To which has been added chopped cooked carrots and mushrooms and a tablespoonful of minced parsley add also to the sauce a tablespoonful of butter and grated nutmeg


And put into a stewpan with a chopped onion a bunch of parsley a pinch of salt and enough white wine to cover simmer for fifteen minutes


Put into a saucepan one tablespoonful of malt vinegar one tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar a teaspoonful of minced parsley a small chopped onion a bay leaf and four pepper corns


Boil for ten minutes strain and cool cook together four tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour when brown add a pint of beef stock and cook until thick stirring constantly take from the fire


Add the strained vinegar the beaten yolks of six eggs and two tablespoonfuls of grated horseradish bring to the boil pour over the fish and serve perch a la stanley


Take from the fire add the yolks of four eggs beaten with the juice of a lemon and three tablespoonfuls of butter bring to the boil add a dozen parboiled oysters pour over the fish and serve baked perch


Prepare and clean the fish stuff with seasoned crumbs


Bake with a little white wine and melted butter perch salad


Every promise of the soul has innumerable fulfilments each of its joys ripens into a new want nature uncontainable flowing forelooking


In the first sentiment of kindness anticipates already a benevolence which shall lose all particular regards in its general light the introduction to this felicity is in a private and tender relation of one to one which is the enchantment of human life


Unites him to his race pledges him to the domestic and civic relations carries him with new sympathy into nature enhances the power of the senses opens the imagination adds to his character heroic and sacred attributes


Establishes marriage and gives permanence to human society the natural association of the sentiment of love with the heyday of the blood seems to require that in order to portray it in vivid tints which every youth and maid should confess to be true to their throbbing experience


One must not be too old the delicious fancies of youth reject the least savor of a mature philosophy as chilling with age and pedantry their purple bloom


And therefore i know i incur the imputation of unnecessary hardness and stoicism from those who compose the court and parliament of love but from these formidable censors i shall appeal to my seniors


For it is to be considered that this passion of which we speak though it begin with the young yet forsakes not the old or rather suffers no one who is truly its servant to grow old


Glows and enlarges until it warms and beams upon multitudes of men and women upon the universal heart of all and so lights up the whole world and all nature with its generous flames


Only it is to be hoped that by patience and the muses aid we may attain to that inward view of the law which shall describe a truth ever young and beautiful so central that it shall commend itself to the eye at whatever angle beholden


And the first condition is that we must leave a too close and lingering adherence to facts and study the sentiment as it appeared in hope and not in history for each man sees his own life defaced and disfigured


Which have given him sincerest instruction and nourishment he will shrink and moan alas i know not why but infinite compunctions embitter in mature life the remembrances of budding joy and cover every beloved name


Dwell care and canker and fear with thought with the ideal is immortal hilarity the rose of joy round it all the muses sing but grief cleaves to names and persons and the partial interests of to day and yesterday


The strong bent of nature is seen in the proportion which this topic of personal relations usurps in the conversation of society what do we wish to know of any worthy person so much as how he has sped in the history of this sentiment


And what fastens attention in the intercourse of life like any passage betraying affection between two parties perhaps we never saw them before and never shall meet them again but we see them exchange a glance or betray a deep emotion and we are no longer strangers


It is the dawn of civility and grace in the coarse and rustic the rude village boy teases the girls about the school house door but to day he comes running into the entry and meets one fair child disposing her satchel


He holds her books to help her and instantly it seems to him as if she removed herself from him infinitely and was a sacred precinct among the throng of girls he runs rudely enough but one alone distances him


For persons are love's world and the coldest philosopher cannot recount the debt of the young soul wandering here in nature to the power of love without being tempted to unsay as treasonable to nature aught derogatory to the social instincts


Yet the remembrance of these visions outlasts all other remembrances and is a wreath of flowers on the oldest brows but here is a strange fact it may seem to many men in revising their experience


That they have no fairer page in their life's book than the delicious memory of some passages wherein affection contrived to give a witchcraft surpassing the deep attraction of its own truth to a parcel of accidental and trivial circumstances


No man ever forgot the visitations of that power to his heart and brain which created all things anew which was the dawn in him of music poetry and art which made the face of nature radiant with purple light


The morning and the night varied enchantments when a single tone of one voice could make the heart bound and the most trivial circumstance associated with one form is put in the amber of memory


When no place is too solitary and none too silent for him who has richer company and sweeter conversation in his new thoughts than any old friends though best and purest can give him for the figures the motions


The words of the beloved object are not like other images written in water but as plutarch said enamelled in fire and make the study of midnight thou art not gone being gone where'er thou art


Thy loving heart in the noon and the afternoon of life we still throb at the recollection of days when happiness was not happy enough but must be drugged with the relish of pain and fear for he touched the secret of the matter who said of love


All other pleasures are not worth its pains and when the day was not long enough but the night too must be consumed in keen recollections when the head boiled all night on the pillow with the generous deed it resolved on


The clouds have faces as he looks on them the trees of the forest the waving grass and the peeping flowers have grown intelligent and he almost fears to trust them with the secret which they seem to invite yet nature soothes and sympathizes


A midnight bell a passing groan these are the sounds we feed upon behold there in the wood the fine madman he is a palace of sweet sounds and sights he dilates he is twice a man


He walks with arms akimbo he soliloquizes he accosts the grass and the trees he feels the blood of the violet the clover and the lily in his veins and he talks with the brook that wets his foot


The heats that have opened his perceptions of natural beauty have made him love music and verse it is a fact often observed that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion who cannot write well under any other circumstances


The like force has the passion over all his nature it expands the sentiment it makes the clown gentle and gives the coward heart


Into the most pitiful and abject it will infuse a heart and courage to defy the world so only it have the countenance of the beloved object in giving him to another it still more gives him to himself


As you know and as i have given you proof i have the greatest admiration in the world for one whose work for humanity has won such universal recognition i hope that we shall both forget this unhappy morning and that you will give me an opportunity of rendering to you in person


The apologies which are due to you i feel that anything less will neither rehabilitate me in your esteem nor secure for me the remnants of my shattered self respect i am hoping you will dine with me next week and meet a most interesting man george gathercole


To disturb a relationship which i have always hoped would be mutually pleasant if you will allow gathercole who will be unconscious of the part he is playing to act as peacemaker between yourself and myself


I shall feel that his trip which has cost me a large sum of money will not have been wasted i am dear mister meredith yours very sincerely remington kara


Kara folded the letter and inserted it in its envelope he rang a bell on his table and the girl who had so filled t x with a sense of awe came from an adjoining room you will see that this is delivered miss holland


A man against whom my favourite weapon would fail she looked at him with interest in her eyes what is your favourite weapon mister kara she asked fear he said


If he expected her to give him any encouragement to proceed he was disappointed probably he required no such encouragement for in the presence of his social inferiors he was somewhat monopolizing cut a man's flesh and it heals he said


Whip a man and the memory of it passes frighten him fill him with a sense of foreboding and apprehension and let him believe that something dreadful is going to happen either to himself or to someone he loves better the latter


And you will hurt him beyond forgetfulness fear is a tyrant and a despot more terrible than the rack more potent than the stake fear is many eyed and sees horrors where normal vision only sees the ridiculous


Is that your creed she asked quietly part of it miss holland he smiled she played idly with the letter she held in her hand balancing it on the edge of the desk her eyes downcast


What would justify the use of such an awful weapon she asked it is amply justified to secure an end he said blandly for example i want something i cannot obtain that something through the ordinary channel or by the employment of ordinary means


If i can buy it well and good if i can buy those who can use their influence to secure this thing for me so much the better if i can obtain it by any merit i possess i utilize that merit


Providing always that i can secure my object in the time otherwise he shrugged his shoulders i see she said nodding her head quickly i suppose that is how blackmailers feel he frowned


That is a word i never use nor do i like to hear it employed he said blackmail suggests to me a vulgar attempt to obtain money


And according to your argument they are also justified it is a matter of plane he said airily viewed from my standpoint they are sordid criminals the sort of person that t x meets i presume in the course of his daily work


T x he went on somewhat oracularly is a man for whom i have a great deal of respect you will probably meet him again for he will find an opportunity of asking you a few questions about myself i need hardly tell you


He lifted his shoulders with a deprecating smile i shall certainly not discuss your business with any person said the girl coldly i am paying you three pounds a week i think he said


I intend increasing that to five pounds because you suit me most admirably thank you said the girl quietly but i am already being paid quite sufficient she left him a little astonished and not a little ruffled


To refuse the favours of remington kara was by him regarded as something of an affront


He rang the bell this time for his valet fisher he said i am expecting a visit from a gentleman named gathercole a one armed gentleman whom you must look after if he comes


Detain him on some pretext or other because he is rather difficult to get hold of and i want to see him


He will probably be interested if you take him into the library very good sir said the urbane fisher will you change before you go out kara shook his head i think i will go as i am he said get me my fur coat this beastly cold kills me


He shivered as he glanced into the bleak street keep my fire going put all my private letters in my bedroom and see that miss holland has her lunch fisher followed him to his car wrapped the fur rug about his legs


Closed the door carefully and returned to the house


That he should return to kara's study and set the papers in order was natural and proper that he should conduct a rapid examination of all the drawers in kara's desk might be excused on the score of diligence since he was to some extent in the confidence of his employer


Kara was given to making friends of his servants up to a point in his more generous moments he would address his bodyguard as fred and on more occasions than one and for no apparent reason had tipped his servant over and above his salary


Mister fred fisher found little to reward him for his search until he came upon kara's cheque book which told him that on the previous day the greek had drawn six thousand pounds in cash from the bank


This interested him mightily and he replaced the cheque book with the tightened lips and the fixed gaze of a man who was thinking rapidly he paid a visit to the library where the secretary was engaged in making copies of kara's correspondence


Answering letters appealing for charitable donations and in the hack words which fall to the secretaries of the great he replenished the fire asked deferentially for any instructions and returned again to his quest


This time he made the bedroom the scene of his investigations the safe he did not attempt to touch but there was a small bureau in which kara would have placed his private correspondence of the morning this however yielded no result


Rum cove said fisher he paused for a moment before the closed door of the room and smilingly surveyed the great steel latch which spanned the door and fitted into an iron socket securely screwed to the framework he lifted it gingerly


There was a little knob for the purpose and let it fall gently into the socket which had been made to receive it on the door itself rum cove he said again and lifting the latch to the hook which held it up left the room closing the door softly behind him


He walked down the corridor with a meditative frown and began to descend the stairs to the hall he was less than half way down when the one maid of kara's household came up to meet him there's a gentleman who wants to see mister kara she said here is his card


Fisher took the card from the salver and read mister george gathercole junior travellers club i'll see this gentleman he said with a sudden brisk interest he found the visitor standing in the hall


He was a man who would have attracted attention if only from the somewhat eccentric nature of his dress and his unkempt appearance he was dressed in a well worn overcoat of a somewhat pronounced check he had a top hat glossy and obviously new at the back of his head


A pair of pince nez sat crookedly on his nose and two fat volumes under his arm completed the picture fisher who was an observer of some discernment noticed under the overcoat a creased blue suit large black boots


And a pair of pearl studs the newcomer glared round at the valet take these he ordered peremptorily pointing to the books under his arm fisher hastened to obey and noted with some wonder that the visitor did not attempt to assist him


Either by loosening his hold of the volumes or raising his hand accidentally the valet's hand pressed against the other's sleeve and he received a shock for the forearm was clearly an artificial one it was against a wooden surface beneath the sleeve that his knuckles struck


And this view of the stranger's infirmity was confirmed when the other reached round with his right hand took hold of the gloved left hand and thrust it into the pocket of his overcoat where is kara growled the stranger


He told me he would be in at six o'clock at the latest six o'clock ye gods stormed the man impatiently what dog am i that i should wait till six


Six o'clock eh you will tell mister kara that i called give me those books but i assure you sir stammered fisher give me those books roared the other


Deftly he lifted his left hand from the pocket crooked the elbow by some quick manipulation and thrust the books which the valet most reluctantly handed to him back to the place from whence he had taken them tell mister kara i will call at my own time


Good morning to you if you would only wait sir pleaded the agonized fisher wait be hanged snarled the other i've waited three years i tell you tell mister kara to expect me when he sees me he went out and most unnecessarily banged the door behind him


Fisher went back to the library the girl was sealing up some letters as he entered and looked up i am afraid miss holland i've got myself into very serious trouble what is that fisher asked the girl


Mister gathercole said the girl quickly fisher nodded yes miss i couldn't get him to stay though she pursed her lips thoughtfully mister kara will be very cross but i don't see how you can help it i wish you had called me


At six o'clock miss the man replied there is rather an important letter here which has to be delivered shall i ring up for a messenger no i don't think that would be advisable you had better take it yourself


She handed him the letter and he read without a droop of eyelid the superscription


Special service department scotland yard whitehall he put it carefully in his pocket and went from the room to change large as the house was kara did not employ a regular staff of servants a maid and a valet comprised the whole of the indoor staff


The only other person in the house beside the girl was the middle aged domestic who was parlour maid serving maid and housekeeper in one miss holland sat at her desk to all appearance reading over the letters she had typed that afternoon


But her mind was very far from the correspondence before her she heard the soft thud of the front door closing and rising she crossed the room rapidly and looked down through the window to the street she watched fisher until he was out of sight


The maid who was also cook arose up as the girl entered it's a sight for sore eyes to see you in my kitchen miss she smiled i'm afraid you're rather lonely missus beale said the girl sympathetically lonely miss cried the maid


I fairly get the creeps sitting here hour after hour it's that door that gives me the hump she pointed to the far end of the kitchen to a soiled looking door of unpainted wood that's mister kara's wine cellar nobody's been in it but him


I know he goes in sometimes because i tried a dodge that my brother who's a policeman taught me i stretched a bit of white cotton across it an it was broke the next morning mister kara keeps some of his private papers in there said the girl quietly he has told me so himself


Said the woman doubtfully i wish he'd brick it up the same as he has the lower cellar i get the horrors sittin here at night expectin the door to open an the ghost of the mad lord to come out him that was killed in africa miss holland laughed i want you to go out now she said


The girl ascended to the upper floor again she watched from the window the disappearing figure once out of sight miss holland went to work with a remarkable deliberation and thoroughness from her bag she produced a small purse and opened it


In that case was a new steel key


In two seconds it was open and she was examining its contents it was a large safe of the usual type there were four steel drawers fitted at the back and at the bottom of the strong box


An examination of the first drawer did not produce all that she had expected she returned the papers to the drawer pushed it to and locked it she gave her attention to the second drawer her hand shook a little as she pulled it open


It was a square case covered in red morocco leather she inserted her shaking hand and took it out with a triumphant little cry at last she said aloud and then a hand grasped her wrist and in a panic she turned to meet the smiling face


Chapter twelve kara lay back on his down pillows with a sneer on his face and his brain very busy what started the train of thought he did not know but at that moment his mind was very far away


It carried him back a dozen years to a dirty little peasant's cabin on the hillside outside durazzo to the livid face of a young albanian chief who had lost at kara's whim all that life held for a man


To the hateful eyes of the girl's father who stood with folded arms glaring down at the bound and manacled figure on the floor to the smoke stained rafters of this peasant cottage and the dancing shadows on the roof


To that terrible hour of waiting when he sat bound to a post with a candle flickering and spluttering lower and lower to the little heap of gunpowder that would start the trail toward the clumsy infernal machine under his chair


He remembered the day well because it was candlemas day and this was the anniversary he remembered other things more pleasant


He remembered with a savage joy the spectacle of his would be assassins twitching and struggling on the gallows at pezara and


Had t x returned he slipped from the bed and went to the door opened it slightly and listened t x with a search warrant might be a source of panic especially if he shrugged his shoulders he had satisfied t x and allayed his suspicions


Kara breathed a sigh of relief and his face was wreathed in smiles why of course tell him to come up ask him if he minds seeing me in my room i told him you were in bed sir and he used shocking language said fisher kara laughed send him up he said


Yes sir said the servant such an instruction was remarkably pleasing to him there was much that he had to do and that night's freedom would assist him materially perhaps kara hesitated perhaps you had better wait until eleven o'clock


Bring me up some sandwiches and a large glass of milk or better still place them on a plate in the hall very good sir said the man and withdrew down below that grotesque figure with his shiny hat and his ragged beard was walking up and down the tesselated hallway


Muttering to himself and staring at the various objects in the hall with a certain amused antagonism mister kara will see you sir said fisher oh said the other glaring at the unoffending fisher that's very good of him


Yes sir said fisher look here the man thrust out his face do you see those grey hairs in my beard the embarrassed fisher grinned is it grey challenged the visitor with a roar


Yes sir said the valet hastily is it real grey insisted the visitor pull one out and see the startled fisher drew back with an apologetic smile i couldn't think of doing a thing like that sir oh you couldn't sneered the visitor


Then lead on fisher showed the way up the stairs this time the traveller carried no books his left arm hung limply by his side and fisher privately gathered that the hand had got loose from the detaining pocket without its owner being aware of the fact


He pushed open the door and announced mister gathercole and kara came forward with a smile to meet his agent who with top hat still on the top of his head and his overcoat dangling about his heels must have made a remarkable picture


Fisher closed the door behind them and returned to his duties in the hall below ten minutes later he heard the door opened and the booming voice of the stranger came down to him fisher went up the stairs to meet him and found him addressing the occupant of the room in his own eccentric fashion


No more patagonia he roared no more tierra del fuego he paused certainly he replied to some question but not patagonia he paused again


And fisher standing at the foot of the stairs wondered what had occurred to make the visitor so genial i suppose your cheque will be honoured all right asked the visitor sardonically and then burst into a little chuckle of laughter as he carefully closed the door


Damn all greeks he said jovially and fisher could do no more than smile reproachfully the smile being his very own the reproach being on behalf of the master who paid him the traveller touched the other on the chest with his right hand never trust a greek he said


Always get your money in advance is that clear to you yes sir said fisher but i think you will always find that mister kara is always most generous about money don't you believe it don't you believe it my poor man said the other you


At that moment there came from kara's room a faint clang what's that asked the visitor a little startled mister kara's put down his steel latch said fisher with a smile which means that he is not to be disturbed until he looked at his watch


Until eleven o'clock at any rate he's a funk snapped the other a beastly funk he stamped down the stairs as though testing the weight of every tread opened the front door without assistance slammed it behind him and disappeared into the night


As if the young lady had been in a position to appeal to it but in fact the british public remained for the present profoundly indifferent to miss isabel archer whose fortune had dropped her as her cousin said into the dullest house in england


Her gouty uncle received very little company and missus touchett not having cultivated relations with her husband's neighbours was not warranted in expecting visits from them she had however a peculiar taste she liked to receive cards


For what is usually called social intercourse she had very little relish but nothing pleased her more than to find her hall table whitened with oblong morsels of symbolic pasteboard she flattered herself that she was a very just woman


And had mastered the sovereign truth that nothing in this world is got for nothing she had played no social part as mistress of gardencourt and it was not to be supposed that in the surrounding country a minute account should be kept of her comings and goings


But it is by no means certain that she did not feel it to be wrong that so little notice was taken of them and that her failure really very gratuitous to make herself important in the neighbourhood had not much to do with the acrimony of her allusions to her husband's adopted country


Isabel presently found herself in the singular situation of defending the british constitution against her aunt


Isabel always felt an impulse to pull out the pins not that she imagined they inflicted any damage on the tough old parchment but because it seemed to her her aunt might make better use of her sharpness


She was very critical herself it was incidental to her age her sex and her nationality but she was very sentimental as well and there was something in missus touchett's dryness that set her own moral fountains flowing now what's your point of view


She asked of her aunt when you criticise everything here you should have a point of view yours doesn't seem to be american you thought everything over there so disagreeable when i criticise i have mine it's thoroughly american


There are as many points of view in the world as there are people of sense to take them you may say that doesn't make them very numerous american never in the world that's shockingly narrow my point of view thank god is personal


Isabel thought this a better answer than she admitted it was a tolerable description of her own manner of judging but it would not have sounded well for her to say so


Would savour of immodesty even of arrogance


With whom she talked a great deal and with whom her conversation was of a sort that gave a large licence to extravagance her cousin used as the phrase is to chaff her


He very soon established with her a reputation for treating everything as a joke and he was not a man to neglect the privileges such a reputation conferred


Of laughing at all things beginning with himself such slender faculty of reverence as he possessed centred wholly upon his father for the rest he exercised his wit indifferently upon his father's son this gentleman's weak lungs


His useless life his fantastic mother


His adopted and his native country his charming new found cousin i keep a band of music in my ante room he said once to her it has orders to play without stopping it renders me two excellent services


It keeps the sounds of the world from reaching the private apartments and it makes the world think that dancing's going on within


The liveliest waltzes seemed to float upon the air isabel often found herself irritated by this perpetual fiddling


And enter the private apartments it mattered little that he had assured her they were a very dismal place she would have been glad to undertake to sweep them and set them in order it was but half hospitality to let her remain outside


It must be said that her wit was exercised to a large extent in self defence for her cousin amused himself with calling her columbia and accusing her of a patriotism so heated that it scorched he drew a caricature of her


In the folds of the national banner isabel's chief dread in life at this period of her development was that she should appear narrow minded what she feared next afterwards was that she should really be so but she nevertheless


She would be as american as it pleased him to regard her and if he chose to laugh at her she would give him plenty of occupation she defended england against his mother but when ralph sang its praises on purpose as she said to work her up


She found herself able to differ from him on a variety of points in fact the quality of this small ripe country seemed as sweet to her as the taste of an october pear


And her satisfaction was at the root of the good spirits which enabled her to take her cousin's chaff


If her good humour flagged at moments it was not because she thought herself ill used but because she suddenly felt sorry for ralph it seemed to her he was talking as a blind and had little heart in what he said


I don't know what's the matter with you she observed to him once but i suspect you're a great humbug that's your privilege ralph answered who had not been used to being so crudely addressed i don't know what you care for


I don't think you care for anything you don't really care for england when you praise it you don't care for america even when you pretend to abuse it i care for nothing but you dear cousin said ralph if i could believe


Even that i should be very glad ah well i should hope so the young man exclaimed isabel might have believed it and not have been far from the truth he thought a great deal about her she was constantly present to his mind


At a time when his thoughts had been a good deal of a burden to him her sudden arrival which promised nothing and was an open handed gift of fate had refreshed and quickened them given them wings and something to fly for


Poor ralph had been for many weeks steeped in melancholy his outlook habitually sombre lay under the shadow of a deeper cloud


The old man had been gravely ill in the spring and the doctors had whispered to ralph that another attack would be less easy to deal with just now he appeared disburdened of pain but ralph could not rid himself of a suspicion that this was a subterfuge of the enemy


Who was waiting to take him off his guard if the manoeuvre should succeed there would be little hope of any great resistance ralph had always taken for granted that his father would survive him that his own name would be the first grimly called


The father and son had been close companions and the idea of being left alone with the remnant of a tasteless life on his hands was not gratifying to the young man who had always and tacitly counted upon his elder's help in making the best of a poor business


At the prospect of losing his great motive ralph lost indeed his one inspiration


But without the encouragement of his father's society he should barely have patience to await his own turn he had not the incentive of feeling that he was indispensable to his mother it was a rule with his mother to have no regrets


He bethought himself of course that it had been a small kindness to his father to wish that of the two the active rather than the passive party should know the felt wound he remembered that the old man had always treated his own forecast of an early end as a clever fallacy


Which he should be delighted to discredit so far as he might by dying first but of the two triumphs that of refuting a sophistical son and that of holding on a while longer to a state of being which with all abatements he enjoyed


He wondered whether he were harbouring love for this spontaneous young woman from albany but he judged that on the whole he was not after he had known her for a week he quite made up his mind to this and every day he felt a little more sure


Lord warburton had been right about her she was a really interesting little figure ralph wondered how their neighbour had found it out so soon and then he said it was only another proof of his friend's high abilities


Which he had always greatly admired if his cousin were to be nothing more than an entertainment to him ralph was conscious she was an entertainment of a high order a character like that he said to himself


A real little passionate force to see at play is the finest thing in nature it's finer than the finest work of art than a greek bas relief


Than a gothic cathedral it's very pleasant to be so well treated where one had least looked for it i had never been more blue more bored than for a week before she came i had never expected less that anything pleasant would happen


A greek bas relief to stick over my chimney piece the key of a beautiful edifice is thrust into my hand and i'm told to walk in and admire my poor boy you've been sadly ungrateful


And now you had better keep very quiet and never grumble again the sentiment of these reflexions was very just


His cousin was a very brilliant girl


But she needed the knowing and his attitude with regard to her though it was contemplative and critical was not judicial he surveyed the edifice from the outside and admired it greatly


Isabel's originality was that she gave one an impression of having intentions of her own whenever she executes them said ralph may i be there to see it devolved upon him of course to do the honours of the place


And his wife's position was that of rather a grim visitor so that in the line of conduct that opened itself to ralph duty and inclination were harmoniously mixed he was not a great walker but he strolled about the grounds with his cousin


A pastime for which the weather remained favourable with a persistency not allowed for in isabel's somewhat lugubrious prevision of the climate and in the long afternoons of which the length was but the measure of her gratified eagerness


They took a boat on the river the dear little river as isabel called it where the opposite shore seemed still a part of the foreground of the landscape or drove over the country in a phaeton a low capacious thick wheeled phaeton


But which he had now ceased to enjoy isabel enjoyed it largely and handling the reins in a manner which approved itself to the groom as knowing was never weary of driving her uncle's capital horses through winding lanes and byways


Full of the rural incidents she had confidently expected to find past cottages thatched and timbered past ale houses latticed and sanded past patches of ancient common and glimpses of empty parks


Between hedgerows made thick by midsummer when they reached home they usually found tea had been served on the lawn


But the two for the most part sat silent the old man with his head back and his eyes closed his wife occupied with her knitting and wearing that appearance of rare profundity with which some ladies consider the movement of their needles


One day however a visitor had arrived the two young persons after spending an hour on the river strolled back to the house and perceived lord warburton sitting under the trees and engaged in conversation


Of which even at a distance the desultory character was appreciable with


He had driven over from his own place with a portmanteau and had asked as the father and son often invited him to do for a dinner and a lodging isabel seeing him for half an hour on the day of her arrival had discovered in this brief space that she liked him


He had indeed rather sharply registered himself on her fine sense and she had thought of him several times she had hoped she should see him again hoped too that she should see a few others gardencourt was not dull


The place itself was sovereign her uncle was more and more a sort of golden grandfather and ralph was unlike any cousin she had ever encountered her idea of cousins having tended to gloom then


Her impressions were still so fresh and so quickly renewed that there was as yet hardly a hint of vacancy in the view but isabel had need to remind herself that she was interested in human nature and that her foremost hope in coming abroad


Had been that she should see a great many people when ralph said to her as he had done several times i wonder you find this endurable you ought to see some of the neighbours and some of our friends


Though you would never suppose it when he offered to invite what he called a lot of people and make her acquainted with english society she encouraged the hospitable impulse and promised in advance to hurl herself into the fray


Little however for the present had come of his offers and it may be confided to the reader that if the young man delayed to carry them out it was because he found the labour of providing for his companion by no means so severe as to require extraneous help


Isabel had spoken to him very often about specimens it was a word that played a considerable part in her vocabulary she had given him to understand that she wished to see english society illustrated by eminent cases


Well now there's a specimen he said to her as they walked up from the riverside and he recognised lord warburton a specimen of what asked the girl a specimen of an english gentleman do you mean they're all like him


Oh no they're not all like him


Said isabel because i'm sure he's nice


The fortunate lord warburton exchanged a handshake with our heroine and hoped she was very well but i needn't ask that he said since you've been handling the oars i've been rowing a little isabel answered but how should you know it


Oh i know he doesn't row he's too lazy said his lordship indicating ralph touchett with a laugh he has a good excuse for his laziness isabel rejoined lowering her voice a little ah he has a good excuse for everything


Cried lord warburton still with his sonorous mirth my excuse for not rowing is that my cousin rows so well said ralph she does everything well she touches nothing that she doesn't adorn


It makes one want to be touched miss archer lord warburton declared


Who if it pleased her to hear it said that her accomplishments were numerous was happily able to reflect that such complacency was not the indication of a feeble mind inasmuch as there were several things in which she excelled


Had at least the element of humility that it always needed to be supported by proof lord warburton not only spent the night at gardencourt but he was persuaded to remain over the second day and when the second day was ended


He determined to postpone his departure till the morrow during this period he addressed many of his remarks to isabel who accepted this evidence of his esteem with a very good grace she found herself liking him extremely


The first impression he had made on her had had weight but at the end of an evening spent in his society she scarce fell short of seeing him though quite without luridity as a hero of romance


With a quickened consciousness of possible felicities it's very nice to know two such charming people as those she said meaning by those her cousin and her cousin's friend it must be added moreover


That an incident had occurred which might have seemed to put her good humour to the test


But his wife remained in the drawing room with the other members of the party she prolonged her vigil for something less than an hour and then rising observed to isabel that it was time they should bid the gentlemen good night isabel had as yet no desire to go to bed


The occasion wore to her sense a festive character and feasts were not in the habit of terminating so early so without further thought she replied very simply need i go dear aunt i'll come up in half an hour


It's impossible i should wait for you missus touchett answered


Ralph will light my candle isabel gaily engaged i'll light your candle do let me light your candle miss archer


Only i beg it shall not be before midnight


And transferred them coldly to her niece


You're not you're not at your blest albany my dear isabel rose blushing i wish i were she said oh i say mother ralph broke out


I must take it as i find it can't i stay with my own cousin isabel enquired i'm not aware that lord warburton is your cousin perhaps i had better go to bed the visitor suggested that will arrange it


Missus touchett gave a little look of despair and sat down again


Ralph meanwhile handed isabel her candlestick he had been watching her it had seemed to him her temper was involved an accident that might be interesting but if he had expected anything of a flare he was disappointed for the girl simply laughed a little


Nodded good night and withdrew accompanied by her aunt for himself he was annoyed at his mother though he thought she was right above stairs the two ladies separated at missus touchett's door isabel had said nothing on her way up


Isabel considered i'm not vexed but i'm surprised and a good deal mystified wasn't it proper i should remain in the drawing room not in the least young girls here in decent houses


Don't sit alone with the gentlemen late at night you were very right to tell me then said isabel i don't understand it but i'm very glad to know it i shall always tell you her aunt answered whenever i see you taking what seems to me too much liberty


Yes i think i'm very fond of them but i always want to know the things one shouldn't do so as to do them asked her aunt


And a girl called bellah postik they were cousins and as their mothers were great friends and constantly in and out of each other's houses they had often been laid in the same cradle and had played and fought over their games when they are grown up they will marry said the mothers


And soon they might have been heard bewailing to each other the hardness of their lots


I would rent a bit of ground from the master and then we could be married yes answered bellah with a deep sigh but we live in such hard times and at the last fair the price of pigs had risen again we shall have long to wait


That is quite clear replied houarn turning away to his work whenever they met they repeated their grievances and at length houarn's patience was exhausted and one morning he came to bellah and told her that he was going away to seek his fortune


The girl was very unhappy as she listened to this and felt sorry that she had not tried to make the best of things she implored houarn not to leave her but he would listen to nothing the birds he said continue flying until they reach a field of corn and


Like them i shall seek till i get what i want that is money to buy a cow and a pig to fatten and if you love me bellah you won't attempt to hinder a plan which will hasten our marriage the girl saw it was useless to say more so she answered sadly


Well go then since you must but first i will divide with you all that my parents left me and going to her room she opened a small chest and took from it a bell a knife and a little stick this bell she said can be heard at any distance however far


But it only rings to warn us that our friends are in great danger the knife frees all it touches from the spells that have been laid on them while the stick will carry you wherever you want to go i will give you the knife to guard you against the enchantments of wizards


And the bell to tell me of your perils the stick i shall keep for myself so that i can fly to you if ever you have need of me then they cried for a little on each other's necks and houarn started for the mountains but in those days as in these beggars abounded


And through every village he passed they followed houarn in crowds mistaking him for a gentleman because there were no holes in his clothes there is no fortune to be made here he thought to himself it is a place for spending and not earning i see i must go further


And he walked on to pont aven a pretty little town built on the bank of a river he was sitting on a bench outside an inn


And the men answered that it was the name given to the fairy that dwelt in the lake


And besought him not to be so mad and to throw away his life in such a foolish manner but he only laughed


But the men did not know how this was to be done and shaking their heads over his obstinacy left him to his fate


The island was large and lying almost across it was a lake with a narrow opening to the sea houarn paid the boatman and sent him away and then proceeded to walk round the lake


As soon as the young man had recovered from his surprise he prepared to jump into the lake and swim to shore but the bird had guessed his intentions and plunged beneath the water


The pink and white of her face reminded you of the shells of her palace while her long black hair was intertwined with strings of coral and her dress of green silk seemed formed out of the sea at the sight of her houarn stopped dazzled by her beauty


My name is houarn he answered


And she beckoned him to follow her into a second hall whose floors and walls were formed of pearls while down the sides there were tables laden with fruit and wines of all kinds


Came from shipwrecked vessels and were brought to her palace by a magic current of water i do not wonder exclaimed houarn who now felt quite at home do not wonder that the people on the earth have so much to say about you the rich are always envied


The young man gazed at her in surprise could any one so rich and so beautiful really wish to be his wife he looked at her again and bellah was forgotten as he answered a man would be mad indeed to refuse such an offer i can only accept it with joy


When it was full she went into a large kitchen and threw them all into a golden pot


But it did not sound the least like that to houarn there it is again he said after a short pause


Jump she replied but soon the noise grew louder and like cries what is it asked houarn beginning to feel uncomfortable just the crickets on the hearth said she and broke into a song which drowned the cries from the pot


But though houarn held his peace he was not as happy as before something seemed to have gone wrong and then he suddenly remembered bellah is it possible i can have forgotten her so soon


And four men stood before him houarn save us we entreat you and save yourself too murmured they not daring to raise their voices


And no sooner was the ceremony over than she turned us into fishes as she had done to all our forerunners who are in the fish pond still where you will shortly join them


It was at this very moment that bellah who was skimming the milk in the farm dairy heard the fairy bell tinkle violently at the sound she grew pale for she knew it meant that houarn was in danger


Little staff of apple tree over the earth and over the sea up in the air be guide to me everywhere to wander free and immediately the stick became a smart little horse with a rosette at each ear and a feather on his forehead he stood quite still


The swallow is less swift than the wind the wind is less swift than the lightning but you my horse if you love me must be swifter than them all for there is a part of my heart that suffers the best part of my heart that is in danger and the horse heard her


And galloped like a straw carried along by a tempest till they reached the foot of a rock called the leap of the deer


To save you repeated bellah but who are you my little friend


And it is owing to her that i am here but what are you doing in this nest i am sitting on six eggs of stone and i shall not be set free till they are hatched


When you have found her you must contrive to get hold of the net of steel that hangs from her waist and shut her up in it for ever but where am i to find a young man's clothes asked she i will show you he replied


And the fourth an iron without waiting for orders they sat down in the nest and crossing their legs comfortably began to prepare the suit of clothes for bellah with one of the leaves of the cabbage they made her a coat


And with it in her hand she stepped into the blue boat which conducted her to the palace of shells the groac'h seemed overjoyed to see her and told her that never before had she beheld such a handsome young man


Very soon she led her visitor into the great hall where wine and fruit were always waiting and on the table lay the magic knife left there by houarn


And to the pond which contained the fish their sides shining with a thousand different colours


And turning rapidly flung it over the witch's head become in body what you are in soul cried she and in an instant the lovely fairy of the sea was a toad horrible to look upon she struggled hard to tear the net asunder but it was no use


Her eyes fell on a green frog on his knees beside her his little paws crossed over his little heart bellah felt as if fingers were tightening round her throat but she managed to cry is this you my houarn is this you it is i croaked the little frog


In a car drawn by six cockchafers which once had been the six stone eggs here i am he exclaimed you have broken the spell that held me and now come and get your reward and dismounting from his chariot he led them down into the caves filled with gold and jewels


And shoes with silver buckles the women were all filled with envy but little cared barbaik what they might whisper behind her back as long as she knew that her clothes were finer than anyone else's and that she had more partners than any other girl


And what was worse often made fun of him with the rest


One evening he was bringing back his horses from the fields and stopped at a little lake on the way home to let them drink he was tired with a long day's work and stood with his hand on the mane of one of the animals waiting till they had done and thinking all the while of barbaik


When a voice came out of the gorse close by


It is i the brownie of the lake replied the voice but where are you inquired jegu look close and you will see me among the reeds in the form of a little green frog i can take he added proudly any shape i choose


And even which is much harder be invisible if i want to then show yourself to me in the shape in which your family generally appear replied jegu certainly if you wish and the frog jumped on the back of one of the horses and changed into a little dwarf all dressed in green


At first under different animal shapes since that time partly from habit and partly to amuse ourselves we have continued to transform ourselves and it was in this way that i got to know you how exclaimed jegu filled with astonishment


But how are you going to do it exclaimed jegu wonderingly that is my affair perhaps i may tell you later meanwhile you just eat and sleep and don't worry yourself about anything


Jegu declared that nothing could be easier and then taking off his hat he thanked the dwarf heartily and led his horses back to the farm next morning was a holiday and barbaik was awake earlier than usual


As she wished to get through her work as soon as possible and be ready to start for a dance which was to be held some distance off she went first to the cow house which it was her duty to keep clean but to her amazement she found fresh straw put down


The racks filled with hay the cows milked and the pails standing neatly in a row


And when she met him outside the door she stopped and thanked him for his help to be sure jegu only replied roughly that he didn't know what she was talking about but this answer made her feel all the more certain that it was he and nobody else


Indeed barbaik had only to express a wish for it to be satisfied if the wind was cold or the sun was hot and she was afraid to go out lest her complexion should be spoilt she need only to run down to the spring close by and say softly i should like my churns to be full


And my wet linen to be stretched on the hedge to dry and she need never give another thought to the matter if she found the rye bread too hard to bake or the oven taking too long to heat she just murmured i should like to see my six loaves on the shelf above the bread box


Why am i not already back from morlaix with my milk pot empty my butter bowl inside it a pound of wild cherries on my wooden plate and the money i have gained in my apron pocket and in the morning when she got up lo and behold


And six new pieces of silver in the pocket of her apron and she believed that all this was owing to jegu and she could no longer do without him even in her thoughts when things had reached this pass the brownie told the young man that he had better ask barbaik to marry him


And this time the girl did not turn rudely away but listened patiently to the end


And she could sleep every morning till breakfast time just like a young lady and as for the rest of the day


She would wear the beautiful dresses that came when she wished for them


Barbaik was furious


Her heart was filled with rage against the brownie who had caused her to expect a life of ease and pleasure but when she looked at jegu and beheld his red face squinting eyes and untidy hair her anger was doubled


While now i can receive no presents except from my husband i can never dance except with my husband oh you wretched dwarf i will never never forgive you in spite of her fierce words no one knew better than barbaik how to put her pride in her pocket when it suited her


And after receiving an invitation to a wedding she begged the brownie to get her a horse to ride there to her great joy he consented bidding her set out for the city of the dwarfs and to tell them exactly what she wanted


She had hardly spoken when the horse appeared and mounting on his back she started for the village where the wedding was to be held at first she was so delighted with the chance of a holiday from the work which she hated that she noticed nothing


But very soon it struck her as odd that as she passed along the roads full of people they all laughed as they looked at her horse at length she caught some words uttered by one man to another why the farmer's wife has sold her horse's tail and turned in her saddle


But it was of no use he declined to move out of a walk


So one day the brownie asked jegu if he might bring his friends to have supper in the great barn and whether he would allow them to dance there of course jegu was only too pleased to be able to do anything for the brownie and he ordered barbaik to spread her best table cloths in the barn


When all was ready the dwarfs in new green suits came bustling in very happy and merry and took their seats at the table but in a moment they all sprang up with a cry and ran away screaming for barbaik had placed pans of hot coals under their feet and all their poor little toes were burnt


You won't forget that in a hurry she said smiling grimly to herself but in a moment they were back again with large pots of water which they poured on the fire then they joined hands and danced round it singing wicked traitress


The wedding shuts one gate and opens another the longings and dreamings of courtship are at an end the supreme intimacy of life begins as john and mary move away from the altar pronounced man and wife they know they are starting a great adventure


His beaming face masks a stiff determination to keep his bride happy in spite of any worldly obstacles her radiance hides a solemn inward vow to do everything humanly possible to make smooth the way of their life together they are right


Unless they are very different from most people this new joint enterprise is going to mean more to each of them than anything else ever can before them is a clear road not to happiness as they may believe but to the opportunity for gaining happiness


When one has received the promise of something greatly desired but must wait awhile before its delivery the happiness of the waiting period is characterized by the absence of a critical spirit and therefore is apt to be thought of as an experience of pure delight


But the first days of marriage bring out a different set of feelings those that come when one has definitely obtained possession of anything that before was only promised at first the emotions seem to stand still this is the long coveted moment then one begins to appraise


Is the object of one's wishes as desirable as one had expected because reality rarely measures up to imagination the first answer is almost bound to be no this is not what i expected and the first emotion tends to be disappointment


Regardless of hazy but optimistic expectations and the object possessed will more than likely turn out to be better than although different from what the imagination pictured knowing that a fleeting sense of disappointment is not peculiar to one's own marriage but likely to occur in all


Roughly both the helps and the hindrances to married happiness can be lumped under one word personalities temperament mannerisms tastes all that is implied in the distinct individuality of each person make up the chief source of the advantages


And disadvantages with which the couple enter marriage these traits cannot be changed overnight nor is it necessary or at all wise that they should be john attracts mary and she appeals to him because the personality of each one is what it is


Love has grown up between the two as a result of this personality attraction and love is the motive that will make both try to keep open the pathway to marriage success but love is not a finished product that once it comes can forever after be trusted to keep its strength


Like everything else that is alive it must be kept growing through exercise or it wastes away love gives the push that keeps a marriage moving but it does not give the direction that comes from understanding and cooperation


This is what they must guard against while love is still the moving force of their lives they must study the problems that are due to come to wait until they are beset by them is to beg for trouble


In order to cope with their problems they must realize first that they cannot stumble upon married happiness that they must possess and cultivate a positive will to succeed


Here are nine guideposts to help john and mary along their road one the first requirement is the building of a union that is just to both the smaller issues on which this rests are the lively clashes of opposite desires


Inevitable in the coming together of any two persons intensified when those two persons are as different as a man and a woman and unavoidable for two committed to a lifetime together in the close quarters of marriage two


Compromise will lift these essentially petty decisions of precedence above the level of selfishness decisions must be made on the basis of what is good for both not the selfish or narrow wish of either


The choice that brings the larger advantage to the two persons in their common role of marriage partners is the one to be made human judgment being as faulty as it is


In either situation the particular couple involved have to weigh delicately the effect on their joint enterprise of the conflicting courses of action much as mary may crave a child or a car


If each one is hurt at the other's inability to join instantly in his or her plans they will need to take pains not to get sidetracked into making a personal contest of the affair trying to win over your partner with a single eye to getting what you want


Regardless of its effect on the mate is short sighted in the extreme even if you could care only for personal pleasure that cannot long outlast your spouse's displeasure staging a contest or a succession of small contests for the sake of finding out who is boss


Builds up a habit of fighting that may lead to a bitter end it is useless to discover who can win in any particular skirmish what is important is to learn whether one of you is set on being head of the house if your spouse craves that distinction by all means hand it over without delay


It is an empty honor for the one who bends but does not break will readily develop the fine art of influencing the headstrong one because it is part of the traditional feminine character to enjoy giving in to the man this tendency must be scrutinized when it appears


No man can afford to be crippled for life by letting his wife swaddle him with solicitude as some mothers spoil their children for their own glorification a woman's feeling that she will be emotionally gratified by making a sacrifice does not prove that aside from her momentary pleasure


Any individual woman may waver between a craving for self sacrifice and a repugnance to the very thought of it this changeableness can make her feel resentful after she has given in to her husband all this must be taken into account in making decisions


Compromise not submission should be the rule if john forges ahead on one count mary must find an acceptable outlet for herself on some other front three


And the effort to do so to please the partner is liable to result in a topheavy hypocrisy a superstructure calculated to impress the observer but built on a shaky foundation of chaos


A chameleon changes color easily to match its environment or temper of the moment but a human being's more lasting change is not so readily made each marriage partner must be proud of the other and let the other continue to be proud of him or her


Therefore you have to respect yourself and act as if you did even at home too many couples exploit the sense of let down that marriage brings with it after so long a time husband and wife cease to feel that they must exert themselves for each other in little matters


Knowing themselves accepted they lounge mentally mannerly and physically when at home or elsewhere alone together some of this relaxation is a good thing but it is a mistake to let home and spouse degenerate into nothing more than an invitation to be lazy


Using the mate for relief as in nagging whining crying or grumbling is taboo if you are tired or irritable you can rest or exercise for restoration as in the days before marriage


And dry up the source of refreshment you are trying to tap fatigue and nervousness expressed breed fatigue and nervousness in a sympathetic audience four too great concentration is to be avoided


Even the greatest love stagnates if it is kept out of the main current of life to care only for each other is selfishness for two only one step removed from self centered engrossment


This is why the unique value of children is their service as an entering wedge in the close grown love of husband and wife a wedge that widens and holds forever wider the unity of love it has penetrated other responsibilities other interests may serve a similar purpose


Though more easily dislodged and seldom striking so deep friends old and new have a function in relieving the overclose concern of one marriage partner with the other if they are to play their full part in preventing overconcentration


Common friends are fine but for this purpose there is special need of friends for either spouse who can call forth those sides of his or her nature that are not aroused by the mate


The factor that underlies all the perplexities and most of the contentment of marriage is its unique degree of concentrated intimacy here the supreme testing always comes each means so much to the other


The wife may be alone part of the day and profit by it when john comes home at night he has not had that privilege


Or by going out without his wife or by having his friends in when she is not around five the general level of emotion is what counts not the spectacular scaling of peaks staking all on high moments is melodrama with no comic relief


Some husbands some wives are artists at achieving and momentarily living up to romantic settings but quickly flop down to the lower levels of decent fairness between the high spots of their sentimental flare ups others cannot utter a poetic phrase


Make a romantic gesture or let their eyes show the quick intensity of their tender emotions if they must die for it this difference is one of make up and training not of marriage capacity the couple who are sure of each other's steady affection regardless of its expression in romantic interludes


Another terrible moment that is due to come may seem even more frightening because it is you who are slipping soon or late you find that some familiar mannerism of your spouse displeases you it may be a slight uncouthness at table


Now it vexes you and your vexation terrifies you does this mean that you no longer love your mate as you did you cannot help your change of feeling how then can you hope to keep your affection from disappearing altogether if it has already begun to wane


You remember other people you once thought you loved and wonder panic stricken how you can keep this love from dying as those other loves did this is probably an almost universal experience marking not the beginning of the end of love


Maturity brings recognition of human imperfections in the most heroic but also develops the ability to weigh big and little things and to


Always it is the unturned page the holds the answer to the question how goes it with this marriage the present is useful only as a foundation stone for the future which is being built up out of many fleeting present moments each quickly lost in the past


Seven there can be no narrowing of marriage to mere sex adjustment


And the two persons have to work out a common life that means something to them over and above the pleasure they may take in each other's company as a continuing part of this life adjustment sex adjustment can develop into a permanent factor of married happiness


But without the larger adjustment the partial adjustment cannot be made in any fundamental and enduring form in the sex life in marriage as in other parts of the association each partner wins by considering the other before the self


But instead a complete trust in each other one who prides himself or herself on having to be handled with gloves has a great deal of growing up to do in order to be able to be an active partner in the marriage cry babying is no more helpful in marriage than in business or social life


In the healthy marriage this sympathetic response will soon give way to anger which in turn may have the effect of a dash of cold water in the face of the oversensitive one helping him or her to buck up and behave like an adult in the unhealthy marriage sympathy will grow into pity


The marriage partner who is mature will maintain trust in the other's good intentions in the face of what might seem to be occasions for hurt feelings a chief advantage of the married estate is its opportunity for frankness why doesn't his wife tell him of that unpleasant mannerism so he can correct it


Mary may soon lose courage and relinquish her wifely job of husband improvement or the combination may be reversed frankness must go clothed in tact stiff minded people who are frank only when angry lose their case before they present it


If the expression of anger is to have its proper stimulative effect it has to be administered but rarely and then in small doses more has a paralyzing effect on the recipient


Producing a response in kind that takes away the ability to think of anything except retaliation nine willingness to grow is the most necessary factor for success marriage is a life program of going on together that requires maturity


As this is an impossibility they are aware of increasing dissatisfaction that does not mean they are unadapted to each other they are afraid to leave the known pleasures of their first youth for the unguessed satisfactions of maturity so they try to stand still


Hoping to keep their marriage unchanged in its first stage of promise if both husband and wife accept maturing responsibilities as they come their marriage relationship will keep pace with their own development and will therefore become increasingly satisfying to them


A stitch in time saves embarrassing exposure


Wonderful parents are yet to be heard from who don't think theirs is a wonder a nocturnal animal to which everyone in a sleeping car is eager to give a wide berth bachelor from latin baculus a stick unattached


Hence an unattached man which any lady may stick stick to or get stuck on backbiter a mosquito balance something wanted by book keepers and often lost by topers


May be found in a cash book or the kangaroo gait bandit an outlaw see alderman barber a brilliant conversationalist who occasionally shaves and cuts hair


Bars things found in harbors hotels fences prisons courts and music


And developed in department stores on mondays symptoms loud talk pushing and shoving a combination prize fight and foot ball scrimmage old spelling bark gain baseball


A game in which the young man who bravely strikes out for himself receives no praise for it bat senior partner of bat ball and co and never found without the rest of the firm as it takes several high balls to make one short bat beach


A strip of sand skirted by water covered with lady killers in summer life savers in winter


Or heaven for smacks the year around benedict a married male benedictine a married female benediction their children berth an aid to sleep invented by pullman lower preferred


Birth an aid to life discovered by woman higher preferred bicycle skirt


Bigamy a form of insanity in which a man insists on paying three board bills instead of two billiousness a liver complaint often mistaken for piety bill of fare a list of eatables


Distinguished from menu by figures in the right hand column biograph a stereopticon picture taken with a chill and shown with tremors birdie


To a man she is playing for a jay birthday anniversary of one's birth observed only by men and children blubber the useful product of a dead whale the useless product of a live baby


Blue the only color we can feel invisible blue a policeman blush a temporary erythema and calorific effulgence of the physiognomy aeteologized by the perceptiveness of the sensorium


From a sense of shame anger or other cause


Muscular filaments of the facial capillaries whereby being divested of their elasticity


Praecordia board an implement for administering corporal punishment used by mothers and land ladies the festive board may be a shingle a hair brush


Bohemia not on the map a land flowing with canned milk and distilled honey and untroubled by consistency convention conscience or cash


Bone one dollar the original price of a wife note adam who had to give up one bone before he got eve bonnets a female head trouble which is contracted the latter part of lent and breaks out on easter boodle


Money born of poor but dishonest parents


Bower a shady retreat in general bowery a shady retreat in new york brace security for the trousers bracer security for the stomach bracelet security for the pawn broker brain


Human block known as the cranium and kept by the sarah sisters sarah brum and sarah belum assisted by medulla oblongata


And white and furnished with light and heat hot or cold water if desired


Usually occupied by the intellect brothers thoughts and ideas


Can be found on the outside of a short red steer or the inside of a long black bottle brass band a clever though somewhat complicated arrangement for holding a crowd together brick an admirable person made of the right sort of clay and possessing plenty of sand


What your friends call you before you go to the wall but never afterward brimstone a little bit of hades which finds its match on earth and smells to heaven better to strike it here than in the hereafter brevity


A desirable quality in the fourth of july oration but not in the fireworks broke a word expressing the ultimate condition of one who is too much bent on speculating bum a fallen tough bump a tough fall bunco


By stander one who is injured in a street fight


Missus savareen sat up waiting for her lord until long past midnight but her vigil was in vain lapierre after closing up his inn for the night dropped in according to his promise to see if any news of the absentee had arrived


Nothing further could be done in the way of searching for the latter personage until daylight it was getting on pretty well towards morning when missus savareen sought her couch and when she got there her slumber was broken and disturbed she knew not what to think


But she was haunted by a dread that she would never again see her husband alive next morning soon after daylight the whole neighborhood was astir and the country round was carefully searched for any trace of the missing man


Squire harrington went down to town and made inquiries at the bank where he ascertained that the story told by savareen to old jonathan perry


Was substantially correct this effectually disposed of any possible theory as to jonathan and his wife having mistaken somebody else for savareen squire harrington likewise learned all about the man's doings on the previous afternoon


And was able to fix the time at which he had started for home he had ridden from the door of the peacock at about a quarter to eight


Perry professed to have seen and conversed with him there was no longer any room for doubt that interview and conversation had actually taken place at eight o'clock on the previous evening and savareen had ridden northward from the gate within five minutes afterwards he could not have proceeded more than a hundred


Or at the very outside two hundred yards further or he must inevitably have been encountered by lapierre


But the horse which had disappeared in this unaccountable manner it seemed improbable that two living substances of such bulk should pass out of being and leave no trace behind them they must literally have melted into thin air no they hadn't at least the black mare hadn't


For she was discovered by several members of the searching party a little before noon when found she was quietly cropping the damp herbage at the edge of the cranberry swamp at the rear of squire harrington's farm she was wholly uninjured and had evidently spent the night there


The bit had been removed from her mouth but the bridle hung intact round her neck the saddle however like its owner had disappeared from her back then the men began a systematic search in the interior of the swamp they soon came upon the saddle which had apparently been deliberately unbuckled


And deposited on a dry patch of ground near the edge of the morass a little further in the interior they came upon a man's coat made of dark brown stuff


As belong to savareen it was wet and besmirched with mud and in fact was lying half in and half out of a little puddle of water when it was found then the searchers made sure of finding the body but in this they were disappointed


But found nothing further to reward their search the ground was too soft and marshy to retain any traces of footsteps and the mare and saddle furnished the only evidence that the object of their quest had been in the neighborhood of the swamp and of course this evidence was of the most vague and inconclusive character


Then the party proceeded in a body to the missing man's house here another surprise awaited them the coat was at once recognised by missus savareen as belonging to her husband but it was not the coat worn by him at the time of his disappearance of this there was no doubt whatever


In fact he had not worn it for more than a week previously his wife distinctly remembered having folded and laid it away in the top of a large trunk on the saturday of the week before last since which time she had never set eyes on it here was a deepening of the mystery


The search was kept up without intermission for several days nearly all of the farmers in the vicinity taking part in it even to the neglect of the harvest work which demanded their attention squire harrington was especially active and left no stone unturned to unravel the mystery


Lapierre gave up all his time to the search and left the royal oak to the care of its landlady the local constabulary bestirred themselves as they had never done before


Where a man's body might possibly lie concealed every tract of bush and woodland every barn and out building every hollow and ditch every field and fence corner was explored with careful minuteness even the wells of the district were peered into


From off the face of the earth doctor scott the local coroner held himself in readiness to summon a coroner's jury at the shortest notice when all these measures proved unavailing a public meeting of the inhabitants was convened and funds were subscribed to still further prosecute the search


Dead or alive or which should throw any light upon his fate hand bills proclaiming this reward and describing the man's personal appearance were exhibited in every bar room and other conspicuous place throughout westchester and the adjacent townships


Advertisements setting forth the main facts were inserted in the principal newspapers of toronto hamilton and london


Chapter seven the amazing meeting in the shadows of the old courtyard bobby returned to his bed he lay there still shivering beneath the heavy blankets i don't dare he echoed graham's words there's nothing else any one can say


I must decide what to do i must think it over but as always thought brought no release it merely insisted that the case against him was proved at last he had been seen slipping unconsciously from his room and at the same hour


All that remained was to learn how he had accomplished the apparent miracles


The woman at the lake and in the courtyard the movement of the body and the vanishing of the evidence under his hand paredes's odd behaviour all became in his mind puzzling details that failed to obscure the chief fact


After this something must be done about paredes's detention he hadn't dreamed that his weariness could placate even momentarily such reflections but at last he slept again


He was aroused by the tramping of men around the house and strange harsh voices he raised himself on his elbow and glanced from the window it had long been daylight two burly fellows in overalls carrying pick and spade across their shoulders


Pushed through the underbrush at the edge of the clearing he turned graham fully dressed stood at the side of the bed those men bobby asked wearily the grave diggers graham answered they are going to work in the old cemetery to prepare a place for silas blackburn


That's why i've come to wake you up the minister's telephoned katherine he will be here before noon do you know it's after ten o'clock for some time bobby stared through the window at the desolate ragged landscape it was abnormally cold even for the late fall


Dull clouds obscured the sun and furnished an illusion of crowding earthward a funereal day the words slipped into his mind he repeated them when your grandfather's buried graham answered softly we'll all feel happier why bobby asked


It won't lessen the fact of his murder time graham said lessens such facts even for the police bobby glanced at him flushing you mean you've decided to stand by me after what happened last night graham smiled


I slept like a top last night i heard nothing i saw nothing ought i to want you to stand by me bobby said oughtn't i to make a clean breast of it


Graham frowned it's hard to believe he had any connection with your sleep walking last night yet it's as clear as ever that maria and he are up to some game in which you figure he shouldn't be in jail bobby persisted get up graham advised


Bathe and have some breakfast then we can decide there's no use talking of the other thing i've forgotten it as far as possible you must bobby sprang upright how can i forget it


Have i any right don't graham said i'll be with you again to night


When bobby had bathed and dressed he found in spite of his mental turmoil that his sleep had done him good while he breakfasted graham urged him to eat tried to drive from his brain the morbid aftermath of last night's revealing moment


The manager took my advice but maria's still missing


He strolled over and handed bobby a number of newspapers where's robinson bobby asked i saw him in the court a while ago i daresay he's wandering around perhaps watching the men at the grave he learned nothing new last night i was with him at breakfast i gather not


Bobby looked up isn't that an automobile coming through the woods he asked maybe rawlins back from smithtown or the minister the car stopped at the entrance of the court they heard the remote tinkling of the front door bell jenkins passed through


His sharp exclamation recalled howells's report which at their direction he had failed to mail had his exclamation been drawn by an accuser bobby started to rise graham moved toward the door then jenkins entered and stood to one side


The former easy mannered uncommunicative foreigner he appeared moreover to have slept pleasantly his eyes showed no weariness his clothing no disarrangement he spoke at once


Overcoat i've nearly frozen driving from smithtown before either man could grope for a suitable greeting he faced bobby


Fact is bobby i left new york too suddenly


You see i spent a good deal in smithtown yesterday


Graham interrupted with a flat demand for an explanation how did you get away


Later mister graham there is a hack driver outside who is even more suspicious than you he wants to be paid i asked rawlins to drive me back but he rushed from the courthouse probably to telephone his rotund superior


Bobby handed him a banknote he didn't miss graham's meaning glance


Pay him will you jenkins thanks


Why he should fail to refer to bobby's questions at the moment of his arrest or to the openly expressed enmity of graham only one theory promised to fit at all it was necessary for the panamanian to return to the cedars


Compelled him to remain for the present in the mournful tragic house therefore he would crush his justifiable anger


And he had asked for money only a trifling sum yet graham would grasp at the fact to support his earlier suspicion paredes's arrival possessed one virtue it diverted bobby's thoughts temporarily from his own dilemma from his inability to chart a course


Graham on the other hand was ill at ease


For him yesterday's incident was not so lightly to be passed over eventually his curiosity conquered the words came nevertheless with some difficulty


We took it for granted you would find it necessary to stay in smithtown for a while


Simple enough mister graham i telephoned as soon as rawlins got me to the bastille i communicated with the lawyer who represents the company for which i once worked he's a prominent and brilliant man he planned it with some local fellow when i was arraigned at the opening of court this morning


The judge could hold me only as a material witness he fixed a pretty stiff bail but the local lawyer was there with a bondsman and i came back my clothes are here you don't mind bobby that moment in the hall when graham had awakened him urged bobby to reply with a genuine warmth


I don't mind i'm glad you're out of it


Your presence in the private staircase was the last straw you will forgive us carlos


He smoked with a vast contentment that's better nothing to forgive bobby let us call it a misunderstanding graham moved closer


His eyes still smiled but his voice was harder bygones are bygones isn't that so bobby since you wish it bobby said but more important than the knowledge graham desired loomed the old question what was the man's game what held him here


Robinson entered the flesh around his eyes was puffier than it had been yesterday worry had increased the incongruous discontent of his round face clearly he had slept little i saw you arrive he said rawlins warned me


But i must say i didn't think you'd use your freedom to come to us


Since the law won't hold me at your convenience in smithtown i keep myself at your service here if bobby permits it could you ask more bobby shrank from the man with whom he had idled away so much time and money


That fleeting satanic impression of yesterday came back sharper more alarming paredes's clear challenge to the district attorney was the measure of his strength his mind was subtler than theirs


His reserve and easy daring mastered them all and always as now he laughed at the futility of their efforts to sound his purposes to limit his freedom of action bobby didn't care to meet the uncommunicative eyes whose depths he had never been able to explore


That might make men walk unconsciously to accomplish the ends of an unscrupulous brain the district attorney appeared as much at sea as the others


And glancing at bobby he asked with a hollow scorn you've no objection to the gentleman visiting you for the present if he wishes bobby answered


Robinson jerked his head toward the window i've been watching the preparations out there


No hurry bobby answered with a quick intake of breath i suppose not robinson sneered since everybody knows well enough what's in it bobby arose robinson still sneered you'll be at the grave as chief mourner


Bobby walked from the room he hadn't cared to reply he feared as it was that he had let slip his increased self doubt he put on his coat and hat and left the house the raw cold the year's first omen of winter made his blood run quicker


Forced into his mind a cleansing stimulation but almost immediately even that prophylactic was denied him with his direction a matter of indifference chance led him into the thicket at the side of the house he had walked some distance


The underbrush had long interposed a veil between him and the cedars above whose roofs smoke wreathed in the still air like fantastic figures weaving a shroud to lower over the time stained melancholy walls


For once he was grateful to the forest because it had forbidden him to glance perpetually back at that dismal and pensive picture then he became aware of twigs hastily lopped off of bushes bent and torn of the uncovering through these careless means of an old path


The dull thud of earth falling regularly he paused listening the labour of the men was given an uncouth rhythm by their grunting expulsions of breath otherwise the nature of their industry and its surroundings had imposed upon them a silence


In itself beast like and unnatural at last a harsh voice came to bobby its brevity pointed the previous dumbness of the speaker deep enough and bobby turned and hurried back along the roughly restored path


As if fleeing from an immaterial thing suddenly quickened with the power of accusation he could picture the fresh oblong excavation in the soil of the family burial ground


There was an ironical justice in the condition of the old cemetery it had received no interment since the death of katherine's father like everything about the cedars silas blackburn had delivered it to the swift obliterating fingers of time


If the old man in his selfishness had paused to gaze beyond the inevitable fact of death


He would have guarded with a more precious interest the drapings of his final sleep this necessary task on which bobby had stumbled had made the thicket less congenial than the house as he walked back he forecasted with a keen apprehension his approaching ordeal


Could he witness the definite imprisonment of his grandfather in a narrow box could he watch the covering earth fall noisily in that bleak place of silence without displaying for robinson


A strange man appeared walking from the direction of the house his black clothing relieved only by narrow edges of white cuffs between the sleeves and the heavy mourning gloves fitted with solemn harmony into the landscape and bobby's mood


Such a figure was appropriate to the cedars


He emerged from the forest and saw again the leisurely weaving of the smoke shroud above the house then his eyes were drawn by the restless movements of a pair of horses


No likely path yet whose crossing is the price of salvation he was glad to see graham leave the court and hurry toward him i was coming to hunt you up bobby the minister's arrived so has doctor groom everything's about ready doctor groom


It's natural enough he should be here bobby agreed indifferently they walked slowly back to the house graham made it plain that his mind was far from the sad business ahead


He asked he ignores what happened yesterday he settles himself in the cedars again i don't know what to think of it bobby answered this morning carlos gave me the creeps


He spoke with pronounced deliberation startling bobby


Gave me the creeps too makes me surer than ever that he has an abominably deep purpose in using his wits to hang on here he suggests resources as hard to understand as anything that has happened in the old room you'll confess bobby he's had a good deal of influence over you an influence for evil


I won't blame carlos for that bobby muttered he influenced you against your better judgment graham persisted to refuse to leave with me the night of your grandfather's death maria did her share bobby said he broke off looking at graham what are you driving at


I've been asking myself since he came back graham answered if there's any queer power behind his quiet manner maybe he is psychic maybe he can do things we don't understand i've wondered if he had without your knowing it


Acquired sufficient influence to direct your body when your mind no longer controlled it it's a nasty thought but i've heard of such things you mean carlos may have made me go to the hall last night perhaps sent me to the old room those other times


No i won't believe it i've been weak hartley but not that weak and i tell you i did feel howells's body move under my hand don't misunderstand me graham said gently i must consider every possibility you were excited and imaginative when you went to the old room to take the evidence


Might have moved spasmodically i mean


And the disappearance of the evidence bobby defended himself if it had been stolen earlier the coat pocket might have retained its bulging shape


But i was there and you weren't


If it's so far fetched graham asked quietly why do you revolt from the idea bobby turned on him and why do you fill my mind with such thoughts if you think i'm guilty say so go tell robinson so


He glanced away while the angry colour left his face he was a little dazed by the realization that he had spoken to graham as he might have done to an enemy as he had spoken to howells in the old bedroom he felt the touch of graham's hand on his shoulder i'm only working in your service graham said kindly


For groom has brought the ghosts back with him don't make any mistake about that you want the truth don't you yes bobby said even if it does for me


Yet that flash of temper had given him courage to face the ordeal a lingering resentment at graham's suggestion lessened the difficulty of his position entering the court he scarcely glanced at the black wagon there were more dark clothed men in the hall rawlins had returned


The panamanian had changed his clothing he too was sombrely dressed and instead of the vivid necktie he had worn from the courthouse a jet black scarf was perfectly arranged beneath his collar he lounged opposite the district attorney


His eyes studying the fire his fingers on the chair arm were restless doctor groom stood at the foot of the stairs talking with the clergyman a stout and unctuous figure


From his thickly bearded face his reddish eyes gleamed forth with a fresh instability the clergyman shook hands with bobby we need not delay your cousin is upstairs he included the company in his circling turn of the head any one who cares to go


Bobby forced himself to walk up the staircase facing the first phase of his ordeal he saw that the district attorney realized that too for he sprang from his chair and followed by rawlins started upward the entire company crowded the stairs


Graham summoned katherine one of the black clothed men opened the door of silas blackburn's room he stepped aside beckoning


Bobby went in with the others automatically through the dim light he catalogued remembered objects all intimate to his grandfather each oddly entangled in his mind with his dislike of the old man the iron bed the chest of drawers


Scratched and with broken handles the closed colonial desk the miserly rag carpet all seemed mutely asking as bobby did


From the chest of drawers two candles the only light


So for the second time the living met the dead and the law watched hopefully


The master said though a man have conned three hundred poems if he stands helpless when put to govern


What have they done for him six the master said the man of upright life is obeyed before he speaks commands even go unheeded when the life is crooked


Teaching said the master ten the master said


Much could be done in three years


What the weights and measures men said the master are they worth reckoning


Twenty nine


Earnest now or you are fooling the first speaker answers by some formula or asseveration as


True as i live or hope i'll die if it isn't so or simply hope i'll die


Hope to die if i don't the speaker drawing the forefinger across the throat from ear to ear


First boy honor bright second boy hope to die first boy cut your throat second boy draws finger across throat


Certain true black and blue a variant of the first line certain and true


Or the statement would be made and after it had been taken in and believed the words over the left would be added


It shall have a bit ohio challenge to stump another boy to do a thing is considered as putting a certain obligation on him to perform the action indicated


Sometimes it is to jump a certain distance sometimes to skate out on thin ice


Once in ohio several lads were collected together about a spring one of them drew a pail of fresh water and by chance brought up a small live fish


The boys took the stump one quickly cut up the unfortunate little animal and each boy swallowed a bit often the dare is to eat some very untoothsome morsel