Kester

“ He took an opportunity one day, when Kester seemed in a more confidential mood than usual, of again hinting at the pleasure it would give him if his cousin would only accept that three thousand a-year out of the estate which it had been his grandfather’s manifest wish should be Kester’s share of the property. But Kester froze the moment the subject was broached, and Lionel saw plainly how utterly useless any further persistence in it would be. ”

“ Kester St. George and his uncle breakfasted tête-à-tête that morning. The meal was rather a late one. Messrs. Drayton and Whiffins had been up for hours, and were out exploring the beauties of the neighbourhood. “And as for Richard,” explained the General to Kester, “he’s one of the strangest fellows in existence. He takes his meals anyhow and at any time, and one never knows where to look for him, whether indoors or out. ”

“ George, after deliberately rubbing his spectacles with his handkerchief, placed them across his nose, and proceeded to take a steady survey of his nephew.
Kester fidgeted a little under the ordeal, but smiled and tried to appear pleased.
“You don’t look so young as when I saw you last,” said his uncle.
“Eight years make a difference in the appearance of most men,” said Kester; “and London life is very wearing.”
“No doubt it is,” said the veteran, drily. “But that any absolute necessity exists for you to live in London is more than I was aware of before.” ”

“ Was there any man in Loamshire who knew better the “natur” of all farming work? He was one of those invaluable labourers who can not only turn their hand to everything, but excel in everything they turn their hand to. It is true Kester's knees were much bent outward by this time, and he walked with a perpetual curtsy, as if he were among the most reverent of men. ”

“ The cue dropped from Kester’s fingers and rattled on the floor. “What was that?” he said, suddenly, looking round with a shiver. “I could have sworn that somebody touched me on the shoulder.”
“There is no one here but ourselves,” said Lionel, languidly. The pain was almost more than he could bear up against.
Kester recovered his equanimity after an impatient “Pish” at his folly, and the two men went slowly out of the billiard-room together. Outside the door Kester whispered in his cousin’s ear, “I will go and fetch the mixture, and be back again in two minutes.” ”

“ Kester took off his dress-coat, put on an old shooting-jacket and a smoking-cap, and then went off to the billiard-room.
“Monsieur St. George means mischief to-night,” said Pierre, smiling to himself, and rubbing his hands slowly. “It is not very often I see that light in his eye. When I do see it, I know it means no good to somebody.”
Kester found the two men chalking their cues. A servant was mixing a tumbler of brandy-and-seltzer for Osmond.
“I’ll play you one game, a hundred up,” said Osmond, as soon as the servant had left the room; “and I’ll back my own play for ten pounds.” ”

“ That will make the sixth of them, man or maid, that has left me since I came here; and I hear that the rest, old and new, are all likely to follow suit before long.”
“You astonish me,” said Kester. “You have always seemed to me the most indulgent of masters. If anything, too lenient—excuse me, sir, for saying so—and I can’t understand at all why these idiots should want to leave you.”
“Oh, it’s not me they want to leave: it’s the house that doesn’t suit them.” ”

“ Kester looked after him with a sneer. “There goes another gilded fool,” he said.
“I thought you introduced him to me as your particular friend,” said Lionel.
“I called him my particular friend because he is rich. I can’t afford to call any poor man my friend.”
“My reason for inviting him to Park Newton was partly because I thought it would please you to have him there at the same time as yourself, and partly out of compliment to his brother, whom I respect and like exceedingly.” ”

“ Going suddenly into the bedroom one day, without knowing that he was there, I found him standing by the cupboard, with the door open, and the diamond necklace in his hand. It was not my place to say anything, and it seemed no more than likely, at that time, that some day the necklace would be his own property. But, as regards the staircase, sir, I don’t know as Mr. Kester was ever told about that.”
There was nothing more to be learned, so Lionel took a kindly leave of the old man, who seemed as if he could not sufficiently express his delight at not having been forgotten by “the new master.” ”

“ To the first question, the whereabouts of the confession, he determined to give his own personal attention. But before he had an opportunity of doing this, he found among the papers of Kester the very document itself—the original confession, duly witnessed by Skeggs and the girl Nell. A day or two later Mr. Bendall was also found, and—for a consideration—had no objection to tell all he knew of the affair. His evidence, and that given in the confession, tallied exactly. There could no longer be any moral doubt as to the fact of Kester St. George having been a son of Mother Mim. ”

“ What a pity the finer things of life were so often the impractical! He pushed past the deputy and entered the office.
Elizabeth came toward him with hands extended. Her cheeks were quite colorless but the smile that parted her lips was infinitely tender and compassionate.
"You should not have come here!" North said, almost reproachfully, as his hands closed about hers.
General Herbert stood gravely regarding the two, and his glance when it rested on North was troubled and uncertain. The difficulties which beset this luckless fellow were only beginning, and what would the end be? ”

“ Well, that’s the way with heaps of us. Circumstances are dead against us, and we are not strong enough to overmaster them; else should we smite the world with surprise, and genius would not be so scarce an article in the market as it is now.”
Kester stared. Was this the half-drunken blackguard who had been jeering at him but two minutes ago? “And yet, drunk he must be,” added Kester to himself. “No fellow in his senses would talk such precious rot.”
“Your obedient servant, sir,” said Skeggs, with a purposely exaggerated bow as he held open the door for Mr. St. George to pass out. ”

“ Skeggs’s casual remark about the pedlar and his wife, unheeded at the time, now flashed vividly across Kester’s mind.
“You will have to wait here till I can get assistance,” he said, in answer to his companion’s question. “There is no help for it.”
“I suppose not,” growled Skeggs. “Was ever anything so cursedly unfortunate?”
“Sedgeley is the nearest place to this,” said Kester. “There are plenty of men there who know the moor thoroughly. I will send half a dozen of them to your help.” ”

“ But not till the great day of all would their awful silence ever be broken.
Drayton and Whiffins, drawing nearer to the coffin, gazed down through the glass plate at the immovable features underneath. Kester, leaning against one of the cold stone pillars, shuddered, but drew no nearer. Beyond the faint circle of light which radiated from the tapers, all was obscurity and gloom the most profound. ”

“ Dobbs duly called his master at four, and at four thirty he mounted his horse and rode away. The roads were heavy and sloppy with the melting snow. The morning was intensely dark, but Kester knew the country thoroughly, and was never at a loss as to which turn he ought to take. Not one human being did he meet during the whole of his ride. ”

“ I cannot bear the idea of living alone. I have only you and him—and you; Kester, are too much of a Bohemian, too much a citizen of the world—a wandering Arab who strikes his tent a dozen times a year—for me ever to think of staying with you. Dick is far more of an old fogey than you are, and he and I—I don’t doubt—will get on very well together.”
“All the same, uncle, I shall be deucedly sorry to lose you.”
Kester was destined to be still more surprised when he came down to dinner, for there he found Mr. Hoskyns and the Reverend Mr. Wharton, the octogenarian Vicar of Duxley. Mr. ”

“ Franz gently interposed.
Margaret's head half rested on the chair-back, half upon his shoulder. Her eyes were closed and the hands he held within his own burned feverishly. At last she whispered:
“Take me with you. It is best we go together. I am sick—sick—and he is killing me. If you would have me, you must take me now....”
The next day as Philip was at work, Franz entered his room unannounced. Seeing who it was, Philip put down his pen, turning from the pile of manuscript over which he had been toiling.
“Are you busy, Philip?” Franz asked. ”

“ If I succeed, you shall pay all expenses, and give me five thousand pounds.’ That would fetch him, I think.”
“You have been assuming all along,” said Kester, “that your case is based on fact. I assure you again that it is not—that it is nothing but a devilish lie from beginning to end.”
“Really, my dear sir, that has little or nothing to do with the matter. I dare say it is a lie. But it is my place to believe it to be the truth, and to make other people believe the same as I do. Here’s your very good health, sir.” Again Mr. Skeggs took a long pull and a strong pull at his bottle of gin. ”

“ It was almost day when Lester woke.
“Better, Lester?” he asked.
“Yes. I wish I were back to it. I wish I were a boy again. I am sick of the present, and the future has nothing for me. You know I can't keep from the very things that are killing me. I try and try and then I fail.”
“You must keep from them if you are ever to be all you were, all you promised to be.”
Lester shook his head.
“It will never be, Philip. It is too late—I am done for.”
“That's absurd, Lester. There! I can tolerate any one except the man who differs from me in his opinions. ”

“ The epic of William Shrimplin was taking to itself its old high noble strain, and Custer was aware of a sneaking sense of shame that he could have doubted even for an instant; then swiftly the happy consciousness stole in on him that he had been weighed in the balance by this specialist in human courage and had not been found wanting. And his heart waxed large in his thin little body.
They were jogging along Mount Hope's deserted streets when Marshall Langham roused from his stupor. ”

“ George, and a very pretty romance it is.”
“Look you here, Mr. Skeggs, or whatever your dirty name may be,” said Kester, sternly, “I’d advise you to keep a civil tongue in your head or it may be worse for you. I’ve thrashed bigger men than you in my time. Be careful, or I shall thrash you.”
“I like your pluck, on my soul I do!” said Skeggs, heartily. “If you’re not genuine silver—and you know you ain’t—you’re a deuced good imitation of the real thing. Thoroughly well plated, that’s what you are. Any one would take you to be a born gentleman, they would really. ”

“ But on looking up once, as they formed round the open grave, she saw Kester, in his Sunday clothes, with a bit of new crape round his hat, crying as if his heart would break over the coffin of his good, kind mistress. ”

“ Shrimplin ironically. "Well, they usually die when I begin to throw lead!" He tugged fiercely at the ends of his drooping flaxen mustache and gazed into the wide and candid eyes of his son.
"Like I should give you the particulars, Custer?" he inquired.
Custer nodded eagerly, and Mr. Shrimplin cleared his throat.
"He was called one-eye Murphy because he had only one eye—he'd lost the other in a rough-and-tumble fight; it had been gouged out by a feller's thumb. Murphy got the feller's ear, chewed it off as they was rolling over and over on the floor, so you might say they swapped even." ”

“ Don’t you think——”
“Now look you here, Mr. St. George—if that is your name, which I very much doubt—don’t let you and me begin to fling mud at one another, because that is a game at which I could lick you into fits. I have made you a fair offer. If we can’t come to terms, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t part friendly.”
Once again Kester walked on in silence. The snow had been coming down more thickly for some time past, and already the dull gray moor began to look strange and unfamiliar, but neither of the two men gave more than a passing thought to the weather. ”

“ Shrimplin, and paused to clear his throat. He was walking beside wild Bill's head while Custer in the cart tried to support Langham, for the latter had not regained consciousness. "Custer, I'm mighty well satisfied with you; I may say that while I always been proud of you, I am prouder this moment than I ever hoped to be! How many boys in Mount Hope, do you think, would have the nerve to do what you just done? I love nerve," concluded Mr. Shrimplin with generous enthusiasm. ”

“ The doctor was welcomed by his brother; an amiable little man who all but wept over him as he embraced him with fervid enthusiasm in the region of the thighs.
“My dear John! My dear, dear John!” the little man kept repeating. “You're home again! There have been many changes, but it's still home.” Then he espied Benson. “Why, God bless me, Jacob, and so you are back, too! Shocking news you bring, my dear boy. My heart bleeds for those poor ladies! But we are all in His hands, it's His Providence, the mystery of His Ways;” and he wrung the lawyer's hand feelingly. ”

“ But Custer, his reasonable curiosity satisfied, was already on his way back to the road. "If only pa has not driven off!" But the senior Shrimplin had not moved from the spot where Custer had left him five minutes before.
"Is that you, son?" he asked, as Custer appeared at the fence.
"Come here, quick!" commanded the boy.
"For what?" inquired Mr. Shrimplin.
"You needn't be afraid, it's only a man who's fallen off the iron bridge. He's down in the bed of the slaughter-house run. I can't get him out alone!" ”