Barnes

“ Barnes found the situation more disconcerting than he had anticipated. His self-confidence deserted him. He had no heart to play upon this big man’s credulity. Rather would he take him [153] into his confidence; rather would he speak fairly to those blue eyes resting in their nest of wrinkles. Here was a man used to seeing the unshrouded souls of his fellows. He was doctor, priest, and lawyer, and when these three get together in one man there is a great dropping off of cloaking rags. Such a man must see terrible things; at times beautiful things. ”

“ Barnes ascended to the plane of mental and moral science, instead of remaining down in the dark, orthodox, theological cellar, trying to squeeze truth out of old, dead, dried-up, dusty, theological dogmas, he would have readily found the solution to all his problems, and would have rejoiced in thus emerging into the glorious sunlight of truth. ”

“ Barnes studied the big-framed, big-faced man a second and continued more soberly.
“What you call imagination are the grim facts of life for him and for me, doctor. His fiddle isn’t a detail of his life—it’s life itself for him. Cripple his arm and you cripple his soul. You’ve got to fight as hard for those fingers as you would for his life.”
If Dr. Merriweather was at first only annoyed by what he took to be mere extravagance of speech, there was something now in the tense face of Barnes which made him pause and think. ”

“ Barnes composed and grave, Mrs. Jewks composed and smiling.
But I refuse now to jump at conclusions in the nimble way I used to. Even about Mrs. Barnes, who would seem to be an untouched monument of tranquillity, a cave of calm memories, I can no longer be sure. And so we sit together quietly on the terrace, and are as presentable as so many tidy, white-curtained houses in a decent street. We don't know what we've got inside us each of disorder, of discomfort, of anxieties. Perhaps there is nothing; perhaps my friends are as tidy and quiet inside as out. ”

“ The wretched Sir Barnes owned with contrition that the sins of his youth pursued him; his enemy scoffed at the idea of Barnes’s repentance; he was not moved at the grief, the punishment in his own family, the humiliation and remorse which the repentant prodigal piteously pleaded. No man was louder in his cries of mea culpa than Barnes: no man professed a more edifying repentance. ”

“ Barnes shuddered. "But look at Crim! Take care of yourself!"
All this time the chimpanzee had been watching the proceedings with an intelligence almost weirdly human. He hopped down from his perch and advanced towards Gride with hands clenched and eyes aflame with anger. Then his mood seemed to change, for be stooped and picked up the razor and ran his paw along the edge much as a man might have done who is in the act of shaving. He dropped the weapon again, and, with a quick, strangled cry, disappeared in the hanging foliage of a palm. Something seemed to grip Barnes by the throat. ”

“ Jack does not know yet that our amiable Barnes is here. I know how fond you are of him. I have heard the story—glass of claret and all. We all love Barnes. How that poor Lady Clara can have accepted him the Lord knows. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, especially women.”
“Good heavens,” Clive broke out, “can it be possible that a young creature can have been brought to like such a selfish, insolent coxcomb as that, such a cocktail as Barnes Newcome? You know very well, Lord Kew, what his life is. ”

“ Barnes comforted him with a greasy pack of cards, and for the rest of that day he played games of chance for extraordinary stakes, one hand against t'other, winning and losing millions of pounds sterling in the space of a single hour. ”

“ Barnes was proprietor of nothing but himself. That was much or little as you happened to feel about it. To himself it was enough to make him glad that he stood here to-day even with only a trifle over ten round dollars to his name. The position was of his own choosing. He might have been secretary to the Acme Manufacturing Co. had he wished, instead of a painter of very good water-colors which as yet, however, had not found so ready a market as the cook-stoves.
The father put it bluntly when he declared, “People must eat to live; they can worry along without pictures.” ”

“ A few yards away, on the edge of the verandah, lay a bloodstained razor, as if it had been hurriedly thrown down there by the assassin in his flight. But for this evidence, Barnes might have concluded that Gride had taken his own life; but no man could have inflicted such a mortal injury upon himself and at the same time flung the lethal weapon so far away. No, beyond a doubt. Gride had been murdered, and Barnes's first fierce emotion was one of gladness. ”

“ Barnes was already master at Newcome and the bank, and awaiting with perfect composure the event which was to place the blood-red hand of the Newcome baronetcy on his own brougham.
Casting his eyes about the room, a heap of drawings, the work of a well-known hand which he hated, met his eye. There were a half-dozen sketches of Baden; Ethel on horseback again; the children and the dogs just in the old way. “D—— him, is he here?” screams out Barnes. “Is that young pothouse villain here? and hasn’t Kew knocked his head off? Is Clive Newcome here, sir,” he cries out to his father. ”

“ He had known what it was to come under the Professor's knife, and even at that moment, as he turned, Barnes could see the recent stitches in a comparatively new wound between the ape's shoulders.
"I wouldn't drive Crim too far, if I were you," he said. "Some of these days he'll do you a mischief. And he's powerful enough to do so, despite his gentleness."
Gride laughed harshly.
"I've flayed him a score of times," he said. "He'll never do any mischief—he hasn't got pluck enough. And I am not going seriously to hurt the best subject I've got. ”

“ Mr. Barnes took the letter, nodded his head gravely, and opened it—he read it—passed it to his neighbor, who in his turn read it—and so it went around the table. When they had all finished it, Mr. Barnes said, “I believe, gentlemen, I can anticipate your sentiments—and so, with your leave, I shall beg Mr. Hazerelle to retire.”
“What is there in that letter,” said Arthur, to Mr. Barnes, “which refuses me a hearing? ”

“ But tell me more about Thomas Barnes."
"Thomas Barnes," said Mary, "lives in a cottage by the cross-roads all alone."
"What does he do?"
"He fetches things from the station for people; he carries the washing home from Mrs. Carter's; he runs errands—at least, he doesn't run them: people wish he would; he sometimes does a day's work in a garden. But he really must have a new barrow, and his illness took all his money away, because he wouldn't belong to a club. ”

“ Barnes, who had taken the candle from the mantelpiece, stood peering at the sleepers in silence and dropping tallow over the floor.
"We must get out of this," said Meagle. "Quick!"
Barnes hesitated. "We can't leave them here--" he began.
"We must," said Meagle, in strident tones. "If you go to sleep I shall go-- Quick! Come!"
He seized the other by the arm and strove to drag him to the door. Barnes shook him off, and, putting the candle back on the mantelpiece, tried again to arouse the sleepers.
"It's no good," he said at last, and, turning from them, watched Meagle. ”

“ Barnes, the ladies desire your company immediately.”
The manager hurriedly left the room and the newcomer regarded his retiring figure with a twinkle in his eye. Then he took a turn around the room in stilted fashion––like one who “carried about with him his pits, boxes and galleries”––and observed:
“Faith, Mr. Barnes’ couch is not a bed of roses. It is better to have the fair ones dangling after you, than to be running at their every beck and call.” ”

“ Barnes assented; “but you're taking the whole business too seriously. I'm rather for the boy, all things considered. I despise his style of cranial decoration—his hair, I mean; but he dresses faultlessly—those quiet neutral shades that are affected by men of breeding, and he's the only man in the house who puts on a dinner coat with religious regularity. In fact, he's the most correct male in the whole bloomin' commonwealth He's certainly not making a nuisance of himself. The only member who ever speaks to him is old man Burrows who hitches on to him every evening for an hour ”

“ Barnes said.
“You must be an ass, Barnes. How about your own record? It will be known that you were one of us. Think you'll go free, do you? Let me tell you that the whole story will come out. You don't know what you're mixed up in.” ”

“ No, sir.”
“Very well, John. You may go.”
He went, leaving Barnes to the fragrance of the night. The dark of the orchard made him think of her hair.
[74] CHAPTER VI
THE MYSTERY OF A VISION
Barnes awoke in the morning to the reveille of robins and thrushes. With chirp and whistle and flute note, they sang him from his hearty sleep to a still heartier realization of a new-born day. For a moment, from the motherly lap of his broad bed, he blinked at the dimity curtains and the age-ripened hautboy. What strange caravanserai was this? ”

“ At seven twenty the doctor returned from a brief visit upstairs and John produced himself in the majesty of full regalia.
It was not until the soup was served that Barnes found himself in a position to size up the genial enemy. Among other reasons he was too elated over the necessity that had forced Aunt Philomela to seat him opposite her niece. Barnes saw a heavy [152] man of sixty with a round tanned face, and hands of remarkable beauty. They were tender hands backed by arms that might have been those of a Flemish warrior. ”

“ Barnes held up his hand for silence.
"Yes?" said Meagle with a grin at the other two. "Is anybody coming?"
"Suppose we drop this game and go back," said Barnes suddenly. "I don't believe in spirits, but nerves are outside anybody's command. You may laugh as you like, but it really seemed to me that I heard a door open below and steps on the stairs."
His voice was drowned in a roar of laughter.
"He is coming round," said Meagle with a smirk. "By the time I have done with him he will be a confirmed believer. Well, who will go and get some water? Will you, Barnes?" ”

“ Barnes anxiously. 'Do you not consider Merivale—' (here if I had been a man I would have said damn Merivale and felt better) —'very instructive? Surely to read a good history can never be wasting time? And he is not heavy. Surely you do not find him heavy? His information is always imparted picturesquely, remarkably so. And though one may be too old for games one is fortunately never too old for instruction.'
'I don't feel too old for games,' said Dolly.
'Feeling has nothing to do with reality,' said Mrs. Barnes sternly, turning on her. ”

“ Barnes met his eyes squarely. [Pg 46]
"Because I was afraid it would queer me for a job," he said. "You see, Gregory, when a man hires a fellow he figures he's all there. He kind of rents him all over and when he's shy on somethin', he kind of figures the fellow's holding back on him. ”

“ He was back in five minutes with the entire outfit which he placed upon the dresser without a word. Barnes was immensely pleased with his cleverness, while John, who had been the really clever one, remained impassive. Furthermore, being in high good humor at the success of the ruse which had saved him from the humiliation of borrowing from the man, Barnes leaped from his bed so suddenly that John jumped half way to the door.
“What’s the trouble?” inquired Barnes.
“You came so suddenly, sir.”
“Perhaps I was a bit abrupt. The morning gets into your blood.” ”

“ Crosbie.”
“You need not ask him; here is the letter—I persuaded the old ass, Barnes, to give it to me—there, read it.”
“Upon my word,” said Arthur, laughing; “I do not wonder at my dismissal; I am only surprised that I was not complimented with the kick which you requested me to bestow upon Barnes.”
“To Mr. Barnes,—Sir, The bearer of this letter is a pert jackanapes, and is full of conceit. He boasts that he will rule you, and all the gentlemen in the neighborhood, with a rod of iron. He is going to make you pull down the old school-house, and oblige you to dress the boys in uniform. ”

“ A wild desire for human companionship gripped Barnes like a plague. He stepped down from the verandah and fled like a hunted thing in the direction of the hut where Denton had made his headquarters, and where he gave employment to the other Kanaka boys. The American was seated outside his shanty, smoking a green cigar and drinking some cool, seductive-looking mixture from a long tumbler by his side.
"What's the matter?" he asked. "You look a heap troubled. Sit down and have a drink."
"Gride has been murdered," Barnes said hoarsely. ”

“ Here was [230] another uncomfortable situation to add to the long list of which Barnes was either the direct or indirect cause. She looked at him with what he interpreted as an appeal.
“Perhaps that isn’t a very important matter anyway,” he suggested.
“Important,” snapped Aunt Philomela, “I should call it very important.”
“How?” inquired Barnes.
“Because my niece and Mr. Langdon are engaged,” she exploded.
[231] CHAPTER XIX
BARNES LEARNS A GREAT TRUTH
If Barnes had tried to paint Eleanor as she looked that moment, he certainly would have had to dip his brush in damson preserves. ”

“ Which left Barnes standing with the appearance of occupying the superior position.
“Dad,” he ran on, “I’m serious. This damned business of the Acme must be stopped. You’ve sat in your office down there until you’re baked as dry as though you had been sitting in one of your own ovens. It’s burning the soul out of you. I’ve seen these last few days just how small at best a cook-stove is.”
The older man made no reply, but his lips began [254] to twitch. Barnes seated himself before those twitching lips and resumed.
“I’ve been down where people live. ”