Calista

“ Calista began to sing a German hymn; the words were awful, but their very solemnity made her happier by contrast:
"Wer weiss wie nahe mir mein Ende!
Hin geht die Zeit, her kommt der Tod.
"Look here, Mary," she said. "Isn't this pretty?" The child came, and Calista held up the soft stuff around her; it made the little face look beautifully pink and white. She touched it lightly, smiling, then she wandered over to the window with her doll and looked out into the rain.
"Es kann vor Nacht leicht anders werden,
Als es am frühen Morgen war,"
Calista sang. ”

“ She smiled to herself as she hurried through her work. Then she put Mary to bed, though it was much earlier than usual, and began to dress, while the little girl lay watching from among the pillows.
Calista enjoyed the water like a sleek creature of two elements; her white skirts crackled and flared; her hair hid her waist. When she had finished her green dimity looked like foliage around a flower, and her hazel eyes turned green to match it.
[Pg 20]
"I'm going on the front porch," she said. "You go to sleep like a good girl." ”

“ On the poor, faithless, lovely, dear Calista.
SCI. Hast thou not read what brave Virginius did?
With his own hand he slew his only daughter,
To save her from the fierce Decemvir's lust,
He slew her, yet unspotted, to prevent
The shame which she might know. Then what should I do? 67
But thou hast ty'd my hand,—I wo' not kill her;
Yet, by the ruin she has brought upon us, ⁠240
The common infamy that brands us both,
She shall not 'scape.
ALT. You mean that she shall die then?
SCI. Ask me not what, nor how I have resolv'd,
For all within is anarchy and uproar.
Oh, Altamont! ”

“ Calista looked as satisfied as a strategist who finds himself in control of a desired situation: its difficulties made her spirits rise. Her eyes wandered about and fixed upon the child again. "She gets sleepy early for such a big girl," she said. "Wasn't she five on Christmas?"
"Yes. She wanted to see you, so I let her stay up to-night; and anyhow I didn't want to be sitting up-stairs when you got here."
"Do you sit with her evenings?"
"Till she goes to sleep. If you leave her in the dark she is so scared I pity her, and I don't want her to get excited. I have no trouble with her other times. ”

“ That thou, my friend, Horatio, thou hast wrong'd her.
HOR. That I have wrong'd her! had her eyes been fed
From that rich stream which warms her heart, and number'd
For ev'ry falling tear a drop of blood,
It had not been too much; for she has ruin'd thee,
Ev'n thee, my Altamont. She has undone thee.
ALT. Dost thou join ruin with Calista's name?
What is so fair, so exquisitely good?
Is she not more than painting can express,
Or youthful poets fancy when they love?
"Does she not come, like wisdom, or good fortune,
"Replete with blessings, giving wealth and honour? ”

“ Miss Calista, realizing with a flash of comprehension that he was escaping her, had a woman-like impulse to get a blow in anyhow; she grasped and hurled at her unceremonious caller the first thing that came to hand—a bottle of peppermint essence that was standing on the sideboard. ”

“ Offers to kill CALISTA, ALTAMONT holds him.
ALT. Stay thee, Sciolto, thou rash father, stay.
Or turn the point on me, and through my breast
Cut out the bloody passage to Calista: ⁠160
So shall my love be perfect, while for her
I die, for whom alone I wish'd to live.
CAL. No, Altamont; my heart that scorn'd thy love,
Shall never be indebted to thy pity. ”

“ If a man gets married once, he doesn't want his sister afterwards," Calista said, cheerfully.
"Well, you stay here now. We are glad to have you. Conrad he is quiet and I am getting along, so it's not such a lively place, but I guess you can make out."
"Well, I think!" said Calista, "I like to work. ”

“ Lothario, Powell; Horatio, Betterton; Altamont, Verbruggen; Calista, Mrs. Barry; Lavinia, Mrs. Bracegirdle.
[288]
Rowe had, in his "Tamerlane," thundered, after the manner of Dryden: had tried to be as pathetic as Otway, and had employed some of the bombast of Lee. But he lacked strength to make either of the heroes of that resonant tragedy vigorous. In devoting himself, henceforth, to illustrate the woes and weaknesses of heroines, he discovered where his real powers lay; and Calista is one of the most successful of his portraitures. ”

“ That youth takes pleasure in, to please his boy.”—COWPER
“What do you think, Calista?—what do you think?” asked Miss Evelina Fairland of her sister, about two years after she had asked these same questions before. “There are masons, and carpenters, and painters, and paperers, and gardeners, at work at the old Rookery; a perfect army of laborers have been sent down from the city. What can it mean?”
“I cannot imagine, I am sure,” answered Miss Calista, “unless Mr. Harrington is really going to settle down, and look out for a wife at last.” ”

“ Calista looked all about. Not a soul was in sight on the road; in the orchard and the fields nothing moved but the wind; the yard was empty except for the [Pg 19] cat slipping round the corner with his mottled coat shining. "Now listen," she said, not unkindly. "I saw you out of the window, and there was no lady here. Why do you tell a story like that?"
The child looked at her in a preoccupied way and did not answer.
"I can't have you say things that are not so, Mary. If you do it again, I have to whip you. Now pick up your doll-baby and come in." ”

“ More sprightly youths may feel the smart,
And court thee with assiduous care;
But none of all who seek thy heart
Avows a passion more sincere.
Then haste Calista, save the swain,
Who in thy absence ever sighs;
Add fresher beauties to the plain,
And bid more pleasing prospects rise. [p. 61]
Give to the flowers a livelier hue ”

“ Fair Penitent (The) a tragedy by Rowe (1703) . Calista was daughter of Lord Sciol'to (3 syl.) , and bride of Lord Al'tamont. It was discovered on the wedding-day that she had been seduced by Lotha'rio. This led to a duel between the bridegroom and the libertine, in which Lothario was killed; a street riot ensued, in which Sciolto receives his death-wound; and Calista, "the fair penitent," stabbed herself. ”

“ Rowe's Jane Grey interests the heart more fully than Jane Shore or Calista: but the last two ladies have a touch of boldness about them, in which the first, from her very innocence, is wanting; and audiences are, therefore, more excited by the loudly-proclaimed wrongs of the women who have gone astray than by the tender protests of the victim who suffers for the crimes of others. ”

“ Not that Miss Calista had any particular prejudice against Ches Maybin, or knew anything positively to his discredit. She was simply unconsciously following the example of a world that exerts itself to keep a man down when he is down and prevent all chance of his rising. Nothing succeeds like success, and the converse of this is likewise true—that nothing fails like failure. There was not a person in Cooperstown who would not have heartily endorsed Miss Calista's refusal. ”

“ Cal. I weep your miseries, and would to heaven—what noise?
Lis. It comes on louder.
Kill me, and save your self; save your fair honour,
And lay the fault on me, let my life perish,
My base lascivious life, shoot quickly, Lady.
Cal. Not for the World, retire behind the hangings,
And there stand close—my husband, close, Lisander.
Enter Cleander with a Taper.
Clean. Dearest, are you well?
Cal. O my sad heart, my head, my head.
Clean. Alas, poor soul! what do you do out of your bed?
You take cold, my Calista; how do ye?
Cal. Not so well, Sir, to lie by ye, my Brothers fright—
Clean. ”

“ Jim was now thrown every day into contact with his fellows. He was no longer a lay monk, but an active member of a very human group. He was becoming more of a boy, with the boys, and still more was he developing into a man with the women. The budding womanhood of Calista Simms and the other girls of his school thrilled him as Helen of Troy or Juliet had never done. This will not seem very strange to the experienced reader, but it astonished the unsophisticated young schoolmaster. ”

“ She will run around in the orchard and play with her [Pg 12] doll-baby the whole day, and she is pretending all the time."
The little girl opened her eyes, very blue with sleep. With her rosy color and the white and blue of her little garments she looked like a cherub smiling out of the canvas of a German painter,—the soft companion of an older and more pensive grace. Hannah watched her tenderly.
"Now come, Mary, we go to bed," she said.
"I guess I'd make such a fuss with that child and sit with her nights!" Calista thought, her prominent hazel eyes following in rather a catlike fashion. ”

“ Clarange, Rival to Lidian, { Dorilaus, Father to Lidian and Calista, a merry old man. Lisander, a noble Gentleman, in love with Calista. Alcidon, a friend, and second to Lidian. Beronte, Brother to Cleander. Lem [ure] , a noble Courtier. Leon, a Villain, Lover of Clarinda. Mallfort, a foolish Steward of Cleander. Lancelot, Servant to Lisander. Fryar. Hosts ghost. Chamberlain. Servants. WOMEN.
Calista, a vertuous Lady, Wife to Cleander. Olinda, a noble Maid, and rich Heir, Mistress to Lidian and Clarange. Clarinda, a lustful Wench, Calista's waiting woman. ”

“ An easy run of two hours brought them to Matinicus. Higgins dropped his anchor in the outer harbor near Wheaton's Island, and the boys rowed ashore in their dory, landing in the head of the little cove near the fish-wharf.
Percy made a few necessary purchases at the store while Jim attended to the piston-rod. A half-hour later they were pushing off the dory, ready for their long row back. The sky was hazy and the sea calm. In the outer harbor Captain Ben hailed them from the Calista.
"Be good to yourselves, boys, and don't risk too much. ”

“ You other fellows'll have to dress those hake alone this time."
"I'll tow you across, Jimmy," offered Higgins. "But it looks a bit smurry to me. I think there may be a norther coming; and you wouldn't want to get caught out in that. Remember what happened to Bill Carlin!"
"I know," answered Spurling. "But that engine's no good without a piston-rod. I was born in a dory. Besides, if it should blow too hard, we can stop on Wooden Ball or Seal Island."
A few minutes later the Calista, with Jim and Percy aboard and the dory in tow, was moving away from Tarpaulin. ”

“ He behaved like one who would be master in any situation. And then strange eyes were turned upon him – the eyes of the ‘children.’ A strange unearthly fact became instantly apparent: the children were all females! From mountains, from villages Parcele had never seen, from all the many fastnesses, they came to the rendezvous upon the plain. They were as many as the sands upon the shores of an inland sea. They were bigger even than Parlece – and all of entrancing beauty. There were roses in their cheeks, visible even in the subdued light of Callisto’s midnight. ”

“ Don't be angry, therefore; be hard, and cold, and stern to him to-morrow; he will end by submitting to his fate, especially after certain little reproaches which I mean to make to him. Still, Calyste is a Breton, and very persistent; if he should continue to pay court to you, tell me frankly, and I will lend you my little country house near Paris, where you will find all the comforts of life, and where Conti can come out and see you. You said just now that Calyste calumniated me. Good heavens! what of that? The purest love lies twenty times a day; its deceptions only prove its strength. ”

“ Callista answered: For I have found my true Love, whom before I knew not.
“Martianus, the procurator, said: Your true love is, I ween, your last love; for all were true in their time.
“Callista said: I worship my true Love, who is the Only True; and He is the Son of God, and I know none but Him.
“Martianus, the procurator, said: You will not worship the gods, but you are willing to love their sons.
“Callista said: He is the true Son of the True God; and I am His, and He is mine.
“Martianus, the procurator, said: Let alone your loves, and swear by the genius of the emperor. ”

“ But why the call now since Callisto would not need its males until twenty years hence unless they believed the light a discovery?
And so Parlece marched in among the women of Callisto, gorgeous creatures whose angelic faces did not hide from Parlece the innate danger he braved in appearing among them – for to the very least of them they resented the necessity of men. ”

“ As the youngest of the three you know, I could not have expected to be Rosiere, for I am only sixteen, and Caliste is nearly three years older.”
Thus did she enumerate, with an assumed air of innocent unconsciousness, every reason she could think of for her own non-election—not so much to vex Caliste, as she most assuredly p. 90did, as to raise her own merits the more above her competitors; for she knew not these words of Holy Writ: “If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit, and let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, and envying one another;” ”

“ Souvenir!" Like a flash, my memory represented clearly to me the episode of the mulberries, one of the happiest episodes of our first felicity, a fragment of the idyll.
"Is it one of mamma's gloves?" asked Maria. "Give it to me, give it to me. I want to take it to her myself."
Of all the rest I have but an indistinct recollection, like a dream.
Calisto, the old care-taker, came to speak to me. He told me a thousand things, and I understood almost nothing of what he said. Several times he repeated the wish:
"A boy, a fine boy, and may God bless him! A fine boy!" ”