Landon

“ Landon's surprise escaped in an exclamation. And then he laughed—an evil, sneering laugh, which brimmed with insolence and suggestion.
"You—prefer—to stay?" he repeated, and looked from her to the man who lay at his feet. "Was my chance shot so far from the target?" he asked. "You will stay with—whom? Not a lover?"
Her eyes were stormy, but her voice was restrained.
"Even your insolence does not turn me from my duty," she answered. "Captain Aylmer has served, and is suffering for, me and mine." ”

“ I love Miss Landon—for in her genius does the work of duty, the union of the two is "beautiful exceedingly," and virtue is its own reward; far beyond the highest meed of praise ever bestowed by critic—though round her fair forehead is already wreathed the immortal laurel. ”

“ Landon grinned wickedly.
"So you're being threatened," he agreed. "Deliberate the matter; give it your best attention; and all the while remember that there is nothing which will stop me, not a single solitary thing."
"I think you are wrong," said Miller, slowly, and then—the sound of it was bizarre to the last degree between his lips—he whistled a quaint little run, which thrilled and quavered up and down half a dozen bars to end upon a long-drawn note.
There was a queer silence. Landon looked at him with a frown which implied scarcely apprehension, but what is nearly akin to it—bewilderment. ”

“ In the zenith of her fame, and towards her terrible close of life, the personal appearance of Miss Landon was highly attractive. Though small of stature, her form was remarkably graceful; and in society she paid special attention to dress. ”

“ Landon, the father of 'L. E. L,' at Old Brompton,
a narrow lane only dividing our residences. My first recollection of the future poetess is that of a plump girl, grown enough to be almost mistaken for a woman, bowling a hoop round the walks, with a hoop-stick in one hand and a book in the other, reading as she ran, and as well as she could managing both exercise and instruction at the same time."
She was born on the 14th of August, 1802, at Hans Place, Chelsea, where her father, a junior partner in the prosperous house of Adair, army-agents, then resided. ”

“ She recognized Landon and in his companion, Miller, talking vehemently.
She left the window and waited, sitting on the rough stool which was placed at the pallet foot.
A minute later the sound of bolts withdrawn and a key in a lock echoed under the stone arch. Landon entered alone, debonair, smiling, but with eyes which were ominous of intention.
He looked down at the pallet.
"Our sufferer—our patient? Do we perceive no signs of progress?" ”

“ The man addressed was a brawny, muscular ruffian, with a livid and forbidding countenance, whose dark eyes sparkled with pleasure as he bowed assent to the interrogation.
"Hold!" cried Landon. "The truth can no longer harm any but myself; and though you may inflict death upon me, you shall not enjoy the fiendish satisfaction of mutilating my limbs with your horrid enginery. I did aid Hamilton, not indeed in ruining an injured maiden, but in rescuing from the thraldom she abhorred a lovely lady whom Providence formed to make the happiness of an honorable man. ”

“ Aylmer made a significant motion. He bent and slipped his arms beneath Landon's shoulders. The quartermaster lifted his knees.
Landon struggled in their arms.
"Let me be!" he cried. "Let me stand. Damn you, let me stand upon my own feet!"
They hesitated. Then with a shrug the quartermaster laid down his burden.
"This is no place for a blind man to pick his way," he remonstrated. "To get down, Monsieur, you have to poise yourself along the wall thirty feet above the square."
Landon stood panting and leaning against his cousin. The spasms of agony were convulsing his face. ”

“ Silently and swiftly he ascended a large, stone staircase, and took refuge in the first apartment which he found before him. A beautiful young girl, the only occupant of the room, starting at the fearful apparition of a stranger flying for his life, in the robe of the san benito, fell upon her knees and crossed herself repeatedly, as her dark eyes were fixed in terror on the intruder.
"Lady!" cried Landon, "for the love of that Being whom we both worship, though in a different form, take pity on a wretched fellow-being. Save me! save me!" ”

“ Miss Landon appears to have been endowed with peculiarly sensitive feelings, which, though they caused her perhaps to magnify and exaggerate "the ills and woes that mortal man await;" yet, at the same time, enabled her, like all other imaginative children, to create for herself a fairy land of her own, in which she would find consolation for her sorrows and troubles, whether real or imaginary. ”

“ I replied, and turning to Landon, who had been present and much amused, I added, "You'll have to come too. I'm a married man, and I'm not going to call on the most beautiful woman in the world alone; though, by the way, I suppose she will be veiled?"
"Certainly not," Idu put in. "The Gul-Bibi values her good looks far too highly to conceal them. I'll let her know to-night that you and Major Landon [137] will call upon her to-morrow in the motor-car. She will be more pleased at that than at the gift of many sheep." ”

“ The stranger cautiously lifted the light in his left hand, bending over the sleeper, while with his right he drew a broad, sharp poniard from his belt, and raised it in the act to strike. But just as it was descending, Landon caught the assassin's arm, and shouted in his loudest tones,—
"Don Rodrigo, wake!"
"Baffled!" cried the ruffian, with an oath. "You shall pay with your life for interfering."
The governor sprang from his bed in time to witness the deadly struggle between Landon and the midnight assassin. ”

“ With a rapid movement, unexpected by his antagonist, Clifford disengaged himself and stood free.
"You lie!" he said—"And you shall pay for it! Come away from the house and fight like a man! Come into the grass meadow yonder, where no one can see or hear us. Come!"
Landon paused, drawing his breath thickly, and looking like a snarling beast baulked of its prey. ”

“ I heard him, before they let them go!"
"And I!" she answered. "He is against us; we are alone, against them all!"
"Where does his profit come in?" he asked, wonderingly. "What arguments has Landon used; how can a man like him be the gainer?"
She shook her head.
"One has met him—in Gibraltar—in society," she said. "But do we know anything of him; does any one know?"
He was silent for a moment.
"No," he said, at last. "No one knows. I have heard it spoken of, his unknowableness, but no one has supplied a key to the mystery. ”

“ There was no ungentleness in the action, but it seemed instinctive—the gesture of an autocrat or of a dictator, seeing all men under his feet.
She gave a gesture of assent and followed him into the gloom cast by the sail upon the stern. Landon lay within a foot of where he had fallen, his head pillowed upon a tarpaulin. Muhammed had relinquished the tiller to Captain Luigi and was dropping aguardiente between the set lips and the color was stealing slowly back into the cheeks which had been as pale as Aylmer's own. Landon's eyes opened as Claire reached and stood beside him. ”

“ And she explained the manner in which Landon had been enabled to save the governor's life.
"Young man," said the governor, addressing Landon with deep emotion, "a mightier Power than the hand of man is visible in this. For the life you have saved I will repay you in the same manner. I insure you a full and free pardon, and you shall not have it to say that Don Rodrigo d'Almonte, bad as he has been represented, was a monster of ingratitude." ”

“ At times the ship sank so deep into the main that one would fancy the keel scraping the bottom of the Atlantic. Nowhere in this world does one feel one’s insignificance and utter helplessness more than at mid-ocean in such a sea. Miss Landon found herself thinking how helpless she would be in the world if that kind, indulgent father were to pass away. Half her fortune was invested in a railway along with the fortunes of friends and neighbors, who knew nothing about the business. Naturally enough her mind went back to her own experience on a mountain railroad, and to the handsome conductor. ”

“ Landon's recent election, we may adduce two testimonies, called forth by the occasion, of the estimation in which his sister is held. We have reason to know that the expression of Sir Robert Peel was—"I am happy to mark my sense of Miss Landon's character and talents by voting for her brother;" while Mr. Hope, the son of the author of "Anastasius," observed—"It is gratifying to have the means occasionally of showing both the reverence we feel for genius, and the gratitude we owe to those who exercise it on our behalf." ”

“ They’re marvellous. I’m glad I came.”
“Oh, do get in, Wynne,” wailed Milly. “You can examine the house to-morrow. I wish we hadn’t come!”
Landon was about to make search for knocker or bell, when one of the big bronze doors swung open, and a man peered out.
“You folks here?” he said, a bit unnecessarily. “Bring another lamp, Hester.”
“Yes, we’re here,” Landon assured him, “and we want to get in out of the wet!”
“Rainin’?” and the man stepped out of the door to look, blocking all ingress.
“No! that’s a figure of speech!” Landon’s nerves were on edge. “Open that door,—the other one,—let us in!” ”

“ In short, I have rarely known a woman so entirely fascinating as Miss Landon; and this arose mainly from her large sympathy. She was playful with the young, sedate with the old, and considerate and reflective with the middle-aged. ”

“ While the warriors whose glory once shone over the river, and the kings who adorned its banks with royal splendor, are at best but coldly remembered, the author who has identified himself with the interests and sympathies of a large portion of his fellow-creatures, how gratefully and admiringly is his name treasured!"
With graceful eloquence, Miss Landon's poetical spirit evoked the beings and scenes of bygone days, and peopled shore and stream with visions called up from the storied past. ”

“ Landon set out with his pen in search of an English millionaire who would supply us daily with a budget of home news cabled direct to us from London. Continually disappointed by the non-arrival of the Reuter despatches, he urged that some wealthy man should pay to have a long special cablegram sent to us daily, with a hint of all the world's happenings. "To us," did I say? no; for, as Mr. Landon expressed it, "All there is of The Friend belongs to the Army. Its existence began for the soldier, and its profits pass back to his interests. ”

“ The Landons appear to have been at that time settled at Crednall, in Herefordshire, where they enjoyed some landed property, in the possession of which they flourished until about the period of the South Sea mania, when one of them, Sir William Landon, Knt., concluded a series of enterprises, by which the circumstances of the family had been materially advanced, with some less prosperous speculations, whose issue involved the total loss of the patrimonial estates. ”

“ The rest of the day he studied time-tables, pondered the calendar, and sent telegrams. On the second day the limited bore him eastward.
THE gentlemen of the syndicate that had employed Landon to superintend a copper property in Peru to which they held a dubious title were politely attentive to his verbal report of his experiences. They had many other interests, and if they lost the Don Carlos they would still be able to eat thrice daily. Landon was disposed to take a humorous view of his two years' exile. ”

“ For the only wish I have in life is to please you.” Landon’s voice fell lower, and glancing about to make sure there was no one in hearing, he went on, “All these years, Avice, I’ve been loving you more and more. I’ve been striving to make a name and a fortune worthy of you. And I came home to further that purpose, and to see if there’s any hope for me. Is there, dear?”
“Oh, Kane, don’t talk like that now. Why, just think, Uncle——”
“I know it, little girl. Uncle isn’t yet buried. ”

“ But that was during her uncle’s lifetime, and before Kane Landon had come home from the West.
In a swift mental picture, Avice contrasted the two men. Landon, too, was tall and big and strong. Hoyt was far superior in manner, and in that indefinable effect given by cultured associations. Landon had the advantage of youth and the careless grace of that lack of self-consciousness, so often the result of western life. The self-possession of both men was complete, but Landon’s was somewhat that of bravado and Hoyt’s that of experience. ”

“ For three days and three nights the Pioneer rode and drifted, and with the dawn of the fourth the wind veered, without slackening strength, to the opposite quarter. Landon noted the change.
"It's fair," he said. They were the first words he had uttered to Herriott in two days. "We ought to make all the northing we can."
"Fire ahead," returned Herriott; "you're in charge." ”

“ Landon replied hastily. "You know I'm not up to much just yet; suppose we let social matters wait a little."
"Certainly; I merely want you to know that you needn't be a hermit unless you want to."
He bade the last of the teachers good-by and lounged about the handsome library where Thompson, the gardener, who had been installed as caretaker during the vacation, came to report that the house was cleared.
"Mr. Phipps said you hadn't been feeling well, sir. I hope we can make you quite comfortable here. You will find your rooms very cool on the hot days. ”

“ At last she leant over the balustrade, and her eyes filled with tears as she watched the moonlight turning the flowers to silver.
“I wish,” said she, “I were a flower–happy in the sunshine–happy in the soft night air. No beating heart within, to make me wretched.” And she dropped her head on his arm, and wept.
Before Ernest has time to utter even a few soothing words, a bright blade glittered in the moonlight, and Pauline sunk with a faint scream on the pavement–Minna had stabbed her sister to the heart! ”