Fred M. White

Name: According to the Statute
Author: Fred M. White

According to the Statute (1914)

Summary

“According to the Statute”, published in 1914, is a work by Fred M. White. It explores elements such as Ereburt, Carmena and Peter Locke.

Quotes from According to the Statute (Fred M. White)

Fred M. White, According to the Statute (1914)

“ With a smile in her, dark, inscrutable eyes, Carmena placed it in Ereburt's hands.
"Permit me," she said, "and allow me to congratulate you. At the same time, I feel that I am in conspiracy to deprive the common people of their rights. I suppose I do this because I am more or less connected with the family of Ereburt. But that is the way that civilisation corrupts the children of the field and the heatherside. So long as I am here, I am aristocrat like yourself; but directly I find the sky and the stars above me, I am the rebellious radical that I was born to be. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Fred M. White, According to the Statute (1914)

“ Ereburt glanced from the slim figure, all glowing white behind the diaphanous suggestion of her clinging garments, to the portrait of a woman hanging on the wall opposite the fireplace. It certainly was a marvellous likeness, he thought, the living facing the dead, the living that might have sat for the painted features smiling down upon her. Carmena took it all for granted.
"It is not so very strange," she said. "The women of my family have always been much the same. You see, we are like the Jews; it is only once in a generation or so that we marry out of our own people. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Fred M. White, According to the Statute (1914)

“ Ereburt protested. "You will come and see us again?"
Carmena shook her head almost sorrowfully as she slipped into her over-shoes and drew the cloak about her head.
"Some day, perhaps," she said—"a year, a decade, perhaps a century, and, again, perhaps never. I am the creature of circumstance, an animal wandering in the wild just as instinct moves me. It does not follow, because I am beyond the reach of poverty, that I can defy the instincts of my class and be happy. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Fred M. White, According to the Statute (1914)

“ It is true that she died very young, but according to the family archives Nicholas Ereburt was a devoted husband, and Dame Carmencita was very fond of him."
Carmena lay back in her chair and swept a calm, approving glance over all the warm luxury and refinement around her.
"So she would had she been an ordinary woman," she said. "Even I envy you a home like this. But it is not in our blood to settle down and be happy anywhere. When the sap rises and Nature turns over in her sleep, there comes the irresistible call which we all have to follow. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Fred M. White, According to the Statute (1914)

“ Carmena went on. "I wonder how many of the people's privileges have been filched by you country gentry from time to time, and how many of them could be restored to the people if they would only consult the despised Zingari? Why, your people here have allowed you to steal that beautiful common from them bit by bit, and it would have gone for ever had we not fought and beaten you."
"There is a good deal in what you say," Ereburt admitted. "But I am afraid the predatory instinct is as strong within us as it ever was. But the fishing rights are another and a different matter altogether." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Fred M. White, According to the Statute (1914)

“ And there are many things known to us which the rest of the world has forgotten. You think we wander from place to place aimlessly, but no. The migrating instinct is still in us, and wherever we go, our food awaits us. And you have traditions, too. There is one concerning a certain salmon lure, the art of making which you have lost. It was given to your people by an ancestor of mine over two hundred years ago, and many a time have you sought for it since. But you need not seek any longer, for you have it in your hand now."
Ereburt stammered something incoherent. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Fred M. White, According to the Statute (1914)

“ I am so lost in admiration of your skill as an angler that I can think of nothing else. Do you know that I have been fishing this pool for a fortnight and never had a rise? There are plenty of fish here, too. Now, what wonderful lure have you been using?"
With just the suggestion of a smile on her lips, the girl handed her big gaudy fly to Ereburt. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Fred M. White, According to the Statute (1914)

“ From her fly-book she produced a sovereign, which she tossed to her fallen foe.
"You had better go," she said. "There is no reason for you to stay any longer. Yet stop just a moment. In the gorse yonder, at the foot of those alders, you will find a fish. It is a clean-run thirty-pounder which I caught an hour ago. Take it up to the house and give it to Mr. Ereburt with my compliments."
Peter shuffled off, all broken up and wondering what had happened to a world which hitherto he had regarded as well-ordered. Ereburt turned to his companion with a grim smile. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Fred M. White, According to the Statute (1914)

“ Diana cried. "Miss Carmena is perfectly certain that she knows where the missing deed is to be found. She says that it is in the house."
"I am exceedingly glad to hear it," Ereburt said. "Is second sight amongst your many extraordinary gifts. Miss Carmena?"
"It is not that at all," Carmena said. "Did not I tell you how my people always cling together? You must have imagined that, because the woman called Dame Carmencita married outside her station, she ceased to take all interest in the clan. You may be surprised to know that she wrote regularly to her relations. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Fred M. White, According to the Statute (1914)

“ Ereburt muttered. "Fancy three caravan loads of poachers and clothes-peg makers briefing a leading K.C. and two juniors! Why, it must have cost them a hundred pounds at least!"
"Yes, it is going to cost you six times the money," the lawyer said drily. "You are taking rather a parochial view of it. These people are real gipsies, as you know. They are a mysterious race, in touch with their fellow-Zingari all over the world, and some of them are exceedingly well-educated. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Fred M. White, According to the Statute (1914)

“ He confessed quite frankly that the gipsies had made out an exceedingly strong case for "scot and lot," so far as the common rights were concerned, and, indeed, he was strongly of opinion that his client would do well to leave matters as they were. He quoted the Statute of Mortmain and other obscure yet learned authorities, and Ereburt raged as he listened.
"But, my dear fellow," he protested, "this means that those poaching rascals have the right to range up and down by some of the finest salmon pools in the river. There won't be a fish left. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Fred M. White, According to the Statute (1914)

“ The spring was just a little rusty, but it gave presently, disclosing a shallow cupboard containing a few articles of simple jewellery, together with a mass of faded letters and a crabbed old parchment inscribed with quaint characters, which proved to be nothing else but the missing deed. ”

Fred M. White

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