Grainger

“ I have watched Grainger all this day, and he has not gone in—at least I have not seen him myself; for I must keep to my fixed rule of not entering that cruel spiders' net, that tigers' den. I asked him this evening. He laughed, and would give me no answer. "Don't expect miracles," he said; "you can't expect a man to reform all at once. ”

“ Grainger died of the fever of the country in 1767. Bishop Percy corroborates Johnson's character of him as a man. He says, 'He was not only a man of genius and learning, but had many excellent virtues, being one of the most generous, friendly, benevolent men I ever knew.'
Grainger in some points reminds us of Dyer. Dyer staked his reputation on 'The Fleece;' but it is his lesser poem, 'Grongar Hill,' which preserves his name; that fine effusion has survived the laboured work. ”

“ The boy made no audible reply, but his grave, earnest face, and the serious look in his eyes as he met his father's, said more plainly than words that he would do his best.
"Dora," went on Mr. Grainger, "as the oldest daughter, must be her mother's right hand."
"And what shall I do, father?" asked Katie.
"Be her help and comfort, dear, also," replied Mr. Grainger; "I am afraid I cannot tell you the special way in which you can each strive to fulfil my trust. But you can all try to lighten her cares by sharing them, and cheer her by rendering loving little services." ”

“ What does your young Palairet do?” Grainger brought the subject firmly back from her digression.
Eppie was sitting in the window-seat, and, leaning her head back, framed in an arabesque of creepers, she now owned, after a little pause, and as if with a weariness of evasion she was willing to let him see as she did: “Nothing, really.”
“Does he care about anything?” Grainger placed himself opposite her, folding his arms with an air of determined inquiry.
And again Eppie owned, “He believes in nothing, so how can he care?”
“Believes in nothing? ”

“ Grainger commenced practising as a physician in the island, and was entrusted by his wife's uncle, Daniel Mathew, with the care of his estates. Want of capital prevented him from becoming, as he wished, a planter himself, and thus indulging in his favourite study of botany. His scanty savings were invested in the purchase of negroes.
During his rides to different parts of the island to visit his patients, Grainger composed a poem in four books on the cultivation of the sugar cane. He sent the manuscript to Percy in June 1762 for his and Shenstone's revision. ”

“ That part of Grainger’s narrative, if the following amazing statement is really the work of Grainger, which deals with events up to the time that he left Mena House—and the world—I have been able to check. The dragoman, Hassan Abd-el-Kebîr, was still practising his profession at Mena House at the time of my visit, and he confirmed the truth of Grainger’s story in regard to the heart of lapis-lazuli, which he had seen, and the meeting with the old woman in the Mûski—of which Grainger had spoken to him. ”

“ Their very titles savour of statement rather than of inspiration. Nobody in search of romance would take up Dr. Grainger's "Sugar Cane," or Dyer's "Fleece," or the Rev. Richard Polwhele's "English Orator." Nobody desiring to be idly amused would read the "Vales of Weaver," or a long didactic poem on "The Influence of Local Attachment." It was not because he felt himself to be a poet that Dr. Grainger wrote the "Sugar Cane" in verse, but because that was the form most acceptable to the public. The ever famous line,
"Now Muse, let's sing of rats!" ”

“ And Gavan was conscious, through it all, that only inhuman heights made possible such crumbling, crashing falls into savagedom; conscious that Grainger could not have known such thoughts. They were as ugly as those of a Saint Anthony. Wholesome manhood would recoil from their debasement. He, too, recoiled, but the debasement was within him, he could not flee from it. The moment of realization, helpless realization, was long. Ultra-civilization stood and watched barbarian hordes swarm over its devastated ruins. ”

“ Grainger was delighted to come. An expedition to Frankfort, he said, was the only thing that kept him up "in this hole." Accordingly we set off. I had some misgivings about taking him; but the reflection occurred that I might be saving him from temptation, and that bringing him back to taste these more innocent joys of life, might touch some old chord. Then really, pet of mine—comic as the notion may seem to you—I appeared to myself to be acting as a sort of special missionary to this place; really as benighted as were the Fee Jee Islanders. ”

“ This last was a rôle in which Gavan seemed extremely incongruous, and Grainger looked his perplexity, murmuring, “Parishioner?”
“Not, I fear, that we can claim him as an altogether orthodox one,” Mr. Best said, smiling tolerantly upon his companion’s probable narrowness. “We ask for the spirit, rather than the letter, nowadays, Mr. Grainger; and Mr. Palairet is, at heart, as good a Christian as any of us, of that I am assured: better than many of us, as far as living the Christian life goes. Christianity, in its essence, is a life. ”

“ Grainger doesn't wear any clothes, or hardly any, when he's at the works is because he's so proud of his skin; he doesn't wear suspenders, but keeps his trousers up with a belt when he's not at the works. ”

“ Grainger."
Alfred Layard shook his head very gravely. "Hetty, I had, I confess to you, some doubts of this man's sanity; I have no longer any doubt. The man is mad!"
"Considering that we are obliged to find attendance, I think he has been very generous to Mrs. Grainger."
"As mad as a hatter," said the brother sadly.
"If, Alfred, I tell you how much to take out of this, will you send him the change, or is the change to remain over until next time?"
"The miserable man is as mad as a March hare." ”

“ It's all jolly fine to tell one to charge along through paddy fields. Grainger was just behind me, and I felt sorry for him, because I kept on going in up to my knees in beautiful, rich, black mud, and knew that he had his eye on me and my second best pair of trousers. ”

“ I will tell you what I know as fact, and Thoyne can supply any embroidery that may be necessary. In the first place, Miss Grainger—that is Robert Grainger’s daughter—and Thoyne were in the hospital at Bristol at the same time. They left within a few days of each other, Thoyne first and the girl a day or two later. That is fact. Then comes a long interval. When next Mary Grainger is seen she is living in Long Burminster with her baby girl. ”

“ The gentleman tried to get it up with his stick, but could not reach it, and he offered a guinea to any of the passengers as would fetch it up. None of them would. So the ferryman calls to us, and says to Grainger, ‘Old fellow, you’ve good six feet of stuff in you; just jump in and get hold of the watch, and there’s a guinea for you.’ ‘No, thank you,’ said Grainger; ‘don’t you believe it; I can trust God Almighty on the ground, or in a tree, but not i’ th’ water.’ It was no use urging him. ”

“ I’m sure I did,” cried Miss Grainger.
“Up yonder it’s always growling,” said Calvert, pointing towards the Simplon. “It is the first welcome travellers get when they pass the summit.”
“Have you spoken to him, Milly, about Mr. Stockwell? Will he take him up at Orta, and land him here?” asked Miss Grainger, in a whisper.
“No, aunt; he hates Stockwell, he says. Carlo can take the blue boat and fetch him. They don’t want Carlo, it seems.” ”

“ We can't take horses there—country too rough, and myall blackfellow can smell horse long way off—all same horse or bullock can smell myall blackfellow long way off.”
Grainger knew that this was perfectly true—cattle and horses can always scent wild blacks at a great distance, and at once show their alarm. And that the country was too rough for Jacky and him to go any further with the horses was quite evident. However, he knew that as soon as his companion had taken a few pulls at his pipe he would learn from him what his plans were. ”

“ Grainger himself was in the habit of doing, and gazing without comment on the Persian and Italian potteries. It was easy to place her as one of those women who live surrounded by beautiful things to which they pay no attention. Mr. Brokenshire's richly Italianate dwelling was to her just a house. It would have been equally just a house had it been Jacobean or Louis Quinze or in the fashion of the Brothers Adam, and she would have seen little or no difference in periods and styles. ”

“ I'll wash up the breakfast things myself, Mrs. Grainger."
"Very well, miss. Afraid it might fall into the water! Why, the child couldn't. They're in the timber-yard, and there's a wall all around it, and neither of the gates is open."
"Well," said Hetty, as the woman left the room carrying the tray, "maybe he is looking after the child for some friend; perhaps the child has only come on a visit to him."
"Look after a child for a friend! Is he the sort of man to look after a child for a friend?" Mrs. Grainger called out from the kitchen. "What friend would ask a man like him to mind a child? ”

“ Grainger; the birth of a son; and subsequent disappearance of the husband; concluding by an assurance to the jury that I should prove, by incontrovertible evidence, that Grainger was no other person than the late Sir Harry Compton, baronet. This address by no means lessened the vague apprehensions of the other side. A counsel that, with such materials for eloquence, disdained having recourse to it, must needs have a formidable case. The smiling countenances of Mr. S —— and his brethren became suddenly overcast, and the pallor and agitation of Lord Emsdale sensibly increased. ”

“ Like any one who cannot bear to be told they are in the wrong, he wishes to give vent to his own spleen and malice."
Grainger was hardly attending.
"Why didn't you let me? I might have been rich this moment; I'd have made three hundred louis in the wake of that fellow. I might have been free from him, and, but for my slavery, I might have paid my bill at the lodgings."
"Is it so much?" I asked.
"Two hundred florins—a wretched sum. But he is insolent enough for its being ten thousand."
"Is that all?" I said. "We are very poor, as you know, Grainger ”

“ Grainger had been clerk for many years, a situation was obtained for him in a noted hosiery warehouse in Wood Street. Taking his inexperience into consideration, he received a remarkably good salary, and Edgar, though his life did not seem to be shaping itself after his own inclinations, was glad to be able to help the parents who had done so much for him.
Then Giles and Olive were also taken from school, and they, with Lancie and Lottie, become their mother's pupils, while Dora, who was a fair musician, gave the two little girls music lessons. ”

“ Grainger, who knew the man well, and had a sincere liking and respect for him, laughed again, though his face flushed. “You know me better than that, Mallard; I'm not the man to do that sort of thing. I could float the concern and make perhaps a hundred thousand or so out of it if I was blackguard enough to do it. But, thank God, I've never done anything dirty in my life, and never will.”
“Don't mind my idiotic attempt at a joke, Grainger,” and Mallard pat ont his hand. “I know you are the straightest man that ever lived. ”

“ Grainger's party. Warden Charteris, accompanied by an escort of white and black polioe, leaves for the place to-morrow night. The news of this wonderfully rich field has been two weeks reaching Townsville owing to the flooded condition of the country between Banshee Creek and Chinkie's Flat. “Mr. Grainger is at present in this city on a short visit. His good fortune will benefit the country at large as well as himself and his energetic partners.”
“Dear me, how very exciting to be getting gold so easily!” said Mrs. Trappème, as she laid the proof on the table ”

“ His mother fearing that his work the next day in the close, noisy city would prove more irksome than usual, and that he might find the house quiet when he came in, purposely gave the children their tea early and sent them for a walk under Mary's care. But he looked so cheerful and bright that she knew at once he was neither weary nor depressed.
"Where's Giles?" were his first words.
"In the schoolroom, working away at the Latin exercise he intends asking you to correct presently," replied Mrs. Grainger. "The little ones have gone out with Mary. Sit down, dear, and take your tea." ”

“ Grainger's chance of becoming Lady Compton was about equal to mine of ascending the British throne some fine day.
Two days afterwards I received the following note:—
"Dear Sir—Z.Z. is the man! I'm off to Shropshire. Back, if possible, the day after to-morrow. Not a word even to the ladies. Huzza! In haste, Samuel Ferret."
What could this mean? Spite of Mr. Ferret's injunction, I could not help informing the sisters, who called soon after I received the note, that a discovery, esteemed of importance by our emissary, had been made ”

“ Loyd, has most faithfully represented his position and his prospects, and, although my niece might possibly have placed her chances of happiness in the hands of a wealthier suitor, I am fully assured she never could have met with one whose tastes, pursuits, and general disposition—”
A sound of coming feet startled him, and he had but time to throw himself on a sofa, when Miss Grainger entered. Her manner was cordial—fully as cordial as usual—perhaps a little more so, since, in the absence of her nieces, she was free to express the instinctive regard she felt towards all that bore his name. ”

“ If only he were free for a little while just to be alone and think, perhaps to discover what life might bring him yet; only on this occasion his thoughts were colored by a new turn in the situation. Yesterday afternoon, because Mrs. Haymaker’s condition had grown worse, the consultation between Grainger and Storm was held, and to-day sometime transfusion was to be tried, that last grim stand taken by physicians in distress over a case; blood taken from a strong ex-cavalryman out of a position, in this case, and the best to be hoped for, but not assured. ”