Lawrence Newt

“ She thought society opened beautifully. Such a handsome fellow in such a romantic spot, beginning his compliments in such a low, rich voice, with his hair almost brushing hers. But he did not finish. Abel Newt was perfectly silent. He glided away with Grace Plumer into grateful gloom, and her ears, exquisitely apprehensive, caught from his lips not a word further.
Lawrence Newt rose as Hope requested, and they moved away. She found her aunt, and stood by her side. ”

“ Lawrence Newt was simply one of those incomprehensibly pleasant, eccentric, benevolent men, whose mercantile credit was as good as Jacob Van Boozenberg’s, but who perversely went his own way. One of these ways led to all kinds of poor people’s houses; and it was upon a visit to the widow of the clergyman to whom Boniface Newt had given eight dollars for writing a tract entitled “Indiscriminate Almsgiving a Crime,” that Lawrence Newt had first met Amy Waring. As he was leaving money with the poor woman to pay her rent, Amy came in with a basket of comfortable sugars and teas. ”

“ Nobody spoke.
“I am sorry for that poor little Grace Plumer,” Lawrence Newt gravely said.
“Don’t you be troubled about little Grace Plumer. She can take proper care of herself,” answered Arthur, merrily.
Hope Wayne’s busy fingers did not stop. She remembered Miss Grace Plumer, and she did not agree with Arthur Merlin. Hope did not know Grace; but she knew the voice, the manner, the magnetism to which the gay girl was exposed,
“If Mr. Godefroi Plumer is really as rich as I hear,” said Lawrence, “I think we shall have a Mrs. Abel Newt in the autumn. Poor Mrs. Abel Newt!” ”

“ You are, perhaps, not aware—”
“Oh! thank you, yes, I am fully aware,” replied Lawrence Newt. “But one thing I do not know.”
The Honorable Budlong Dinks bowed with dignity as if he understood Mr. Newt to compliment him by insinuating that he was the man who knew all about it, and would immediately enlighten him.
“I do not know why, if a man does a mean and unfeeling, yes, an inhuman act, it is bad manners to speak of it. Old Van Boozenberg ought to be sent to the penitentiary for his treatment of his daughter, and we all know it.” ”

“ Lawrence looked at her in amazement.
“I mean that sly old foxes who have lined their own nests can afford to pity a young one who gets a silver shoe-buckle,” hissed Fanny, with bitter malignity. “If Alfred Dinks were not a hopeless fool, he’d break the will. Better wills than this have been broken by good lawyers before now. Probably,” she added suddenly, with a sarcastic smile, “my dear uncle does not wish to have the will broken?”
Lawrence Newt was pondering what possible interest she thought he could have in the will. ”

“ It was some old teacher of Amy’s—some music-master, some French teacher—dying alone and in poverty, or with a large family. No, upon the whole, thought Lawrence Newt, he’s not old enough to have a large family—he is not married—he has too delicate a nature to struggle with the world—he was a gentleman in his own country; and he has, of course, it’s only natural—how could he possibly help it?—he has fallen in love with Miss Waring. These music-masters and Italian teachers are such silly fellows. ”

“ Newt’s hand and said Good-by.
“Oh, dear me! isn’t it dreadful?” she sobbed. “Please don’t, say any thing about it. Good-night.”
They shook her hand, but as they opened the door into the still moonlight midnight they heard the clear, hard voice in the parlor, and in their minds they saw the beating of the bony fingers.
“Riches have wings! Riches have wings!”
CHAPTER LXXII. — GOOD-BY.
The happy hours of Hope Wayne’s life were the visits of Lawrence Newt. The sound of his voice in the hall, of his step on the stair, gave her a sense of profound peace. ”

“ Mr. Van Boozenberg is a highly respectable man—really—we should lapse into chaos,” and the honorable gentleman rubbed his hands with perfect suavity.
“When did we emerge?” asked Lawrence Newt, with such a kindly glimmer in his eyes, that Mr. Dinks said merely, “really,” and moved on, remarking to General Arcularius Belch, with a diplomatic shrug, that Lawrence Newt was a very odd man.
“Odd, but not without the coin. He can afford to be odd,” replied that gentleman. ”

“ As the eyes of the younger involuntarily glanced about the office and presently returned to the merchant, they found the merchant’s gazing so keenly that they seemed to be mere windows through which his soul was looking. But the keen earnestness melted imperceptibly into the usual sweetness as Lawrence Newt said,
“You think I can talk prettily about misfortune because I know nothing about it. You make a great mistake. No man, even in jest, can talk well of what he doesn’t understand. ”

“ Lawrence Newt did not answer.
“I am like other young men,” continued Abel. “I am fond of living well, of a good horse, of a pretty woman. I drink my glass, and I am not afraid of a card. Really, Uncle Lawrence, I see no such profound sin or shame in it all, so long as I honestly pay the scot. Do I cheat at cards? Do I lie in the gutters?” ”

“ Lawrence Newt interposed—
“I suppose that Arthur doesn’t like Abel for the same reason that oil doesn’t like water; for the same reason that you, Miss Amy, and Miss Wayne, would probably not like such a man.”
Arthur Merlin looked fixedly at Hope Wayne.
“What kind of man is Mr. Newt?” asked Hope, faintly coloring. She was trying herself. ”

“ Lord! what an old hum it is—isn’t it?” said General Belch, cheerfully, as he smoothed his hat with his coat-sleeve, and put it on.
They went down stairs laughing and chatting; and the Honorable Abel Newt, the worthy exemplar of the purest republican virtues—as the resolution stated when it appeared in the next morning’s papers—was left snoring amidst his constituency of empty decanters and drained glasses.
CHAPTER LXXVII. — FACE TO FACE.
“Signore Pittore! what brings a bird into the barn-yard?” said Lawrence Newt, as Arthur Merlin entered his office. ”

“ A fiercely baleful wrath shot instinctively through Newt's gray hawk-like eyes and smoldered in their deep sockets, but there still was need to leash his anger—and conceal his purpose.
"I'm obleeged ter ye," he answered in a dead voice of mock humility, though his tongue ached to burst into profane denunciation, "but I hain't axed nobody ter do nothin'. I didn't 'low ter be beholden ter nobody."
"You are 'beholden' to everybody who has befriended you," retorted the warden with rising asperity. "Do you mean to go back to the mountains?" ”

“ Once more she repeated:
"To get Henry Falkins—why?"
"Henry's ther man thet penitensheried Newt," came the response. "Newt's done swore the blood-oath. He's done tried oncet afore, but he was hindered. Thar's a meetin' over at Jackson terday, an' men air lookin' fer trouble. Newt aims ter git Henry terday."
Suddenly the girl's stupor broke into a fury of inquisition.
"Does ye aim ter stand there an' suffer a man ter be murdered without liftin' a finger ter save him?" Her questioning voice rose shrilly and lapsed into dialect. "Why did ye stand by an' let Newt go?" ”

“ Boniface Newt sat in his office haggard and gray. His face, like his daughter Fanny’s, had grown sharp, and almost fierce. The blinds were closed, and the room was darkened. His port-folio lay before him upon the desk, open. The paper was smooth and white, and the newly-mended pens lay carefully by the inkstand. But the merchant did not write. He had not written that day. His white, bony hand rested upon the port-folio, and the long fingers drummed upon it at intervals, while his eyes half-vacantly wandered out into the store and saw the long shrouds drawn over the goods. ”

“ The major and his sergeant acted promptly. With the flat of sword and clubbed musket, they beat back the mutinous and excited men, and, after one blood-mad moment, all except Newt turned readily enough with shamefaced grins.
But, in the momentary flail-like wielding of his saber-blade, Henry Falkins had struck Newton Spooner one light blow, and straightway the boy forgot any war between the United States and Aguinaldo; and remembered only the old war between himself and the man who had sent him to prison. He slipped a cartridge into his breech and would have settled the score at the moment. ”

“ I knows who I'm ergwine ter git. Thar's a feller I'm ergwine ter kill." The unforgiving malice in the boy's eyes, the rigid posture of his whole body as he stood contemplating his enemy, told Red Newton the whole story. This, then, was the man Newt meant to kill. It was logical enough. This was the witness who had riddled the alibi.
At first, Red Newton shrugged his shoulders in the fashion of one who has no call to meddle in the affairs of others, but as fresh aspects of the matter presented themselves to his consideration, a very real danger to all his family arose to confront him. ”

“ I s’pose, now, your Abel don’t lay up no money—ha! ha!”
Mr. Van Boozenberg laughed again, and Mrs. Newt joined, but in a low and rather distressed way, as if it were necessary to laugh, although nothing funny had been said.
“It’s positively dreadful the way he spends money,” replied she. “I don’t know where it will end.”
“Oh ho! it’s the way with all young men, marm. I always sez to ma she needn’t fret her gizzard. Young men will sow their wild oats. Oh, ‘tain’t nothin’. Mr. Newt knows that werry well. Every man do.” ”

“ Newt's eyes blazed evilly at the words, but he only clamped his mouth tighter. He would not have called it a murder conspiracy. To him it was merely "killin' a feller that needed killin'." "Since," continued the warden quietly, "you were full of white liquor, and since you had never had a chance to know much anyhow, those ladies got busy, and you have another chance. You ought to feel very grateful to them. It's up to you to prove that the experiment was worth the risk it involves—the risk of turning an assassin loose on society."
The boy from Troublesome said nothing. ”

“ If the gentlemen returned alone, they finished the evening at Benton’s, in Ann Street, where they played a game of billiards; or at Thiel’s retired rooms over the celebrated Stewart’s, opposite the Park, where they indulged in faro. Abel Newt lost and won his money with careless grace—always a little glad when he won, for somebody had to pay for all this luxurious life. ”

“ It’s so sort of draughty down town in your horrid offices, pa, sez she—sez ma, you know—that I’m awful ‘fraid you’ll catch your death, sez she, and I must mind ma, you know. Good-mornin’, Mr. Newt, a werry good-mornin’, Sir,” said the old gentleman, as he stepped out.
“Do you have much of that sort of thing to undergo in business, father?” asked Abel, when Jacob Van Boozenberg had gone.
“My dear son,” replied the older Mr. Newt, “the world is made up of fools, bores, and knaves. Some of them speak good grammar and use white cambric pocket-handkerchiefs, some do not. ”

“ The young man was well dressed and bore himself like a gentleman, yet he was a mountaineer by parentage and birth.
Newt's posture stiffened into rigidity. The color left his face and his eyes began to burn balefully.... He had just recognized Henry Falkins.
For an instant, the erstwhile convict stood paralyzed with astonishment, then the blood in his arteries began pounding a fanfare of triumph. Wheeling, he went rapidly toward the restaurant of Mr. Cawsler. There he would find some of the clansmen, and one of them could lend him a pistol. ”

“ I kinder reckon," he added gravely, "thet, ef things bust loose hyar-abouts, hit mout be a right-good idee ter take all these fellers up to Loueyville and lock 'em up in the jail-house thar. It mout be a right-good idea."
CHAPTER XV
A man whose outlook on life had been broader than Newt's, and whose brain did not receive constant poisoning from within, would have softened that fall and winter, because a new influence was working upon him. ”

“ Nicholas backed his chair from the table again, with an air of resignation, as Newton continued:
"Indeed, father, I think we must try our fortune elsewhere. What's the use of staying where we cannot get employment? Everything is now gone, except our wearing apparel. We might raise some money upon mine, it is true; but had we not better, before we spend it, try if fortune will be more favourable to us in some other place?"
"Why, yes, Newton, I've been thinking that if we were to go to London, my improvement on the duplex—"
"Is that our only chance there, sir?" replied Newton, half smiling. ”

“ He needs me in the election to-morrow. What’s the matter of your ol’ man, Newt? What for 191 does he vote for that Bonner, and throw down an old neighbor?”
“I can’t do anything with him!” exclaimed Newton irritably. “He’s all tangled up with Peterson and Bonner.”
“Well,” said Pete, “if he’d just stay at home, it would help some. If he votes for Bonner, it’ll be just about a stand-off.”
“He never misses a vote!” said Newton despairingly.
“Can’t you cripple him someway?” asked Pete jocularly. “Darned funny when a boy o’ your age can’t control his father’s vote! So long!” ”

“ Newt was lugged in, the windows were closed, and General Belch and his friends withdrew.
“I tell you what it is,” said he, as they passed up the street at a convenient distance behind the crowd, “Abel Newt is a man of very great talent, but he must take care. By Jove! he must. He must understand times and seasons. One thing can not be too often repeated,” said he, earnestly, “if a man expects to succeed in political life he must understand when not to be drunk.”
The merry company laughed, and went home with Mr. William Condor to crack a bottle of Champagne. ”

“ At all costs, young Newt must for the present hold his hand. Above all else, that was imperative. Black Pete questioned the prisoner searchingly and learned that Newt had gone out Main Street, and Red had followed him for some distance. Therefore, that was the road young Newt would watch, and the road upon which young Newt must be watched. Cawsler later reported the manner in which the boy had come demanding arms, and the Deacon bitterly regretted having surrendered to him his own pistol. ”