Bromley

“ An ardent desire to attain anything goes far towards success. Fearful of being thought forward, yet longing to please, she seemed to awaken an interest in Lord Bromley; though he talked playfully to all three, his indulgent smile was for Bluebell. Another expression appeared sometimes on his face, the same that had perplexed her the previous evening—an investigating, speculating glance: and once, when becoming more at ease, her features resumed their play, his were suddenly contorted, as if a sharp pang had seized him. ”

“ There was the wisdom of the wise fools of all the ages in Bromley’s smile.
“Of course; you want to be specialized. We all do. I’ve prophesied for you before, and I can do it again if you want me to. You are of the tribe of those who have to emerge through great tribulation. There is a strong man and a broad man inside of you, Philip, and some day he will break out and come to his own. ”

“ Time has a sardonic trick of turning the matter-of-fact descriptions of the old topographers into absurdly misleading statements. Thus, reading Lysons’ description of Bromley, written in 1796, we smile at his remarks that “the Anglo-Saxon Brom-leag signifies a field, or heath, where broom grows,” and that “the great quantity of that plant on all the waste places near the town fully justifies this etymology.” ”

“ But Sir Henry Bromley did seem so greatly to admire and affect him, that he affirmed to divers gentlemen of account, when he came to London, that he never in his life met the like man to Mr. Garnett either for modesty, wisdom, or learning, and that he would kneel before the King to save his life, if he were not found guilty of the Powder. ”

“ The walk seemed all too short, for Lord Bromley did not take the second, but retraced his steps to the house. Bluebell fell into a reverie, till something in the children's chatter attracted her attention.
"Wasn't he nice this morning? Never saw him in such a good humour! Why, he hardly ever speaks to us!—hates children, mamma says. Do you know, Miss Leigh, Uncle Bromley never walked with us so far before."
"Perhaps he thinks you are getting to a more companionable age," said Bluebell, blushing; but her heart bounded triumphantly. ”

“ Being anxious to see poor Bromley, whom I had not had an opportunity of apprizing of our removal from Drury-lane, I determined to venture out, and endeavour to find him at one of the houses I knew he frequented in that neighbourhood: for this purpose I disguised myself as much as I could, and going late in the evening to a public-house in Parker's lane, I found a number of dissolute characters of the lowest class, assembled there, but on looking round saw no appearance of Bromley. ”

“ Could a man—or a woman—ever fully regain the heights from which the descent had begun? Admitting that Bromley had a heart of gold, as he—Philip—had once characterized him for Jean, wasn’t he at best but a brand snatched from the burning? And though the brand might not spring alight again, wouldn’t there always be the charred scar and the ashes?
Philip climbed the stair in the Alamo Building determined to have a straight talk with Bromley. But the time proved to be unpropitious. The play-boy was dressing to go out—conscripted for a theater party with the Follansbees, as he put it. ”

“ Bromley waited.
“That man can be faithful,” he said as the door closed on Florent.
Mr. Bromley made a little grimace.
“He has not been faithful to M. de Witt, Highness.”
“But he will be loyal to me,” answered the Prince carelessly.
“You have the trick of it, Highness,” admitted Matthew Bromley.
William frowned. Mr. Bromley guessed him to be in an exceeding ill-humour and ventured on no more.
M. Van Ghent sent up to say he was waiting for His Highness. The Prince discovered that he had forgotten his gloves, and Mr. Bromley went for them. ”

“ Shortly afterwards a genteel looking man, advancing to our table, from among the other, company, asked Bromley if he was inclined for a walk; at the same time looking significantly first at me, then at my companion. The latter answered, "Yes, sir, with all my heart; this gentleman is a friend of mine, he'll take a turn with us: it's all right: he's one of us." Bromley having discharged our reckoning, we then set out, and proceeded up Fleet-street, till we observed a crowd of gazers at the windows of Messrs. ”

“ From this time Bromley and myself became inseparable. This young man was the son of a respectable master-tailor, and was himself bred to the same trade. Having formed bad connexions, (the usual root of all evil,) he had quitted his father's house about a year before I first knew him, and associating with "family people" had since supported himself by depredation ”

“ The play-boy’s acceptance by the Dabneys one and all was of the unreserved sort that Bromley seemed to be [206] able to win wherever he went, and it was he who oftenest walked home with Jean when she was kept late in the millinery shop.
Philip assured himself that he wasn’t jealous; he was merely sorry. Jean was much too fine to be wasted upon a man who, by his own confession, had “gone all the gaits.” True, Bromley showed no indications of any desire to return to his wallowing in the mire; but that made no difference: he had wallowed, and Jean knew it—knew it and was willing to condone. ”

“ Bromley suggested.
“A dear lady, I should say, from what little I saw of her, but helpless.”
“I understand; a woman who has never had to do [160] for herself anything that black servants could do for her.”
“Something of that sort,” said Philip.
“Tell me what you’ve done toward locating them.”
Philip briefed the story of the day’s efforts, and Bromley held his peace while the waiter was clearing the table for the dessert. But afterward he said: “Your note may bring the required information; but if it doesn’t, we’ve got to think up some other way. ”

“ I was tired of the negotiations, and yielded; so away went poor Dreadnought with his saddle and bridle, never for me to look on again. I was sorry to part with him, and the more so because his life had been unfortunate. But I was deceived in him as well as in his new master. From me he had concealed his merits, only to reveal them, as is often the case with latent genius, when some accidental opportunity offered.
At that time Bromley in Kent was a central attraction for a great many second-class patrons of the sporting world. ”

“ Bromley gasped; “not Philip!”
“Yes, Philip. Of course, I understand that it’s none of my business, but I hate to see such a fine, upstanding fellow as he is go to the devil in a hand-basket. Has he had trouble of any sort?”
Bromley took a moment to consider whether or not he had a right to breach Philip’s confidence in the matter of the search for his father, and decided quickly that the present crisis warranted it. Very briefly he told Drew the little he knew about the Trask family tragedy, and of the futile search Philip had been making. ”

“ Bromley-Martin laughed gaily. "I am not going to blame you. You are no worse than two-thirds of us, as you know very well. Besides, we ought to be grateful to you for giving us something fresh to talk about. Still, we shall miss our tall, white saint who was the connecting link between ourselves and absolute respectability. But I must not stay longer. One has to be careful, you know."
"Yes, with a reputation like yours, one has to be," Mrs. Charlock said sweetly. "You may tell your friends that they need not trouble to waste their sympathy upon me. ”

“ Bromley, as usual, was the first to come to a decision; and then all three climbed boldly out upon the bank and prepared to visit the house. As they advanced over the grass they buttoned their overcoats more closely about their throats, and jingled the coins in their pockets to keep up their courage. They looked down at their bare feet and legs, which naturally made them timid at the prospect of meeting women ”

“ We will not venture to say that duty to his aunt Marsden was the young lieutenant's only incentive to this visit: as she had a beautiful daughter about eighteen, for whom, since her earliest childhood, Bromley Cheston had felt something a little more vivid than the usual degree of regard that boys think sufficient for their cousins. His family had formerly lived in Philadelphia, and till he went into the navy Bromley and Albina were in habits of daily intercourse. ”

“ A lack of loyalty was not one of Philip’s failings.
“You may remember what you said of him that night a year ago. Your intuition hit the mark. Harry Bromley has a heart of gold. He is a much better man than I am.”
“A better man? In what way?”
“Well, for one thing, he has a much better sense of values—the life values, you know. And for another, he isn’t burdened with a New England conscience. But I am forgetting. You don’t know anything about New England and its conscience.”
“You shouldn’t throw my ignorance up at me,” she bantered. “Where is Mr. Bromley now?”
“He is here in Denver ”

“ Bromley was punctual to his time, and during the two hours I allowed for dinner, we became more fully informed of each other's circumstances. When I was on the point of leaving him to return to my duty, two or three of my Botany-bay acquaintances dropping in, forcibly detained me; urging that I might for once stretch a point, and spend the afternoon with them, ridiculing with too much effect, the idea of a man like myself being confined to certain hours like a schoolboy, &c. ”

“ George Bromley had several times asserted that he would never return to a disgraced and divided country. At the time I had regarded his words as only the irresponsible expression of excitement and passion.
"As we stood together on the hill last night, Bromley reverted to this subject, speaking with unusual calmness and deliberation. 'For my part,' said he, pausing to give force to his decision, 'I never desire to set foot in the United States again. I suppose I am as well equipped for the life of a hermit as any other man ”

“ This of course produced an explanation, when it appeared that nothing whatever had transpired respecting the robbery I had committed, nor had Bromley seen or heard any more of the old gentleman after the latter quitted his company, which he did a few minutes after myself. I must, therefore, have been mistaken in my notion that he had observed my actions through the watch-maker's window, of which, at the moment, I entertained no doubt; so true it is, that a guilty conscience needs no accuser. ”

“ I had heard a doctor in the lazaret singing it.
When the sound had grown fainter in the distance, we came out of our hiding-place and went on.
"It seems hard," said Bromley, "to be fighting with people who can sing like that. I can't work up any ill-will to that good old soul, going home singing—and I don't believe he has any ill-will to us. I couldn't fight the Germans if they were all like this old chap and Sank!" ”

“ Markham's. When they also disappeared so suddenly, the agent was again at fault, Bluebell having changed her situation in the interval.
Advancing years had softened Lord Bromley. The tidings of her elopement without any positive proof of a bona fide marriage preceding it, had shocked him into bitter remorse for having left her, an unprotected waif and stray, to the tender mercies of the world, and now she had passed out of his ken, and he could not but fear the worst. ”

“ Philip is so sort of don’t-touch-me good; sort of Yankee-good, ain’t—isn’t it?”
Since the Philip of the present moment was neither “Yankee-good” nor any other kind, Bromley’s reply to the innocent question was strictly aphoristic.
“When you grow up to be a woman, Mysie, you will know that men are never any too good,” he returned gravely; at which, declining a second cup of coffee, he went away before he should be tempted to say more.
Turning up at Madame Marchande’s at noon, he found that Jean had been given a half-holiday, on account of the slack midsummer season, and had gone [253] home. ”

“ Bromley College, founded by Bishop Warner in 1666 for "twenty poor widows of loyal and orthodox clergymen," has been much enlarged, and forty widows are in receipt of support. Sheppard College (1840) is an affiliated foundation for unmarried daughters of these widows. In the vicinity of Bromley, Bickley is a similar residential township, Hayes Common is a favourite place of excursion, and at Holwood Hill near Keston are remains of a large encampment known as Caesar's Camp. Bromley was incorporated in 1903, and is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 4703 acres. ”

“ Mr. Bilger expressed his thanks in the most respectful terms, and waited upon me to the door, where he took leave of me with a very low congé, à la mode de France, of which country he was a native. I now put the best foot foremost, and having gained a remote street, turned my head, and perceived Bromley at my heels, who seized my hand, congratulating me on my success, and complimenting me on the address I had shewn in this exploit; for he had witnessed all that passed, and knew that I had succeeded in my object, by the manner in which I quitted the shop. ”

“ When the chips began to fly, Tumbler sat down to watch, evidently feeling that some superior intelligence was at work for his benefit, while the stupid bees kept swarming about the hole above, except a few stray ones who had not yet got tired of burrowing into the shaggy coat of the bear, and these now turned their attention to the men and were promptly knocked down by wisps of grass in the hands of Coleman and Philip, while Bromley plied the ax. ”