Delphin

“ Aalbom, some rat-poison in his toddy, and he ended by feeling jealous of Delphin.
Fanny had for some time remarked that Delphin was openly paying his attentions to Madeleine, and the more plainly her sharp eyes took in the situation, the more clearly did she perceive that she had been relegated to the unenviable position of third person. She knew that Delphin had been used to the society of Christiania; he was neither so young nor so green as most of her father's assistants, and she therefore found his society agreeable. ”

“ Hum!" muttered Martens, as he went down the street.
No sooner had Delphin taken the clergyman's place, than the conversation changed its tone.
"Our worthy chaplain did not much like Johnsen's going to Sandsgaard," said Fanny.
"That was just the reason I mentioned it," said Delphin.
"Yes, I could see that very well. You are always so dreadfully mischievous. But can you make out what is the matter with my learned sister-in-law? Rachel, who is generally as cold and unsympathetic as an iceberg, becomes all at once quite taken up with what appears to me the most unlikely person." ”

“ In every Delphin edition of the classics we are informed, that consultum est pudori Serenissimi Delphini; but this has been managed in various ways. Sometimes the offensive lines are allowed to remain, but the interpretatio is omitted, and in its place star lights are hung out alongside of the passage: but in the Delphin Plautus they are concentrated in one focus, “in gratiam,” as it is expressed, “provectioris ætatis,” at the end of the volume, under the imposing title “Plauti Obscœna:”
“And there we have them all at one full swoop ”

“ Delphin," explained Fanny, laughing. "My son's manners are not yet quite perfect. Did the big man ask who was up here with mother?"
"He asked if Aunt Rachel was in town," answered the child, putting out his hand for the cup.
Madeleine did not exactly see what the others found so amusing, but she joined in the laugh, because little Freddy was her darling.
"You are a dangerous woman," said George Delphin, as he took his leave; "I must go and warn my friend Worse."
"Yes, you dare!" cried Fanny, holding up her taper finger threateningly at him. ”

“ Delphin was listening in a very absent-minded fashion; in fact, he was busy with his own thoughts, from which he woke up with a start, as his companion gave him a sly poke in the ribs.
"Some folks are born to be lucky," he murmured. "You were sent into the world to be a pride to your mother."
Then he relapsed into silence again, and Nénesse, as though he had quite settled matters in his own mind, began to explain the improvements he would make at Number 19, if his parents would advance him the necessary money. ”

“ This Delphin was a little blonde, with skin bronzed by the sea-glare, and with a mane of curly hair that fell over his eyes and in his neck. And very powerful despite his slight figure; quite capable of thrashing any one three times his size. They said that at times he ran away and passed the [Pg 1432] night in Grandport. That gave him the reputation of a werwolf with the girls, who accused him, among themselves, of "making a life of it"—a vague expression in which they included all sorts of unknown pleasures. Margot, when she spoke of Delphin, betrayed too much feeling. ”

“ I know him now; he is just what you called him."
"Why do you not make him your banker, also, Madame Delphine?"
"I have done so this very day!" she replied, with more happiness in her eyes than Père Jerome had ever before seen there.
"Madame Delphine," he said, his own eyes sparkling, "make him your daughter's guardian; for myself, being a priest, it would not be best; but ask him; I believe he will not refuse you." ”

“ Père Jerome laid his palms tightly across his knees with his arms bowed out, and fixed his eyes upon the ground, pondering.
"I suppose she is a sweet, good daughter?" said he, glancing at Madame Delphine without changing his attitude.
Her answer was to raise her eyes rapturously.
"Which gives us the dilemma in its fullest force," said the priest, speaking as if to the floor. "She has no more place than if she had dropped upon a strange planet." ”

“ As I said, I have never seen Delphine since her marriage. The beautiful statuesque girl occupies a niche into which the blazing and magnificent intrigante cannot crowd. I do not wish to be disillusioned. She has read me a riddle,—Delphine is my Sphinx.
* * * * *
As for Mr. Hay,—I once said the Antipodes were tributary to me, not thinking that I should ever become tributary to the Antipodes. But such is the case ”

“ The ground seems to M. Vignevielle the unsteady sea, and he to stand once more on a deck. And she? As she is now, if she but turn toward the orange, the whole glory of the moon will shine upon her face. His heart stands still; he is waiting for her to do that. She reaches up again; this time a bunch for her mother. That neck and throat! Now she fastens a spray in her hair. The mocking-bird cannot withhold; he breaks into song—she turns—she turns her face—it is she, it is she! Madame Delphine's daughter is the girl he met on the ship. ”

“ Delphine, I exact a promise of you. I do not care to have endangered myself for nothing. It is not worth while to make your mother unhappy. Life is not yours to throw away. I appeal to your magnanimity."
"'Affections, sentiments, sensations!'" she quoted. "Your own danger for the affection,—it is an affair of the heart! Mme. de St. Cyr's unhappiness,—there is the sentiment. You are angry, Monsieur,—that must be the sensation."
"Delphine, I am waiting." ”

“ The little asterisms Sagitta, the Arrow, and Vulpecula and Anser, the Fox and Goose, are shown just above Delphinus.
Delphinus is also called Job's Coffin. The origin of this appellation is unknown.
In Greece, Delphinus was the Sacred Fish, the sky emblem of philanthropy. The Arabs called it the "Riding Camel." ”

“ Père Jerome smiled also, and shrugged.
"To you, Madame Delphine, as you are placed, every white man in this country, on land or on water, is a pirate, and of all pirates, I think that one is, without doubt, the best." ”

“ Severin Martens was naturally very good-natured, but Delphin was a man he could not bear. If the two got into conversation, everything seemed to go wrong for the chaplain. The other had a particular way of taking up his words, turning them into ridicule, and exciting laughter among the hearers, which was most unpleasant. The chaplain did not care very much, either, for Mr. Johnsen. That apparently helpless young man had shown that he knew how to look after himself only too well. ”

“ Be good to each other and love each other! This will be the death of me! Delphine! Nasie! come, be sensible; you are both in the wrong. Come, Dedel," he added, looking through his tears at the Baroness, "she must have twelve thousand francs, you see; let us see if we can find them for her. Oh, my girls, do not look at each other like that!" and he sank on his knees beside Delphine. "Ask her to forgive you—just to please me," he said in her ear. "She is more miserable than you are. ”

“ Its plaited masses, quite black in the moonlight, hung down and coiled upon the bench, by her side. Her chaste drapery was of that revived classic order which the world of fashion was again laying aside to re-assume the mediæval bondage of the stay-lace; for New Orleans was behind the fashionable world, and Madame Delphine and her daughter were behind New Orleans. A delicate scarf, pale blue, of lightly netted worsted, fell from either shoulder down beside her hands. The look that was bent upon her changed perforce to one of gentle admiration. She seemed the goddess of the garden. ”

“ Delphine herself had been conceived of a primordial passion, and though she was endowed with a sweetness which may have been absent in either parent, yet there was no lack in her of rich, red blood, and even of a quality of ruthlessness which may have been partly hereditary, partly the result of her island life. This same ruthlessness, when all is said, obtains more frequently in women than in men, perhaps because of the maternal instinct, the grandest in the world in its one idea. Cullom was dead, and Delphine was glad—all the gladder, perhaps, that he had fallen by my hand. ”

“ The shadow of some one approaching it [Pg 47] from without fell upon the threshold, and a man entered, dressed in dark blue cottonade, lifting from his head a fine Panama hat, and from a broad, smooth brow, fair where the hat had covered it and dark below, gently stroking back his very soft, brown locks. Madame Delphine slightly started aside, while Père Jerome reached silently, but eagerly, forward, grasped a larger hand than his own, and motioned its owner to a seat. Madame Delphine's eyes ventured no higher than to discover that the shoes of the visitor were of white duck. ”

“ I hastily restored the napkin, and looked steadily at Delphine,—so steadily, that she perceived some meaning, as she had already suspected a game. By my sign she understood me, pressed her foot upon the stone and drew it nearer. In France we do not remain at table until unfit for a lady's society,—we rise with them. Delphine needed to drop neither napkin nor handkerchief; she composedly stooped and picked up the stone, so quickly that no one saw what it was.
"And the diamond?" said the Baron to the butler, rapidly, as he passed.
"It was in the salière!" whispered the astonished creature. ”

“ From time immemorial the steaming blood of an enemy has gone to savour kisses of the purest and tenderest passion, and in surroundings such as ours we hark back quickly to the early instincts of our race. Then, too, Delphine was no nervous, cringing product of an over-civilisation. She was the daughter of Daniel Fairfax, and a mother who for years had found the strength and will to do a man's work. ”

“ I should be interested to know in what way you hold me responsible for Delphine’s shortcomings?”
“I have just told you. You treat her as a child who must be fed on sweetmeats, and bribed with treats and diversions; conversationally you talk down to her level. It never occurs to you to expect her to be in earnest about any one thing.” ”

“ Delphine went below, and I set about my work. The obsequies of Cullom and his blacks were short, and showed no partiality of race. These finished, I threw off the turns of the halliards and lowered the sails. I had no fear of attack from the shore, but I looked under bow and stern to see that nobody was hiding there. Then I drew a bucket of water and washed and went below. Delphine greeted me with a smile, then blushed and looked away, for I was still stripped to the belt; and to a person who is in the habit of seeing daily nude brown skins, the sight of a white one is always startling. ”

“ I knocked again, and Delphine opened the door, stretching her arms and rubbing her eyes like some one who has been suddenly awakened. To prove her, I proposed that she should go with me to Arras, that I might present her to my parents, and she very tranquilly agreed. My suspicions were disappearing, and yet something whispered to me that she was deceiving me. I at length perceived that she frequently glanced towards the wardrobe. I pretended a desire to open it, which my chaste betrothed opposed, and gave me one of those excuses which a woman always has ready. ”

“ Look here, Delphine, don’t give way, don’t make a concession of half a quarter of a farthing to that fathead, who has ground you down and made you miserable. If he can’t do without you, we will give him a good cudgeling, and keep him in order. ”

“ Will you explain?”
“You said that Delphine was not a woman. If that is so, it’s her husband’s fault—and yours! And every other man’s with whom she comes in contact. You all treat her like a child, and expect her to behave as a child, and then turn round and abuse her because she dances to your tune.” ”

“ With all this, "Delphine" is a beautiful book. The character of the heroine is full of charm: the hero is delineated with a truth, a fervour, and a reality, that reaches home. The characters of madame de Valmont and her daughter {Pg 327} are finely portrayed. "Delphine," it was said, was an ideal of the authoress herself; and the false friend was drawn from Talleyrand. "They tell me," he said to her, "that you have put us both in your novel in the character of women." Madame de Staël could well bear this sarcasm: she was truly feminine ”

“ Père Jerome remained silent, and presently she turned again, with the evident intention of speaking at length. [Pg 42]
"It began nineteen years ago—by"—her eyes, which she had lifted, fell lower than ever, her brow and neck were suffused with blushes, and she murmured—"I fell in love."
She said no more, and by and by Père Jerome replied:
"Well, Madame Delphine, to love is the right of every soul. I believe in love. If your love was pure and lawful I am sure your angel guardian smiled upon you ”

“ The star γ Delphini is a fine double star for a small telescope, the colours gold and bluish green being in marked contrast, and very beautiful.
ε Delphini was known to the Chinese by the unattractive title "the Rotten Melon," certainly a singular and inappropriate name for any star. ”

“ He tells her how to incite these ignorant niggers; how to bring up all the old talk of their day of deliverance, the time when they won't have to work, the time when they will be not only the equals, but the superiors of the whites. He tells Delphine that she is the naturally appointed Queen of these people. She is savage enough to fit in with all their savagery. She does rule it as a queen. In her soul there are thoughts, wild thoughts which you and I can never understand, because we are white, and all white. Delphine is neither white nor black, neither red, nor white, nor black. ”