Gage

“ With more flourishes he produced a pocket-book almost entirely covered with an immense gold coronet and cypher, extracted therefrom a card of unusual dimensions, and with a deep bow presented it to Gage, who drew back into the light, glanced at it, and showed it with a wink to Peckover; that worthy greeting the information it conveyed with a low whistle of amusement.
"Your friend——?" said the stranger with a low bow to Peckover.
"Mr. Gage."
"Ah? I have heard of him too. Mr. Gage, I have the honour." And he bowed again. ”

“ Gage. "I never saw any thing so wretched as my father's management of his stables. He never bought a horse that he was not palpably cheated; and, if he chanced to buy a good one, the animal would be ruined, with that lame old sailor at the head of affairs."
"Don't say one word against Captain Gage," exclaimed Harriet. "Whatever he does is sure to be better than any body else. I do not mean wiser, Mr. Gage, but better. Perhaps no one else would choose to have a lame sailor with one eye to superintend his [Pg 58] stables. It shows he has more kindness than his neighbours." ”

“ Without unnecessary loss of time Gage allowed himself to be extricated from his unbecoming attitude and set on his feet.
"Awkward position to adopt," remarked his rescuer dryly. "Lucky thing I happened to be on hand."
"I'm awfully obliged to you," Gage said, gratefully, feeling that his good time had hung in the balance during those exciting moments. "Shouldn't wonder if you've saved my life."
He surveyed his preserver inquiringly to gather what manner of man he was. A shabby, hungry-looking fellow, who ought to have been more respectable than his clothes proclaimed. ”

“ Jud grinned.
[151] “Who’s to take his place?” asked Aunt Martha.
“Don’t know yet. But won’t it be fine to see old Gage go? He’s caused enough trouble for half a dozen men.”
The news proved to be true enough. On the tenth of October, General Gage sailed for England, never to return. Lord Howe, who had commanded the British in the assault at Charlestown, took Gage’s place. He was popular with the troops, but with the suffering townsfolk he was a poor substitute for the unpopular Gage. ”

“ Peckover threw a distasteful glance at the weed-grown water, and then his eye roved from the haggling fanner and butcher to the chattering pair of villagers. "Almost too much of an audience," he objected, with a view to postponing his immersion as long as possible.
"Rats! Can't be too many for our purpose," Gage returned impatiently. "We've got to make a business of it, if it's to do any good. Over you go. The water won't be any damper for you than it will be for me." ”

“ Purvis and Gage accordingly directed dubious glances at the bobbing head of the unhappy Peckover.
"If your lordship would swim out with the oar to the gentleman," Purvis suggested, "I can pull you both in."
"I dare say," returned Gage with chattering teeth. "I'm not going back, the fun doesn't pay for the trouble. You wade out as far as you can and throw the oar to him, and let your friend hold the rope. Hi!" he called, to the complacent Mr. Fanning, "come here and catch hold. ”

“ Willard, recognizing his brother-inlaw, said, "That is Colonel Prescott." "Will he fight?" inquired Gage. "Yes, sir," replied Willard; "he is an old soldier, and will fight as long as a drop of blood remains in his veins." "The works must be carried immediately," responded Gage, as he turned upon his heel to give orders.—
**** This is copied from an old Dutch work, preserved in the library of the New York Historical Society, containing pictures of the flags of all nations. In the original, a divided sphere, representing the earth, is in the quarter where I have placed the pine-tree. ”

“ GAGE, GEORGE (fl. 1614–1640) , catholic political agent, born after 1582, seems to have been son of John Gage of Haling, Surrey, and brother of Sir Henry Gage [q. v.] , to whom he erected a monument (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, viii. 256–7; Cal. Clarendon Papers, i. 166, 169) . ”

“ It seems to me that you of all men should keep off the grass.”
Mr. Gage did not underrate his own prescience, and he knew that Saul Hartz did not underrate it either. But as the editor of the Planet uttered these significant words, he had the look of a man who anticipates an explosion. ”

“ I dare say his room is not half the size of my uncle's kennel: there he sits with all his intimate friends, smoking till the place is like a lime kiln; if I cannot join them, what is to become of me? Mr. Gage, have you a cigar about you? I will lose no time in learning the art again." [Pg 166]
Mr. Gage not noticing the last part of the speech, said "he did not suppose it to be a very likely thing that he should permit his wife to live in a barrack."
"Ah!" said Harriet shaking her head, "I have a conviction, a presentiment, that I shall live in the little lime-kiln we were speaking of. ”

“ Gage suggested, nudging his friend, "Rather untidy, but we are going to make them trim directly."
"Oh, I should dearly love to see them as they are," the wily old peeress assured him. "Untidiness lends itself to romance, does it not?"
"I dare say it does," responded Gage, "and gets interest out of it."
Lady Ormstork was too busy manoeuvring to get hold of Peckover to notice the joke. Her game was to throw the new Lord Quorn and the fair Ulrica together with ultimate profit to herself. ”

“ They were invited to the breakfast, very reluctantly, on the part of Harriet; who superintended everything, and who hated them because they happened to have five very plain children.
"Don't tell me, Uncle Gage, that it is not their fault!" she exclaimed, when Captain Gage ventured to remonstrate with her for her dislike. "Good people, always have handsome children. Your children were all handsome!"
Captain Gage was silenced by this logical inference, "his children were good looking, he must confess." ”

“ Then, with a sweeping bow, he turned to the door.
"Stop!" cried Gage in a voice resonant with fear. "You are all making a mistake. I am not Lord Quorn!"
CHAPTER XXXV
At the startling declaration the duke swung round and eyed Gage with a glance that seemed capable of penetrating an inch board. Lady Ormstork, surprised for a moment out of her transcendent self-possession, stared aghast at the object of her designs; Ulrica looked half astonished and half relieved; Peckover's mien was one of abject discomfiture; while Quorn's showed grim expectation. ”

“ Gage. "He has such a taste for music!"
"Who has, my dear?" asked Captain Gage.
"Lord Raymond, uncle."
"Has he, indeed?—I never knew that before," said Captain Gage. "Why he has [Pg 260] never any music at his house, unless there is a very large party."
"He has no wife, you know, Uncle Gage, and he cannot play the piano himself."
"He must marry a good musician, then," said Captain Gage. "I don't know anything that more contributes to the cheerfulness of a family circle than a little good music."
"So Lord Raymond seems to think," said Mr. Gage, in a low voice to Harriet. ”

“ After tea, Hubert Gage asked his sister for some music.
[Pg 65]
"Will you have the harp?" said Miss Gage ringing the bell, "I will just give my father his book, and then play what you like. My harp, Davis."
"Why don't you keep it down here?" asked her brother.
"Ah! you know nothing of female politics," said Miss Gage, smiling; "the young ladies like me a great deal better for keeping my harp, and some other things in the background."
"But the young gentlemen don't;" said Hubert, as he stood leaning on the harp. ”

“ Gage," said Harriet, "your remarks are very original; unexpected, at least. I believe, for a long time we have had as little confidential communication as any two persons in the world. People were at liberty to conjecture what they pleased [Pg 157] from Lord Raymond's intimacy with my family."
"People!" echoed Mr. Gage, highly offended at being thus classed with the multitude.
"Men, women and children!" said Harriet, very contentedly, and turning to the window ledge, she began to give Donald his dinner. ”

“ Her hair was frizzed out round her head like some of Van Dyck's early pictures, and the striped camellias put in just behind the ear—she seemed determined to look her best this last evening.
George Gage stared directly. He had a great fancy for seeing women in fine clothes; and clothes that looked as if they cost a [Pg 255] great deal of money. He took her into dinner, and tried to command his temper, and keep up a conversation with her.
"You drove out after luncheon, did you not?"
"Yes. Did not you hear Uncle Gage and me planning a secret expedition together?" ”

“ The interest which the execution of the railroad across the Isthmus of Panama excites, induces me to transmit you the following extract from Gage's New Survey of the West Indies, 8vo., London, 1699.
A few lines relative to the author, of whom but little is known, may be also of use. He was the son of John Gage, of Haling; and his brother was Sir Henry Gage, governor of Oxford, killed at the battle at Culham Bridge, Jan. 11, 1644. His family were of the Roman Catholic faith; and he was sent by his father in 1612 into Spain, to study under the Jesuits, in the hope he would join that society ”

“ It is evident from his own narrative that wealth and pleasure supplied him with stronger motives than religious zeal. His father, who would rather have seen him a scullion in a jesuit college than general of the whole Dominican order, threatened to disinherit him, and to stir up the jesuits against him if he again set foot in England. The king had forbidden any Englishman to go to the Indies, and Gage was smuggled on board the fleet in an empty biscuit barrel. ”

“ Gage looked round. On the right the farmer and the butcher, on the left the two women had come down to the margin of the lake and were watching the proceedings in a silence which betokened some doubt in their minds as to how they ought to take it.
"Will you get under water and let me come to the rescue?" Gage demanded with exasperation.
"Not good enough," Peckover replied, and thereupon he began a spirited effort to climb back into the punt.
"Fool!" Gage shut his mouth with a snap, and took a vicious dive under the punt as the shortest cut to his objective. ”

“ P. Gage, a perfectly healthy, strong and active young man, twenty-five years of age, nervobilious temperament, five feet six inches in height, average weight one hundred and fifty pounds, possessing an iron will as well as an iron frame; muscular system unusually well developed–having had scarcely a day’s illness from his childhood to the date of this injury. ”

“ They'll think you mad. Over, you fool!"
Thus adjured, Peckover took the plunge, if plunge it can be called. Dropping the whirling rod on the placid surface of the lake, he suddenly stooped, nervously clutched the gunwale of the punt and, assisted surreptitiously in the manoeuvre by Gage's left foot, tamely rolled over the side. His despairing shout, which had been agreed upon, was smothered by the shock of the cold water and the utterer's general preoccupation. ”

“ Miss Gage finally consented on condition that she could spend the summer with her folks on Long Island. There's quite a family of them, and they seem to care a good deal for each other. Mrs. Van Dorn wants someone to run up and down for her, read to her, fan her sometimes and go out driving with her. She doesn't get up until after eight, and has coffee, fruit, and rolls brought up to her room. And she's a great hand for flowers—her vases must be washed out and filled every day. Then she comes down on the porch, wants the paper read to her and likes to talk over things. ”

“ There were many head-shakings among the village wiseacres regarding the minister's interest in John Gage. It was generally agreed that while the preacher was well meaning enough, his knowledge of human nature was not very keen. The village constable knew John so well that he felt able to speak authoritatively on the matter. "'Tain't no use, young man," he said to the preacher. "We wus talking about him the other day in Cyrus Haag's blacksmith shop, and every man says the same as I do. He's just a-bleeding you, that's all. Five years' hard labour is what he needs ”

“ She cared less about the matter than if an accident had happened to her spaniel, and was turning over in her mind, the trimming she would have to her next bonnet, while she went through the proper exclamations during her uncle's narrative.
[Pg 148]
About this time some races were held, at which all the neighbourhood were to attend. There was a ball in the evening, and Captain Gage desired to fill his house with company, that they might go in a party to the race and ball. Miss Gage asked Margaret to stay with her during these festivities, and her father sent an invitation to Mrs. ”

“ The young husband, with an "Ah wives are terrible!" smoothed it over, and their visit would have failed of further excuse had not at this instant a movement at the other end of the room suddenly engaged them. The evening had so nearly closed in, though Gedge, in the course of their talk, had lighted the lamp nearest them, that they had not distinguished, in connexion with the opening of the door of communication to the warden's lodge, the appearance of another person, an eager woman who in her impatience had barely paused before advancing. ”

“ Gager replied, "Although the fruits of our labours do not immediately appear, we ought not to be discouraged. We may labour, and other men may enter into our labours. The husbandman, after he hath sowed his seed, waiteth patiently until it hath received the former and latter rains; and, as the days of miracles are past, we cannot expect men to act now under the immediate direction of the Saviour as they then did." ”