Copris

“ Alys made a protesting gesture, her eyes bright with tears. She saw the chasm opening, and fought it futilely. But when Kieron, too, went to his knees, she knew it was so. In one fleeting moment, they had changed from lover and beloved to sovereign and vassal.
She forced back the tears and raised her head proudly; as Galactic Empress, Heiress to the Thousand Emperors, she accepted the homage of her fighting men.
"My lord of Valkyr," she said in a low, unsteady voice. "My love and affection for you—and these warriors will never be forgotten. If we live...." ”

“ Sophy tripped away, and we heard her received in the adjoining room with a peal of laughter.
‘Really musical, isn’t it, my dear Copperfield?’ said Traddles. ‘It’s very agreeable to hear. It quite lights up these old rooms. To an unfortunate bachelor of a fellow who has lived alone all his life, you know, it’s positively delicious. It’s charming. Poor things, they have had a great loss in Sophy—who, I do assure you, Copperfield is, and ever was, the dearest girl!—and it gratifies me beyond expression to find them in such good spirits. ”

“ A few of the men were on their feet now, mumbling, waving their soiled fists. Certain mysterious movements were significant to Conrad. Like a flash he had Koppy round the waist and was pressing a small automatic into his stomach.
"I want them to sit down, Koppy," ordered the foreman, "every one of them. You have till I count five. If I see a knife in the meantime, time's up. One—two—"
The Pole swallowed—shouted something in a foreign tongue, and every hand fell into the open, weaponless, every man sat down.
"You're a wise guy sometimes, Koppy," smiled Conrad. ”

“ Kopri halted at a little house at almost the highest point of the town. On being admitted, he was met by a patriarchal Armenian named Benidin, a merchant of standing, to whom he introduced Frank under his own name. The old man was greatly perturbed on learning that his visitor was an Englishman.
"My friend," he said to Kopri, "it is not well, that which you have done. The town is not safe, even for me. Already I have sent my family away; at any moment I may have to flee for my life, and if it is discovered that an Englishman lodges with me, my days are numbered. ”

“ Koppy broke into an insulting laugh. "You! And the trestle ain't all we want. Who pays for last night's deaths? You blow up the trestle! What about Mr. Conrad? You let him escape."
Werner saw difficulties accumulating beyond his oft-tried powers of evasion. He stammered a disconnected tale of bad luck, wiping his face repeatedly. Koppy waved it aside.
"Morani," he ordered solemnly, "watch him. If he tries to escape—" A swift downward stroke completed the command. "We'll settle with him later." ”

“ That Coppe's mind was disordered is clear. The licentiousness of which he is accused does not appear in his writings, but he makes a merit of his sins of the tongue. ‘It's meat and drink to an Angel [who knows none evil, no sin] to swear a full-mouthed oath’ (Fiery Flying Roll, pt. ii. p. 12, second paging) . His tenets are the ordinary mystical views of the ranters, who were charged with holding that there is no God and no sin. His denial of sin in the elect was a distorted antinomianism. Coppe's style is fantastic enough, but he has some passages of almost poetical beauty. ”

“ Nevitta saluted and turned to go. He paused, looked insolently at the First Lord, and deliberately spat on the floor. Then he was gone, his spurs ringing metallically as he disappeared through the high curving archway.
"Savage," muttered Landor.
"Savage enough to be loyal and worthy of any trust," said Kieron; "but you would know nothing of that."
Landor ignored the thrust. "Where do you go now, Valkyr?"
"Off-world."
"Of course," Landor smiled thinly, his eyebrows arching over pale, shrewd eyes. "Off-world."
Kieron felt a stab of suspicion. How much did Landor know? ”

“ The Coquette has never got a chase under her lee, that she did not speak.”
“I disparage no ship, sir, for character is character, and none should speak lightly of their fellow-creatures, and, least of all, of anything which follows the sea. I allow the Coquette to be a lively boat on a wind, and a real scudder going large; but one should know the wright that fashioned yonder brigantine, before he ventures to say that any vessel in Her Majesty’s fleet can hold way with her, when she is driven hard.” ”

“ Koppy knew he had time. The boss was gone for the evening; and he knew something of lovers' rambles. One gang he despatched into the forest after Tressa and Conrad. A second crawled in detachments through the woods to the powder cache near Conrad's shack. Heppel had charge of the first, Werner of the other. Werner, given his orders, demurred.
"Thanks, Koppy, but I don't think it's a thing I couldn't do without."
"Five men will do," said Koppy.
"Five men's six too many," grumbled Werner. "Why d'you pick yours truly for all the soft jobs?" ”

“ The portraits of Copernicus reveal a man of most marked personality: proud, handsome, self-contained, intellectual. The head is massive, eyes full, luminous, wide apart, his nose large and bold, chin strong, the mouth alone revealing a trace of the feminine, as though the man were the child of his mother. This mother had a brother who was a bishop, and the mother's ambition for her boy was that he should eventually follow in the footsteps of this illustrious brother who was known for a hundred miles as a preacher of marked ability. ”

“ Morton directed the two Kaffirs to look in the direction whence the reports came; but the keen vision of Simon and Daniel could detect no flashes of flame, and in these days of smokeless powder no haze hangs over scenes of fight.
The country was wild in the extreme—granite-peaked kopjes interlaced with innumerable little dongas met the vision, gaze where you would. The kopjes, whose sides and bases were clad with geraniums and heath of various kinds, formed a glorious mosaic against the steel-tinted blue of the African sky. ”

“ I said to myself; and then aloud, "Tell me all about copra. I have longed to know what copra is; how it grows, what it looks like, what it is for."
"You have come to the wrong person," she replied, with wide eyes. "I never heard of it. Or did you say 'cobra'? Of course I know what a cobra is—it's a snake. I've seen them at the Zoo."
I put her right. "Copra, the stuff that the traders in the South Seas deal in."
"I never heard of it," she said. "But then why should I? I know nothing about the South Seas." ”

“ This Season of universal Joy, Love chose to captivate again Zeokinizul, after such an Interval of boasted Liberty. The chief Inhabitants of Kofir, who are a distinct Body from the Nobility, the Magistracy, and the Citizens, had decorated in the most superb Manner the Sessions House for a Ball, to which they invited the King and royal Pair. Every one was admitted in their Mask Habits, to give the Citizens an Opportunity of shewing their Wives the Magnificence, Gallantries, and Diversions of the Court, which at other Times is out of their Power. ”

“ The conspirator had kept all his prestige in the eyes of the engraver, who, by a special run of ill-luck, was always engaged by a publisher of Bonapartist works, and was busy at that moment upon a portrait of the Prince Imperial, in the uniform of a corporal of the Guards, with an immense bearskin cap upon his childish head.
Father Gerard was growing old. His beard, formerly of a reddish shade, and what little hair there was remaining upon his head, had become silvery white; that wonderful white which, like a tardy recompense to red-faced persons, becomes their full-blooded faces so well. ”

“ Copp,--some connexion of yours, I believe?"
"Of my late husband's," interposed Mrs. Chester, quickly, as though not willing to claim connexion with Captain and Mrs. Copp; "that is, of his first wife's. I don't know them at all."
"Ah, indeed; very worthy people they are. Well, madam, Mrs. Copp spoke to me of you; The widow, she said, of the Reverend James Chester, of Guild. I had some slight knowledge of him in early days. You were intending to take some pupils on the plan of a private family, Mrs. Copp said, and she thought it might suit Miss Thornycroft." ”

“ In this work we welcome another home production. It is written in Hudibrastic verse; but the genius of the author is by no means confined to this form of composition. The object of the author is praise-worthy, and he exhibits much talent for versification. We must, injustice, commend the work for many striking and some admirable passages. “Sir Copp,” is of course, Sir Copperhead; and the venomous creature is dissected by an artist who has a true scientific enthusiasm for so fine a specimen of morbid anatomy. ”

“ Let’s try it,” cried Tibbs, beaming. And turning their backs on the South Wind’s Castle, they commenced their long tramp to the West.
“I do wish I was my right size again,” sighed Coppertop. “It’s so tiring walking, and we simply can’t fly whilst we’re so large.” As she uttered this wish she suddenly commenced to grow smaller and smaller, until, to her great joy, she was her right size again. ”

“ Their smooth faces and cropped hair and softly molded bodies looked strange against the functional steel angularity of the astrogation blister.
I staggered to my feet, long strips of plastic flesh dangling from me.
The Queen was in space. I was in space, no longer Earthbound.
"Yes," I said, "I lived! Look at me!"
I stripped off the flesh mask, peeled away the red, full lips, the long transformation.
"I've done it. Others will do it, too. Not breeders—not brainless ornaments to a hyper-nymphoid phallus! Just ordinary men. Ordinary men with a dream. You can't keep the sky for yourselves. ”

“ She often found our Medora "great fun."
Meanwhile, Cope, up stairs, was sinking deeper and deeper into his big, wide, overupholstered bed. And as his body sank, his spirit sank with it. He felt poor, unimportant, ill at ease. In especial, he felt greatly subordinated; he wished that he might have capitulated to a man. Then the mystery of handsome houses and of handsome furnishings came to harass him. Such things were everywhere: how were they got, how were they kept? Should he himself ever——? ”

“ I kissed her as an old acquaintance should, and wished them joy with all my might of heart.
‘Dear me,’ said Traddles, ‘what a delightful re-union this is! You are so extremely brown, my dear Copperfield! God bless my soul, how happy I am!’
‘And so am I,’ said I.
‘And I am sure I am!’ said the blushing and laughing Sophy.
‘We are all as happy as possible!’ said Traddles. ‘Even the girls are happy. Dear me, I declare I forgot them!’
‘Forgot?’ said I.
‘The girls,’ said Traddles. ‘Sophy’s sisters. They are staying with us. They have come to have a peep at London. ”

“ The chaps I used to meet there—no one would know what religion they belong to, no more than if they were heathens. That young lad that you weren't pleased with—young Coppinger—I believe he's as good a Catholic as any of us, but he happens to be thrown mostly among Protestants. I often think it's no more than our duty as Catholics to try and see as much as we can of him. He and Barty here, got to be very great with each other the time he was with us, but it's only an odd time now that we get a sight of him. ”

“ SIR COPP.
CANTO I.
“To hell how easy the descent!
But to retrace your steps and to regain
The light of Heaven, alas, how difficult!”—Virgil.
Some orator hath lately said,
(And mark the speech each Copperhead,)
“Who martyrs out of rebels make,
Themselves are worthy of the stake,
And they shall have their full deserts,
When Justice all her rights asserts.” ”

“ Copernicus was a canon of Frauenburg, and led the quiet, retired life of a student. The great work which made him immortal, De Revolutionibus, was the result of many years' meditation and work, and was not printed until he was on his deathbed. In this work Copernicus showed that he was one of those great thinkers who are able to look beyond the mere appearance of things and to grasp the reality of the unseen. ”

“ No, they would take the shore itself—open to the wide firmament, clear of all snares, and free from every disconcerting sight.
"Poor Carolyn!" said Medora presently. "How fluttered and inefficient she was! A good secretary—in a routine way—but so lacking in initiative and self-possession!"
Cope's look tended to become a stare. He thought that Carolyn had been in pretty fair control of herself,—had been less fluttery and excited, indeed, than her employer. ”

“ Master Martin will give his daughter to no man save the cooper who, in his house, shall make the most perfect masterpiece which a cooper can produce, and whom at the same time his daughter shall look upon favourably into the bargain. I cast my own art on one side, I learned the cooper's craft, and I am going to Nürnberg to work in Master Martin's workshop. ”

“ He had gathered up the lines, and we were ready to start, before any suitable words came to his tongue.
“Well, then, sir,” he said, “anything to be agreeable. If I hear a man speaking a good word for your firkins, I'll dispute him.”
“The firkins are well enough,” growled the cooper at us, “an' they're made to sell, but I ain't so almighty tickled about takin' Copperhead money for 'em that I want to clap my wings an' crow over it.”
He turned scornfully on his heel at this, and we drove away. The new revelation of our friendlessness depressed me, but Hurley did not seem to mind it at all. ”