Harwood

“ Oswin saw Harwood's glance and heard Lottie's laugh. He also heard the young lady making an explanation of certain matters, to which Harwood answered with a second little smile.
“Kind? Oh, exceedingly kind of him to come so long a distance for the sake of assisting you. Nothing could be kinder.”
“I feel it to be so indeed,” said Miss Vincent. “I feel that I can never repay Mr. Markham.”
Again that smile came to Mr. Harwood as he said: “Do not take such a gloomy view of the matter, my dear Miss Vincent; perhaps on reflection some means may be suggested to you.” ”

“ You'll find out your mistake.”
“Perhaps so,” laughed the other. “Perhaps so. By the way, is it true that you are going up country, Harwood?”
“Quite true. The fact is that affairs are becoming critical with regard to our relations with the Zulus, and unless I am greatly mistaken, this colony will be the centre of interest before many months have passed.”
“There is nothing I should like better than to go up with you, Harwood.”
Harwood shook his head. “You are not strong enough, my boy,” he said.
There was a pause before Markham said slowly:
“No, I am not strong enough.” ”

“ Kenyon was beaming. "No, I haven't—honestly I haven't! Ask Ethel!"
"Oh, it's genuine enough," said Mr. Harwood; "it's his accomplishment—one to be proud of, isn't it? That'll do, Kenyon; good-night, both of you."
The door closed.
"He's one to be proud of," said Forrester pointedly, a vague indignation rising within him. "A delightful little chap, I call him! And he was right to a decimal. I never heard of such a fellow!"
"He's cricket mad," said Mr. Harwood. "I'm glad you like him."
"I like him immensely. I like his enthusiasm. I never saw so small a boy so keen. Does he play?" ”

“ Do not think of such a thing,” said Harwood. “No; no one is to blame. Fate was too much for both of us, Mrs. Crawford. But all is over now. All the past days with her near us are now no more than pleasant memories. I go round to Natal in two days, and then to my work in the camp.”
“Oh, Mr. Harwood, what ruffians there are in this world!” said the lady just before they parted. Mr. Harwood smiled his acquiescence. His own experience in the world had led him to arrive unassisted at a similar conclusion.
Arthur Harwood kept his work and left by the steamer for Natal two days afterwards ”

“ Now I must look after this precious portmanteau of mine.”
“And assist that helpless little creature to look after hers,” muttered Harwood when the other had left him. “Poor little Lottie! is it possible that you have landed a prize at last? Well, no one will say that you don't deserve something for your years of angling.”
Mr. Harwood felt very charitably inclined just at this instant, for his reflections on the behaviour of Markham during the last few days they had been at the same hotel at Cape Town had not by any means been quieted since they had parted. ”

“ He sat up on the side of the bed, put his feet into the softly furred slippers, and held out his arms to the dressing-gown which Harwood gave him.
“I begin to remember, Harwood,” he said slowly. “This man Winton lost to me on two evenings—or was it three?—when I was flat.”
“You played with him four afternoons, and two of the sessions lasted into the night,” said Harwood. “You were quite flat. Afterward he entertained you on his yacht.”
“Yes; I remember now. A good-looking fellow; rich American family; about my age?”
“I presume so, sir.”
“Good nerve for cards until the stakes go high?” ”

“ I did go up country, but I returned in a few days and got aboard the first ship that was sailing for England, and—here I am.”
“And you mean to renew your life of wandering when you reach England?” said Harwood, after a pause.
“It is all that there is left for me,” said the man bitterly, though a change in his tone would have made his words seem very pitiful. “I am not such a fool as to fancy that a man can sow tares and reap wheat. The spring of my life is over, and also the summer, the seed-time and the ripening ”

“ Harwood was on that committee. Didn't you hear his name read? He's one of these high brows in politics, and father's going to push him forward so he can accomplish the noble things that interest him. Father told me Mr. Harwood would be a delegate to the convention. That's the reason I wanted to come. I hope he will make a speech; they say he's one of the best of the younger men. I heard him at the Opera House at Fraserville in the last campaign and he kept me awake, I can tell you. ”

“ James Harwood brought him up to the castle one night for a hand at whist and a bit of supper, and he seemed to take a regular fancy to some of us, and asked us to take a glass now and then down at his place, which we did; and that's all about it; and I don't mean to stand any more cross-questioning."
"Why, Brook," cried his friend, the butler, "what's come to you? It isn't like you to answer any man in that way, least of all such on old friend as me." ”

“ I talked with Harwood at the wheel, and waited, occasionally walking over to the rail, and peering out into the mist uneasily. It seemed to me the heave of water beneath our keel grew heavier, the fog more dense, the mystery more profound. Safety was better than progress, particularly as there was no real object any longer in our clinging to a westerly course. ”

“ Even Guy himself sometimes felt half inclined to repent his impulsiveness, for George Harwood constantly reminded him of it by calling him "Young America" [Pg 25] and asking him if he had no other servants to hire out.
Guy bore all these taunts very quietly, and even laughed at them, and made himself so useful and agreeable to every one, that on the morning of the start from W——, Mr. Harwood was heard to say he would as soon be without one of his best men as little Guy Loring. ”

“ Mr. Harwood, too, had an hour of reflection when he went to his room; but his thoughts were hardly of the excitable type of Markham's; they had, however, a definite result, which caused him to seek out Mr. Despard in the morning.
Mr. Despard had just finished a light and salutary breakfast consisting of a glass of French brandy in a bottle of soda-water, and he was smoking another sample of that box of cigars on the balcony.
“Good-morning to you, mister,” he said, nodding as Harwood came, as if by chance, beside him.
“Ah, how do you do?” said Harwood. “Enjoying your morning smoke, I see. ”

“ What more can God want of man than his life? have I not paid that debt daily for four days?” He rose from his chair and stood upright upon the deck with clenched hands and lips. “It is past,” he said, after a long pause. “From this hour I throw the past beneath my feet. It is my right to forget all, and—I have forgotten all—all.”
Mr. Harwood had truly reason to feel surprised when, on the following day, Oswin Markham came up to him, and said quietly:
“I believe you are right, Harwood: after all, it would be foolish for me to part from the ship at St. Helena. ”

“ It was obviously impossible that such a man could put himself on that mental level which would be implied by his action should he consent to make any answer to a person like Mr. Harwood. But apart from these general grounds, Mr. Glaston had got concrete reasons for declining to discuss any subject with this newspaper man. He knew that it was Mr. Harwood who had called the tone-poems of the college magazine alliterative conundrums for young ladies; that it was Mr. Harwood who had termed one of the colour-harmonies a study in virulent jaundice ”

“ Master Pearson showed himself to be an able diplomatist, and Mr Harwood would have been thoroughly satisfied had he heard the way in which his wishes were carried out.
“Think of what I have been saying, my lad,” he continued. “You have got the right qualities in you, depend upon that, and it’s your own fault if you don’t rise in the world in the way I have pointed out. ”

“ Harwood, taking in his hand the gun which Guy had still retained, but then offered him, "you nobly did your duty, my boy, and though we will hope that the [Pg 163] man will recover, we will not worry, because we cannot learn whether he does or not."
"I say, the men are harnessing the teams," exclaimed George. "Let us go and pick up some of the arrows the Indians threw around so plentifully."
"Yes," answered Guy, "and I'll bring you one, Aggie."
"Stay," said Mr. Harwood, "Here, Guy, is a more fitting weapon for you. ”

“ In 1776, soon after publishing a bibliography of editions of the classics, Harwood sold his classical books and took lodgings in Hyde Street, Bloomsbury. His means were straitened, and on 15 May 1782 he was attacked by paralysis. Though he derived some benefit from the application of electricity by John Birch (1745?–1815) [q. v.] (see Harwood's account in ‘The Case,’ &c. [1784] , 8vo) , he could neither walk nor sit, but was still able to write and to teach. He claims to have ‘written more books than any one person now living except Dr. Priestley’ (Gent. Mag. ut supra) . ”

“ Aggie sat by him constantly, in her childish way telling him of the wonders she daily saw, or coaxing him to tell her some pretty tale. Mrs. Harwood always smiled upon him when she passed, and Amy and Carrie Graham often asked him to their wagon, and lent [Pg 74] him books, or talked to him of the home they had left, and that which they hoped to find.
All the men missed Guy so much, he had always been so useful and good-natured. Mr. Harwood daily said, that there should be a jubilee in camp when Guy got well again. ”

“ This condition was no particular surprise, for Harwood's daughter, scarcely more than a girl to my remembrance, would not likely remain there isolated and alone during such troublesome times, and the servants had doubtless long since disappeared in search of freedom. The young woman would doubtless be with friends, either in Lewisburg or Charleston ”

“ Why, I stand outside the door, and hear him talking to Ethel, and when I open it his very key changes. With you it's a hundred times worse. With you—God help me!" cried Harwood, with a harsh laugh, "I'm like a child myself ... jealous of you ... for winning what I never tried nor deserved to win."
He wiped the moisture from his face, and sat cold and still.
"I'll go to-morrow!" said Forrester, hoarsely.
"You will do nothing of the kind," retorted the other in his normal voice. "You will stay as long as you like—and Kenyon needs you." ”

“ Harwood, with his meretricious cleverness, might possibly—ah—well, you know how easily girls are led.”
“If there would be a possibility of Miss Gerald's being influenced in a single point by such a man as that Mr. Harwood, I fear not much can be hoped for her,” said Mr. Glaston.
“We should never be without hope,” said Mrs. Crawford. “For my own part, I hope a great deal—a very great deal—from your influence over Daireen; and I am exceedingly happy that the bishop seems so pleased with her.” ”

“ Oh, do you remember those old braces, Laura?” cried Miss Lydia; “he always appreciates what is done for him—always,” and both the sisters chimed in in a breath.
“I was not speaking of Mr Summerhayes,” said Mary, returning into the cloud; “I was speaking of—men in general. I have never had any perfect people to deal with in my experience,” said the mistress of Fontanel, with a sidelong, female blow, which she could not resist giving. “And now we must say good-bye, dear Miss Harwood; it is so pleasant to see you, and to come into this sheltered place where nothing ever seems to change.” ”

“ It is so hard to wait.
Hurrah for the fun!
Our ride is done,
And our frolics are just begun!”
“Now,” said Mr. Harwood, when the Menagerie were safely packed, “we will start for the station, where Jem, my oldest, is due from boarding-school. Come, ponies, do your best, we won’t keep the dear boy waiting.”
[Pg 180]
There, upon the station steps, guarding his trunk and packages, stood a tall boy of fifteen, in gray uniform, looking eagerly up the road. Mr. Harwood tightly grasped the boy’s brown hand as he presented him to his friend. ”

“ Sometimes he grew tired of the dull routine, and would wish himself at the diggings with the young men from St. Louis, and then with Mr. Graham, at the mill, but a glance at his mother, working over the hot stove, or washing at the spring, would render him content, for he would say, "She is happy with all her toil, while I am near, and shall I worry over a little extra work, when it keeps me with her?" And then away to his work he would go with renewed energy, and sometimes Mr. Harwood would give him a holiday which would quite revive his drooping spirits, and make him strong for weeks. ”

“ By heavens, didn't I burst in on the bishop's party like a greased shrapnel? I had taken a little better than a glass of brandy before I went there, so I was in good form. Yes, Paulina is the name of his wife. He had picked her up in Italy or thereabouts. That's what made his friends send him off to Australia. He was punished for his sins, for that woman made his life a hell to him. Now we'll take the tinsel off a bottle of Moët together.”
“No,” said Harwood; “not to-night.” ”

“ He died six months ago, and the solicitors for the estate sent me out a considerable sum of money in case I should need it in Australia—this order for four hundred pounds is what remains of it.”
“I can now easily understand your desire to be at home and settled down,” said Harwood.
“I don't mean to settle down,” replied Markham. “There are a good many places to be seen in the world, small as it is.”
“A man who has knocked about in the Colonies is generally glad to settle down at home,” remarked Harwood. ”