Dempsey

“ Dempsey,” said she, after a long silence on both sides, “it would be a great breach of the regard many years of intimacy with you has formed, if I did not say, that your affections are misplaced. Beauty is a perishable gift.”
Paul looked at Mrs. Fumbally, and seemed struck with the truth of her remark.
“But the qualities of the miud, Mr. Dempsey, those rare endowments that make happy the home and hearth. You 're fond of beef hash with pickled onions,” said she, smiling sweetly; “well, you shall have one to-day.”
“Good creature!” muttered Paul, while he pressed her hand affectionately. ”

“ Dempsey attempted to collect and arrange the scattered fragments.
“It's no use in life! Here's the Widow Wallace's pills in the middle of the Counsellor's speech! and the last day's drawing of the lottery mixed up with that elegant account of old Darcy's—”
A hand which, if of the gentlest mould, now made a gesture to enforce silence, arrested Mr. Dempsey's words, and at the same moment the Knight entered with Lady Eleanor. ”

“ Mr. Dempsey's scruples soon vanished and thawed under the warmth of encouraging voices and smiles, and he began the narrative of his night at “The Corvy,” his painful durance in the canoe, his escape, the burning of the law papers, and each step of his progress to the very moment that he stood a listener at Lady Eleanor's door. Then he halted abruptly and said, “Now I'm dumb! racks and thumbscrews wouldn't get more out of me.”
“You cannot mean, sir,” said Lady Eleanor, calmly but haughtily, “that you overheard the conversation that passed between my daughter and myself?” ”

“ Halsey, was so very uncommon!"
Dempsey began, still smiling, in spite of a warning look from Betts.
"You saw a man come down that road? Well, in the first place, why
shouldn't a man come down that road—it's a reg'lar right of way—"
"It's the way, mind ye, as the ghost of old Watson has allus come!" ”

“ In other words literature and life are things divorced in Dempsey's mind. He does read. The first time we ever saw Dempsey he discussed books with not a little interest. He was not at his training quarters when we arrived but his press agent showed us about—a singularly reverential man this press agent. "This," he said, and he seemed to lower his voice, "is the bed where Jack Dempsey sleeps." All the Louises knew better beds and so did Lafayette even when a stranger in a strange land. Washington himself fared better in the midst of war. ”

“ Dempsey seated at the fire, recounting to the ladies his late unhappy discomfiture,—a narrative which even Lady Eleanor's gravity was not enabled to withstand. A kind audience was always a boon of the first water to honest Paul; and very little pressing was needed to induce him to continue his revelations, for the Knight wisely felt that such pretensions as his could not be buried so satisfactorily as beneath the load of ridicule. ”

“ But there would be sundry gentlemen there with large gold fob chains and black cigars; and somebody would tell a funny story, and then Dempsey would go back and work half an hour with the six-pound dumbbells. So, doing a tight-rope act on a wire stretched across Niagara was a safe terpsichorean performance compared with waltzing twice with Dempsey Donovan’s paper-box girl. At 10 o’clock the jolly round face of “Big Mike” O’Sullivan shone at the door for five minutes upon the scene. He always looked in for five minutes, smiled at the girls and handed out real perfectos to the delighted boys. ”

“ Dempsey hurried away to seek Mrs. Fumbally herself, the confusion and uproar increased; the loud, coarse laughter of the “Gentlemen” being added to the wrathful violence of the softer sex. Lady Eleanor, how-ever, had drawn her daughter to her side, and without uttering a word, proceeded to leave the room. To this course a considerable obstacle presented itself in the shape of the Collector, who, with expanded legs, and hands thrust deep into his side-pockets, stood against the door.
“Against the ninth general rule, ma'am, which you may read in the frame over the chimney!” ”

“ Dempsey, Crimmins, and Quigg sat outside the rail, against the wall. They were waiting for McGaw, who had not been seen since the afternoon.
The president was in his accustomed place. The five gentlemen of leisure, the veterinary surgeon, and the other trustees occupied their several chairs. The roll had been called, and every man had answered to his name. The occasion being one of much importance, a full board was required.
As the minute-hand neared the hour of nine Dempsey became uneasy. He started every time a new-comer mounted the stairs. Where was McGaw? ”

“ He groaned in spirit, as he thought of Delia's look that day—of the tragic-comic crowd around her. Again his thoughts flew hither and thither, seeking to excuse, to understand her, and always, as it seemed, with her dear voice in his ears—trembling—rushing—with the passionate note he knew.
"Mr. Winnington!"
He looked up. An elderly woman, plain-featured, ill-dressed, stood beside him, her kind eyes blinking under the lamp overhead. He recognised Miss Dempsey, and grasped her by the hand. ”

“ Dempsey to hurry home with the news, and Corporal O'Brien to go plodding along in the opposite direction.
But happily, electric cars go ever so much quicker than sorrow-weighted, unwilling feet. And who can fathom the ways of a woman. Thus it happened that when our desolate trumpeter reached the foot of the dark stair leading up to the recruiting office, there stepped out to him from the gloom of the hall a slim familiar figure; and a pair of unfaltering gray eyes fired a volley of reproach into his own. "Where are you going, Mr. O'Brien?" Miss Dempsey spoke with chilling asperity. ”

“ He must ha' seen the man—if it wor a man—an' he saw nothin'. There isn't a tree or a bush where that man could ha' hid hisself—if he wor a man."
Dempsey declared he should have to go and examine the ground himself before he could answer the question. But of course there was an answer to it—there must be. As to the man—why Millsborough, and Ipscombe too, had been full of outlandish East Enders, flying from the raids, Poles and Russians, and such like—thievin' fellows by all accounts. ”

“ Why couldn't it be one of them—prowling round the farm for anything he could pick up—and frightened off, when he saw Halsey?
Betts, smoking with prodigious energy, inquired what he made of the blood. Didn't he know the old story of how Watson was tracked down to the cart-shed? Dempsey laughed again.
"Well, it's curious, grant ye. It's real funny! But where are you going to get blood without a body? And if a thing's a body, it isn't a ghost!" ”

“ For many years I have made a close study of the setting hen, but I am still unsettled as to what is best to do with her. She is a freak of nature, a disagreeable anomaly, a fussy phenomenon. Logic, rhetoric and metaphor are all alike to the setting hen. You might as well go down into the bosom of Vesuvius and ask it to postpone the next eruption.
A Bright Future for Pugilism.
The recent prominence of Mr. John E. Dempsey, better known as Jack Dempsey, of New York, brings to mind a four days' trip taken in his company from Portland, Oregon, to St. ”

“ Naturally, I rebelled, not wishing to expose myself to an easy discovery of the palpable fraud, but Mulvihill pleaded with his most persuasive voice.
"Don't you see, those fellows don't know Jack Dempsey from Adam. Any old thing at all would convince them they are in the presence of the real man, and you know enough about Jack Dempsey and his history not to be tripped up by those fellows, who never saw a prize fight in their lives." ”

“ It was, indeed, a new kind of company he was about to present to his wife and daughter; but while conscious of the disparity in every respect, he was not the less eager to do the hospitalities of his humble house with all becoming honor. It is true his invitation to Mr. Dempsey was rather forced from him than willingly accorded; he was about the very last kind of person Darcy would have asked to his table, if perfectly free to choose; but, of all men living, the Knight knew least how to escape from a difficulty the outlet to which should cost him any sacrifice of feeling. ”

“ He knew they'd find Walter Sessions and didn't want to get tangled up in any dispute concernin' of a blue watch.
“Hi, fellers!” Dempsey shouted. Will Marsh ran in and found his partner stirring the drunk. “Here's our man.”
The two cops stood Sessions on his feet—or rather held him suspended so that his boneless legs could touch the floor. “Here, stand up!” Dempsey gave Sessions a shake, and a wad of newspaper fell out of his coat. Something clinked, and Marsh picked it up—a blue-enameled watch, a diamond bar-pin and four rings.
“The Claiborne swag!” three men exclaimed. ”

“ It is a terrible aggravation to the loss of those comforts which habit has rendered necessaries, to unlearn the usages of a certain condition, and adopt those of a class beneath us,—or, what is still worse, engage in the daily, hourly conflict between our means and our requirements.
Perhaps Lady Eleanor Darcy and her daughter never really felt the meaning of their changed condition, nor understood its poignancy, till they saw themselves as residents of Mrs. Fumbally's boarding-house, whither Mr. Dempsey's polite attentions had conducted them. ”

“ Then, in a voice pitched purposely loud, he said, “Do you happen to know one Dempsey in these parts?”
“Paul Dempsey?” added Nickie.
“A little, short man, with a turned-up nose, that walks with his shoulders far back and his hands spread out? Ay, I know him well; he dined here one day with the master, and sure enough he made the company laugh hearty!”
“I 'd be glad to meet him, if he 's as pleasant as you say,” said Nickie, slyly.
“There's nothing easier, then,” said Tate; “since the boarding-house is closed there at Ballintray, he's up in Coleraine for the winter. ”

“ And they consoled themselves with the reflection that the next fight between Snubby and Peter would be one really worth seeing, something to remember, something to talk about for years to some.
"It'll go one better," they declared, "than Jack Dempsey and the Frenchy." "Wouldn't give a hill of beans," they said to each other, "to see Dempsey and the Frenchy when we've got Snubby Brown and the new missionary right here."
The next evening the whole camp assembled, every single man, and all of them bubbling over with excitement. But the camp boss intervened. ”

“ CORNELIUS. Props you'll explain, Father Dempsey.
FATHER DEMPSEY. No, no: go on, you: the Church has no politics.
CORNELIUS. Were yever thinkin o goin into parliament at all, Larry?
LARRY. Me!
FATHER DEMPSEY [encouragingly] Yes, you. Hwy not?
LARRY. I'm afraid my ideas would not be popular enough.
CORNELIUS. I don't know that. Do you, Barney?
DORAN. There's too much blatherumskite in Irish politics a dale too much.
LARRY. But what about your present member? Is he going to retire?
CORNELIUS. No: I don't know that he is.
LARRY [interrogatively] . Well? then? ”

“ It is hard to tell if it was the novelty of the proposition or Casey's evident sincerity, but Dempsey and I began to consider it very seriously.
"Say Casey," I asked, "supposing the three of us really wanted to go to work, where could we get it? They don't take men like us in shops or factories, where there are a whole lot of trained help looking for work every day. So, even if we wanted work, we couldn't get it."
"Is that so? You're talking as if New York City is the whole thing. What's the matter with the country? That's where we ought to go, because we'll never amount to anything here. ”

“ The Knight, whose tact was rarely at fault, saw every straggle that was passing in Leonard's mind, and adroitly contrived that the conversation should be carried on without any demand upon him, either as talker or listener. If Lady Eleanor and Helen contributed their aid to this end, Mr. Dempsey was not backward on his part, for he talked unceasingly. The good things of the table, to which he did ample justice, afforded an opportunity for catechizing the ladies in their skill in household matters ”

“ Dempsey," he answered with something suspiciously like a sob, "but the last friend I had, an' all I owned in the worruld lies down there."
"Arrah what nonsinse, man! Dont be an ould woman! Come back with me till we talk it over; we 'll find something for ye to do, niver fear."
Tim shook his head sadly. "I 've thought it all out, standing here alone. These hands are fit for nothing in the worruld but the handling of a gun. I'm goin' straight down to the recruitin' station and thry to begin life all over again. Though," he added with a sigh, "God knows how loath I am to do it." ”

“ Dempsey?”
“Certainly, he dined with us on one occasion, and paid us some three or four visits. A tiresome little vulgar man, with a most intense curiosity devouring him to know everything of everybody.”
“To this gift, or infirmity, whichever it be, we are now indebted. Since the breaking-up of the boarding-house at Port Ballintray, which this year was somewhat earlier than usual,”—here Miss Daly smiled slightly, as though there lay more in the words than they seemed to imply,—“Mr. ”

“ Dempsey,” added Lady Eleanor, with more than her wonted cordiality; “you will, I hope, remain for tea.”
“No, ma'am, I thank you; I have a little engagement,—I made a promise. If I get safe out of the house without some infernal blunder or other, it 's only the mercy of Providence.” And with this burst of honest feeling, Paul snatched up his hat, and without waiting for the ceremony of leave-taking, rushed out of the room, and was soon seen crossing the wide common at a brisk pace.
“Our little friend has lost his reason,” said the Knight, laughing. “What have you been doing to him, Helen?” ”