Frampton

“ Mr. Willis Joyner wanted to see him about “that affair of Frampton’s,” Frampton being a wealthy commoner who was going to marry a rich baron’s sister, and the “affair” being one of very complicated marriage-settlements.
Some lively talk from the said Mr. Willis Joyner of the one part, and some quiet listening from the said Mr. Frank Amberley of the other part, resulted in the agreement that the younger gentleman should repair at once to Brompton, to have an interview with somebody concerned on some knotty and disputed point. ”

“ Joyce could not see Lady Caroline Mansergh, but he heard her voice coming from a recess on the far-side of the fireplace, and mingled with its bright, ringing Irish accent came the deep, growling bass of Captain Frampton, adjutant of the depôt battalion, and a noted amateur singer. The two gentlemen chatting with Lord Hetherington on the rug were magnates of the neighbourhood, representatives of old county families. ”

“ We may trust a woman to take care of that, though, eh, Frank? Umph!”
“Really, sir, your kindness quite overpowers me; we have no possible claim upon your liberality.”
“Yes, you have, boy—yes, you have,” replied Mr. Frampton, “the strongest claim that can be; you have [405] saved me from falling a victim to the worst disease a man can suffer under—you have saved me from becoming a cold-hearted, soured misanthrope; you have given me something to love, some pure unselfish interest in life. ”

“ Ronald’s face was a study. “Ridden in it? actually ridden in that coach? And did you, Sir, did you see the devil?” he continued anxiously. “Frampton says he always drives it.”
“Not exactly, Ronald. And, by the way, my lad, I wouldn’t, if I were you, introduce his name quite so familiarly into your conversation. Frampton must be cautioned, Fred, as to what he tells the boy.”
“Well, he didn’t exactly say that, Sir,” continued Ronald, willing to justify his friend. “He called him old Nick.”
“That’s a trifle better. ”

“ For that one fractional moment every actor is motionless: Huey Long, with John Fournet at his left elbow and Murphy Roden just behind his right shoulder; Chick Frampton in the very act of stepping into the corridor from the double doors of the governor’s anteroom; Elliott Coleman down the hall in the direction of the House, near the door of the small private elevator reserved for the governor’s use; and among three or four individuals standing in the marble-paneled niche recessed into the wall opposite the double doors where Frampton is standing, a slim figure in a white suit. ”

“ Frampton in the midst of them, carried in triumph on the shoulders of Lawless and another man, and waving a list in one hand, and the broad-brimmed hat in the other.
“Bravo, Fairlegh! all right, old fellow! never say die! ”

“ Walter Joyce found himself gazing at her in an odd indescribable way. He had never seen anything like her, never realised such a combination of beauty, set off by the advantages of dress and surroundings. Her voice too, so bright and clear, and ringing, and her manner to him—to him? Was it not to him that she had really addressed these words of advice, although they were surely said in apparent reply to Captain Frampton's comments? If that were so, it was indeed kind of Lady Caroline, true, noble-hearted kindness; he must write and tell Marian of it. ”

“ Courtlys!" said Lady Clydesdale, severely.
"Widows, who only think of ensnaring men!" cried Miss Lobb.
"Come, my dear," said the merry little Pie, "you and I do just the same, all the time, only we don't succeed as well."
There was some natural laughter at this, but Mrs. Reid could not encourage levity on so grave a subject.
"At her time of life," she said, "still to court the society of the young and giddy—to dance and flirt as she does! Mrs. Frampton, I trust you understand that is not the stamp of woman we approve of."
"Really? Well, it is very difficult to please every one. ”

“ Frampton sharpened her pencil, and attacked the scene with characteristic vigor. She was not going to be beaten by the convolutions of a few trees—and those American trees, too. Mordy smoked his pipe in silence, and fell asleep. Grace rose, and wandered down among the rocks.
Just after this another carriage drew up a little distance off, from which a man alighted. If not an Englishman, he was very like one. In age he appeared to be near forty; strong, somewhat broad, and not very tall. ”

“ We have to erect other works, and it is too great an undertaking for one man, alone. Of course I shall retain a very large interest in, and the chief management of, the company, but I can't work it all by myself."
"Humph!" said Mrs. Frampton, reflectively. "I suppose you want to get away occasionally, and amuse yourself in New York, like other young men of your age?"
"Well, no; I do go away, now and again, when business takes me to New York or Washington, but I don't stay much longer than I can help. ”

“ Coventry, in a despatch dated March 1675, mentions a horse-racing match ‘wherein Mr. Frampton, a gentleman of some 120l. rent, is engaged 900l. deep.’ He adds: ‘I hope the world will see we have men who dare venture as well as M. de Turenne.’ Frampton won his money, and in the racing records of the time his name appears far more frequently as a winner than a loser, the amounts at stake being considerably greater than was usual. In April 1676, for example, he had two matches in the same week, the one at Newmarket and the other at Salisbury, each for 1,000l. ”

“ Frampton welcomed his niece, the daughter of his childhood's friend, his fondly remembered sister.
“Umph! eh! so you've let that rascal Cumberland slip through your fingers, Master Frank? Umph! stupid boy, stupid. I wanted to have him hanged.”
“I am afraid, sir, the law would scarcely have sanctioned such a proceeding.”
“Umph! why not, why not? He richly deserved it, the scoundrel—daring to run off with my niece. Dear child! she's as like her poor-umph—umph! the Elliots were always reckoned a handsome race. What are you laughing at, you conceited puppy? ”

“ Laurence Frampton had been scholarly, humorous, keen-witted, dry-tongued, and a professor of Greek. Emily Frampton was not; which is sufficient description of her for the moment.
'She and her two girls (her own, you know; she was a widow even before she married Laurence) live at Clapton. Violette, Spring Hill, Upper Clapton, N. They're poor; they want some nice person to board with them. She's very kind; you'd be taken care of.' Mrs. Orme puckered her wide, white forehead and looked at Alix as if she were a Belgian with a case-paper. ”

“ I had merely hinted that my patients, or the most of them, were of good social position, and had offered him board and lodging, with a salary of forty pounds, rising five pounds annually.
"And by Heavens!" he exclaimed, spinning round on his heel at a sound of hasty footsteps crossing the square, "here comes fresh confirmation! A black manservant—and, as I live, in a gold-laced hat! Of such things I have read in books, but how much livelier, Dr. Frampton, is the ocular appeal of reality!"
It was, to be sure, Major Dignum's black valet Gumbo, and with a note for me. ”

“ Mordaunt Ballinger's luncheons at the Lawyers' Club, and his introductions to various magnates of the money-market, had led to his mind being tossed and buffeted on a sea of railroads, and mines, and joint-stock companies, until it had settled—as much from exhaustion, perhaps, as anything—on "real estate" in one of the rapidly rising cities of the Far West. This seemed as safe an investment, to bring in a large return for his money, as he could find. He felt sure Mrs. Frampton would think so. ”

“ At Largs, sir, I have been reverting to the ancestral garb."
"You'll wear no such thing about the Hotwells," I interposed.
"Indeed, I was not thinking it likely. My purpose was to procure another pair on my arrival—aye, and I would do so before breaking fast, had not circumstances which I will not detain you by relating put this for the moment out of the question. Do not mistake me, Dr. Frampton. In public I will thole these dreadful articles, though it cost me my skin; but in private, sir, if as a favour you will allow me—if, as a bachelor yourself, you will take it sans gêne. ”

“ Frampton made his appearance, attired as usual in the well-remembered blue coat, with brass buttons, drab shorts, and gaiters, with the broad-brimmed hat, lined with green, fixed sturdily on his head, as if it was not made to take off at any time.
[243] "Umph! found my way up, you see! Fellow you call the gyp wanted to make me believe you were out—thought I looked too like a governor to be let in, I suppose; but it wouldn't do, sir; old birds are not to be caught with chaff ”

“ Frampton. “You shan't do it, Frank.”
“With his fate before me, I will be careful, sir,” replied I; “but think of Clara in the power of that villain! Your niece must be rescued at all hazards; still, even for her sake, I will be cautious.—Is that horse ready?”
“If you please, sir,” said one of the postilions, a quick, intelligent lad, who, while we were speaking, had removed the saddle from the dead mare to the back of the off leader, “if you will take me with you, I can show you how to stop them.” ”

“ And Mr Frampton, there being nothing more to say on this subject, went off to see what his next pleasant little surprise should be. Bolsover, meanwhile, snarled over the matter in ill-tempered conclaves in the play-ground.
“It’s simple humbug,” said Farfield, one of the Sixth. “I defy him to make me play if I don’t choose.”
“I shall stand with my hands in my pockets, and not move an inch,” said another.
“I mean to sit down on the grass and have a nap,” said a third.
“All very well,” said a youngster, called Forrester; “if you can get all the other fellows to do the same. ”

“ This reminded Grace of a saying of Mr. Laffan's, "You must make the man before you can make the statue."
Mordaunt dined out each night, and was interested in meeting several of the shrewd business men who had amassed huge fortunes. He was almost tempted to invest in grain, live-stock, or lumber, but Mrs. Frampton, with a hand of iron, restrained him.
"Are you going to spend your life here?" she asked. "These men do, and know what they are about. From their cradle they have heard nothing but money talked of. They are born 'cute men of business. ”

“ Frampton, evidently taken aback by this appeal to his kindly feeling. “But, you see,” he added, turning to Sir John, “the thing is foolish altogether, they are not at all suited to each other; and instead of being happy, as they fancy, they'll make each other miserable: the boy's a very good boy in his way, kind-hearted and all that, but truth is truth, and he's no more fit to marry Fanny Fairlegh than I am.”
“Sorry I can't agree with you, Mr. Frampton,” replied Sir John Oaklands, drawing himself up stiffly ”

“ He listened in gloomy silence to the arrangements, as they were agreed upon, for the encounter with Travis. He knew enough of that sort of fighting to see that they were judiciously made; but for this he did not care. All plans are necessarily slow and tedious to the mood that craves for vengeance; and Frampton, satisfied with the promise which they conveyed to his mind of the revenge which he desired, offered no suggestion, nor interfered in the slightest degree with any of their plans. ”

“ That would not have suited Mordaunt at all. But there was "real estate" in some of the rising cities, silver mines, shares in canned-meat companies—railways, tramways, waterworks; surely in some of these he might find a good investment that would bring him in eight or ten per cent. Mrs. Frampton's present terror was that her nephew would be induced by some designing person to risk considerable sums in that land of reckless speculation. When he proposed, therefore, that she and Grace should accompany him on a visit to the United States, she jumped at the suggestion. ”

“ Frampton, “and I don't like to seem unkind. They say marriages are made in heaven, so I suppose it must be all right. Here's the health of the happy couple, Mr. Lawless and Miss Fairlegh!”
It was now Lawless's turn to look out of countenance, and for a moment he did appear thoroughly disconcerted, more especially as it was next to impossible to repress a smile, and Freddy Coleman grinned outright; quickly recovering himself, however, he resumed, “Laugh away, Freddy, laugh away, it only serves me right for playing such a trick. I've been deceiving you, Mr. Frampton ”

“ Frampton,” replied I, turning away to hide an irrepressible smile, “if it is in consequence of what I have told you that you are angry with poor Frank.”
“Angry, sir, angry”—was the answer—“I'm never angry—there's nothing worth being angry about in this world. Do you take snuff, sir? I've some that came from—Umph! eh!” he continued, fumbling in all his pockets—“hope I haven't lost my box—given me by the Begum of Cuddleakee—splendid woman—only complexion too strong of the tawny—Umph! left it in the other room, I suppose—back in a moment, sir—Umph! umph!” ”

“ But Singleton was too good a soldier, and too familiar with the ground, to keep his men in mass in a wild flight through woods becoming denser at every step.
When they had reached a knoll at some little distance beyond the place where his horses had been fastened, he addressed his troop as follows: "We must break here, my men. Each man will take his own path, and we will all scatter as far apart as possible. Make your way, all of you, for the swamp, however, where in a couple of hours you may all be safe.—Lance Frampton, you will ride with me." ”