Hodges

“ Then I have got a good-sized box of rufuses, and have swallowed three of them preparatory to the journey."
"A proper precaution," observed Hodges, with a smile.
"This is not all," replied Blaize. "By my mother's advice, I have eaten twenty leaves of rue, two roasted figs, and two pickled walnuts for breakfast, washing them down with an ale posset, with pimpernel seethed in it."
"Indeed!" exclaimed Hodges. "You must be in a pretty condition for a journey. But how could you bear to part with your mother and Patience?" ”

“ Hodges swore I did more by astrology than he could by the crystal, and use thereof, which indeed he understood as perfectly as any one in England. He was a great royalist, but could never hit any thing right for that party, though he much desired it: he resolved questions astrologically; nativities he meddled not with; in things of other nature, which required more curiosity, he repaired to the crystal: his angels were Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel: his life answered not in holiness and sanctity to what it should, having to deal with those holy angels. ”

“ He's a scholar and a 'mind' and can't swallow all the rot of the old school, but he's more sinister really."
"I suppose that Hodges is the ideal palæo-cardiac," said Martin.
"Yes, Hodges, the great ass."
"Of course he's out to set up a kingdom of heaven upon earth," said Lawrence. "And can't you imagine his idea of it? It'll be stiff with people like himself, all blustering round and organising things. Football, Rich v. Poor. Of course there will still be rich and poor, for our Hodges is a Tory, but there'll be a spirit of fellowship oozing everywhere." ”

“ Whereupon Hodges, with an oath, as was his evil habit, asserted that the horse was gone, and that his owner would never see him again. Ridiculing the wise man without mercy, the gentleman departed, and hastened to the town’s end, and there, at the [Pg 147] appointed place, the boy lay stretched upon the ground, fast asleep, with the bridle round his arm, but the horse was gone!
Back to Hodges hurried the chap-fallen squire, ashamed of his incredulity, and eagerly seeking assistance. But no; the conjurer swore freely—‘Be gone—be gone about your business ”

“ Ha! ha!"
"It is his writing," cried Amabel. "This note," she added, producing a billet, "is in the same hand. My eyes are indeed open to his treachery."
"I am glad to hear it," replied Hodges, "and if I can preserve you from the snares of this noble libertine, I shall rejoice as much as in curing your brother of the plague. But can you rely upon yourself, in case the earl should make another attempt to see you?" ”

“ He returns again to Hodges, desiring his aid, being sorry for his former abuse. Old Will swore like a devil, 'be gone, be gone; go look for your horse.' This business ended not so; for the malicious man brought Hodges into the star-chamber, bound him over to the assizes, put Hodges to great expences: but, by means of the Lord Dudley, if I remember aright, or some other person thereabouts, he overcame the gentleman, and was acquitted.
{121}
Besides this, a gentlewoman of my acquaintance, and of credit, in Leicestershire, having lost a pillion-cloth, a very new one, went to desire his judgment. ”

“ Steve passed and turned in at the saloon door, wishing to come to Hodges, Blenham's pal. For it required little imagination to suspect that it had been Hodges at Blenham's behest, or Blenham himself, who had sent Stumpy across the street to the Old Trusty.
Here, as in Wimble's place, a few men loitered idly; here as there the proprietor stood behind his own bar. Hodges, a short, squat man with a prize-fighter's throat, chest, and shoulders and a wide, thin-lipped mouth, leaned forward in dirty shirt-sleeves, chewing at a moist cigar-stump. ”

“ Hodge for the most part lives and dies in his ancestral village: marries Mary, the daughter of Hodge Secundus of that parish, and begets assorted Hodges and Marys in vast quantities, all of the same pattern, to replenish the earth in the next generation. There you have a very well-marked hereditary caste, little given to intermixture with others, and from whose members, however recruited by fresh blood, the object of our quest, the Divine Genius, is very unlikely to find his point of origin. ”

“ Mean-time, Doctor Hodges, who had run to one of the arched openings looking on the nave, called out to them to secure the fugitive. But all fled at his approach; and when he reached the door of the southern transept, the verger, instead of attempting to stop him, retreated with a cry of alarm. As he passed through the outlet, one man bolder than the rest caught hold of him, and endeavoured to detain him. ”

“ Over this they bore Leland, and laid him on the cushions which the doctor had arranged upon the gate. Then they carried him into the ‘Swan’ and got him to bed there.
Lilian and her mother, trembling and struggling with their tears, followed the bearers. The crowd which always accompanies disaster, even in a village, made its comments as the melancholy little cortege went along, and Lilian could not fail to overhear. Hodges was there. ”

“ He had twice as much money as Hodges, four times his digestion and ten times his commonsense.
“Send that dish back here, Breen,” Mason cried out in a clear voice—so loud that Parkins, winged by the shot, retraced his steps. “I want to see what Mr. Hodges is talking about. Never saw a truffle that I know of.” Here he turned the bits of raw rubber over with his fork. “No. Take it away. Guess I'll pass. Hog saw it first; he can have it.”
Hodges's face flushed, then he joined in the laugh. The Chicago man was too valuable a would-be subscriber to quarrel with. ”

“ Because he knew fully the depraved nature of Hodges, he could not blind himself to the frightful peril of Plutina in the outlaw’s power. The girl’s plight was one to inspire horror in any decent breast; to the lover, worshiping her as something ineffably holy, 198 the possibility of her pollution by the brute who had stolen her away was a thing too monstrous for belief, yet not to be denied. ”

“ In the other direction, it ran, broadening a very little, to where a tiny cleft showed in the precipice. Plutina guessed that this marked the entrance to a cavern. Despite the bravery of her changed mood, the eerie retreat daunted her by its desolate isolation. Then, Hodges climbed upon the ledge, and she heard his shout, coming faintly to her ears above the roar of the cascade which fell just beyond the cavern’s mouth.
“Welcome, home, Honey!” he bawled, with his 225 detested jocularity. “They hain’t nobody a-goin’ to butt in on our love-makin’ up hyar.” ”

“ It was an old business affair, and Hodges, a harsh, obstinate, and unfeeling man, who happened at this time to be in a delicate position with his Calcutta correspondent, thinking that the marriage would settle everything well, sacrificed his daughter to the interests of his fortune. ”

“ Doctor Hodges is a good man,—a charitable man," he continued, "and attends the poor for nothing. He is now with Matthew Malmayns, the sexton, who was taken ill of the plague yesterday, and will get nothing but thanks—if he gets those—for his fee. ”

“ The cross was then taken out and examined, and Hodges said that he did not mind giving the witness something, but he must go to his banker’s first, and get some drafts changed. He then went out, leaving the cross with the witness and Probin, but returned, saying that his banker was out, and could not be seen until four o’clock, and a meeting at that hour was eventually appointed to take place at the Angel Inn, St. Clement’s. Each party then gave his name. Hodges said that he came from Worcester, and was a hop-merchant ”

“ Hodges was so moved by the incident that he asked Breen if he would not bring back that Madeira (it had been served now in the pipe-stem glasses which had been crossed in finger-bowls) . This he sipped slowly and thoughtfully, as if the enormity of the crime had quite appalled him. Mason was no longer a “rough diamond,” but an example of what a “Western training will sometimes do for a man,” he whispered under his breath to Crossbin. ”

“ Amidst such attentions, who can wonder that cold praise has been often the only reward of merit? In this country, Dr. Nathaniel Hodges, who, like the good bishop of Marseilles, drew purer breath amidst the contagion of the plague in London, and, during the whole time, continued in the city, administering medical assistance, was suffered, as Johnson used to relate, with tears in his eyes, to die for debt, in a gaol. ”

“ Hodges married in 1835 Mary Schollar, daughter of James Sanders of Weymouth, by whom he had four sons, since deceased, and four daughters. Hodges's ‘Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Court of Common Pleas’ form a valuable collection of cases from Hilary term 1835 to Michaelmas term 1837, both dates inclusive. ”

“ How nice they look!"
"And the chickens have got a third!" yelled the boys, who had taken a hasty round of the exhibits. [144]
"The eggs haven't won anything, but the cockerels have 'commended'. Mrs. Hodges' have got the first."
"We haven't done badly," said Winnie, "considering I can't devote all my time to it like the farmers' wives. Gwen, you've helped loyally, and I'm going to give you half a crown out of the prize money. I shall save the rest to buy some really good White Leghorns; Mrs. Hodges says they lay better than any others in the winter. Oh, here's Father! ”

“ Hodges, therefore, walked off to the Green Man for his health’s sake; and Master Carnaby sneaked off, nobody knew where, for the sake of blackberries;—while the Nursemaid, for the sake of society, took a romantic walk with the two twins, and a strange footman. Gipsies are a wandering race, and all the performers topped their parts ”

“ But I should hope that he will be dissuaded from his rash design."
"Dissuaded!" echoed Blaize. "You don't know my master. He's as obstinate as a mule when he takes a thing into his head. Nothing will turn him. Besides, Doctor Hodges sanctions and even recommends the plan."
"I have no opinion of Doctor Hodges," sneered the apothecary. "He is not fit to hold a candle before a learned friend of mine, a physician, who is now in that room. The person I speak of thoroughly understands the pestilence, and never fails to cure every case that comes before him. ”

“ In tracking a criminal, following a particular horse along a beaten highway, and drawing inductions from a hair or a footprint, one of those somnolent, grinning Hodges will suddenly display activity of body and finesse of mind. ”

“ Fatigue lay very heavy on Plutina, after the strains of the two days. Only her hate of the man at her side bolstered up pride, so that she compelled herself to keep moving by sheer force of will. It was already dusk, when, at last, they issued from the wood and went forward over the shore of the pool at Sandy Creek Falls.
“Wall, hyar we be!” Hodges cried loudly. ”

“ HODGES, Sir WILLIAM (1645?–1714) , London merchant and writer, descended from a Middlesex family, was born about 1645. On 6 June 1611 a complaint was preferred by the citizens of Chester against a William Hodges, merchant, of London, who was perhaps Sir William's father (Harl. MS. 2105, p. 379) . Hodges rapidly acquired a large fortune from the Spanish trade, and was in partnership at Cadiz with Christopher Hague, Ellis Terrell, and the Hon. ”

“ Hodges. All of us. Governor, turnkeys, and especially the prisoners, because they were in trouble. “My Master loves you, though He hates your sins,” says he; and “I love every mother's son of you.” What d'ye think of that? He loves the whole biling! Told 'em so, however.
Fry. Loves 'em, does he? Well, that's a new lay! After all, there's no accounting for tastes, you know. Haw! haw!
Hodges. Haw! haw! ho!
This same Sunday afternoon, soon after service, the chaplain came to Robinson's cell. Evans unlocked it, looking rather uneasy, and would have come in with the reverend gentleman ”

“ The bucket was brought and the contents were flung over Robinson.
The chaplain gave a cry of dismay. The turnkeys both laughed at this.
“You see he was only shamming, sir,” said Hodges. “He is come to the moment the water touched him.”
“A plain proof he was not shamming. A bucket of water thrown over any one about to faint would always bring them to; but if a man had made up his mind to sham, he could do it in spite of water. ”

“ As they ascended the winding stairs, loud outcries resounded along the ambulatory, and echoed by the vaulted roof of the nave, convinced them that the sufferer was again in a state of frenzy, produced by fever and the anguish of his sore; and on reaching the cell they found him struggling violently with Solomon Eagle, who held him down by main force.
"He is in a fearfully excited state, truly," observed Hodges, as he drew near, "and must not be left for a moment, or he will do himself a mischief. ”

“ Malmayns!" exclaimed Hodges, in surprise. "I heard that something very extraordinary occurred last night in Saint Faith's. With your permission, Mr. Bloundel, she shall be admitted; I want to ask her a few questions. You had better hesitate about engaging her," he observed to the grocer, as Leonard departed, "for she is a woman of very indifferent character, though she may (for aught I know) be a good and fearless nurse."
"If there is any doubt about her, I cannot hesitate," returned Bloundel.
As he said this, the door was opened by Leonard, and Chowles and Judith entered the room. ”

“ He’s at work on an amazing comedy with which he intends to fire the Thames next first of April. He and I are both going to appear in it at Barndale in the Christmas week. Meantime we rehearse a terrific combat nightly. ‘While words of learned length and thundering sound Amaze the wondering rustics gathered round. ‘A genial idiot, Hodges yclept, has persuaded the whole village that a murder is on the carpet, and that Billy and I are at daggers drawn. Don’t tell him this in any of your letters. It’s a great tribute to our acting that even Hodges takes us to be in earnest. ”