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She went presently to the long table austerely decorated with two rows
of magazines, each partly covered by its neighbor, just as shingles are
placed. The arrangement irritated her unreasonably. She wanted to
disarrange these dog-eared pamphlets, to throw them on the floor, to
destroy them. She wondered how many other... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Fehling and Schliephake at least consider this variety of pelvic
anomaly to be congenital in the majority of cases. But, without going
into the question of heredity at all, I think it only, fair to tell you,
Mrs. Musgrave----" And Pemberton went on talking.
Neither of the two showed any emotion.
The doctor went on ta... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Oh, and I have prayed to You, I have always tried to do what You
wanted, and I never asked You to let me be born locked up in a
good-for-nothing Musgrave body! And You won't even let me see a
wild-pea vine again! That isn't much to ask, I think. But You won't let
me do it. You really do have rather funny notions abou... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
There was a rustle of skirts, and the door slammed.
IV
Colonel Musgrave went to his own room, where he spent an interval in
meditation. He opened his desk and took out a small packet of papers,
some of which he read listlessly. How curiously life re-echoed itself!
he reflected, for here, again, were castby love-lett... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"A beautiful evening," said Mr. Charteris.
Musgrave lighted a cigarette.
"Jack, I have something rather difficult to say to you--yes, it is
deuced difficult, and the sooner it is over the better. I--why,
confound it all, man! I want you to stop making love to my wife."
Mr. Charteris's eyebrows rose. "Really, Colonel M... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Mr. Charteris sprang to his feet, and walked up and down the beach. "Ah,
you hide your feelings well," he cried, and his laughter was a trifle
unconvincing and a bit angry. "But it is unavailing with me. I know! I
know the sick and impotent hatred of me that is seething in your heart;
and I feel for you the pity you p... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
In Colonel Musgrave's face, the primal peace was mirrored.
"May I ask," said he at length, "what you propose doing?"
Mr. Charteris answered promptly. "I, of course, propose," said he, "to
ask Patricia to share the remainder of my life."
"A euphemism, as I take it, for an elopement. I hardly thought you
intended going ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Musgrave looked at him for a moment. "H'm doubtless," he assented. "Why,
then, we won't consider the others. We will not consider your wife,
who--who worships you. We won't consider the boy. I, for my part, think
it is a mother's duty to leave an unsullied name to her child, but,
probably, my ideas are bourgeois. We w... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"God help her--yes!" groaned Musgrave.
"And as concerns Patricia, you are entirely right. It would be hideously
unfair to condemn her to a life of comparative poverty. My books sell
better than you think, Rudolph, but still an author cannot hope to
attain affluence so long as he is handicapped by any reverence for the... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
V
The colonel had not gone far, however, before he paused, thrust both
hands into his trousers' pockets, and stared down at the ground for a
matter of five minutes.
Musgrave shook his head. "After all," said he, "I can't trust them.
Patricia is too erratic and too used to having her own way. Jack will
try to break o... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
She shrugged her shoulders. "I saw him looking at it. Accordingly, I
paid no attention to what he said. But you--ah, Jack, you were splendid!
I suppose we shall have to elope at once now, though?"
Charteris gave her no immediate answer. "I am not quite sure, Patricia,
that your husband is not--to a certain extent--in ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"You--you are going to leave me?"
"Yes; and I pray that I may be strong enough to relinquish you forever,
because your welfare is more dear to me than my own happiness. No, I do
not pretend that this is easy to do. But when my misery is earned by
serving you I prize my misery." Charteris tried to smile. "What would
yo... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Oh, Jack!" Patricia's face turned red, then white, and stiffened in a
sort of sick terror. She was a frightened Columbine in stone. "I thought
you cared for me--really, not--that way."
Patricia rose and spoke with composure. "I think I'll go back to the
house, Mr. Charteris. It's a bit chilly here. You needn't bother... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
She was happy now. "Dear boy," she murmured, "don't you see it's just
these constant proofs of the greatness and the wonderfulness of your
love--Really, though, Jack, wasn't it too horrid of me to misunderstand
you so? Are you quite sure you're forgiven me entirely--without any
nasty little reservations?"
Mr. Charteri... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Then presently, sighing, he was grave again. "But, no! Rudolph has my
word of honor," Mr. Charteris repeated, and with unconcealed regret.
"Ah, does that matter?" she cried. "Does anything matter, except that we
love each other? I tell you I have given the best part of my life to
that man, but I mean to make the most ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
In fact, Mr. Charteris had consented. Patricia was irresistible as she
pleaded and mocked and scolded and coaxed and laughed and cried, all in
one bewildering breath. Her plan was simple; it was to slip out of
Matocton at dawn, and walk to the near-by station. There they would take
the train, and snap their fingers at... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
So he sat presently upon the log, where Charteris had sat when Musgrave
came to this beach at sunset. Very long ago that seemed now. For now the
colonel was tired--physically outworn, it seemed to him, as if after
prolonged exertion--and now the moon looked down upon him, passionless,
cold, inexorable, and seemed to a... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Why, then, of course, you have a cheque-book. Horrible things, aren't
they?--such a nuisance remembering to fill out those little stubs. Of
course, I forgot to bring mine with me--I always do; and equally, of
course, a vexatious debt turns up and finds me without an Occidental
Bank cheque to my name."
Musgrave was am... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"A penny," said she, at length.
He glanced up with a smile. "My dear madam, it would be robbery! For a
penny, you may read of the subject of my thoughts in any of the yellow
journals, only far more vividly set forth, and obtain a variety of more
or less savory additions, to boot. I was thinking of the Lethbury case,
a... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Anne paused and thought. "Depend upon it, she knows a better side of his
nature than we can see; she knows him, possibly, to have been misled, or
to have acted thoughtlessly; because otherwise, she would not stand by
him so firmly." Having reached this satisfactory conclusion, Anne began
to laugh--at Musgrave's lack o... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Colonel Musgrave was smiling, "I?" said he, equably. "My dear madam! if
you will reconsider,--"
"No," she conceded, after deliberation, "it wasn't exactly your fault. I
got started on the subject of Jack, and imagined all sorts of horrible
and impossible things. But there is a sort of a something in the air
to-night; ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Thus, above the great marble mantel,--carved with thyrsi, and supported
by proud deep-bosomed caryatides,--you will find burly Sebastian
Musgrave, "the Speaker," an all-overbearing man even on canvas. "Paint
me among dukes and earls with my hat on, to show I am in all things a
Republican, and the finest diamond in the... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
These two had roomed together through their college days.
"Yes; it is the old Tennyson. And yonder is the identical Swinburne you
used to spout from, too. Lord, Jack, it seems a century since I used to
listen by the hour to _The Triumph of Time and Dolores!_"
"Ah, but you didn't really care for them--not even then." C... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Why, only _au revoir_, I believe. I am leaving at a rather ungodly hour
to-morrow and won't see you, but I hope to return within the week."
"I hope so, Jack."
"And, after all, it is too late to be reading. I shall go back to bed
and take more trional. And then, I dare say, I shall sleep. So good-by,
Rudolph."
"Good-n... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Perhaps I should have kept that knowledge to myself. I know it would
have been kinder. I had meant to be kind. I loathe myself for dabbling
in this mess. But, in view of all things, it seemed necessary to let you
know I am your own brother in the flesh, and that Patricia is your
brother's wife."
"I see," said Charter... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
* * * * *
And Rudolph Musgrave could not quite believe in the actuality of what
had just happened. In common with most of us, he got his general notions
concerning the laws of life from reading fiction; and here was the
material for a Renaissance tragedy wasted so far as any dénouement w... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
At this moment his wife and Mr. Charteris, carrying two portmanteaux,
came around a bend in the road not twenty feet from Musgrave. They were
both rather cross. In the clean and more prosaic light of morning an
elopement seemed almost silly; moreover, Patricia had had no breakfast,
and Charteris had been much annoyed ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Musgrave shook himself all over, rather like a Newfoundland dog coming
out of the water, and the grave note died from his voice. He smiled, and
rubbed his hands together.
"And now," said he, "I will stop talking like a problem play, and we
will say no more about it. Give me your portmanteau, my dear, and upon
my word ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"You are just like the rest of them, Olaf"--and when had she used that
half-forgotten nickname last, he wondered. "You imagine you are in love
with a girl because you happen to like the color of her eyes, or because
there is a curve about her lips that appeals to you. That isn't love,
Olaf, as we women understand it."... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
She struggled under his look. She had an absurd desire to cry, just that
he might console her. She knew he would. Why was it so hard to remember
that she hated Rudolph! Of course, she hated him; she loved that other
man yonder. His name was Jack. She turned toward Charteris, and the
reassuring smile with which he gree... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I--Jack, Jack, take me away!" she wailed helplessly.
Charteris came forward with a smile. He was quite sure of Patricia now.
"Colonel Musgrave," he said, with a faint drawl, "if you have entirely
finished your edifying and, I assure you, highly entertaining monologue,
I will ask you to excuse us. I--oh, man, man!" Ch... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
She shrank from him. She drew away from him, without any vehemence, as
if he had been some slimy, harmless reptile. A woman does not like to
see fear in a man's eyes; and there was fear in Mr. Charteris's eyes,
for all that he smiled. Patricia's heart sickened. She loathed him, and
she was a little sorry for him.
"Oh,... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Thereupon, Mr. Charteris uncovered his head with perfect gravity, and
turned on his heel, and went down the road, whistling melodiously.
Musgrave stared after him, for a while. The lust of victory died; the
tumult and passion and fervor were gone from Musgrave's soul. He could
very easily imagine the things Jack Chart... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I do remember it, Patricia--"
"I bore the child. I paid the price, not you," Patricia said, very
quiet. "No, I don't mean the price all women have to pay--" She paused
in their leisurely progress, and drew vague outlines in the roadway with
the ferrule of her umbrella before she looked up into Rudolph Musgrave's
face... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
She told Rudolph Musgrave nothing. She was finding it mildly amusing to
note how people came and went at Matocton, and to appraise these people
disinterestedly, because she would never see them again.
Patricia was drawing her own conclusions as to Lichfield's aristocracy.
These people--for the most part a preposterous... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
VIII
For Charteris was important. Patricia was rereading all the books that
Charteris had published, and they engrossed her with an augmenting
admiration.
But it is unnecessary to dilate upon the marvelous and winning pictures
of life in Lichfield before the War between the States which Charteris
has painted in his ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
By this time Mrs. Ashmeade had managed, in the most natural manner, to
tell Patricia a deal concerning Charteris. No halo graced the portrait
Mrs. Ashmeade painted.... But, indeed, Patricia now viewed John
Charteris, considered as a person, without any particular bias. She did
not especially care--now--what the man ha... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Thus Patricia.
IX
The world knows how Charteris was killed in Fairhaven by Jasper
Hardress--the husband of "that flighty Mrs. Hardress" Anne had spoken
of.
"And I hardly know," said Mrs. Ashmeade, "whether more to admire the
justice or the sardonic humor of the performance. Here after hundreds of
entanglements with ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
He went into Patricia's bedroom. Patricia had been taking an afternoon
nap, and had not risen from the couch, where she lay with three or four
unopened letters upon her breast. Two she had opened and dropped upon
the floor. She seemed not to hear him when he spoke her name, and yet
she was not asleep, because her eyes... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
ALLEN ROSSITER. _Two in October._
I
To those who knew John Charteris only through the medium of the printed
page it must have appeared that the novelist was stayed in mid-career by
an accident of unrelieved and singular brutality. And truly, thus
extinguished by the unfounded jealousy of a madman, the force of
Cha... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Mrs. Ashmeade meditated and appeared dissatisfied. "And John Charteris
of all people!"
Anne was presently about the Memorial Edition of her husband's
collected writings. It was magnificently printed and when marketed
achieved a flattering success. Robert Etheridge Townsend was
commissioned to write the authorized _Lif... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Patricia and Jack were as a matter of course "better off," then--and,
miraculously purged of faults, with all their defects somehow remedied,
the colonel's wife and brother, with Agatha and the colonel's other
interred relatives, were partaking of dignified joys in bright supernal
iridescent realms, which the colonel ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
And, moreover, the colonel--in colloquial phrase at least--went
everywhere. After the six months of comparative seclusion which decency
exacted of his widowerhood--and thereby afforded him ample leisure to
complete and publish his _Lichfield Legislative Papers prior to
1800_--the colonel, be it repeated, went everywhe... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Now Anne spoke, as the phrase runs, before she thought. "She came with
you!"
And he answered, as from the depths of an uncalled-for comprehension
which was distinctly irritating:
"Yes. And Harry, too, for that matter. Only our talk got somehow to be
not quite the sort it would be salutary for him to take an interest i... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Yes," he said. "Well, I shall not intrude."
"No--wait," she dissented.
Her voice was altered now, for there had come into it a marvelous
gentleness.
And Colonel Musgrave remained motionless. The whole world was
motionless, ineffably expectant, as it seemed to him.
Sunset was at hand. On one side was the high wooden f... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"No," she answered, quietly. It had been her actual thought.
Anne stayed a tiny while quite motionless. Her eyes saw nothing
physical. It was the attitude, Colonel Musgrave reflected, of one who
listens to a far-off music and, incommunicably, you knew that the music
was of a martial sort. She was all in black, of cour... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
The colonel was moved to disapproval. "Young man, I suppose your poor
deserted mother is looking for you everywhere, and has probably torn out
every solitary strand of hair she possesses by this time."
"I reckon she is," the boy assented. The topic did not appear to be in
his eyes of preëminent importance.
Then Anne C... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I had a little boy once," she said. "'But that's all past and gone, and
good times and bad times and all times pass over.' There's an odd simple
music in the sentence, isn't there? Yet I remember it chiefly because I
used to read that book to him and he loved it. And it was my child that
died. Why is this other child... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"A great many of these stories," Anne repeated, "aren't true! A great
many aren't! That ought to be consoling, oughtn't it?" She spoke without
a trace of bitterness.
"I express myself very badly. What I really mean, what I am aiming at,
is that I wish you would let me answer any questions you might like to
ask, becaus... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"My friend, you are being almost truthful. But I want the truth entire."
"It isn't polite to disbelieve people," he reproved her; "or at the very
least, according to the best books on etiquette, you ought not to do it
audibly. Would you mind if I smoked? I could be more veracious then.
There is something in tobacco th... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
She did not say anything. A certain new discovery obsessed her like a
piece of piercing music.
Then Rudolph Musgrave gave the tiniest of gestures downward. "And I have
told you this, in chief, because we two remember him. He wanted you. He
took you. You are his. You will always be. He gave you just a fragment
of himse... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Their eyes met warily; and for no reason which they shared in common
they smiled together.
"Poor little Lady of Shalott," said Rudolph Musgrave, "the mirror is
cracked from side to side, isn't it? I am sorry. For life is not so
easily disposed of. And there is only life to look at now, and life is a
bewilderingly comp... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
She said this with an inhalation of the breath; but she did not look at
him.
"Take care!" he said, with an unreasonable harshness. "For I forewarn
you I am imagining vain things."
"I'm not afraid, somehow." But Anne did not look at him.
He saw as with a rending shock how like the widow of John Charteris was
to Anne Wi... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
* * * * *
And yet Anne looked back once. There was just the tall, stark shaft, and
on it "John Charteris." The thing was ominous and vast, all colored like
wet gravel, save where the sunlight tipped it with clean silver very
high above their reach.
"Come," she quickly said to Rudolph Mus... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I was thinking," he stated, "of the only time that I ever, to my
knowledge, talked face to face with the devil. It is rather odd how
obstinately life clings to the most hackneyed trick of ballad-makers;
and still naively pretends to enrich her productions by the stale device
of introducing a refrain--so that the idle... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"And yet--it takes a monstrous while to dispose of our universe's
subtleties. I have loved you my whole life long, as accurately as we
can phrase these matters. There is no--no _reasonable_ reason why you
should not marry me now; and you would marry me if I pressed it. And I
do not press it. Perhaps it all comes of ou... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
* * * * *
But it may be that Rudolph Musgrave voiced quite obsolete views. For he
said this at a very remote period--when the Beef Trust was being
"investigated" in Washington; when an excited Iberian constabulary was
still hunting the anarchists who had attempted to assassinate the youn... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
For instance, one very often imagined that Patricia was more close at
hand nowadays.... No, she was not here in the room, of course, but
outside, in the street, at the corner below, where the letterbox stood.
Yes, she was undoubtedly there, the colonel reflected drowsily. And they
had been so certain her return could ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"She looks capable," was Patricia's grudging commentary, in slipping
through the doorway into the twilight of the hall. "But it isn't safe to
leave the front-door open like this. One never knows--No, I can tell by
the look of her she's the sort that can't be induced to sleep on the
lot, and takes mysterious bundles ho... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Then, too, her cherished spinning-wheel, at least two hundred and fifty
years old, which had looked so pretty after she had gilded it and added
a knot of pink sarsenet, was departed; and gone as well was the
mirror-topped table, with its array of china swan and frogs and
water-lilies artistically grouped about its spe... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
III
So it seemed to Rudolph Musgrave that Patricia came actually into the
room that had been hers....
A canary was singing there, very sweet and shrill and as in defiant joy.
Its trilling seemed to fill the room. In the brief pauses of his song
the old clock, from which Rudolph had removed the pendulum on the night
... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Rudolph Musgrave stayed motionless. He comprehended that he was dying.
The greatest of all changes was at hand; and he, who had always shrunk
from making changes, was now content enough.... Indeed, with Rudolph
Musgrave living had always been a vaguely dissatisfactory business, a
hand-to-mouth proceeding which he had ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"To this new South, that has not any longer need of me or of my kind.
"To this new South! She does not gaze unwillingly, nor too complacently,
upon old years, and dares concede that but with loss of manliness may
any man encroach upon the heritage of a dog or of a trotting-horse, and
consider the exploits of an ancest... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
THE MODERN EDUCATOR'S LIBRARY
_General Editor_.--Prof. A.A. COCK.
THE CHILD UNDER EIGHT
By
E.R. Murray
Vice-Principal Maria Grey Training College
Author Of "Froebel As A Pioneer In Modern Psychology," Etc.
AND
Henrietta Brown Smith
Lecturer In Education, University Of London, Goldsmiths' College
Editor Of "Educati... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
No artificial uniformity has been sought or imposed, and while the
Editor is responsible for the series in general, the responsibility for
the opinions expressed in each volume rests solely with its author.
ALBERT A. COOK.
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, KING'S COLLEGE.
AUTHORS' PREFACE
We have made this book between us, but ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
E.R. MURRAY.
H. BROWN SMITH.
CONTENTS
PART I
THE CHILD IN THE NURSERY AND KINDERGARTEN
BY E. R. MURRAY
CHAP.
I. "WHAT'S IN A NAME?"
II. THE BIOLOGIST EDUCATOR
III. LEARNING BORN OF PLAY
IV. FROM 1816 TO 1919
V. "THE WORLD'S MINE OYSTER"
VI. "ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE"
VII. JOY IN MAKING
VIII. STORIES
IX... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The first attempt at a Kindergarten was made in 1837, and by 1848
Germany possessed sixteen. In that eventful year came the revolution in
Berlin, which created such high hopes, doomed, alas! to disappointment.
"Instead of the rosy dawn of freedom," writes Ebers,[2] himself an old
Keilhau boy, "in the State the exercis... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
For a time, at least in Bavaria, a curious compromise was allowed. If
the teacher were a member of the Orthodox Church, she might have her
Kindergarten, but if she belonged to one of the Free Churches, it was
permissible to open an Infant School, but she must not use the term
Kindergarten.
Froebel was by no means of t... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
For an actual definition of what Froebel meant by his Nursery School for
Little Children or Kindergarten, it is only fair to go to the founder
himself. He has left us two definitions or descriptions, one announced
shortly before the first Kindergarten was opened, which runs:
"An institution for the fostering of human ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
[Footnote 3: One of Froebel's most devoted helpers.]
"The garden was not a garden, however, but a barn, with a small room and
an entrance hall. In the entrance Middendorf welcomed the children and
played a round game with them, ending with the flight of the little ones
into the room, where each of them sat down in his... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
[Footnote 4: The Crown Princess of Prussia, afterwards the Empress
Frederick.]
"The purpose of the National Kindergarten is to provide the necessary
and natural help which poor mothers require, who have to leave their
children to themselves.
"The establishment contains:--
"(1) The Kindergarten proper, a National Kinde... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
[Footnote 5: From certain old photographs, I suppose this to have been
what we now call a Kindergarten Band.]
"The elder children are expected to employ themselves in cleaning,
taking care of, arranging, keeping in order, and using the many various
things belonging to the housekeeping department of the Kindergarten; f... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Besides these the child has the essentially human need for social
intercourse, for speech, for games, for songs and stories, for pictures
and poetry. He must have opportunity both to imitate and to share in the
work and life around him; he must be an individual among other
individuals, a necessary part of a whole, all... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Most important also is the training to cleanliness. This is not
invariably the lot even of those who come from apparently comfortable
homes to attend fee-paying Kindergartens, and among the poor,
differences in respect of cleanliness are very great. But soap and hot
water do cost money and washing takes time, and the ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Progress, man's distinctive mark alone,
Not God's, and not the beasts': God is, they are,
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.
"A large bright room, ... a sandheap in one corner, a low tub or bath of
water in another, a rope ladder, a swing, steps to run up and down and
such like, a line of black or g... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is a more serious stumbling-block to the Froebelian that Dr.
Montessori, while advocating freedom in words, has really set strict
limits to the natural activities of children by laying so much stress on
her "didactic apparatus," the intention of which is formal training in
sense-discrimination. This material, which... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
We are, however, fully prepared to maintain that Froebel; even in 1840,
had a wider and a deeper realisation of the needs of the child than has
as yet been attained by the Dottoressa.[6] In order to make this clear,
it is proposed to compare the theories of Froebel with the conclusions
of a biologist. For biology has ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is easy to show that although Froebel was pre-Darwinian, he had been
in close touch with scientists who were working at theories of
development, and that he was largely influenced by Krause, who applied
the idea of organic development to all departments of social science. It
was because Froebel was himself, even in... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
In the universe we can perceive plan, purpose or law, and behind this
there must be some great Mind, "a living, all-pervading, energising,
self-conscious and hence eternal Unity" whom we call God. Nature and all
existing things are a revelation of God.
As Bergson speaks of the _élan vital_ which expresses itself from
... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Froebel makes much of observation of children. He writes to a cousin
begging her to "record in writing the most important facts about each
separate child," and adds that it seems to him "most necessary for the
comprehension of child-nature that such observations should be made
public,... of the greatest importance tha... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Free from this, the child will follow his natural impulses, which are to
be trusted as much as those of any other young animal; in other words,
he will play, he will manifest his natural activities. "The young human
being--still, as it were, in process of creation--would seek, though
unconsciously yet decidedly and su... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
CHAPTER III
LEARNING BORN OF PLAY
Play, which is the business of their lives.
There may be nothing new under the sun, but it does seem to be a fair
claim to make for Froebel that no one before or since his time has more
fully realised the value to humanity of what in childhood goes by the
name of play. Froebel ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
[Footnote 10: _The Educative Process_, p. 255 (Bagley).]
The Kindergarten position can be summed up in a sentence from Dr.
Clouston's _Hygiene of Mind_: "Play is the real work of children."
Froebel calls activity of sense and limb "the first germ," and
"play-building and modelling the tender blossoms of the constructi... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
As an opposite of this we get a Re-creation theory, where play, if not
too strenuous, understood as a change of occupation, rests and
re-creates.
Another theory is that of recapitulation, which has been emphasised by
Stanley Hall, according to which children play hunting and chasing
games, or find a fascination in mak... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
"Play is the highest phase of human development at this stage, because
it is spontaneous expression of what is within produced by an inner
necessity and impulse. Play is the most characteristic, most spiritual
manifestation of man at this stage, and, at the same time, is typical
of human life as a whole."
These variou... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
In order to gain real knowledge of himself, of his power, a child needs
to compare his power with that of others. This is one reason for the
child's ready imitation of all he sees done by others. Another reason
for this is that only through real experience or action can a child gain
the ideas which he will express lat... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The educative value of such play has been brought forward in modern
times in _Floor Games_ by Mr. Wells, _Magic Cities_ by Mrs. Nesbit, and
notably in Mr. Caldwell Cook's Play City in _The Play Way_.
Joining together for a common purpose does not only belong to younger
boys. "What busy tumult among those older boys at... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
In England in 1917 we have given to us _The Play Way_, in which one who
has tried it gives the results of his own experiments in education
through play. Mr. Caldwell Cook was not satisfied with the condition of
affairs when "school above the Kindergarten is a nuisance because there
is no play." His dream is that of a ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
But the world was not ready. Owen's "Rational Infant School" attracted
much notice, and an Infant School Society was founded. But even the
enlightened were incapable of understanding that any education was
possible without books, and the promoters rightly, though quite
unconsciously, condemned themselves when they kep... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
[Footnote 12: Writer of _Penelope in England_, etc., and of a capital
collection of essays entitled _Children's Rights_.]
In England things were very different, because of the Infant Schools
which had already been established, but which had fallen far below the
ideal set up by Robert Owen. As every one knows, the educ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It was partly the scandalised expressions of these American teachers
that stimulated Miss Adelaide Wragge to take her courage into her hands,
and in the year 1900 to open the first Mission Kindergarten in England.
She called it a Mission, not a Free Kindergarten, partly because the
parents paid the trifling fee of one... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
[Footnote 13: Author of the beautiful mystery play of _Eager Heart_.]
In 1904 the Froebel Society took part in a Joint Conference at Bradford,
where one sitting was devoted to "The Need for Nursery Schools for
Children from three to five years at present attending the Public
Elementary Schools." The speakers were Mrs.... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Miss Hardy opened her Child Garden in 1906, and that work has grown so
that the children are now kept till they are eight years old. The
Edinburgh Provincial Council for the Training of Teachers opened another
Free Kindergarten as a demonstration school for Froebelian methods, a
practising school for students, and als... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
In 1910 Miss Lawrence succeeded in opening what was called from the
first the "Somers Town Nursery School," where the same kind of work is
done. One of the reports says: "It is interesting to see the children
sweeping or dusting a room, washing their dusters and dolls' clothes,
polishing the furniture, their shoes, an... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The war has increased the supply of Nursery Schools, because the need
for them has become glaringly apparent. Many experiments are going on
now, and it seems as if experimental work would be encouraged, not
hampered by unyielding regulations. The Nursery School should cover the
ages for which the Kindergarten was inst... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
We certainly want the help both of the trained nurse and of the motherly
woman. The trained nurse will be far more use in detecting and attending
to the ailments of children than the teacher can be, and the motherly
woman can give far more efficient help in training children to decent
habits than any young probationer... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Most writers on the education of young children have emphasised the
importance of what is most inadequately called sense training, and it is
here that Dr. Montessori takes her stand with her "didactic apparatus."
Froebel's ideas seem wider; he realises that the sword with which the
child opens his oyster is a two-edge... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
[Footnote 14: _The Freudian Wish_, Edwin Holt.]
If we have anything to do with little children, we must face the fact
that the child is, if not quite a Robinson Crusoe on his island, at
least an explorer in a strange country, and a scientist in his
laboratory. But there is nothing narrow in his outlook: the name of th... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The "box of counters, and the red-veined stone," the brilliant quaint
leaf, the twig, the bit of straw, all the child's treasures--these are
the stimuli which, according to the biologist educator, must be supplied
if the activities appropriate to each stage are to be called forth.
Every one knows for how long a period... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Froebel, who made so much of play, to whom it was spontaneous education
and self realisation, was bound to see that toys were important. "The
man advanced in insight," he said, "even when he gives his child a
plaything, must make clear to himself its purpose and the purpose of
playthings and occupation material in gen... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 |
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