John Manning

“ The smell of aromatic box on a hot summer of long ago is in our nostrils. We realise all the personages—the impulsive, hot-headed father; the domineering, indiscreet mother; the cousin, Rose Agnew, and her parson husband; little Kate and Robin of the Royalist household—as well as John Milton and his father, and the two nephews to whom the poet was tutor—and a hard tutor. Miss Manning's delightful humour comes out in the two pragmatical little boys. But Mary herself dominates the picture. ”

“ Luckily for John, Mark Manning was on his way to call upon the hermit, when he became an indignant witness of James's brutality. He said nothing, but fairly flew across the pasture till he reached the battle-field. The first intimation James had of his presence was a vigorous grasp of his coat collar, and in an instant he was lying on his back close to his late victim, with Mark standing over him.
"I'm ashamed of you, James Collins," he said, sternly. "You're a contemptible coward to attack a smaller boy like Johnny." ”

“ As she took her seat by the side of the bed, she gave Laurence Laughton a look that seemed to peer [Pg 194] into his soul. Laurence felt himself quiver under it. It was a look to make a man fearful. Then John Manning, who had moved uneasily as his wife entered, said, “Laurence, can you see any resemblance in my wife to any one you ever saw before?” ”

“ I’m going now to take a look round at the mules, and then I shall lie down.”
He rose and walked away to where the mules were cropping the grass, which grew abundantly in the open places, and as soon as he was out of hearing, John Manning began to growl.
“All right, young gentlemen,” he said, “I’m ready for anything; but, of all the wild scarum-harum games I was ever in, this is about the wildest. Come up here to steal stuff! for that’s what it is, and you can’t call it anything else. I’ve know’d people steal every mortal thing nearly, from a horse down to a pocket-knife. ”

“ MANNING, JAMES (1781–1886) , serjeant-at-law, born in 1781, was son of James Manning; unitarian minister, Exeter, by Lydia, daughter of John Edge of Bristol. He early acquired a familiarity with history, antiquities, and the European languages, was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn 28 June 1817, and went the western circuit, of which he was for many years the leader. His reputation rested mainly upon his learning. He was no orator, and his powers of advocacy were slight; but as a junior he obtained much business. ”

“ Sell this house for what it will bring, and put the money into government bonds. You may find it hard to persuade her to move, for she seems to have a strange liking for this place. She breathes freely in the deadly air that suffocates me. But you must not let her remain here; this is no place for her now that a new life and new duties are before her.”
“How was it I did not know of your marriage?” asked Larry.
“I knew nothing about it myself twenty-four hours before it happened,” answered John Manning. “You need not look surprised. It is a simple story. ”

“ Father's Objections do not transpire, no one being by but Mother, who is unlikely to soften Matters. But, so soon as John Herring shuts the Door behind him, and walks off quickly, Anne is called down, and I follow, neither bidden nor hindered. Thereupon, Father, with a red Heat-spot on his Cheek, asks Anne what she knows of this young Man. ”

“ Hardy summoned three clerks from the outer office, and in their presence as witnesses the will was signed.
"I suppose I may as well leave the document with you, John," said Anthony.
"It will be as well. Now, about the other matter. It seems to me you may as well send Mark at once in search of some clue to the possible existence of a grandchild. Before doing so, however, may I suggest something?"
"Certainly."
"I don't like the idea of your living in that lonely cabin. Why can't you seek a home in the house of your young secretary? Has he a good mother?"
"She is a very worthy woman." ”

“ I was crossing the pasture, and was attracted by the poor animal's moans. That is the way I happened to be near when you came up."
"That all sounds very smooth," said the deacon, impatiently, "but if you didn't shoot the cow, who did?"
"I think that question can be answered, Deacon Miller; John Downie!"
To the deacon's surprise, John came into the room at this summons.
"Johnny," said Mark, "will you tell the deacon who shot his cow!"
"I don't like to tell," objected John; "it wasn't done on purpose."
"Did you do it?" queried the deacon, sharply.
"No, sir. I never fired a gun in my life." ”

“ There is not a man alive so loving as he: he loves his old wife as if she were indeed a young maiden." For Dame Alice, whom More had wedded very soon after the death of his first child-wife, was nec bella nec puella—neither a beauty nor a girl. And besides these, in the year when little Margaret, according to Miss Manning, began to write in her "fayr Libellus" which her tutor, Master Gunnel, gave her, there were dwelling in the house the aged father, Sir John More, good judge and humorous man, with his third wife. ”

“ John Hardy rapidly penned the following despatch.
"Mark Manning, Planter's Hotel, St. Louis: Go at once to Chicago and find Lyman Taylor. He knows where child is. Employ a detective, and track him to boy's residence. Don't let him suspect your object. ”

“ At this point in the MS. comes in "the hodge-podge of German puerilities" (see the letter to Manning, February 15, 1802) , the sacrifice of which so discontented Manning, who evidently considered the "supplementary scene" (closing the fourth act, [pages 189 to 191] ) , as Lamb called it, a poor substitute.
Scene changes to Woodvil Hall. John reading a letter by scraps—A Servant attending.
"An event beyond the possible reach of foresight. 'Tis thought the deep disgrace of supposed treachery in you o'ercame him. His heart brake. You will acquit yourself of worse crimes than indiscretion. ”

“ We had the six-oared Barge; and when Rupert Allington was tired of pulling, Mr. Clement tooke his Oar; and when he wearied, John Harris [32] gave over playing the Pipe; but William and Mr. Gunnel never flagged.
Erasmus was full of his Visitt to the Archbishop, who, as usuall, I think, had given him some Money.
"We sate down two hundred to Table," sayth he; "there was Fish, Flesh, and Fowl; but Wareham onlie played with his Knife, and drank noe Wine. He was very cheerfulle and accessible; he knows not what Pride is; and yet, of how much mighte he be proude! What Genius! ”

“ I'm sure "a going in the Tops of the Mulberry Trees" on a blusterous Evening, is enow to draw us alle, Men, Mothers, and Maids, together in an Heap.... We goe aboute the House in Twos and Threes, and care not much to leave the Fireside. Last Sunday we had closed about the Hearth, and little Bill was a reading by the Fire-light how Herodias' Daughter danced off the Head of St. John the Baptist, when down comes an emptie Swallow's Nest tumbling adown the Chimnie, bringing with it enow of Soot, [236] Smoke, and Rubbish to half smother us alle ”

“ A wealthy home, four years at Harrow, Balliol in its palmiest days, a good degree, a College Fellowship, political and secular ambitions of no common kind, apprenticeship to the practical work of a Government office, a marriage brightly but all too briefly happy, the charge of a country parish, and an early initiation into the duties of ecclesiastical rulership—all these experiences had made Henry Manning, by the time of his momentous change, an accomplished man of the world. ”

“ Cardinal Wiseman was slowly dying; the tiller of the Church was slipping from his feeble hand; and Manning was beside him, the one man with the energy, the ability, the courage, and the conviction to steer the ship upon her course. More than that; there was the sinister figure of a Dr. Errington crouching close at hand, ready to seize the helm and make straight—who could doubt it?—for the rocks. In such a situation the voice of self-abnegation must needs grow still and small indeed. Yet it spoke on, for it was one of the paradoxes in Manning's soul that that voice was never silent. ”

“ Undoubtedly, what is most obviously striking in the history of Manning's career is the persistent strength of his innate characteristics. Through all the changes of his fortunes the powerful spirit of the man worked on undismayed. It was as if the Fates had laid a wager that they would daunt him; and in the end they lost their bet.
His father was a rich West India merchant, a governor of the Bank of England, a Member of Parliament, who drove into town every day from his country seat in a coach and four, and was content with nothing short of a bishop for the christening of his children. ”

“ Manning’s married life was of brief duration. His young and beautiful wife was of a consumptive family, and died childless (July 24, 1837) . The lasting sadness that thus early overshadowed him tended to facilitate his acceptance of the austere teaching of the Oxford Tracts; and though he was never an acknowledged disciple of Newman, it was due to the latter’s influence that from this date his theology assumed an increasingly High Church character, and his printed sermon on the “Rule of Faith” was taken as a public profession of his alliance with the Tractarians. ”

“ Manning laughed. "Oh, he thinks I'm as mad as a hatter. He can't understand anyone being able to exist unless they're within a taxi-drive of Bedford Row," He paused. "All the same, I believe it's people like ourselves who really get the best out of life. I would give the whole of what London and New York have to offer for one good evening after duck, or a stiff beat to windward round the Bridwell buoy." ”

“ She read a warning in this, and in the color of the sun, that was red, like blood, and in the whirr of the grasshoppers, that was sinister and threatening. The creeks had dried, and their slimy beds crept along the willows like sluggish snakes. Gaunt range-cattle bellowed in their thirst, and the parched earth crackled beneath the sun that hung above the house like a flaming disk. Sometimes she sank beneath the burden of it; then she would wring her hands and call on God to help them; they were beyond human power. She and Jim were alone all the morning ”

“ If he stayed they would come for him; if he went, they would apprehend him before he was ten miles from the house.
“Jim, we got to think. If there’s a chance in a thousand that you can get away, you got to take it; if there ain’t, the children mustn’t know. We got to think it out!”
“There ain’t a chance in a thousand, old girl. There ain’t one in a million. They’re circling round in the hills out here now, waitin’ for me, like buzzards waitin’ for the eyes of a dyin’ horse.” ”

“ Certainly I would rather choose to be stayed on God, than to be in the thrones of the world, and the Church. Nothing else will go into Eternity."
In a moment of ambition, he had applied for the Readership of Lincoln's Inn, but, owing chiefly to the hostile influence of the Record, the appointment had gone elsewhere. A little later, a more important position was offered to him—the office of sub-almoner to the Queen, which had just been vacated by the Archbishop of York, and was almost certain to lead to a mitre. The offer threw Manning into an agony of self-examination. ”

“ The horse, with a keener sense than his master, shied slightly as he passed the group of pines where Judith stood; but Peter’s glance was for the open trail, and as she heard him canter by, so close that she could have touched his stirrup with her hand, it seemed as if he must hear the beating of her heart.
“Oh, blind eyes, and ears that will not hear, and heart that has forgotten how to beat! Yes, go to that pale, cold girl! You speak one language, and life for you is the way of little things!” ”

“ I called you Harry because everyone was calling everyone else by his first name. Your last name made no impression on me at all. By George!" he concluded, in a new burst of amazement.
"What were the circumstances, exactly?" asked Hatch.
"I'm a traveling man," Manning explained. "I go everywhere. A friend gave me a card to the Lincoln Club in Pittsburg and I went there. There were five or six of us playing poker, among them Mr.--Mr. Doane here. I sat at the same table with him for twenty hours or so, but I can't recall his last name to save me. It isn't Doane, I'm positive. ”

“ It has always to be borne in mind that Manning was essentially a man of the world, though he was much more than that. Be it far from me to disparage the ordinary type of Roman ecclesiastic, who is bred in a seminary, and perhaps spends his lifetime in a religious community. That peculiar training produces, often enough, a character of saintliness and unworldly grace on which one can only "look," to use a phrase of Mr. Gladstone's, "as men look up at the stars." But it was a very different process that had made Cardinal Manning what he was. ”

“ Ira cleared his throat. “They tell me she air like to yield a million any day.” At this Eudora gave him the wealth of her eyes, and her mother reached across two of the glowering suitors and dropped a hot flapjack on his plate.
“Who sez that she air likely to yield a million any day?” inquired Ben Swift, openly flouting such prophecy. “Yes, who sez it?” inquired Hawks and Taylor, joining forces for the overthrow of the common enemy.
“‘They sez’ is easy talkin’, shore ’nuff,” mumbled Mrs. Rodney, as she helped herself to butter with her own knife. ”

“ Whenever a man has put to me the question, 'Are you Hofer?' I have never yet said 'No;' and I cannot begin now."
Anna was going to remonstrate; but he smiled rather sadly at her and said—
"It would be to little good, dear—we are already discovered by Franz."
Here Johann burst into a loud fit of crying, and flung himself on the straw; while Anna stood speechless.
"We had better go somewhere else, then," said she, after a moment.
"Where? We dare not descend into the valleys; and if we stray about the mountains, Rudolf will not know where to find us, and we shall perish with hunger. ”