Farrar

“ Only a few of Farrar’s characters are unimportant historically, while the mere names of the others remind the reader of history. Agrippina, Nero, Seneca, Burrus, Pomponia, Acte, Poppæa, Tigellinus, St. John, and St. Paul are all important historical [58] figures. Farrar relates with accurate historical detail all the necessary facts concerning them; but he really brings them out of the realm of mere history, and makes them stand before one as real men and women like ourselves.
Where Farrar particularly excels is in his portrayal of the development of character ”

“ Both Farrar and I were surprised to see Miss Trevor come out; she hooked back the cabin doors and surveyed the prostrate forms with amusement.
We asked her about those inside.
“Mrs. Cooke has really been very ill,” she said, “and Miss Thorn is doing all she can for her. My father and I were more fortunate. But you will both catch your deaths,” she exclaimed, noticing our condition. “Tell me where I can find your coats.”
I suppose it is natural for a man to enjoy being looked after in this way; it was certainly a new sensation to Farrar and myself. ”

“ On leaving the university Farrar became an assistant-master under G. E. L. Cotton at Marlborough College. In November 1855 he was appointed an assistant-master at Harrow, where he remained for fifteen years. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1864, university preacher in 1868, honorary chaplain to the queen in 1869 and Hulsean lecturer in 1870. In 1871 he was appointed headmaster of Marlborough College, and in the following year he became chaplain-in-ordinary to the queen. In 1876 he was appointed canon of Westminster and rector of St Margaret’s, Westminster. ”

“ Miss Farrar is a handsome, gifted, and very earnest young girl, and if she has common sense as well as native talent, she will say that little nightly prayer, turn a deaf ear to the adulation of foolish friends, and attend strictly to practicing her scales. ”

“ The gossip was the natural result of Mr. Cooke's large properties in the vicinity. It has never been my habit, however, to press a friend on such matters, and I could easily understand and respect Farrar's reluctance to talk of one from whom he received an income.
I had occasion, in the May of that year, to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return, much to my surprise, I found Farrar awaiting me in the railroad station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, stopped to buy a newspaper, and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. ”

“ I'll pay it! And I'll make such a country-place out of this as was never seen west of New York state, and call it Mohair, after my old trotter. I'll put a palace on that clearing, with the stables just over the knoll. They'll beat the Germantown stables a whole lap. And that strip of level,” he continued, pointing to a thinly timbered bit, “will hold a mile track nicely.”
Farrar and I gasped: it was as if we had tumbled into the Washita.
“It will take money, Mr. Cooke,” said Farrar, “and you haven't won the suit yet.” ”

“ Mohair was finished and ready for occupation in July, two years after the suit. I drove out one day before Mr. Cooke's arrival to look it over. The grounds, where Farrar had had matters pretty much his own way, to my mind rivalled the best private parks in the East. The stables were filled with a score or so of Mr. Cooke's best horses, brought hither in his private cars, and the trotters were exercising on the track. The middle of June found Farrar and myself at the Asquith Inn. It was Farrar's custom to go to Asquith in the summer, being near the forest properties in his charge ”

“ I said. "Better go to Chicago and get Parks. He's an expert in that sort of thing." I am afraid my expostulation was weak.
"I merely spoke of you," replied Farrar, coolly,—"and he has gone around to your office. He knows about Parks, and if he wants him he'll probably take him. It all depends upon how you strike Cooke whether you get the case or not. I have never told you about him," he added with some hesitation; "he's a trifle queer, but a good fellow at the bottom. I should hate to see him lose his land."
"How is the railroad mixed up in it?" ”

“ Mrs. George Farrar had come from Johannesburg, and together we went to see our husbands. Our visit was limited to five minutes. We found the four men haggard, but apparently cheerful. The condemned cell had an earthen floor. It had been newly whitewashed and reeked of antiseptics. Four canvas stretchers, a tin pail filled with water, and a dipper, furnished it. A negro murderer had been its last occupant. I sat on one of the canvas cots with an arm around my husband and holding Colonel Rhodes' hand. Mrs. Farrar was sitting on the opposite cot, locked in her husband's embrace. ”

“ FARRAR, JOHN (1802–1884) , president of the Wesleyan methodist conference, third and youngest son of the Rev. John Farrar, Wesleyan minister, who died in 1837, was born at Alnwick, Northumberland, 29 July 1802. On the opening of Woodhouse Grove school, Yorkshire, for the education of the sons of ministers, on 12 Jan. 1812 he became one of the first pupils. On leaving school he was employed as a teacher in an academy conducted by Mr. Green at Cottingham, near Hull. In August 1822 he entered the Wesleyan ministry, and spent his four years of probation as second-master in Woodhouse Grove school. ”

“ The sun was just preparing to set, and the west was gorgeous with red and gold.
“We shan’t see the line on the waters this evening,” said Eric; “there’s too much of a breeze. But look, what a glorious sunset!”
“It is indeed,” said Russell; “it reminds me of what Rose said the other day; we were standing on the top of Brada, leaning against a heap of stones to keep off the north-easter, and Rose suddenly exclaimed, ‘Look, Edwin, how that crimson sunset burns itself away like a thought of death, judgment, and eternity, all in one!’ I wonder what he meant?” ”

“ He speaks English after a fashion; but he'd give himself away before he opened his mouth."
"Then one may take it for granted that von Loringhoven's companion at dinner was not his unter-leutnant," decided Farrar. "I wonder if the fellow who tried to blow up Poldene Bridge had a hand in that evening's festivities?"
"You're a rum one for fantastic theories, Slogger," protested Holcombe.
"P'r'aps;" admitted Farrar; "but strange things happen in the war, you know."
CHAPTER XIV A CHANCE SHOT
"WHAT are you going to do with yourself, old man?" ”

“ Russell smiled and shook his head. “No, Eric, I shall die. There stop, dear fellow, don’t cry,” said he, raising his hands quietly to Eric’s face; “isn’t it better for me so? I own it seemed sad at first to leave this bright world and the sea—yes, even that cruel sea,” he continued, smiling; “and to leave Roslyn, and Upton, and Monty, and, above all, to leave you, Eric, whom I love best in all the world. Yes, remember, I’ve no home, Eric, and no prospects. ”

“ Once more, and again, the rope rose and fell, and under its marks the blood first dribbled, and then streamed from the white and tender skin.
But Eric felt no more; that scream had been the last effort of nature; his head had dropped on his bosom, and though his limbs still seemed to creep at the unnatural infliction, he had fainted away.
“Stop, master, stop, if you don’t want to kill the boy outright,” said Roberts, one of the crew, stepping forward, while the hot flush of indignation burned through his tanned and weather-beaten cheek. ”

“ The little party at Fairholm retired early, and Eric was soon fast asleep with his arm round his new-found brother’s neck.
Quiet steps entered the chamber, and noiselessly the father and mother sat down by the bedside of their children. Earth could have shown no scene more perfect in its beauty than that which met their eyes. ”

“ Once or twice he prepared to spring, and stopped from fear at the critical instant. In truth, the leap was now most formidable; to clear it was hopeless; and the fury of the rock-tormented waves rendered the prospect of a swim on the other side terrible to contemplate. Once in the grasp of one of those billows, even a strong man must have been carried out of the narrow channel, and hurled against the towering sweep of rocks which lay beyond it.
"Oh Edwin, Edwin--dear Edwin--do jump," cried Eric with passionate excitement. "We will rush in for you." ”

“ But certain it is, that to bear the undeserved malignity of the evil-minded, to hear unmoved the sneers of the proud and the calumnies of the base, is one of the hardest lessons in life. And to Eric this opposition was peculiarly painful; he was utterly unprepared for it. In his bright joyous life at Fairholm, in the little he saw of the boys at the Latin-school, he had met with nothing but kindness and caresses, and the generous nobleness of his character had seemed to claim them as a natural element. ”

“ Rose's cheek; he took two strides to Eric, and laid the cane sharply once across his back.
Eric was not quite himself, or he would not have acted as he had done. His potations, though not deep, had, with the exciting events of the evening, made his head giddy, and the stroke of the cane, which he had not felt now for two years, roused him to madness. He bounded up, sprang towards Mr. Rose, and almost before he knew what he was about, had wrenched the cane out of his hands, twisted it violently in the middle until it broke, and flung one of the pieces furiously into the fire. ”

“ The childlike, holy, reverent voice ceased, and Eric rose. One long brotherly kiss he printed on Russell’s forehead, and, full of sorrowful forebodings, bade him good-night.
He asked Dr Underhay whether his fears were correct. “Yes,” he said, “he may die at any time; he must die soon. It is even best that he should; besides the loss of a limb, that blow on the head would certainly affect the brain and the intellect if he lived.”
Eric shuddered—a long cold shudder.
The holidays drew on; for Russell’s sake, and at his earnest wish, Eric had worked harder than he ever did before. ”

“ She had at once the air of good fellowship and the dignity of a woman, and she seemed to understand Farrar and me perfectly. Not once did she take us over our heads, though she might have done so with ease, and we knew this and were thankful. We began to tell her about Mohair and the cotillon, and of our point of observation from the Florentine galleried porch, and she insisted she would join us there. By the time we reached the house we were thanking our stars she had come. Mrs. Cooke came out under the port-cochere to welcome her. ”

“ A most bright and joyous evening they passed, for they were in the highest spirits; and when the master bade them "good night," he kindly detained Eric, and said to him, "Keep an innocent heart, my boy, and you need never fear trouble. Only think if you had been guilty, and were now in Barker's place!"
"O, I couldn't be guilty, sir," said Eric, gaily.
"Not of such a fault, perhaps. But," he added solemnly, "there are many kinds of temptation, Eric many kinds. And they are easy to fall into. You will find it no light battle to resist them." ”

“ His words grew slow and difficult. “God bless you, dear fellows; God bless you, dear Eric; I am going—to God.”
He sighed very gently; there was a slight sound in his throat, and he was dead. The gentle, holy, pure spirit of Edwin Russell had passed into the presence of its Saviour and its God. O happy and blameless boy, no fairer soul has ever stood in the light of the rainbow-circled throne.
A terrible scene of boyish anguish followed, as they bent over the lifeless brow. But quietly, calmly, Mr Rose checked them, and they knelt down with streaming eyes while he prayed. ”

“ Thou hast sold thyself to work evil before me, and I will requite it and extinguish thee before me. Surely the Lord saw yesternight the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons. [762] Thy dynasty shall be cut off to the last man, like that of Jeroboam, like that of Baasha. Where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs shall lick thine. The harlots shall wash themselves in the water which thy blood has stained. Him that dieth of thee in the city the dogs shall eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the vultures rend, and the dogs shall eat Jezebel also in the moat of Jezreel. ”

“ Very well, Sir, you don't know how to use a study; you shall be deprived of it till the end of term.'"
"Did he really, Horace?" said Eric. "And it's all my doing that you've got into the scrape. Do forgive me."
"Bosh! My dear fellow," said Upton, "it's twice as much my fault as yours; and, after all, it was only a bit of fun. It's rather a bore losing the study, certainly; but never mind, we shall see all the more of each other. Good night; I must be off."
Next morning, prayers were no sooner over than Dr. Rowlands said to the boys, "Stop! I have a word to say to you." ”

“ It was the first time he had touched one since the day at the Stack. The remembrance made him gloomy and silent. "Tempora mutantur," thought he, "nos et mutamur in illis."
"Why, how glum you are," said Wildney, patting him on the head.
"O no!" said Eric, shaking off unpleasant memories. "Look," he continued, pointing out of the window to change the subject, "what a glorious night it is! Nothing but stars, stars, stars."
"Yes," said Duncan, yawning; "this smoking makes one very thirsty. I wish I'd some beer."
"Well, why shouldn't we get some?" said Wildney "it would he very jolly." ”