Ellis

“ Ah, my friend! if you have been wronged, deeply is the wrong repaid! Such a wreck! I could scarcely believe my eyes. Ellis! I read at a single glance her countenance, marred by long suffering, and found in it only the sad evidences of patient endurance. She is changed. I am bold to say that. If she erred, she has repented."
"But not atoned for a wrong that is irreparable," said Ellis in a dogged tone, while his heavy brows contracted.
"Ah! how changed you are, Ellis: once so kind-hearted, so forgiving and forbearing!"
"And what changed me? Answer me that, John Wilkinson! ”

“ As she passed my bed I saw out of the corner of my eye that Ellis was watching feverishly. An inspiration seized me. I stopped her, and in a low voice asked if she had fed her rabbits. Sister isn't allowed to keep rabbits, but she does. As I hoped, she put a finger to her lips, nodded and walked away.
"Poor old man," I murmured vaguely to the ward in general. "A hundred-and-seven and still rising! Poor old Ellis!"
Ellis gave a little moan and collapsed under the bedclothes.
An hour later Burnett went his round. Burnett isn't the doctor, at least not the official one. ”

“ Ellis, believe me. I thought I was doing dear Valmai a real kindness, and now what shall I do? I have ruined her hopes of happiness, and I have lost your good opinion and friendship."
"Never!" said Ellis. "I see exactly how you felt, and can enter into your feelings thoroughly; it only grieves me to think what a low opinion you have formed of men in general."
"You see," said Gwladys, bending her head, "I have led such a retired life, and have known so few men—none intimately, except those three." ”

“ Standing alone against them, Ellis felt a sudden sense of impending calamity, between his temples a pressure began, and in the silence his voice was scarcely audible as in spite of himself he asked hoarsely: "What do you mean?"
"History," answered Pease slowly—never in his life before had he been deliberately cruel—"history, Mr. Ellis, has taught some valuable lessons, of which I should like to call two to your attention. One is that some great men meet their Waterloo, the other that some little men have their—Price!" ”

“ For many months before leaving prison, we had been familiar with the name of Dan Ellis—a famous Union guide, who, since the beginning of the war, had done nothing but conduct loyal men to our lines.
Ellis is a hero, and his life a romance. He had taken through, in all, more than four thousand persons. He had probably seen more adventure—in fights and races with the Rebels, in long journeys, sometimes bare-footed and through the snow, or swimming rivers full of floating ice—than any other person living.
He never lost but one man, who was swooped up through his own heedlessness. ”

“ Ellis has been here a number of years; she has had everything her own way, and is not used to young people. She felt, when you came, that it was bringing new care and trouble upon her, and it is not strange that when things go wrong she should sometimes think you in fault. ”

“ Ellis, in that unsettled period that comes in most strong men’s lives, was perhaps, too, subconsciously getting a little weary of the range life that up to now had entirely satisfied his full-blooded energies, but there is little doubt that had he remained with the soberer calling that he had followed so long, it would have been more advantageous to both his profit and honor. ”

“ First time ever I hear anyone say old Ellis were any use for any purpose. I should ’a thought you know’d better than that yourself, Master Reginald. What do you suppose old Ellis can tell you better’n what I can about Betton Wood, and what call have he got to be put afore me, I should like to know. His father warn’t woodman on the place: he were ploughman—that’s what he was, and so anyone could tell you what knows ”

“ The greatest possible change was worked in Ellis. He no longer looked like the same boy. The alteration in his appearance was almost as striking as that which takes place in a country clown caught by a recruiting sergeant, half drunk at a fair, as he rolls on, looking every moment as if he was going to topple over, from public-house to public-house, and when he has been under the drill-sergeant’s hands for a couple of years, and is turned into the trim, active, intelligent soldier. At first, few who saw poor Ellis’s awkward attempts could possibly avoid laughing. ”

“ Ellis died 28 June 1700, aged 70. Before 1665 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Remington of the East Riding of Yorkshire, by whom he had four sons and one daughter. His wife died in July 1691. Some of Ellis's religious writings, from their unaffected piety and homely vgour of style, enjoyed in their day considerable popularity. That by which he is still remembered is, 'The Gentile Sinner, or England's Brave Gentleman characterized in a Letter to a Friend, both as he is and as he should be,' 8vo, Oxford, 1660. ”

“ Since that period, whom have you seen, whom noticed, except Ellis! Ellis! Ellis! From the first moment that you have beheld her, she has seemed the mistress of your destiny, the arbitress of your will. My boon, then, Harleigh, my boon! without a moment's further delay! Appease the raging ferment in my veins; clear away every surmize; and generously, honestly say 'tis Ellis!—or it is another, and not Ellis, I prefer to you!"
"Elinor! Elinor!" cried Harleigh, in a universal tremour, "it is I that you will make mad!" ”

“ The man by the fire glanced at the burnt flapjack, scraped it free from the pan, tossed it into the bushes, and straightened to his full height.
"Come into camp, Mr. Ellis," he said, politely. The freemasonry of caste operates very quickly in the wilderness; Ellis slid down the boulder on the re-enforced seat of his knickerbockers, landing, with hob-nailed shoes foremost, almost at the edge of the fire. Then he laid his rod aside, slipped the pack to the ground, unslung his creel, and, fishing out a handkerchief, mopped his sunburnt countenance.
"Anything else you're short of, Mr. Jones?" ”

“ Ellis continued, as at first, one of the most quiet, well-behaved men in the ship. Every moment of his watch below—that is to say, when off duty—he was engaged in reading, chiefly, as I afterwards found, the Bible. In those days, a Bible on the lower deck was a rarity, and religious books were still less often seen. The Rainbow formed no exception to the rule, and Ellis got to be looked at with suspicion and dislike by the greater number of the men. ”

“ Mrs. Harmon had reflected and acquiesced. Common sense was fundamental to both her and Ellis, and combined with more frankness than was usual in the Judge's circle kept them on good terms. Ellis had laid his hand on her shoulder while he urged her to consider; she had not resented the sign of their understanding.
"Well," she said, "Judith knows a good deal, and perhaps I am wrong." Right or wrong, she did not intend that she and Ellis should fall out. Life was dull for her sometimes; she liked to have him dropping in. And then those trinkets. ”

“ Ellis and we engaged new apartments.”
“I’m sure I had no wish to go away,” broke in the elder lady plaintively. “The people here are most obliging, the rooms are clean, and nobody could be more civil or more respectful than Mr. Rahas and his uncle, Monsieur Fanah.” As the elder merchant spoke with a strong foreign accent, Mrs. Ellis thought him entitled to a French prefix to his name. “But there’s no doing anything with Nouna when she’s made up her mind, I regret to say.” ”

“ Ellis was by no means hard of heart. His determination did not prove the coldness of his charity, but merely the strength of his fears. He was himself an object more of compassion than of anger; and he acted like the man whose fear of death prompts him to push his companion from the plank which saved him from drowning, but which is unable to sustain both. Finding him invincible to my entreaties, I thought upon the expedient which he suggested of seeking the protection of her uncle. It was true that the loss of parents had rendered her uncle her legal protector. His knowledge of the world ”

“ I exclaimed, "or I shall run my bayonet into you; I am Oliver Ellis, the boy whom you would have sold to the press-gang—do you hear me, rascal?—to the press-gang, to whom I shall surrender you in five minutes as a prisoner. Time about is fair play, Mr. Dick Knuckleduster." ”

“ I may as well take this opportunity of mentioning that Ellis, though in the main one of the best-tempered fellows in the world, whenever he was particularly interested or excited, became extremely cross and snappish, and was certain at such times to scold every one who fell in his way, without the slightest regard to age, sex, or station. ”

“ In January 1765 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of chamberlain of London, Ellis was never married, and, being of temperate and cheerful habits, lived to an advanced age. Up to his eighty-fifth year he used frequently to walk thirty miles a day. ”

“ Overcome with his thoughts, Ellis sat for a long time motionless; then, mechanically groping for the letter again, he reread it. Its simple pathos touched him strangely as the awe-inspiring significance of the long, patient struggle of that faithful old heart—stilled now, alas, forever—began to creep into his dazed brain. He raised his swimming eyes to the portrait of the gentle woman, the memory of whose beauty and kind, sweet personality had been the good angel alike to poor old Major Carlton and himself throughout both their strenuous and sin-tempted lives. ”

“ Severely, however, Mrs Howel watched and investigated every look, every speech, every turn of the head of Ellis, with regard to this young nobleman; well aware that, as he was younger than herself, though her beauty was in its prime, his safety might depend, more rationally, upon her own views, or her own honour, than upon his prudence or indifference: but all that she observed tended to raise Ellis yet more highly in her esteem. The behaviour of that young person was open, pleasing, good-humoured and unaffected. It was evident that she wished to be thought well of by Lord Melbury ”

“ Full of spirits and jokes, he determinately looked away from his cousin, took both Ellis's hands, and shook them with his usual heartiness.
"Good-by, dear Ellis. I wonder if I shall ever feel myself a man when talking to you. How many tricks I have played you in this room, and you were always so good-natured, even when one of my seat-crackers set your best gown on fire, and quite spoiled it; do you remember it? I do think you were nearly angry then, and quite enough to make you; and papa made me save up my money to buy you a new dress. ”

“ Ellis went down-stairs. Better thoughts were in her mind, and she was inwardly resolving to act towards her husband in a different spirit from that just manifested. On entering the nursery, where she had left him, she was not a little disappointed to find that he was not there.
"It isn't possible that he has gone out!" was her instant mental ejaculation; and she passed quickly into the adjoining chamber to see if he were there. It was empty.
For some time Mrs. Ellis stood in deep abstraction of mind; then, as a sigh heaved her bosom, she moved from the chamber and went down-stairs. ”

“ ELLIS, JOHN (1710?–1776) , naturalist, whom Linnæus termed a 'bright star of natural history' and 'the main support of natural history in England,' was born in Ireland about 1710. This is admitted by Sir J. E. Smith (Linnæan Correspondence, i. 79) , in correction of his previous statement in Rees's 'Encyclopædia' that Ellis was a native of London. Ellis was in business as a merchant in London, with, it is stated, but little success, until in 1764 he obtained the appointment of agent for West Florida, to which was added in 1770 the agency for Dominica. ”

“ Ellis hastened to the house; but her weeping eyes, and disordered state of mind, unfitted her for an immediate encounter with Elinor, and she went straight to her own chamber; where, in severe meditation upon her position, her duties, and her calls for exertion, she "communed with her own heart." ”

“ Though Miss Ellis is gone from us, she has left behind the influence of a life so pure, so noble, and so grand, that we will all be the better for having known her. As my brother once wrote in a friend's album, 'God wisely wills that we may not know the number of our years, and in view of the uncertainty which enshrouds each to-morrow, let us so live that be our lives long or short, the little home-world that surrounds us will be the better for our having lived in it.' Can we not say that these two did not live in vain? ”

“ By this time Ellis’s position as a latinist was well established. He had examined in classical moderations at Oxford in 1861, 1862, and 1872, was elected reader in Latin in 1883, and professor (on the death of Henry Nettleship) in 1893, thereby becoming a fellow of Corpus Christi College. Having been vice-president of Trinity from 1879 to 1893 he was made an honorary fellow in 1894 and allowed to retain his rooms in college. He suffered all his life from bad eyesight, and at the last, when nearly blind and otherwise infirm, he consented unwillingly to the appointment of a deputy ”

“ As I read the many letters from all over the country that have come since Miss Ellis's death, as I realize how the spiritual force that burned in the soul of this small, feeble, seemingly helpless woman reached out afar and touched many lives for their enduring ennoblement, her life, so meagre and cramped in its outward aspect, so vivid and intense within and on paper, seems to me not without a touch of romance. ”