Augusta J. Evans

“ Churchill's fan tapped the Bishop's wrist.
"It is your duty to lecture her soundly on her descent into the Bohemian ranks of roaming 'bachelor girls,' who, running after tinsel kites they call 'careers,' turn their backs on all home duties, forsake every form of genuine feminine domesticity, cast family ties to the winds and herd in tenements, boat-houses and mountain camps. Professional female tramps!"
"I am very sure he will agree with me in thinking that Mrs. Churchill is cruel in smothering her innocent friend under an avalanche of opprobrious epithets. ”

“ Lindsay is an extraordinarily handsome man, a delightful talker, and most charming host."
"As head of a Christian household, you will at least admit that it is part of your duty to guard the sanctity of Bible records. Hollis Lindsay declares Cain took for his wife 'a highly developed female animal,' of course a beast; doubtless a monkey! Think of such a man as suitable to guide the training of a young woman! It is monstrous that atheism should prowl through the world, clothed in purple and fine linen, panoplied with wealth and fashionable influence—and sowing [pg 28] poison at every step. ”

“ She bowed, stooped to gather up the train of heliotrope chiffon, and moved in the direction of the house, but he stepped before her.
"One moment, Miss Lindsay. May I ask why you refused to marry Hoyte Kingdon?"
"Refused to marry him? Can you [pg 102] think it possible any sane woman could be so hopelessly fatuous as to decline an offer of his hand, of his exalted position? How incredible the suggestion that an opportunity of marriage so brilliant would not have been seized with avidity, by even the most ambitious of husband hunters!" ”

“ That I was predestined to defeat I knew as well before I came as now, but the sanctity of one's motive can sometimes nerve one to drain even a loathsome draught."
Only a few feet of sward separated them, and while she stood apparently as devoid of emotion as the sun dial, he knew from the quivering of the diamonds in the cross, and the fiery flashes of the opals rising and falling at her throat that her heart throbbed fiercely. ”

“ Armitage is right. He has diagnosed the social sarcoma that threatens our national vitals. Instead of purifying and exalting the moral code, the press, the politicians, even some of the clergy are ranting and howling Jeremiads over 'cannibal trusts,' and corrupt corporate and individual fortunes, and lashing Congress, State legislatures and even the Judiciary to institute a crusade of covetousness, to rob the rich in order that labor may hold its hands in idleness and batten on plunder. ”

“ In her despair, Amy Clinton, having exhausted all other means of saving her husband, has seized the fatuous belief that my prayer might possibly have some effect. It was in vain that I refused to come, assuring her that I was the very last person to send as envoy to your Excellency, who had declined her own appeal when she knelt at your feet. She persisted in her frantic pleadings because of an inexplicable telegram from Ronald Clinton, telling her the prison chaplain was sure I could secure help for him. ”

“ No outflow rises higher than its source; as are the family standards, usage and influence, such inevitably must be the trend of the nation—the vast aggregation of those practically orphaned as regards parental authority and guardianship. We are all glad to remember distinguished exceptions to prevailing conditions, but how little genuine home life remains to leaven the social masses? ”

“ I knew he was worthy, was the most admired and envied man in our State, and it seemed incredible you should not accept the glittering future he offered. You cannot realize the maddening torture that seizes a man, when he thinks [pg 117] that the one woman in all the world who holds his heart in the hollow of her hand will be clasped in the arms of another entitled to call her his wife! ”

“ Do fathers and mothers fully realize that they have abdicated their throne on the hearthstone, now usurped by [pg 59] servants and tutors, and that some day the souls of their neglected sons and daughters will be lost through their failure to exert proper care, and watchful guardianship? As I walk the streets of our cities the terrible truth becomes evident that parents have gone out after strange club-gods, and the pavements are the real nurseries of our boys and girls. America's most urgent national need is the revival of home life. ”

“ I owed you that acknowledgment, and now the debt is cancelled fully, and the ghost of that one regret is eternally at rest since I have the gratifying assurance that the harsh misjudgment of an impulsive girl had no power to spoil your life, or retard your eminently successful career."
"Failure in love affairs can 'spoil' no lives of those who maintain consciousness of moral rectitude, and a justifiable self-respect; but occasionally such keen disappointments prove beneficent tonics in teaching a wise discrimination between sham and reality, shadow and substance. ”

“ Amy could not give any reason for the chaplain's belief—she said he was a new man in the prison work and she could not recall his name. I tried to convince [pg 37] her it was utterly impossible that I could succeed where vastly more powerful influences had repeatedly failed; but in her frenzied condition she listened to no refusal. Knowing the hopelessness of the attempt, I resisted all appeals until she lifted her gasping baby close to my face, and almost screamed: 'Can you die in peace if you refuse to try to save my darling's father from the gallows? ”

“ Poor Amy's baby is critically ill, and old Mrs. Clinton is so prostrated since her unsuccessful journey to the Governor, in her son's behalf, that neither she nor the wife can make a farewell visit to the prison. This morning an urgent message over the telephone called me to the Clinton home, where I found Amy frantic with grief and dread. She showed me a telegram from her husband: 'I have no hope. Chaplain says only one last chance; insists you send Devota Lindsay to Governor. She may save me. For God's sake get her help.' Can you imagine my painful perplexity? ”

“ Sooner or later men and probably women learn that the only human tie that even death cannot dissolve, the one reliable chain that [pg 107] no treacherous weak link can impair—is that binding the mother's heart to her child. In desperately bitter trials mother-love is the strengthening angel that sustains, and when the world turned its back upon me, my blessed mother was my sole solace and defender. ”

“ Captain Winstead's handsome black eyes sparkled mischievously.
"Party politics are as unsuitable on this occasion as would be a shooting jacket worn at a Court function; but, Mrs. Churchill, I am sure you will forgive me if I dare ask one question: Is not your husband a Democrat?"
[pg 66] "Captain, your state of serene single blessedness is evidently the result of fright engendered by cartoon fables depicting the abject subjugation of husbands, by emancipated wives. ”

“ Remember the mother who cradled you in her arms—for her sake, for God's sake, be merciful to me—save my boy from the gallows.' Miss Lindsay, the terrible curse is that the wages of sin are paid too often to the helpless innocent. I could not pardon Ronald [pg 96] Clinton, whose crime was deliberately planned murder, but learning of illness in his family, I sent a telegram at four o'clock to-day staying the execution of his sentence until restoration to health permits his mother and wife to spend a day with him in prison. ”

“ Is it not unfortunate that one cannot successfully whistle love to come, as one signals to a terrier or a [pg 104] roaming canary? Since the days of poor Psyche elusive love plays hide-and-seek in devious and baffling ways. Hoyte now has a beautiful and charming wife who makes him supremely happy and graces the conspicuous diplomatic circle in which he has attained the highest honors. We expect to spend Christmas with Hoyte and his wife after our return from Bangkok. ”

“ Slowly he shook his head.
"Miss Lindsay, I shall never pardon him. At all costs I must be absolutely just."
[pg 88] "You will not spare his life? when your office empowers you to set him free? You cruelly elect to order his wife widowed, and his babes disgraced!"
"Should I forget the widow and fatherless little ones of Norman Hewitt whom Ronald Clinton deliberately and brutally murdered? ”

“ If you will excuse the argot of your own countrymen, should the day ever arrive when you 'let yourself go,' may I be there to paint the real woman! I shall destroy this baffling work, retaining only the hand and arm, which you must grant me as some solace for defeat. ”

“ If, as a privileged guest, I have dared to violate conventional canons that govern 'table talk,' by obtruding ethics which certainly do not contribute curry, horse-radish and Tabasco to the conversational menu, I claim in extenuation of prandial heresy, the obvious fact that such charming people as surround me to-day are not always in their pews, to receive and assimilate the homiletic dose distributed once a week at the ecclesiastical dispensary. ”

“ Mature womanhood very rarely preserves the fresh and dainty tints peculiar to girlish youth, and to-night as Miss Lindsay walked slowly down the [pg 46] stairs, one might well have doubted the number of years that had rolled so tenderly, leaving no credentials to line their passage.
Her dinner dress of heliotrope chiffon was cut square at the neck, garnished with filmy Mechlin, and around her throat she wore a broad collar composed of three rows of large fire opals, set in delicate Venetian network of gold wire, from the center of which hung a Maltese cross of diamonds. ”

“ The urgent need of reform is too appalling to be ignored, but the facts at my command do not warrant a belief that herding youthful offenders at State compounds or similar institutions accomplishes the desired result. A profound and noble student of mankind admonishes us: 'Children have more need of models than of critics.' Of course incurable moral degenerates must be denied opportunity to prey upon their fellow-creatures, and for this sad class, provision for seclusion is sufficient ”

“ The sanctity of jury verdicts has been so frequently violated by reckless use of pardoning power, that the value of blood-bought [pg 91] jury trial has dwindled into a mere mockery, an arena for spectacular professional jugglers. Ample legal machinery has long been provided for the rehearing and unbiased review of all criminal cases, whenever new witnesses or new and vital facts cast any doubt on the wisdom or justice of judge and jury. ”

“ Our youth must be trained in early years by parental precept and example to understand and to hold sacred the legal line of boundary between meum et tuum—and to obey God's law, 'Thou shalt not covet—anything that is thy neighbor's'; but will fathers and mothers perform a duty that may save this country from vicious wholesale spoliation?"
"Good heavens—my Right Reverend friend!" ”

“ Taking a second human life avails nothing as requital for the destruction of the first victim. It is indefensible cruelty in an age pluming itself on higher humanitarian standards."
"Miss Lindsay, legal punitive statutes are not designed as retaliatory [pg 93] sacrifices to revenge, but as deterrents to crime, simply because dread of speedy retribution is the most powerful motive that can restrain the criminal masses. ”

“ Churchill, you must do me the favor to set my fears at rest about Rex. Promise me he shall have no reason to regret that he proved himself my brave and loyal lover. Recollect I encouraged his rebellion."
The mother twined over one finger a red silk curl, and shook her free hand warningly.
[pg 76] "You both deserve a sound, old-fashioned, hearty spanking, and I make no rash promises; but as the pair of you seem equally culpable, I might be embarrassed in administering justice. Good night, Rex. No, naughty boys cannot kiss their mothers. Don't forget your prayers, you need them. ”

“ Interest in the outside world usurps domestic attachments, loosens family ties and that interdependence of the members of the hearthstone circle, that once made genuine, old-fashioned home life so potent a factor in developing well-balanced, wholesome character, both individual and national. ”

“ My old friend, Mrs. Ronald Clinton, is prostrated by sickness and sorrow, and unable to leave the room where her baby girl is critically ill, probably dying; while in the same house the aged [pg 84] mother-in-law raving with brain fever calls for the son who is sentenced to be hung next week. Neither his wife nor his mother can visit the distant prison to say good-bye to the doomed man ”

“ She is the only woman I know who absolutely declines personal confidences, abhors gossip, and never talks about herself. One afternoon at a 'reception,' where a scandalous record [pg 18] was severely criticised by an intimate associate of the indiscreet lady under fire, I heard Miss Lindsay say: 'That shrewd cynic's advice was wise, "Live with your friends remembering they may one day be your enemies."' She certainly accepts his rule of conduct." ”

“ Hollis Lindsay has no more religion than the Java "pithecanthropus" [pg 26] he declares is the biological Adam, and which he accepts as his own ancestor."
"She is tenderly attached to her uncle, and, Mrs. Roscoe, I heard your husband say Hollis Lindsay ranked high as a scholar and scientist," ventured Mrs. Churchill. ”

“ Courts of appeal and review should have power to correct wrongs that juries sometimes inflict upon the innocent, but the preposterous assumption of infallible prescience and 'altruistic clemency' by a President or a Governor is an ideal aspiration that I do not permit myself to indulge. ”

“ Am I a Democrat? You very well know I have always been one, and I am still clinging with grim, dogged fealty to the few precious fragments of genuinely orthodox democracy, that survive the blows of disloyal demagogic platform carpenters who raided recent national conventions. ”

“ Madam, the best, the divinely appointed reformatories are preventive as well as corrective, and God commissioned one in every parent to whom He intrusted an immortal soul for mental and moral training. ”