the last retreat of love and gentleness within me or to be a new misfortune on its innocent driven from each to each and beset by one when i escaped the other � my anger rose almost to distraction against both i do not know against which it rose higher � the master or the man he watched her closely as she stood before him in the very triumph of her indignant beauty she was resolute he saw with no more fear of him than of a worm what should i say of honor or of to you she went on what meaning would it have to you what meaning would it have from me but if i tell you that the touch of your hand makes my blood cold with that from the hour when i first saw and hated you to now when my instinctive is by every minute s knowledge of you i have since had you have been a creature to me which has not its like on earth how then he answered with a faint laugh aye how then my queen on that night when by the scene you had assisted at you dared come to my room and speak to me she said what passed v he shrugged his shoulders and laughed again what passed she said your memory is so distinct he returned that i have no doubt you can recall it i can she said hear it proposing then this flight � not this flight but the flight you thought it � you told me that in the having given you that meeting and leaving you to be discovered there if you so thought fit and in the having suffered you to be alone with me many times before � and having made the opportunities you said � and in the having openly to you that i had no feeling for my husband but aversion and no care r i was lost i had given you the power to and son my name and i lived in virtuous reputation at the sure of your breath all in love � he interrupted smiling the old � on that night said and then the struggle that i long had had with something that was not respect for my good that was i know not what � perhaps the clinging to that last retreat � was ended on that night and then i turned from everything but passion and resentment i struck a blow that laid your lofty master in the dust and set you there before me looking at me now and knowing what i mean he sprang up from his chair with a great oath she put her hand into her bosom and not a finger trembled not a hair upon her head was stirred he stood still she too the and chair between them when i forget that this man put his lips to mine that night and held me in his arms as he has done again to night said pointing at him when i forget the taint of his kiss upon my cheek � the cheek that would have laid her face against � when i forget my meeting with her while that taint was hot upon me and in what a flood the knowledge rushed upon me when i saw her that in her from the persecution i had caused her by my love i brought a shame and degradation on her name through mine and in all time to come should be the solitary figure representing in her mind her first of a guilty creature � then husband from whom i stand henceforth i will forget these last two years and undo what i have done and you i her flashing eyes uplifted for a moment lighted again on and she held some letters out in her left hand see these she said contemptuously you have addressed these to me in the false name you go by one here some elsewhere on my road the are unbroken take them back she them in her hand and tossed them to his feet and as she looked upon him now a smile was on her face we meet and part to night she said you have on days and rest too soon you might have and son and and played your traitor s part a longer and grown richer you purchase your retirement dear he retorted menacing her with his hand sit down have done with this what devil possesses you v their name is she replied her proud form as if she would have crushed him you and your master have raised them in a fruitful house and they shall tear you false to him false to his innocent child false every way and everywhere go forth and boast of me and your teeth for once to know that you are l ring he stood before her muttering and menacing and round as if for something that would help him to conquer her but with the same spirit she opposed him without in every you make she said i have my triumph i single out in you the meanest man i know the and tool of the proud tyrant that his wound may go the deeper and may more boast and revenge me on him you know how you came here to night you know how you stand there you see yourself in colors quite as if not as odious as those in which i see you boast then and revenge me on yourself the | 8 |
been reasonably expected to do fluttering up and down the court outside the house the moment he saw little he passed her briskly said with his finger to his nose as mistress distinctly heard the fortune telling and went away lord save us here s a and a fortune in it now cried mistress what next she stood at the open door staggering herself with this on a rainy evening the clouds were flying fast the wind was coming up in some neighbouring shutters that had broken loose the rusty chimney and and rushing round and round a confined adjacent churchyard as if it had a mind to blow the dead citizens out of their graves the low thunder muttering in all quarters of the sky at once seemed to threaten vengeance for this attempted and to let them rest let them rest mistress whose fear of thunder and lightning was only to be equalled by her dread of the haunted house with a premature and darkness in it stood whether to go in or not until the question was settled for her by the door blowing upon her in a violent gust of wind and shutting her out w hat s to be done now what s to be done now cried mistress wringing her hands in this last uneasy dream of all when she s all alone by herself inside and can no more come down to open it than the churchyard dead themselves in this mistress with her apron as a hood to keep the rain off ran crying up and down the solitary paved several times why she should then stoop down and look in at the of the door as if an eye would open it it would be difficult to say but it is none the less what most people would have done in the same situation and it is what she did from this posture she started up suddenly with a half scream feeling something on her shoulder it was the touch of a hand of a man s hand the man was dressed like a traveller in a cap with fur about it and a heap of cloak he looked like a foreigner he had a quantity of hair and moustache � jet black except at the shaggy ends where it had a tinge of red � and a high hook nose he laughed at mistress s start and cry and as he laughed his moustache went up under his nose and his nose came down over his moustache what s the matter he asked in plain english what are you frightened at at you panted me madam and the dismal evening and � and everything said and here the wind has been and blown the door to and i can t get in said the gentleman who took that very coolly indeed ho you know such a name as about here little lord bless us i should think i did i should think i did cried exasperated into a new wringing of hands by the where about here where cried into another inspection of the where but here in this house and she s all alone in her room and lost the use of her limbs and can t stir to help herself or me and the t other clever one s out and lord forgive me cried driven into a frantic dance by these accumulated considerations if i ain t a going headlong out of my mind taking a warmer view of the matter now that it concerned himself the gentleman stepped back to glance at the house and his eyes soon rested on the long narrow window of the little room near the where may the lady be who has lost the use of her limbs madam he with that peculiar smile which mistress could not choose but keep her eyes upon up there said them two windows i am of a fair size but could not have the honor of myself in that room without a ladder now madam frankly � frankness is a part of my character � shall i open the door for you yes bless you sir for a dear and do it at once cried for she may be a calling to me at this very present minute or may be setting herself a fire and burning herself to death or there s no knowing what may be happening to her and me a going out of my mind at thinking of it stay my good madam he restrained her impatience with a smooth white hand business hours i apprehend are over for the day yes yes yes cried long ago let me make then a fair proposal is a part of my character i am just landed from the packet boat as you may see he showed her that his cloak was very wet and that his boots were with water she had previously observed that he was and sallow as if from a rough voyage and so chilled that he could not keep his teeth from chattering i am just landed from the packet boat madam and have been delayed by the weather the infernal weather in consequence of this madam some necessary business that i should otherwise have here within the regular hours necessary business because money business still remains to be done now if you will fetch any neighbouring somebody to do it in return for my opening the door i ll open the door if this arrangement should be objectionable i ll and with the same smile he made a significant of away mistress heartily glad to effect the proposed compromise gave in her willing to it the gentleman at once requested her to do him the favor of holding his cloak took a short run at the narrow window made a leap at the sill clung his way up the bricks and in a moment had his hand | 8 |
the community doomed to bear the and of their own party and the and of the whole world � set up like at to be and at by every and vagabond in the land on the contrary the dutch enjoyed that authority m all of colonies or they were in a manner in their little it if fo over both law and and to none but the mother country which it is well known is deaf to all complaints its provided they the main duty of their � i history of ing out a good this hint will be of importance to prevent my readers from being with doubt and incredulity whenever in the of this hi they encounter the uncommon of a governor acting with independence and in to the opinions of the multitude to the doubtful in the of a board of was appointed which immediately over the police this potent body confided of a or with powers between of the mayor and � five who were equivalent to and five who as or bottle to the in the fame manner as do to their at the day it being their duty to fill the pipes of the � for for dinners and to other little offices of as were required it was moreover though not that they mould as for the blunt wits of the and laugh heartily at all their jokes but this was a duty as rarely called in action in days as it is at and was in of the death of a fat little � who actually died of new s ton in an ul effort to force a laugh at one tf van s bed jokes in return for humble they were permitted to yes and no at the council board and to hare that privilege the run of the public kitchen � being permitted to eat and drink and at all and public for which the ancient were equally famous with their more modern the of therefore like that of � was eagerly by all your of a certain description who have a huge for good feeding and an humble ambition to be great men in a way � who third after a little brief authority that hall render them the terror of the and the � that hall enable them to lord it over poverty vice and hunger driven � that place in their hands the but of the law and give to their a hound like pack of catch poles and bum � greater than the they hunt down � my readers will this warmth which i is of a grave � but i have a mortal to catch poles bum and little great men the ancient of this city with of the time no in form magnitude and intellect than in and ss history of the like our were generally by and not only the weight of the body but the weight of the head it is a in all thinking regular cities that an bt and the of this can be proved to a certainty that the body is in an image of the mind or rather that the mind is to the body like melted lead to the clay in which it is call has been on by many men of who have made human nature their peculiar for as a learned gentleman of our own city there is a relation between the moral character of all intelligent creatures and their � between their habits and the of their bodies thus we fee that a lean body is generally accompanied by a mind � either the mind down the body by its continual motion or the body not affording the mind keeps it continually in a date of and worrying about from the of its whereas your round fat is ever attended by a mind like and at and we may always that your well fed are in general very of their and comfort j being great enemies to and di and none are more likely to the public tranquillity new york � than who are fo careful of their own � who hears of fat men heading a riot or together in turbulent � no � no � it is your lean hungry men who are continually worrying the whole community by the ears the divine doctrines are not attended to by philosophers of the age allows to every man three one immortal and rational in the brain that it may overlook and the body � a confiding of the and which like powers lie around the heart � a third mortal and of and brutal in its and in the belly that it may not the divine foul by its now according to this excellent theory what can be more clear than that your fat is likely to have the regular and well mind his head is like a huge chamber containing a prodigious of brains whereon the rational foul lies and as on a feather bed and the eyes which are the windows of the bed chamber are half that its not be by external objects a mind thus comfortably lodged and protected from is likely to perform its functions with regularity and by dint of good moreover the mortal and ma foul which is confined va history which by its raging and roaring puts the irritable foul in the neighbourhood of the heart in an ble and thus renders men and quarrel when hungry is completely and put to � whereupon a of good low qualities and kind hearted affections which had lain peeping out of the holes of the heart finding this do pluck up their turn out one and all in their and up and down the � their to laughter good humour and a friendly offices towards his fellow mortals as a board of formed on this mode think but very little they are the likely to differ and | 48 |
own snug ami ing or to represent herself as suffering much any than as the sell she had practised since first knowledge of edward s engagement might suggest a hint of what was practicable to her was clear and simple and thou it could not be given without emotion it was not accompanied by violent nor impetuous that belonged rather to tiie listened with and excessively was to be the oi others in her own no less than in and all ttie comfort that could be given by assurances of her own composure of mind and a very earnest of edward from every charge but of was readily offered but for some time would give credit to neither edward seemed a second and acknowledging as did that she aad loved him most sincerely could she feel less than as for she considered her so totally so absolutely incapable of a sensible man that she could not be persuaded at first to believe and afterwards to pardon any of edward for her she would not even admit it to been natural and left her to be convinced that it was by that which only could convince her a better knowledge of mankind her communication had reached no either than to state the the engagement and the length of time it had existed s feelings had then broken in and pat an end to all r of detail and for some time all could be done was to soothe her distress lessen her and combat her resentment the first question on her which led to particulars was � how long has this been known to yon written to i have known it these four months when first came to last november she told me in confidence of her engagement at these words s eyes expressed the astonishment her lips could not utter alter a pause of wonder ihe exclaimed � four months have jou known of this t salt m i what t while � ruling me in id mr � � � � � od i on � h it � � � dot fit yon know how x w� the four months cried again so calm i � how yon i that i was doing mj my to obliged me to be secret i owed it to her to avoid giving any hint of die and i owed it to my family and friends not to create in them a about me which it could not be in my to satisfy seemed i have very often wished to and ny mother added and once or twice i have attempted it but my trust i never could have you four months i and yet you loved him yes but i did not love only liim and while the comfort of others was dear to me i was glad to spare them from knowing how much i felt now i can think and speak of it with little emotion i would not have you suffer on my account for assure you i no longer suffer materially i have many things to support me i am not of having provoked the disappointment by any of my own and i have it as much as possible without spreading it farther i edward of all essential i wish him very happy and i am so sore of his always doing his duty that though now he may harbour some regret in the end he must become sa does not want sense and that is the foundation on which every thing good may be built and after all after au that is in the of a single and constant attachment and all that can be said of one s happiness depending entirely on any particular person it is not meant � it is not fit � it is not possible that it should be so edward will many he will marry a woman superior in person and standing to half hei sex and time and habit will teach him to that he ever thought another superior to and if is your way of thinking said if ion of what is mom valued is so easily to be made up by something else your resolution your self command are a l e less to be wondered at they are brought more within my i understand you you do not suppose that i have ever felt much for four months i have had all this hanging on my mind without being at liberty to of it to a single creature knowing that it would make you and my mother most unhappy whenever it were explained to you yet unable to prepare you for it in the least it vas told me � it was in a manner forced on me by the veiy person whose prior engagement ruined all my prospects and told me as i thought with triumph person s therefore i have had to oppose by endeavouring to appear indifferent where i have been most deeply interested been only once i have had her hopes and exultation to listen to again and again i have known myself to be divided from edward for ever without hearing one that could make me less desire the connection nothing has proved him unworthy nor has any thing declared him indifferent to me i have had to contend against the of his sister and the insolence of his and have suffered the punishment of an attachment without enjoying its advantages and all this has been going on at a time when as you too well know it has not been my only if you can think me capable of ever surely you may suppose that i have suffered the composure of mind with which i have brought at present to consider the matter the consolation at i have been willing to admits have been the effect of constant and painful exertion they did not spring up of them � they | 26 |
him he came father � said struggling to speak through a sudden burst of tears silence i will hear no apology exclaimed then horse shoe robinson in an instant ho took his daughter s hand as he said u my child thou art innocent in thy nature and not the evil of this world he lied if he told you that he came casually hither or that his stay was to one short night i have proofs full and satisfactory that for several days he lay concealed in this vicinity and moreover that his scheme was only by an unexpected discovery made through the of a drunken bully who came linked with him in his foul it was a lie invented to impose upon your if he gave you room to believe other � j wise arthur butler a falsehood father with the deepest scorn that belongs to a noble mind and would resent the charge with the spirit of a and virtuous man if mr tj have such to make it would be they should be made face to face with the man he would than in my father s ear but it is the nature of the serpent to sting in the grass not openly to encounter his victim the first duty of a friend is to give warning of the approach of an enemy � and that has done for this act of service does he deserve your rebuke could you expect aught else of an honorable gentleman shame on you daughter father i know the tale to be false arthur butler is not your enemy sooner would he lay down his life than even indulge a thought of harm to you his coming hither was not unknown to me � his delay but one brief night business of great moment called him hastily towards the army of the south u you speak like a girl i have against this tale the of a loyal and brave soldier aye and let me tell you � as you may deem of this false and rebel � his arts have been and quick vengeance is now upon his path � his doom is fixed for heaven s sake er dear father tell me what this means have you heard of arthur f cried in the most impassioned accents of distress at the same time throwing her head upon s breast oh god have you heard aught of harm to him horse shoe girl foolish mad self willed girl exclaimed himself from his daughter and rising from his seat and angrily a few paces upon the terrace dare yon show this to me no i did not mean that � have you the heart to indulge these passionate for the man i hate more than i can hate any other living thing he a wretch upon whose head i nightly curses a image to my mind hear me and hear me though your heart break while i utter it � may the s death him and his name in eternal disgrace � may his present be beset with all the horrors of friendliness � his father and has he then fallen into the hands of the enemy quick tell me all � i shall die � my life is wrapped up in his ejaculated in agony as she sprang towards her father and seized his arm and then sank at his feet for god s sake my child said becoming alarmed at the violence of the he had excited and now lifting his daughter from the ground � speak girl this emotion will drive me mad oh fate fate � how dost thou fulfil the sad of my spirit how darkly does the curse hang upon my household dear daughter pardon my rash speech i would not harm thee child � no not for worlds p father you have cruelly tortured my soul said from the half lifeless state into which she had fallen and which for some moments had denied her speech tell me all on my knees father i you it was a hasty word daughter replied ill concealing the of his feelings i meant not what i said nay dear father said i am prepared to hear the worst you spoke of arthur s it was only a replied struck with apprehension at his daughter s earnestness and now seeking to the feeling his hint had aroused in her mind it may be exaggerated by whose letter hastily written the fact that butler had been made a prisoner by some bands of amongst whom he had ventured the of his king may yet win him back to his a confinement at least will deprive him of the power of mischief his lands will be ho shoe robinson ed � and the close of the war now fast approaching will find him a adventurer baffled in his treason and by all good men this should persuade you to your unnatural attachment and to think no more of one whose cause heaven has never and whose condition in life should forbid all to your one above all repulsive even to to the thoughts of your father i loved him father in his happiest and brightest day said firmly u i cannot desert him in his oh speak to me no more let me go to my chamber i am ill and cannot bear this torrent of your displeasure i will not detain you in sorrow and suffering but still with a s affection as warmly shining on you as when in earliest infancy i thee upon my knee i part with thee now one kiss girl there let that make peace between us for your sake and my own i pledge my word never to distress you with this subject again destiny must have its way and i must bide the inevitable doom with a heavy heart and an exhausted frame slowly and withdrew remained some time fixed upon | 29 |
replied i like him very much he seems very agreeable he is as good natured a fellow as ever lived a little of a rattle but that will recommend him to your sex i believe and how do you like the rest of the family very very much indeed particularly i am very glad to hear you say so she is just the kind of young woman i could wish to see you attached to she has abbey much sense and is so thoroughly unaffected and amiable always wanted you to know her and she seems fond of you she said the highest things in your praise that could possibly be and the praise of such a girl as miss y even you taking her hand with affection may be proud of indeed i am she replied i love her exceedingly and am delighted to find that you like her too you hardly mentioned anything of her when you wrote to me after your there because i thought i should soon see you myself i hope you will be a great deal together while you are in bath she is a most amiable girl such a superior understanding how fond all the family are of her she is evidently the general favourite and how much she must be admired in such a place as this is she not yes very much indeed i fancy mr thinks her the prettiest girl in bath i dare say he does and i do not know any man who is a better judge of beauty than mr i need not ask you whether you are happy here my dear with such a companion and friend as it would be impossible for you to be otherwise and the i am sure are very kind to you yes very kind i never was so happy before and now you are come it will be more delightful than ever how good it is of you to come so far on purpose to see me james accepted this tribute of gratitude and qualified his conscience for accepting it too by saying with perfect sincerity indeed i love you dearly inquiries and communications concerning brothers and sisters the situation of some the growth of the rest and other family matters now passed between them and continued with only one small on james s part in praise of miss till they reached street where he was welcomed with great kindness by mr and mrs invited by the former to dine with them and summoned by abbey the latter to guess the price and weigh the merits of a new and a pre engagement in � s buildings prevented his accepting the invitation of one friend and obliged him to hurry away as soon as he had satisfied the demands of the other the time of the two parties in the boom being correctly adjusted was then left to the luxury of a raised restless and imagination over the pages of lost from all worldly concerns of dressing and dinner incapable of soothing mrs s fears on the delay of an expected and having only one minute in sixty to bestow even on the reflection of her own felicity in being already engaged for the evening viii in spite of and the however the party from street reached the upper in very good time the and james were there only two minutes before them and having gone through the usual of meeting her friend with the most smiling and affectionate haste of admiring the set of her gown and the of her hair they followed their arm in arm into the ball room whispering to each other whenever a thought occurred and supplying the place of many ideas by a squeeze of the hand or a smile of affection the dancing began within a few minutes after they were seated and james who had been engaged quite as long as his sister was very to stand up but john was gone into the card room to speak to a friend and nothing she declared should induce her to join the set before her dear could join it too i assure you said she i would not stand up without your dear sister for all the world for if i did we should certainly be separated the whole evening accepted this kindness with and they continued as they were for three minutes abbey longer when who had been talking to james on the other side of her turned again to his sister and whispered my dear creature i am afraid i must leave you your brother so impatient to begin i know you will not mind my going away and i dare say john will be back in a moment and then you may easily find me out though a little disappointed had too much good nature to make any opposition and the others rising up had only time to press her mend s hand and say good bye my dear love before they hurried off the younger miss being also dancing was left to e mercy of mrs and mrs between whom she now remained she could not help being vexed at the non appearance of mr for she not only longed to be dancing but was likewise aware that as the real dignity of her situation could not be known she was sharing with the scores of other young ladies still sitting down all the of wanting a partner to be disgraced in the eye of the world to wear the appearance of while her heart is all purity her actions all innocence and the of another the true source of her is one of those circumstances which peculiarly belong to the heroine s life and her fortitude under it what particularly her character had fortitude too she suffered but no murmur passed her lips from this state of humiliation she was roused at the end often minutes to a | 26 |
Subsets and Splits