Grafton

“ Grafton unfolded his resolve to Worthing, over the dinner table, when the girls and Miss Waterhouse had left them to their cigars.
"I'm going to get rid of Mercer," he said. "The fellow has become an infernal nuisance, and I'm tired of him."
Worthing stared at him, and laughed. "You can't do it," he said. "I thought you knew better than that. You're the patron of the living, and you appoint a man when it becomes vacant. But once appointed he sticks there till he chooses to go. You've nothing more to do with it than anybody else." ”

“ Grafton came out of the office, still with the dark look on his face, which was usually so smiling and contented. It cleared for a moment as he greeted Worthing, who had a word or two to say to him about estate matters. Suddenly Grafton said: "I should like to talk to you about something. Give me some lunch, will you? We shall be back about one. Send young Bradby down to us. I'll eat what's prepared for him."
When he had mounted again he said to Caroline, "I'm going to talk it over with Worthing. One wants [Pg 190] a man's opinion on these matters, and his is sound enough." ”

“ It is a peculiarity of Grafton that the low swells around it, rolling away towards the mountains, look just alike everywhere. One has to be a resident, and an old-timer at that, to be able to tell one from another. Harley and Sylvia, hand-in-hand, had little thought of such things as these, nor were they anxious to reach Grafton quickly ”

“ As Grafton and Barbara and Young George went in, they saw few there whom they did not know, and among the crowd there were many who could already be counted as friends.
No gathering of this sort could be found in a city, nor in many countries outside England, where the land is loved, and lived on, by those who could centre themselves elsewhere if they chose. To the Graftons, as new-comers, the people gathered here from a radius of some miles were beginning to be known in the actualities of their lives as acquaintances in London never could be known, except those who could be called friends. ”

“ You must forgive an old woman if she intervenes."
She could not long since have passed sixty, and but for her nearly white hair would not have looked older than Grafton himself. He made some deprecatory murmur, and she proceeded.
"I have long wanted René to range himself," she said. "He will make a good husband to a girl whom he loves—I can assure you of that, for I know him very well. He loves your little daughter devotedly, Mr. Grafton. Fortunately, I have seen her for myself, once or twice here in London, though I have never spoken to her. I think she is the sweetest thing. ”

“ Grafton, therefore, must have been a bold man to face the danger. Thus, in 1538, when a new edition of the Bible, commonly called the "Great Bible," afterward published in 1539, was secretly printing in Paris at the instance of Lord Cromwell, under the superintendence of Grafton, Whitchurch, and Coverdale, the French inquisitors of the faith interfered, charging them with heresy, and they were fortunate in making their escape to England. ”

“ Lady Grafton, who had remonstrated with him about his refusal to accept Lassigny as the desired husband for Beatrix, had admitted handsomely that this was a far more satisfactory marriage for her, but was never tired of hearing him say so. She came up to him with a glass of champagne in one hand and a piece of wedding cake in the other.
"Well, my dear George," she said. "Here's the first of them gone. I hope you're as pleased about it as you ought to be. You won't like losing the child, but you couldn't expect to keep her with you always, and she's married just the right sort of man." ”

“ He's chucked the idea of going to Oxford. He says directly he leaves Eton he must begin to make money."
"Well that shows he's in earnest," said Grafton. "I admire a fellow who can make sacrifices for the girl he loves."
The Grafton family went to church. On their way across they met the Vicar and Mrs. Mercer. The little [Pg 352] lady was full of smiles. "I know you must have heard our great news," she said, "for I saw Beatrix coming from Stone Cottage half an hour ago. We are so pleased about it. It's a great thing for dear Mollie, though, of course, we shall hate losing her." ”

“ Grafton pays for it, doesn't he? He makes his [Pg 32] money somewhere else. He bought the estate, but it can't return him much on his capital—certainly not enough to live on in the way you do."
"No, but why should it? We get all the fun of it extra. I suppose you may say Dad pays for that. It returns enough to run itself, though. I suppose you and Uncle Jimmy see to that."
"Oh, yes. It keeps us going, too. And everything is run as it ought to be. All the farms are let, and everybody is contented,—or ought to be. Everybody is getting a living, anyhow, out of the land." ”

“ Why, they dump this chap in here. It isn't as though there weren't plenty of other rooms!"
"Why don't you kick to the doctor?" asked Grafton Hyde.
"Oh, it wouldn't do any good, I suppose," said Joe.
Grafton Hyde sat down and viewed Kenneth with frank curiosity.
"Where are you from?" he demanded.
"Cleveland, Ohio."
"Any relation to John Garwood, the railroad man?"
"Ye-es, some," said Kenneth. Grafton snorted.
"Huh! I dare say! Most everyone tries to claim relationship with a millionaire. Bet you, he doesn't know you're alive!" ”

“ Only Johnny Parnell saw him twist his long hands together in a gesture of inexpressible pain. Johnny scowled fiercely at Grafton, who would have gone on eagerly with his explanation of the engineering problems connected with the opening of the work. Hugh walked to the window, and slowly returned to Grafton His face was deep-lined, but his voice firm. ”

“ She was one of those women who seem to be cut out for motherhood, and to have missed their vocation by not marrying, just as a born artist would have missed his if he had never handled a brush or a pen. Fortunately, such women usually find somebody else's children round whom [Pg 9] to throw their all-embracing tenderness. Miss Waterhouse had found the engaging family of Grafton, and loved them just as if they had been her own. It was probably a good deal owing to her that George Grafton had not made a second marriage. ”

“ Well, I'm not stingy; I'll call it thirty. Now, what do you say?"
"When you get your place back it'll be by some other means than buying it," said Kenneth contemptuously. He turned toward the door. "You haven't got enough money to buy everything, you see; and—"
There was a sharp knock on the door.
"If you say anything about this," whispered Grafton hoarsely, "I'll—I'll—
Come in!"
"Who is here?" asked Mr. Whipple's voice as the door swung open.
"I, sir, and Garwood," answered Grafton.
"Ah! Garwood! And which one of you, may I ask, has been smoking cigarettes?" ”

“ They had represented to him a side of life in which he had not been, and probably never would be, at home. But it was the conventional side of life. In the big, basic things he would not show diffidence. And he would grow into his man's good strength.
He had grown already. He looked the older man straight in the face as he said: "I've done nothing to deserve her yet. But if you'll give her to me I will."
Worthing came to dine that evening. Grafton was to tell him about it when they were alone together after dinner. Miss Waterhouse, only, had been told so far. ”

“ He won't want us not to be friends; and I suppose she will still be living at Surley sometimes."
Both of them wrote. Ella's answers were affectionate, but it seemed to them a little shame-faced. She said very little to them about the man she was going to marry, though it would have been natural for her to expatiate upon him to such intimate friends. Her only reference to Grafton was in her letter to Caroline, in which she said: "I told dear Mr. Grafton before anybody, and he was so sweet about it, and has promised me a very handsome wedding present." ”

“ Grafton told us that he had asked him to recommend him somebody."
"The Bishop can't know what an impossible sort of creature he is," he said. "I am not at all sure that it isn't my duty to tell him. In all my life I've never seen anybody so absolutely unfitted to take charge of a parish. The idea of his having the audacity to tell me that he didn't believe in regimenting people. That was a hit at me and my work, of course. All that I have done here for years past is to be thrown away, and the parish turned into a bear garden, for a young idiot like that to disport himself in." ”

“ And it would be a thousand pities if that nice girl, and her younger sisters, were to get mixed up with a woman like that. I think you should give Mr. Grafton a warning. Wilborough is the nearest big house to Abington, and I suppose it is natural that they should be friendly."
"I shall certainly do that. Mr. Grafton and Sir Alexander can shoot together and all that sort of thing, but it would be distinctly wrong for him to allow young girls like his daughters to be intimate with people like the Manserghs."
"The sons are nice, though. Fortunately Lady Mansergh is not their mother." ”

“ I have never seen a prettier girl than Miss Grafton, and such charming manners, and so nicely dressed. And he is so nice too, and how pretty it is to see father and daughter so fond of one another! Quite an idyll, I call it. Aren't you pleased, Albert dear? I am."
Albert dear was not pleased, as the face he turned upon her showed when she had followed him into his [Pg 45] study. "The way that Worthing takes it upon himself to set aside my arrangements and affect a superiority over me in the place where I should be chief is really beyond all bearing," he said angrily. ”

“ This was exactly the opening that Grafton wanted, but had hardly expected to be given in so obvious a way. [Pg 211]
"Exactly so!" he said, leaning forward a little, with his arm on the table by his side. "You marry and you make love, and the two things don't go together. Well, with us they do go together; and that's why I won't let my daughters marry anybody but Englishmen, if I can help it."
Lassigny looked merely surprised. "But what do you think I meant?" he asked. "I love Beatrix. I love her with the utmost respect. I pay her all the honour I can in asking her to be my wife." ”

“ I guess I mustn't lose sight of you, Aaron Grafton.
"And perhaps Larch isn't so bad a chap as you'd have me believe. Trust a disgruntled lover for saying the worst about the other chap. Yes, I can't afford to take any chances. You may know a bit more about this murder than you're telling me, even considering the latest from my friend Spotty. ”

“ I went to London to visit the Duchess of Grafton, now great with child, a most virtuous and beautiful lady. Dining with her at my Lord Chamberlain's, met my Lord of St. Alban's, now grown so blind, that he could not see to take his meat. He has lived a most easy life, in plenty even abroad, while his Majesty was a sufferer; he has lost immense sums at play, which yet, at about eighty years old, he continues, having one that sits by him to name the spots on the cards. ”

“ Isn't he down? Where is he?"
"He must be—!"
Kenneth paused, his own face paling, and looked fearsomely toward the stairs down which the gray-brown smoke was floating wraithlike. Then his eyes met Grafton's and he read his own horror reflected there.
"Jasper's room is next to Mr. Whipple's," said Grafton hoarsely. "He must have seen something! Jasper, is Mr. Whipple up there now?"
The lad's head nodded weakly. Then he broke again into great dry sobs that shook him from head to foot. Kenneth seized him beneath the shoulders and dragged him a few yards nearer the door. There he put him down. ”

“ You've got them in every village in the land, so that there should be an educated man able to live like a gentleman; and now people like Brill want to put it all back again. It won't do."
"You speak with considerable heat, James," said Grafton.
"Well, I think it's a lot of tommy-rot," said Worthing, "and I've often told Brill so. The people don't want it. The happiest state of things for them is where an old-fashioned Squire is doing his duty, and an old-fashioned parson is doing his duty."
"And an old-fashioned agent is doing his duty," hazarded Barbara. ”

“ Bet you, he doesn't know you're alive!"
"Well," answered Kenneth with some confusion, "maybe not, but—but I think he's related to our family, just the same."
"You do, eh?" responded Grafton sarcastically. "Well, I wouldn't try very hard to claim relationship if I were you. I guess if the honest truth were known there aren't very many fellows who would want to be in John Garwood's shoes, for all his money."
"Why?" asked Kenneth.
"Because he's no good. Look at the way he treated his employees in that last strike! Some of 'em nearly starved to death!" ”

“ It was what Caroline had been trying to get at, and had not been able to. [Pg 195]
"Can't you understand?" asked Grafton, also with more decision in his speech than he had used before. "You don't go abroad much, I know. But I suppose you've read a few French novels."
Worthing looked genuinely puzzled. "I can't say I have," he said. "Jorrocks is more in my line. But what are you driving at?"
"Don't you know how men in France are brought up to look at women? They don't marry like we do, and they don't lead the same lives after they're married. At least men of Lassigny's sort don't." ”

“ The Pembertons have never had the politeness to call on us—which is something to be thankful for, anyhow, though it is, of course, a slight on people in our position, and no doubt meant as such. Of course they will call on the Graftons. They will expect to get something out of them. But I shall warn Grafton to be careful. He won't want his daughters to acquire their stable manners."
"No; that would be a pity. I wish Vera Beckley had been as nice as we thought she was at first. She would have been a nice friend for these girls. ”