Greatorex

“ During the thirty-nine years that Greatorex held the post of conductor of the Ancient Concerts, it is said that he never once was absent from his duty, or five minutes after his time at any rehearsal, performance, or meeting of the directors. Little but Handel’s music was heard at these concerts, in accordance with the taste of George III and other patrons. Greatorex, too, had conservative ideas in artistic matters. ”

“ But Agatha did not stir. She was evidently very comfortable were she was, and her sweet proximity strengthened Dillwyn.
"She is is mine," said he; "I claim her. Mrs. Greatorex, why would you part us?"
"For her good—and especially now. You refuse to consider how you are injuring her. An advantage has fallen into her life, and you must wilfully deprive her of it."
"An advantage! Darkham do you mean? As for that," said Dillwyn,
"I am not depriving her of an advantage. I am saving her from"— he paused—"misery. Agatha!" ”

“ They were in full view now—Vida Levering, hatless, a cool figure in pearl-grey with a red umbrella; St. John Greatorex, wearing a Panama hat, talking and gesticulating with a small book, in which his fingers still kept the place; Farnborough, a little supercilious, looking on.
'I protest! Good Lord! what are the women of this country coming to? I protest against Miss Levering being carried indoors to discuss anything so revolting.'
As Lord John moved towards the window the vermilion disk of the umbrella closed and dropped like a poppy before it blooms. ”

“ Greatorex studied music under Dr. Benjamin Cooke in 1772; two years later, after meeting the Earl of Sandwich and Joah Bates [q. v.] , he was enabled to increase his knowledge of church music by attending the oratorio performances at Hinchinbrook. Afterwards he became an inmate of Lord Sandwich's household in town and country, and for a short time succeeded Bates as Sandwich's musical director. Greatorex sang in the Concerts of Ancient Music, established in 1776, but his health obliged him to seek a northern climate, and he accepted the post of organist of Carlisle Cathedral in 1780. ”

“ Hill is a highly-successful miniature-painter.
Mrs. Greatorex is a landscape-painter of merit, and is rapidly acquiring distinction. She has a deep love of wild mountain and lake scenery, dark woods, and rushing waters; and her productions are marked by the vigor of tone and dashing, impetuous freedom of touch especially adapted to that kind of subjects. This felicitous boldness she has in a remarkable degree, and her works are marked by truthfulness as well as strength. She has painted many pieces of romantic scenery in Scotland and Ireland. ”

“ Just as they once more reached the little inside gate of the villa, the sound of wheels in the small avenue outside told them of Mrs. Greatorex's return.
"Cut for your life!" cried Mr. Browne in a tragic whisper, and without waiting for another word from her, he took his own advice, and bolting through the few shrubs, found himself presently safe but breathless on the public road, and almost in the arms of Dillwyn.
"So you followed the dear departed, after all," said Dicky. "What a thing is love! To tread in the footsteps of her is rapture. ”

“ But without the exclamation, Miss Levering must have seen that she had been speaking in an unknown tongue. A world where beauty exists for beauty's sake—which is love's sake—and not for tricking money or power out of men, even the possibility of such a world is beyond the imagining of many.
Something was said about a deputation of women who had waited on Mr. Greatorex. ”

“ He accepted; and he was the first arrival on Christmas evening. So early was he, in fact, that Mrs. Greatorex was not yet dressed for dinner, and Gwen flew down to entertain him. He looked very handsome in evening clothes, though they were a little shabby and had the air of having been put away for a long time. “Hired for the occasion,” was what Dick Pelham whispered about them in Gwen’s ear, somewhat later; but instead of prejudicing her against the Man from the Moon, the whisper made her more than ever his champion. “What if they are?” she retorted. “It’s nothing against him if he’s poor. ”

“ Fortune favours the brave, they say; sometimes, however, it favours the beautiful.
Agatha Nesbitt was beautiful, and suddenly fortune came to her in the shape of Mrs. Greatorex. It was not a great fortune, truly, but it lifted the girl for the moment out of her Slough of Despond.
But now another terror threatened her. This detestable Dr. Darkham, whose visits to her aunt for the past few months had been so regular—whose visits, now that her aunt had declared herself off his hands, were still so regular—troubled here more than she cared to think. ”

“ But when Eric Greatorex—so charming of him—played those delicious pieces of Stravinski to me before dinner, I felt I was stepping over some sort of frontier into Stravinski. Eric made out my passport. A multiplication of experience: I think that is what I mean.”
None of those present could have said with any precision what Lucia had meant, but the general drift seemed to be that an hour with a burglar or a cannibal was valuable for the amplification of the soul.
“Odd types too,” she said. “How good for one to be put into touch with something quite remote. ”

“ Over there in the window was the girl he loved, standing up bravely, with a little troubled smile upon her lips—but still a smile—and all for him. What a stout heart she had, his dear, pretty girl!
"I am glad you have come, Dr. Dillwyn," said Mrs. Greatorex.
"Agatha refused me her confidence, but I have heard from other sources of your—you must forgive me if I call them presumptuous—attentions to my niece. Of course, considering your position in life, I do not take them seriously; but such as they are, they rather prejudice her chances of making an excellent marriage." ”

“ That pays him. He likes nice people, you know. Why do you dislike the poor man so much?"
"Dislike him?"
"Yes, you do. Like all girls, you are full of nonsensical fads, and"—slowly—"it is my opinion that you think he is in love with you."
"I can't congratulate you, then, on the girls you have known!" said Agatha coldly.
"No?" Mrs. Greatorex laughed the little irritating laugh that belonged to her. "A poor compliment to yourself! Still, I have been studying you a little of late, and I feel sure I am right. Get this latest fad of all out of your head, my dear girl, and as soon as possible." ”

“ This would naturally have settled matters forever, as far as the expectations of Samuel Greatorex’s cousins were concerned, if it had not been for the magnificent eccentricities of the person who had come into the money. He was a doctor whose skill had kept the old man alive for several years longer than he had dared hope to live, and when death had finally occurred, in California, the heir of the million or two had written to the relatives. ”

“ Lucia felt that dinner, as far as she went, was a huge success. Stephen was seated just opposite her, and now and then she exchanged little distant smiles with him. Next her on one side was Lord Tony, who adored her story about Stravinski and Greatorex. She told him also what the Italian Ambassador had said about Mussolini, and the Prime Minister about Chequers: she was going to pop in to lunch on her way down to Riseholme after this delicious party. Then conversation shifted, and she turned left, and talked to the only man whose identity she had not grasped. ”

“ It is always on my mind that our meetings will be discovered, and that on you the annoyance will fall. Every evening I picture you to myself sitting dolefully"— he tried to smile—"whilst Mrs. Greatorex scolds you. I would to Heaven, my darling, I were a rich man—though I never cared for money till I saw you."
"You mustn't expect miracles," said she tenderly; "but somehow I feel sure it will all be right, and very soon, too. Aunt Hilda will give in—she cannot persist much longer—or else something will happen."
CHAPTER XXXII
Elfrida stayed awake till twelve o'clock that night. ”

“ As a fact, Elfrida felt the proposal from Ambert was imminent, and though she desired it, she wilfully determined to put it off, as women sometimes will. Blount rose, and, regardless of Ambert's insolent air went with her towards the houses.
Miss Firs-Robinson laughed; she was having a right royal revenge.
"Elfrida's good to the poor, too; in fact, she's good to every one—except perhaps"—thoughtfully—"young men."
"To me," said Mrs. Greatorex spitefully, "she appears the very kindest girl I ever knew to young men, and, indeed, to old men, and all men. ”

“ Accounted the head of the English school, Greatorex in 1801 revived the Vocal Concerts. He was a professional member of the Madrigal Society, the Catch Club (from 1789 to 1798) , and of the Royal Society of Musicians (from 1791) . He was also one of the board at the Royal Academy of Music on its establishment (1822) , and was its chief professor of the organ and pianoforte. No important oratorio performance in town or country was thought complete without his co-operation as conductor or organist. ”

“ How Miss Minns, the governess, had not screamed or howled, but had had a palpitation at sight of Flops’ danger, and considered the Man in the Moon a very brave and courteous gentleman.
“Nonsense, he can’t be a gentleman,” said Mrs. Greatorex, “or he couldn’t possibly think of living in that ramshackle old thing, and especially at this season of the year. Who ever heard of a sane human being taking even the best of house boats in November? He must be mad, or an escaped convict.”
“Rather a conspicuous abode for an escaped convict,” commented Gwen. “What is the Man in the Moon like, Cissy?” ”

“ That is the principal thing—to prove one's life worth something."
"How are you going to prove yours worthy?" Blount asked this question slowly, deliberately. She flushed crimson.
"Oh! To be rude is not to be argumentative," said she, and turned abruptly away from him, and crossed to where Mrs. Poynter stood, surrounded by a bevy of friends.
Blount stood still. He did not attempt to follow her. Why should he?
Every one was saying good-bye now; Mrs. Greatorex had beamed her sweetest on Mrs. Poynter, and had accepted Dr. Darkham's arm to the fly. How Agatha hated that fly! ”

“ If the dead want to be praised, they ought to behave themselves properly whilst they are alive, and she didn't. I am sorry the poor woman died like that, without returning to consciousness even for a little while."
"It was quite hopeless from the very first," said Mrs. Poynter.
"Dr. Bland and Dr. Dillwyn were both quite agreed about that."
"Oh no!" Agatha spoke as if involuntarily. "Not quite agreed. Dr. Dillwyn told me she might recover."
"Told you?" questioned Mrs. Greatorex quite gently. Then with a little smile: "But when, dear Agatha?"
The girl looked at her and paused. ”

“ Poor fellow, he’s too likely to do that in any case, living in that poky, damp old Moon. He ought not to do it.”
“There is no reason why a house boat, even though old, should be damp, simply because it rests on the water,” said Mrs. Greatorex, coldly. This was an opinion formed hastily, though firmly, to suit the circumstances; for she did not intend to indulge the vicar by being “nice” to the Man in the Moon, and she did not wish to be made constantly uncomfortable through having him pitied by her daughter. ”

“ Ah, you'll get on, John; you have the courage to confess your faults," said his cousin, smiling; "but don't confess them before unappreciative people. Dr. Darkham is, of course, very—-"
"I saw him only for a moment this morning. He looked like death himself. I had no idea he—er—cared for her so much. His face looked quite changed."
"Agatha, I think we must go now," said a cold voice. Mrs. Greatorex laid her hand on Agatha's shoulder. "How d'ye do, Dr. Dillywn? I hope you have seen poor Dr. Darkham, and that he is bearing up?"
"He seems greatly cut up," said Dillwyn. ”

“ Darkham's accident. If she endured her in silence, all the gossip of the neighbourhood would be hers in five minutes. And five minutes was not long to endure any one. Dr. Dillwyn had been vague, and too much taken up with Agatha (she would have to put an end to that presently) to tell her anything worth hearing, and so she had heard nothing beyond the mere fact of the fall.
"Yes?" said she carefully.
Tea had been brought out by one of the small maids, who had now ceased from her trembling, and Mrs. Greatorex stood up to pour it out.
"She's dying," said Miss Firs-Robinson; "not a doubt of it! ”

“ The great work of George Grote (1794-1871) , a Radical in politics, a banker by profession, is "The History of Greece". It is too well known to need description. Though Grote's aim was to set Athenian democracy in what he held to be its true light, he laboured not less assiduously among the mythic legends and the heroic poetry of Hellas; he was most erudite in every fragment of Greek records, and his work, though destitute of much new light recently discovered by excavations of Greek sites and from inscriptions, yet holds its place, unsurpassed, as a general history of Hellas. ”

“ Further Grote, a practical man, a rationalist and an enthusiast for democracy, was the first to consider Greek political development with a sympathetic interest (see Greece: History, Ancient, section “Authorities”) , in opposition to the Tory attitude of John Gillies and Mitford, who had written under the influence of horror at the French Revolution. On the whole his work was done with impartiality, and more recent study has only confirmed his general conclusions. ”