Hardie

“ Hardie, and said, “Papa! dear papa!”
There was great joy: silent on the part of Mrs. Dodd and Julia; but Mr. Hardie, who saw in this a good omen, Heaven recognising his penitence, burst out: “She knows me; she speaks; she will live. How good God is! Yes, my darling child, it is your own father. You will be brave and get well, for my sake.”
Jane did not seem to pay much heed to these words: she looked straight before her like one occupied with her own thought, and said distinctly and solemnly, “Papa—send for Alfred.” ”

“ Hardie gave his mechanically, and remained on his guard, but somewhat puzzled. Dodd shook his cold hand heartily. “Well, sir, here I am, just come ashore, and visiting you before my very wife; what d'ye think of that?”
“I am highly honoured, sir,” said Hardie: then, rather stiffly and incredulously, “and to what may I owe this extraordinary preference? Will you be good enough to state the purport of this visit—briefly—as Mr. Skinner and I are much occupied?”
“The purport? Why, what does one come to a banker about? I have got a lot of money I want to get rid of.” ”

“ However, Hardie apologised as they were dressing in the barge after the race; but the apology was so stiff, it did not pave the way to an acquaintance.
Young Hardie, rising twenty-one, thought nothing human worthy of reverence, but Intellect. Invited to dinner, on the same day, with the Emperor of Russia, and with Voltaire, and with meek St. John, he would certainly have told the coachman to put him down at Voltaire.
His quick eye detected Edward's character; but was not attracted by it: says he to one of his adherents, “What a good-natured spoon that Dodd is; Phoebus, what a name!” ”

“ Hardie done, that you should bestow so violent a sentiment on him?”
“Mamma, I am Edward's sister,” was the tragic reply; then, kicking off the buskin pretty nimbly, “There! he beats our boy at everything, and ours sits quietly down and admires him for it: oh! how can a man let anybody or anything beat him! I wouldn't; without a desperate struggle.” She clenched her white teeth and imagined the struggle. To be sure, she owned she had never seen this Mr. Hardie; but after all it was only Jane Hardie's brother, as Edward was hers; “And would I sit down and let Jane beat me at Things? Never! ”

“ Hardie interrupted him with sorrowful dignity: “These are mere family matters; if you are a man, respect them.”
Green went reading on like Fate: “'Better withdraw my opposition to the marriage, or else it seems my own flesh and blood will go about the place blackening my reputation.'”
Mr. Hardie stamped on the ground. “I tell you, on my honour as a gentleman, there's no money there but my grandfather's guinea. My money is all in my waistcoat pocket, where you will not look.” ”

“ Hardie, “he comes with a proposal: I'll hear it, anyway.”
He then took a line well known to artful men: he encouraged Alfred to show his hand; maintaining a complete reserve as to his own; “You say you did not communicate your illusion about this fourteen thousand pounds to Julia Dodd that night: May I ask then (without indiscretion) what did pass between you two?”
“I will tell you, sir. She saw me standing there, and asked me in her own soft angel voice if I was unhappy. I told her I must be a poor creature if I could be happy. ”

“ Meantime it cost Alfred Hardie a severe struggle to keep altogether aloof from Julia. In fact, it was a state of daily self-denial, to which he would never have committed himself, but that he was quite sure he could gradually win his father over. At his age we are apt to count without our antagonist.
Mr. Richard Hardie was “a long-headed man.” He knew the consequence of giving one's reasons: eternal discussion ending in war. He had taken care not to give any to Mrs. Dodd, and he was as guarded and reserved with Alfred. ”

“ I'll make a double entry on your great treacherous carcass.”
“It's no use trying to deceive such a man as you,” said Mr. Hardie, playing on his vanity. “I could not get the money before Saturday, and so I listened to the dictates of despair. Forgive me.”
“Then come again Saturday night. Come alone, and I shall bring a man to see I'm not murdered. And look here, sir, if you don't come to the hour and do the right thing without any more of these unbusiness-like tricks, by Heaven, I'll smash you before noon on Monday.”
“I'll come.”
“I'll blow you to Mr. Alfred and Miss Dodd.” ”

“ In due course he brought the little silver sculls, and pinned them on his mother.
While she and Julia were telling him how proud they were, and how happy they should be, but for their fears that he would hurt himself, beating gentlemen ever so much older than himself, came two Exeter men with wild looks hunting for him.
“Oh, Dodd! Hardie wants you directly.”
“Don't you go, Edward,” whispered Julia; “why should you be at Mr. Hardie's beck and call? I never heard of such a thing. That youth will make me hate him.” ”

“ Alfred Hardie disappeared mysteriously from his lodgings in 15 Mill Street, under circumstances suggesting a suspicion of foul play, know all men that the above reward will be paid to any person or persons who shall first inform the undersigned where the said Alfred Hardie is to be found, and what person or persons, if any, have been concerned in his disappearance. ”

“ My reader has seen Julia Dodd play both parts; but it is her child's face she has now been turning for several pages; so it may be prudent to remind him she has shone on Alfred Hardie in but one light; a young but Juno-like woman. Had she shown “my puppy” her childish qualities, he would have despised her—he had left that department himself so recently. But Nature guarded the budding fair from such a disaster.
We left Alfred Hardie standing in the moonlight gazing at her lodging. This was sudden; but, let slow coaches deny it as loudly as they like, fast coaches exist ”

“ In a minute a bed was laid in the drawing-room, and all the windows and doors open: and Edward, trembling now in every limb, ran to Musgrove Cottage, while Mrs. Dodd and Julia loosened the poor girl's dress, and bathed her wounds with tepid water (the doctor would not allow cold) , and put wine carefully to her lips with a teaspoon.
“Wanted at your house, pray what for?” said Mr. Hardie superciliously.
“Oh, sir,” said Edward, “such a calamity. Pray come directly. A ruffian has struck her, has hurt her terribly, terribly.”
“Her! Who?” asked Mr. Hardie, beginning to be uneasy. ”

“ And so young Hardie is got out of the way: old Hardie's doing, or I'm a Dutchman.”
This reasoning still appeared forced and fanciful to Edward but it began to make some little impression on Mrs. Dodd, and encouraged her to own that her poor daughter suspected foul play.
“Well, that is possible, too: whativer tempted man has done, tempted man will do: but more likely he has bribed Jezebel to write and catch the goose by the heart. Gintlennen, I'm a bit of a physiognomist: look at old Hardie's lines ”

“ Wolf, containing Sampson's thunderbolt extracted from the Sun, and saying that no earthly consideration should induce him to meddle with Alfred now. Richard Hardie flung himself into the train, and went down to his brother at Clare Court.
He was ill at ease. He felt like some great general, who has launched many attacks against the foe, very successful at first, then less successful, then repulsed with difficulty, then repulsed with ease, till at last the foe stands before him impregnable. ”

“ Well, Badham o' Wadham, you are no acquaintance of mine; so you may possibly not be a fool. Let us assume by way of hypothesis that you are a man of sense, a man of reason as well as of rhyme. Then follow my logic. Hardie of Exeter is a good man in a boat when he has not got a headache.
“When he has got a headache, Hardie of Exeter is not worth a straw in a boat.
“Hardie of Exeter has a headache now.
“Ergo, the university would put the said Hardie into a race, headache and all, and reduce defeat to a certainty. ”

“ It was not easy for him to forgive Hardie for robbing him of his place and gaining the opportunity to achieve a triumph which Dunn felt sure he could have achieved just as well. Equally unpalatable was the fact that Hardie seemed to be established on good terms with the influential set, of which Talbot, Sumner, Wilmot, and Trask formed the solid centre. On the other hand, while there were many whom Dunn called his friends, no one showed any great liking for his society except Ben Tracy and Stover, neither of whom was able to help him along toward that popularity for which his heart yearned. ”

“ Dunn’s first step in getting even with Hardie was taken that very evening, and the method of it showed that some of Jason’s brain cells were more highly developed than those on which he relied in the preparation of lessons.
Just before bedtime he knocked at Roger’s door. “Hello!” he cried, putting his head into the room. “Will you give me a lift on this confounded Virgil?” ”

“ No one could get past him then,” remarked Reeves.
“They’d have to call time to get him up again.”
“Did you see that?” broke in Hargraves. “Hardie got the ball at the first try!”
“It must have been an accident; he hasn’t sand enough in him to do it purposely.” This was Stover’s opinion.
A furious but futile charge on the part of Marshall, a clumsy but energetic hanger-on of the second, drew the fire of the trio. “That’s the spirit!” chuckled Hargraves. “Dig up the dirt with your face, my boy! Football is the game!”
“There goes Mac!” ”

“ Having already had experience in the position, and being a lad who used his eyes and ears more than his lips, Hardie needed very little coaching to fit well into the game at left end. Though he lacked Harrison’s sureness in play, as well as the instinctive readiness in translating signals into action which is to be expected of one who has practiced long in a single position, he was better than Harrison in making holes and quite as fast in getting down the field. Each showed a fine keenness of scent after the ball in the enemy’s hands ”

“ One more formality had still to be attended to before the athletic season could be declared closed,—the election of a captain of the crew for the next year. It was merely a formality, for, since Roger Hardie was the only one of the five who would not graduate, the choice was strictly limited.
“It’s a great honor to be captain of the Westcott crew,” said Roger, as he came downstairs with Pete after the meeting, “but I wish there had been some competition. It’s like winning a race by default.” ”

“ You can’t change a fellow like Wilmot. He’s an awfully nice chap, but he’s never serious, and he spoils the atmosphere for the hard, determined kind of work that makes good teams.”
“Harrison seems serious enough,” said Hardie. “I should think he’d make a mighty good captain.”
“That’s right! He’s about the best fellow we’ve got. That’s the reason I had hopes of the football, but it looks now as if it was going in the same old way. If we could only win in football, we could go to work with more courage on the crew.”
“The crew is always good, isn’t it?” ”

“ When I was told by a friend that the natives of India despised Keir Hardie because he carried his own bag off the vessel when he arrived in India I realised that the colour question was too complicated for me to settle. [Pg 100] I have a sneaking suspicion that the coloured man is maligned; the average Anglo-Indian is so stupid in his attitude to most things that I can scarcely suspect him of being wise in his attitude to the native. I regret very much that I had not the moral courage to chum up with the coloured man at the university: prejudices leave one after one has left the university. ”

“ Mike never hesitated through bashfulness, nor wasted opportunities because of lack of faith to accept them!
“You ought to have been football captain,” declared Mike, as they stood on the back platform of a crowded in-bound car. “You’d make a lot better one than Horr. Horr really doesn’t know the game. I told Pete Talbot so, too. They needn’t think that because you’re quiet, you haven’t any push in you. I know better!”
“Thank you for your good opinion, Mike,” returned the smiling Hardie. “What did Pete do, fire you out?” ”

“ Sumner’s heart was like lead, as he saw the Trowbridge line open in wide gaps for a trick play. If the Westcott rushers lost their heads now, there was no hope for the team. But a line that sifts evenly through, with each man keeping well within his own territory, is a hard line to work tricks upon; and a strong, aggressive tackle is a dangerous obstacle to end plays. The Westcott line did sift evenly through, and Eaton was a good tackle—so good, indeed, that he burst straight into the Trowbridge interference, and, hooking the runner with a long reach, swung him directly into Hardie’s arms. ”

“ You be as nervous as a cat to-day.”
“And then, of course, when ’tis all over,” continued the tranter, “we shall march two and two round the parish.”
“Yes, sure,” said Mr. Penny: “two and two: every man hitched up to his woman, ’a b’lieve.”
“I never can make a show of myself in that way!” said Fancy, looking at Dick to ascertain if he could.
“I’m agreed to anything you and the company like, my dear!” said Mr. Richard Dewy heartily.
“Why, we did when we were married, didn’t we, Ann?” said the tranter; “and so do everybody, my sonnies.” ”