John Hope

“ I do not consider that Miss Bellairs quite appreciates the effort I have made.”
Mary sighed.
“We mustn’t expect too much of them, must we?” she asked.
“I suppose not,” John conceded; but he still frowned.
When we consider how simple the elements of perfect happiness appear to be, regarded in the abstract, it becomes surprising to think how difficult it is to attain them in the concrete. A kind magician may grant us all we ask, may transport us whither we would go, dower us with all we lack, bring to us one desired companion after another, but something is wrong. ”

“ Is not the cause of freedom hopeless? Have not our countrymen been beaten at all points? Is there a chance of success left to hang a single hope on? What good, then, will it do for John to risk his life for the sake of continuing a little longer a struggle which must soon end disastrously? ”

“ He had to get at any state of mind resembling penitence by roads of his own; the ordinary approaches were overgrown and impassable from neglect. But in view of John's distress and of the pain which had come on Christine, and on a realisation of the unpleasant perfection of art which he himself had been compelled (and able) to exhibit, he achieved the impression that he had better have left such things alone—well, at any rate where honest old duffers as John Fanshaw were involved in the case. Having got so far, he might not unnaturally have considered whether he should remodel his way of life. ”

“ But Frank Caylesham had been in his turn too hard on John. She was the only person who could realise John's position and make allowances for him. Yet all the light died out of her face as she entered her home.
John was waiting for her. His mind was full of how well things were going in the City. In the old days this would have been one of their merry, happy, united evenings. He would have told her of his success, and "stood" a dinner and a play, and brought her home in the height of glee and good companionship, laughing at her sharp sayings, and admiring her dainty little face. ”

“ And John says, speaking of the Christian's hope, "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure;" then the impure may flatter themselves, and presume upon the favor of God without "purifying their souls in obeying the truth," but they are without hope in the world. And again he says, "Little children let no man deceive you, he that doth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous." ”

“ John laughed: then he leant forward and said in a low voice:
“Have you settled anything about dates?”
“No. Mr. Ellerton—well he didn’t introduce the subject: so of course I didn’t. Have you?”
“No, we haven’t. I made some suggestion of the kind, but Miss Bellairs didn’t fall in with it. She won’t even let me ask her father’s consent just yet.”
“Mr. Ellerton proposes not to announce our—anything—for a few days.”
“Well,” said John, “I shall insist on an announcement very shortly, and you ought to do the same, Mary. We know the evils—” He checked himself, but Mary was not embarrassed. ”

“ He became a lieutenant-general in 1808, was second in command of the troops sent to Sweden under Sir John Moore, and in August the same year landed in Portugal. He was in command at Lisbon at the time of the French evacuation of the city, and had the difficult task of restraining the Portuguese populace from acts of violence against the invaders. When Moore advanced into Spain, Hope commanded one of the two divisions of the army. Moving in the direction of the Tagus, after some very critical operations, he joined Moore at Salamanca, and took part in the retreat to Corunna. ”

“ Capital was, as Kilshaw had said, alarmed; [Pg 103] only Sir Robert Perry smiled, as he remarked to the Chief Justice at the Club,
"It can't last. His own men won't swallow all this. Medland must be mad to try it."
"Perhaps," suggested Sir John, "he doesn't mean business. He may only want a strong platform to dissolve on."
"Riding for a fall, eh?"
"I shouldn't wonder."
"My experience is," observed Captain Heseltine, looking up from the Stud Book, "that chaps who ride for a fall come more unholy crumplers than anybody else."
"I hope you're right," said Sir Robert, with a smile. ”

“ John took a turn up and down the room.
"I must let her have it," he decided, as he came back to the hearthrug.
"You make everybody afraid of you with your lamentable fits of temper," he told her. "Tom's afraid of you, and afraid of what you might drive him into. Your children are afraid of you. Everybody's afraid of you. You make the house impossible to live in. You're even violent sometimes, I'm afraid, Lady Harriet." ”

“ Miss Bussey stared helplessly from one to the other.
“It’s all right, Miss Bussey,” remarked John cheerfully. “We’ve had an explanation; we part by mutual consent.”
“John,” said Mary, “is to be just my brother and I his sister. Oh, and Auntie, I want to go with him to Cannes.”
This last suggestion, which naturally did not appear to any well-regulated mind to harmonize with what had gone before, restored voice to Miss Bussey.
“What’s the matter with you? Are you mad?” she demanded.
John sat down beside her. His friends anticipated a distinguished Parliamentary career for John ”

“ She had to live with John. John's conduct might be unreasonable and unjustifiable, but people who must be lived with frequently presume on that circumstance and behave as they would not venture to behave if living with them were optional. John really had not a leg to stand on, if it came to an argument. But arguing with people you have to live with does not conduce to the comfort of living with them—especially if you get the better of the argument. He was exceedingly sorry for Christine, but he didn't see any way out of it for her. ”

“ Hope's power as the author of a fighting romance, and his pen again becomes a sword in this picturesque and thrilling story of a mediæval Italian paladin, whose character will recall the Chevalier Bayard to the reader who breathlessly follows him through adventures and dangers that fall thick and fast.
"Mr. Anthony Hope is a striking exemplification of the fact that the talent and quality that are within a man will force themselves out, no matter how circumstances may combine and conspire to keep them under. ”

“ Don’t judge me by a little thing like this, John. In little things, I am a little thing myself—I always was. But in great things, I hope not; I don’t mean to boast, John dear, but I hope not!’
He was even better convinced of the truth of what she said than she was, as he felt her loving arms about him. ”

“ And that Harriet's got a temper, and, I suppose, that we've got to be punished for our sins." She took her arm out of his—she had slipped it in again while she talked about John as life. "And here I am, just at home, and—and the corner's waiting for me, Frank."
"I'm devilish sorry, Christine."
"Yes, I'm sure you are. You always meant to be kind. Frank, if ever I do make friends with John, be glad, won't you?"
"I think he's behaved like a——"
"Hush, hush! You've always been prosperous—and you've never been good." She laughed and took his hand. "So don't say anything against poor old John." ”

“ It is the penalty of living to lose the great props of life. What a melancholy prospect for his poor boys! When you have an opportunity, say everything kind from me to Mrs. Bellasis. I shall, I trust, say two masses a week for him. He is on our prayer lists. What a vanity is life! how it crumbles under one's touch!
I hope you are getting strong, and that this does not weigh too heavily on you....
Ever yours affectionately,
JOHN H. NEWMAN. J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C. to the Very Rev. Dr. Newman.
Hotel d'Orient, Hyères, Var, France:
March 6, '70. ”

“ John Baptist's Feast."
"The right to know it on other days—would that be recognised in return for a homage, Marchesa?"
"One homage for so many letters?"
"I had sooner there were no letters—and daily homages."
"You take too many obligations—and too lightly."
"For every one I gain the recognition of a right."
"The richer you grow in rights then, the harder you must work!"
"I would have so many rights accorded me as to be no better than a slave!" cried Lynborough. "Yet, if I have not one, still I have nothing." ”

“ The butler stood in the doorway, with two letters on a salver. One he handed to Mary, the other to John, and walked away with a twinkle in his eye. However even our butlers do not know everything that happens in our houses (to say nothing of our hearts) , although much they may think they do.
John looked at his letter, started violently and crushed it into his pocket. He glanced at Mary; her letter lay neglected on her lap. She was looking steadily out of the window.
“Well, that’s settled,” said John. “I—I think I’ll have a cigar, dear.”
“Yes, do, darling,” said Mary, and John went out. ”

“ I don't speak of the face of my dream-image only, though I could speak till next St. John's Day upon that. I speak to a soul. I think our souls have known one another longer, ay, and better than our faces."
"Yes, I think it is so," she said quietly. "Yet who can tell so soon?"
"There's a great gladness upon me because my dream came true."
"Who can tell so soon?" she asked again. "It's strange to speak of it."
"It may be that some day—yes, some day soon—in return for the homage of my lips on your hand, I would ask the recognition of my lip's right on your cheek." ”

“ Years of life shall I live in that moment to-morrow! If it end ill, no human being but myself shall know. If it end well, the world is not great enough to hold, nor the music of its spheres melodious enough to sound, my triumph!"
It will be observed that Lord Lynborough, though indeed no novice in the cruel and tender passion, was appreciably excited on the Eve of the Feast of St. John Baptist. In view of so handsome a response, the Marchesa's kiss of the hand and her murmured "To-morrow" may pass excused of forwardness. ”

“ For every apparent blessing contains the seeds of danger—every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope—and the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable. ”

“ Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear
Does arbitrate the event, my nature is
That I incline to hope rather than fear,
And gladly banish squint suspicion. ”

“ Her own line taken, Lady Aspenick gathered a tiny faction to raise Jenny's banner. They could not do much against Lady Sarah's open viciousness, Fillingford's icy silence, the union of High Church and Low in the persons and the adherents of Alison and of Mrs. Jepps. But Sir John followed his wife, Bindlecombe took courage to uplift a friendly voice, and old Mr. Dormer began to waver. His memories went back to George IV.—days in which they were not hard on pretty women—having, indeed, remarkably little right to be. Mr. ”

“ But in the strong spirit of the wine of life—whereof I have been and am an inveterate and most incurable bibber—I rejoice in that wonderful moment of mine to-morrow—when the door of the shrine opens, and I see the goddess before whom my offering must be laid. Be she giant or dwarf, be she black or white, have she hair or none—by the powers, if she wears a sack only, and is well advised to stick close to that, lest casting it should be a change for the worse—in any event the offering must be made. ”

“ But if she should refuse? Reckon not on that. For the more she fall short of her Image, the more will she grasp at an outward showing of triumph—and the greatest outward triumph would not be in refusal. ”

“ But to find the recognition! I have lit up the countryside to-night to celebrate that rare discovery.
"Rare—yes—yet not doubted. I knew it of her. I believe that I have broken all records—since the Renaissance at least. Love at first sight! Where's the merit in that? Given the sight be fine enough (a thing that I pray may not admit of doubt in the case of Helena) , it is no exploit; it is rather to suffer the inevitable than to achieve the great. ”

“ Why not at the House?” said I to him. “You’ll want every vote to-night. Be off and help the ministry, and take Donna Antonia with you. They’re eating up the Minister of Finance.”
“All right! I’m going as soon as I’ve had another muffin,” said Johnny. “But what’s the row about?”
“Well, they want their money,” I replied; “and Don Antonio won’t give it them. Hence bad feeling.”
“Tell you what it is,” said Johnny; “he hasn’t got a—”
Here Donna Antonia struck in, rather suddenly, I thought.
“Do stop the gentleman talking politics, Mme. Devarges. They’ll spoil our tea-party.” ”

“ Without being at all wiser or better than others,—being even as weak in judgment and in faith as I am,—something may be made of it. Without daring to meddle, one may stand clear-sighted, ready to help.—How the children are flying over the meadow towards that gentleman who is fastening his horse to the gate! Mr Hope, no doubt. He is the oldest cowslip gatherer of them all, I fancy. If one could overhear the talk in every house along the village, I dare say some of it is about Mr Hope winning one of these young ladies. ”

“ THANK God! it is not within the power of one man’s errors to blight the promise of a life like that of Hope. It is but a feeble destiny that is wrecked by passion, when it should be ennobled. Aunt Jane and Kate watched Hope closely during her years of probation, for although she fancied herself to be keeping her own counsel, yet her career lay in broad light for them. She was like yonder sailboat, which floats conspicuous by night amid the path of moonbeams, and which yet seems to its own voyagers to be remote and unseen upon a waste of waves. ”