Don

“ It was not until a countryman came by that the Don was extricated, and then he had to ride back to his own village on the ass of the poor labourer, being so stiff and sore as quite incapable to mount Rozinante.
The curate and the barber, seeing now what havoc romances of chivalry were making in the wits of this good gentleman, ran through his library while he lay wounded in bed, burned all his noxious works, and, securely locking the door, prepared the tale that enchantment had carried away the books and the very chamber itself. ”

“ There is the crusted old Don, whose boots creak, whose clothes seem to be made of some hard, unyielding material, and whose stiff collars scrape his shaven cheeks with a rustling noise; he speaks rarely and gruffly ”

“ In another four years even Don-Don would be grown-up--Don-Don who was such a long time getting older that at fourteen, only two years ago, he had been capable of sitting in her lap, a great long-legged, flumbering puppy, while mother and son rocked dangerously together in each other's arms, like two children, laughing together, mocking each other. ”

“ Neither does Don."
"That's so, Uncle," said Donald, emphatically; "we feel sure there is something that gives you trouble. Why not let us share it with you? Remember, we are not little children any longer."
The uncle looked quickly from one to the other, mentally deciding that the children could be told only the facts that were positively known to him; then seating himself on the corner of a large chest, he drew Don and Dorry towards him.
"Yes, my children," he said, in his own hearty way, as if already a load had been taken from his mind, "there is something. ”

“ It was an experience of life for which Don's books had not prepared him. It was a lesson from life itself, and not the colourless argument of a theory of life. And confused by the thousand changing incidents that repeated the question incessantly around him, touched in his sympathies and revolted in his ideals, he went about his "boosting" as if bewildered by the noises of the street, staring and distracted.
Tower did not come on that second afternoon to see him "started," and he worked alone, without any smiling companionship to disguise from him the hypocrisy of his employment. ”

“ With the complexity of a brain that was trained to cheat itself with its own make-believes but still was never ignorant that it was being cheated, Don was aware that his relations with her were not to be simply those of blind worship and accepted love. Her frightened confusion, when his voice had betrayed him, warned him, now, that mere ecstasy and ardour would only drive her from him; that he must be politic; that she was a human being judging him in accordance with the conventions of human society, and not as clairvoyant as a goddess or as untrammelled as an ideal. ”

“ It was all very innocent and friendly—though Don had some bewildering moments when his heart seemed to swell with a choked longing in his chest. Then, two days of wind and rain kept her in the house, where he could only speak with her under conditions of strained formality—for he was at the age when the usages of indoors are an oppression on the spirits—and their return to their haunts gave him the feeling for her which a bright-coloured toy had used to raise in him, a desire to fondle it and rub it against his cheek. ”

“ Don backed up against the geraniums. "Keep away from me."
Conroy raised a derisive shout. "Do you want to fight?"
The young David swallowed slowly and shut his teeth on the pale-lipped mutter of a prayer. His cousin crept in on him, grinning, and crouched—intending to wrestle him and roll him on the grass—playfully. Don caught him in the mouth with a blow that knocked him off his balance. He jumped to his feet, white; and Don was waiting for him.
They fought in a boyish fury, wrestling, kicking and scratching; Don even bit his cousin's hand. ”

“ For The Don, while he never preached, took pains to make clear to all who came under his charge the results of their folly and their sin to body and to mind, as well as to soul, and he had the trick of forcing them to take upon themselves the full responsibility for their destiny, whether it was to be strength, soundness of mind, happiness, heaven, or disease, insanity, misery, hell. ”

“ Though she never dreamed of setting him above her hero, she felt compelled to admit that he must be a great deal better than Don, for Don had lately scouted the idea of being a minister. She felt herself highly privileged to be the friend of such a man. ”

“ And when Don had seen the last of the supers' costumes on the hooks, the room deserted, and the lights out—lingering over his duties as if he thought in that way to postpone the fact of his dismissal—he met her at the stage entrance with such a look of guilt and apology and broken appeal against her blame that it went to her heart like the sight of tears. "Oh, Don," she cried, "why, why did you bother with me? Why didn't you let me go home? I—I've only made trouble. I——"
"Wait," he said, hurrying her out to the refuge of the darker street. "Don't. . . . It's nothing. We're all right." ”

“ It was not, as Tower had said, "a highly respectable job," but it was the first opportunity that Don had had to do anything for himself, and he went through it with the nervous seriousness of a resolve to prove himself capable. He felt that he was being given a trial at last; that he owed it to Tower to flinch at nothing; that he must prove himself to himself, to the world, and to the man who had helped him. ”

“ He gave it in his gentle voice that had for Don such a fascinating note of wisdom and experience; and Don felt that here was a man who could solve all his problems for him. He tried to put in words the effect which the Bowery had had on him and the questions which it had aroused in him; and "Tower" listened to his stammering explanations, nodding across the blundering pauses and keeping his eyes on the sunlit driveway with a thoughtful attention.
"Why do we know these people are wrong—living that way? ”

“ One couldn't carry on life comfortably without a little blindness to the fact that everything has been said better than we can put it ourselves. But talking of Dons, I have seen Dons make a capital figure in society; and occasionally he can shoot you down a cartload of learning in the right place, which will tell in politics. Such men are wanted; and if you have any turn for being a Don, I say nothing against it. ”

“ She liked him, and she knew it. On her way out with Conroy she had been wondering whether she would like him. She was glad that she did.
As for Don, he had no feminine introspection, and his happiness held him in a dazed silence. He was conscious only that a young divinity—for she was already more than a girl to him—had come glowing and beautiful out of dreamland, and sat beside him in an odour of violets, and talked to him with a musical, soft voice. ”

“ The originality of the child has been overgrown; the eccentricities of the young man have not yet sprouted. Don, seated at a desk that was exactly like a score of other desks in Miss Morris's schoolroom, studied the common lessons from the prescribed books; and what he learned, he learned like a parrot. Seated at home, beside the "study" table in the playroom, he worked out his exercises mechanically with Frankie, or idly scorched the wood of his lead pencils over the flame of the lamp. ”

“ Don, an’ I’ll tell ye what’s the gospel truth. Lester, he told me that Dave was bringin’ in right smart of money for his pap every month, an’ I told Barlow of it, an’ Barlow he said he’d like to have some of it so’t he could live like rich folks do. That’s all I done, Mr. Don, sure’s yer born—honor bright, an’ hope to die if it aint. ”

“ It is not in action, but in the intervals of thought, that character grows; and for the next few days Don went about in a quiet muse that aged him more than he knew. He shunned the ravine; he worked with a sort of stupid diligence; and not until Saturday did he even so much as read anything but a school-book. But on Saturday morning he took up his "Faerie Queene " again, and with the first words of the poem a terrible longing gripped him at the heart. ”

“ Ez I was saying to the Don yer, when two high-toned gents like you and him come together in a delicate matter of this kind, it ain't no hoss trade nor sharp practice. The Don is that lofty in principle that he's willin' to sacrifice his affections for the good of the gal; and you, on your hand, kalkilate to see all he's done for her, and go your whole pile better. You'll make the legal formalities good. I reckon that old Injin woman who can swear to the finding of the baby on the shore will set things all right yet. ”

“ Don wondered when the unknown had drawn and opened the knife. It seemed that the rascal had scarcely been given time to accomplish such an action after Don’s entrance, for the boy had kept him busy, and he had struggled madly to free himself and escape. ”

“ Never forgetting the absolute necessity for using the greatest caution, Don turned his glass on the balloon. He gave a little gasp of astonishment. By the aid of the powerful binocular he could even see the observers in the basket suspended beneath the great, unwieldy monster, and in his eyes those faint and tiny specks assumed a most tremendous interest and importance. It was not very often, he reflected, that Germans were seen as foemen, at liberty and engaged in their work. ”

“ While Don's friend was upon the tour of inquiry to ascertain the identity of the handsome young lady, Don sat alone upon a log, and said mentally, “A woman may draw me out of the sea ten thousand times, and she would never look like that young lady. O! God, who can she be! Perhaps out of my reach.” Don's friend returned smiling. “Lucky, lucky,” and Don's friend concluded with a laugh. “What now?” said Don, impatiently.
“That lady is the girl that drew Don Carlo out of the river, her name is Suza Fairfield, and she is the belle of Port William. ”

“ FACE. Cozen'd, do you see, My worthy Donzel, cozen'd. SUR. Entiendo. SUB. Do you intend it? so do we, dear Don. Have you brought pistolets, or portagues, My solemn Don?—Dost thou feel any? FACE [FEELS HIS POCKETS] . Full. SUB. You shall be emptied, Don, pumped and drawn Dry, as they say. FACE. Milked, in troth, sweet Don. SUB. See all the monsters; the great lion of all, Don. SUR. Con licencia, se puede ver a esta senora? SUB. What talks he now? FACE. Of the sennora. SUB. O, Don, This is the lioness, which you shall see Also, my Don. FACE. 'Slid, Subtle, how shall we do? ”

“ Don clasped Teddy in his arms after the reading of the telegram, and the two boys executed a wild dance on the floor of the office, much to the scandal of the native clerks, who looked on open-eyed.
“Glory hallelujah!” cried Don. “You’re going with us, Brick! Old scout, you’re going with us! Do you hear?”
“It’s the reward of virtue,” said Brick, with a shameless grin.
“Virtue!” snorted the captain, trying to look stern, but not succeeding very well. “It simply shows that a young scapegrace can sometimes get by. Come along now. There’s much to do, and we have to hustle.” ”

“ Respectable people call the Don as well as Meister a fool, wandering hither and thither, transacting no business of real life, bringing nothing to pass, scarce even knowing what he ought to think on any subject, very unfit for the hero of a romance. ”

“ Pittsey was walking up the street, Don hanging back reluctantly. "No. He won't come to the dinner. He doesn't even want to hear that there's a dinner for him to come to. Say!" He rounded on Don suddenly. "He has the willies, if you know what that is. You'll only drive him into trouble—just as you've always done. And it's a dirty shame to be bothering him. We can't do anything for him, and he knows it. He can't do anything for himself—and he knows it. What he needs is chloroform to put him out of his misery. I don't believe in this particular form of vivisection, if you want to know!" ”

“ He was a big man of iron nerve, sinewy, with black hair and eyes. He was a dead shot, and his instructions had made Don also a marksman only second to himself.
Don was also under the general oversight of Professor Amos Regor Bruce, his uncle on his mother’s side, and an eminent scientist and member of many learned societies. He also [14] had traveled extensively in the interest of museums, for whom he gathered rare archæological specimens.
To divert Don’s mind from dwelling on his supposed loss, his uncles, both of whom were bachelors, took him with them on a trip to the Sahara Desert. ”

“ With that confession as a bond of sympathy between them, the rest of their conversation was easy; and Don, seated beside him, on a bench that faced the driveway, learned more of "Tower" than he had ever expected to know.
He was one of those wanderers who leave their homes to try their fortunes in large cities and who go from place to place with no certain means of earning a living, but with a resourceful knowledge of how to support themselves from day to day. He had begun life as a hotel clerk, and had left his desk to sell tickets in the box office of a theatre. ”

“ Among the pupils of Miss Morris's school was Don's elder cousin Conroy—the boy whose face Miss Margaret had not liked; and between Don and him there had always been a boyish ill-will that grew into a noticeable enmity as Don became more of a long-legged weakling and Conroy more of a pug-nosed and sturdy bully. ”

“ From these gloomy meditations, Don roused himself with a determined shake of his shoulders.
“Brace up, Brick,” he counseled. “We’re worth a dozen dead men yet. Let’s see if we can’t find some way out of this hole.” ”

“ Is she here?" cried Madame René, who, misinterpreting Donald's words, had risen to her feet, half expecting to see the young girl enter the room.
"No. But depend upon it, you will go there," said Don. "You must carry out the dream of your youth, and begin life in America. My uncle surely will send for you. ”