Langdon

“ Now when Langdon had ceased speaking, the people marvelled greatly at his words, seeing that he had been an indweller for many years among those of whom he now spake bitterly, and had not, during all that time, opened his mouth to convince them of the error of their ways. ”

“ But now that rebellion gleamed in the sapphires of her eyes and her mouth drew straight with stubbornness, Langdon took no joy of the study. Silence grew heavy between them.
“Very well, then,” returned Langdon. Too wise, he, for discussion. In business, yes; in love, never argue. Love's quiver is filled with arrows, not arguments; and just now Langdon's supply of arrows had run low. “Very well, indeed.”
“And besides,” added Valeska, “no woman can respect a man who fails to overcome difficulties. ”

“ Langdon. He is a handsome man, and of noble carriage; he has been a member of Congress, and is now one of the first people of the country; his house is elegant and well furnished, and the apartments admirably well wainscoted” (this reads like Mr. Samuel Pepys) ; “and he has a good manuscript chart of the harbor of Portsmouth. Mrs. Langdon, his wife, is young, fair, and tolerably handsome, but I conversed less with her than her husband, in whose favor I was prejudiced from knowing that he had displayed great courage and patriotism at the time of Burgoynes’s expedition.” ”

“ When he reached the slope on which he had hobbled his horse Thor was no longer in sight. The horse was where he had left it. Not until he was in the saddle did Langdon feel that he was completely safe. Then he laughed, a nervous, broken, joyous sort of laugh, and as he scanned the valley he filled his pipe with fresh tobacco.
"You great big god of a bear!" he whispered, and every fibre in him was trembling in a wonderful excitement as he found voice for the first time. "You—you monster with a heart bigger than man!" ”

“ Langdon is dying to make a lion of him, and begged to bring him. He is very indifferent on such things and seems intent on his own affairs. Is grave and old for his years, and doesn't seem to care much for pleasure and admiration, as most men would after a youth like his, for he has had a hard time, I believe. For a wonder, he consented to come when Mrs. Langdon asked him, and I flew off at once to tell you and secure you for tonight."
"A thousand thanks. I meant to rest, for Mamma frets about my being so gay; but she won't object to a quiet evening with you. ”

“ Nothing came near Langdon except a few mosquitoes, who couldn't bite through the make-up; and a small and inquisitive bird that inspected him with disdain and said, "cheep—che-ep!" so many times that Langdon took it as a personal comment and almost blushed.
He thought to himself: "If it wasn't that William is actually becoming ill over his unhappy love affair I'm damned if I'd let even a dicky-bird see me in this rig. Ugh! What a head of hair! The average girl's ideal is what every healthy man wants to kick. I wouldn't blame any decent fellow for booting me into the brook on sight." ”

“ Langdon, maybe. Langdon, who had been given away as a pet to a thing so monstrous that even Cartwright had shrunk from naming it.
With shaking hand, West put the bottle back on the mantel, placed the cork beside it. For a moment he stood there, hands against the mantel, gripping it, staring out the vision port beside the fireplace. Staring down into the valley where a shadowy cylinder tilted upward from the rocky planet, as if striving for the stars. ”

“ Langdon is tired and hungry, and I want the Regents to finish with him quickly so that he can have some luncheon."
[108] The gate-keeper, a distractingly pretty red-haired girl, regarded Langdon with dubious hazel eyes.
"He'll never pass the examination," she whispered to Ethra. "What on earth are you thinking of?"
"What are you thinking of, Marcella? You must be perfectly blind not to see that he complies with every possible requisite! The Regents' inspection is bound to be only a brief formality. Be good enough to unbar the gates." ”

“ Langdon took the photograph. "It looks like a—a hammock."
[33] "What that girl held in her hand last night resembled a hammock."
"Hey?"
Sayre leaned over his shoulder and laid the stem of his pipe on the extreme edge of the photograph.
"If you look long enough and hard enough," he said, "you will just be able to make out the vague outline of a slender human hand among the leaves, holding the end of the hammock. See it?"
Langdon looked long and steadily. Presently he fished out a jeweller's glass, screwed it into his eye, and looked again.
"Do you think that's a human hand?" ”

“ And Lee grew purple.
“Every day there'll be something for you,” Langdon inexorably continued. “I never put off till to-morrow the man I can do to-day. And——”
“Why, sir, if you think I—I'm going to be your slave——”
“Suit yourself,” Langdon smiled indifferently. “Only, remember you already owe me a dozen turtles' eggs for that pipe and tobacco, and thirty sticks of wood for the use of my knife. Also, one iguana for the water you and your daughter have already used.” ”

“ As he carried two extra rifles in his outfit the mishap did not disturb Langdon as much as it might otherwise have done, and he continued to climb over the rocks until he came to what appeared to be a broad, smooth ledge leading around the sandstone spur of the mountain. A hundred feet farther on he found that the ledge ended in a perpendicular wall of rock. From this point, however, he had a splendid view of the broad sweep of country between the two ranges to the south. He sat down, pulled out his pipe, and prepared to enjoy the magnificent panorama under him while he was getting his wind. ”

“ Langdon is interested in art, and has done some exceedingly creditable photographic work among the northwest Indians and has reproduced in enlargements and panoramas historical scenes in the states of Oregon and Washington, many of which he has personally hand-colored. He thoroughly enjoys home life and takes great pleasure in the society of his family and friends. ”

“ He could still hear the tongueing of the dogs when other and nearer sounds alarmed him. Langdon and Bruce came rushing around the bulge in the mountain wall, and at sight of the dead dogs they stopped. Langdon cried out in horror.
He was not more than twenty feet from Muskwa. For the first time the cub heard human voices; for the first time the sweaty odour of men filled his nostrils, and he scarcely breathed in his new fear. Then one of the hunters stood directly in front of the crack in which he was hidden, and he saw his first man. ”

“ As curious and touching a case as any in my experience, says the Professor, was that of young Langdon. I refer to it particularly, because circumstances brought me into unwonted association with some parties to the affair, and to the knowledge, connected with it, of as strange an instance of youthful clairvoyance as might be related.
Young Harry Langdon was the heir presumptive to the Langdon baronetcy and estates, at that time enjoyed—save the irony of the term—by his great-uncle Sir Hugh Langdon, who was a childless widower and paralytic. ”

“ And when Master Langdon came to see its management, he recognized that there must be fidelity and intelligence somewhere among the instructors. It was only necessary to look for a moment at the fair, open forehead, the still, tranquil eye of gentle, habitual authority, the sweet gravity that lay upon the lips, to hear the clear answers to the pupils' questions, to notice how every request had the force without the form of a command, and the young man could not doubt that the good genius of the school stood before him in the person of Helen barley. ”

“ Looking then at Langdon’s suit impersonally, as a brother, how must he consider it? Dr. Merriweather was a [177] sufficient voucher for the man’s social standing. What of the man himself? He had seen enough of him to realize that he was clean-limbed, clean-hearted. He had also had a glimpse into the man’s soul and had found there a brother artist.
Barnes sprang from the bed and taking a chair by the open window inhaled the perfumed night breeze. He was tempted hard to throw this whole matter from his mind, but he gripped himself. Langdon had said, “She has filled my soul with song.” ”

“ No man could close out an interview so effectually as Crane. As Langdon slipped away as though he had been thrust bodily from the room, there was in his mind nothing but admiration of his master—the man who backed up his delicate diplomacy with liberal capital. ”

“ Langdon, when a man that's once started right lives among sick folks for five-and-thirty years, as I've done, if he hasn't got a library of five-and-thirty volumes bound up in his head at the end of that time, he'd better stop driving round and sell his horse and sulky. ”

“ Stephen Langdon, left alone, chuckled again, although his face quickly fell into that reposeful, mask-like expression which was habitual to it—an expression not to be changed by the loss or gain of millions. He remained for a time quietly in the chair he had been occupying, but soon he rose and crossed to his desk, throwing back the top of it. ”

“ Langdon was more like a mentor than a lover, and she had an unpleasant consciousness of being managed, and of continually yielding her will to his, even in the matter of a ride, or a walk, or an evening's entertainment, for it was contrary to his rule to do anything, or go anywhere, that was not perfectly convenient and agreeable to himself. ”

“ His act of buying Diablo had been prompted by newborn feelings of regard for the Porters, chiefly Allis; but no man, much less Langdon, would have given him credit for other than the most selfish motives.
True to his resolve, Langdon utterly refused to share his confidences with Jakey Faust.
“We've tried the horses,” he said, “and the Dutchman won, but Crane knows more about the whole business than I do. You go to him, Jake, or wait till he sends for you, an' you'll find out all about it. My game's to run straight with one man, anyway, an' I'm goin' to do it.” ”

“ Back on Terra they had forgotten the fullness that came with belonging to the earth, but the men who colonized among the stars remembered. Looking back, Langdon thought that the real instability and alienness was in the Solar System. Men had no roots there, and it was a secret woe in them and made them feverish and restless, eager to taste from all cups but shuddering away from draining any one.
On Tanith, thought Langdon with a quiet sort of exultation, a man drank his cup to the bottom, and there were many cups—or, if only one, it was never the same and could never be emptied. ”

“ Langdon was drawling with considerable emphasis.
"Who, Mr. Langdon?" inquired Mrs. Fanshaw—she had been as abstracted as Olivia. "You've been filling the jails rapidly to-day, and hanging not a few."
Mrs. Herron laughed. "He says your husband and Mrs. Dumont's and mine should be locked up as conspirators."
"Precisely," said Langdon, tranquilly. "They'll sign a few papers, and when they're done, what'll have happened? Not one more sheep'll be raised. Not one more pound of wool will be shorn. Not one more laborer'll be employed. Not a single improvement in any process of manufacture. ”

“ And they gathered, together around Langdon, and they comforted him, and they promised to avenge him of the despiteful treatment of the men of Pennsylvania; and James led him to a far country, and shewed unto him the rich fields of the South, and said unto him:
32. "Behold, O Langdon! here is abundance of the fruits of the earth—rice and sugar doth the land yield forth freely; wherefore pitch thou here thy tent, and thou shalt increase in riches and power, and thy sons shall receive honour and distinction at the hands of the people of the South." ”

“ Langdon bit rabidly at a flapjack and beat the earth with his heels.
[26] "The stream," continued Sayre, "purled." He coldly watched the literary effect upon Langdon, then went on:
"Now, there's enough descriptive colour to give you a proper mental picture. If you had left me alone I'd have finished it ten minutes ago. The rest moves with accelerated rhythm. It begins with the cracking of a stick in the forest. Hark! A sharp crack is——"
"Every bum novel begins that way." ”

“ This gave Master Langdon a good chance to study her ways when her eye was on her book, to notice the inflections of her voice, to watch for any expression of her sentiments; for, to tell the truth, he had a kind of fear that the girl had taken a fancy to him, and, though she interested him, he did not wish to study her heart from the inside.
The more he saw her, the more the sadness of her beauty wrought upon him. She looked as if she might hate, but could not love. ”

“ SAMUEL CLEMENS now decided to pay his long-deferred visit to the Langdon home in Elmira. Through Charlie Langdon he got the invitation renewed, and for a glorious week enjoyed the generous hospitality of the beautiful Langdon home and the society of fair Olivia Langdon—Livy, as they called her—realizing more and more that for him there could never be any other woman in the world. ”

“ The Trainer's face brightened. “Did you get Lucretia after all?”
“No; I bought a big black, Diablo.”
The look of delight faded from Langdon's eyes quickly. “The devil!” he exclaimed.
“That's what I said; that's his name.”
“But he's the most uncertain brute that ever wore a set of plates. You'll get no good of him, sir; he's bad, clean through. It's come down to him from his second sire, Robert the Devil, without a bit of the good, either. He'd break a man that would follow him.”
“He won't break me,” answered Crane, quietly; “nor you, either, Langdon—you've got too much sense.” ”