Mackeller

“ These industrious people are employed by the saintly Schwartzbrod. If that astute financier elects to engage a large body of labor to get out my ore for me, then I think you will admit, Mackeller, much as you are prejudiced against him, that he is really the philanthropic benefactor of his race I have always said he was. ”

“ Mackeller, and I should like to know the modus operandi of a case like this. Are your seven men personally selling their stock?"
"How do you mean personally? They don't go on the market and trade, of course."
"Then they must employ some one else?"
"Oh, they are employing a score of brokers, all offering the shares with no takers."
"Do you know these brokers, Mr. Mackeller?"
"Every man jack of them."
"Are they enemies of yours?"
"There is neither enmity nor friendship in the city, Lord Stranleigh." ”

“ He stated that on one occasion he had given Mackeller a letter of introduction to you, and although you didn't read the document you took to Mackeller at once, and Hazel appeared to doubt that a similar result would take place in Isaacstein's case. So it was arranged that as you had both confidence in Mackeller's business abilities and a liking for the man himself; he should be asked to approach you regarding the project, and work the sympathy vein or the business vein, depending on which proved to be the line of least resistance. ”

“ I acknowledge a great liking and respect for Sir George Selwyn, even if he is old-fashioned, and Alexander Corbitt seems to me an upright, energetic man, whom I should be sorry to see come a cropper."
"Then let him look out for himself," replied Mackeller with determination. "Now, may I ask you a question or two? Do I exceed my rights in founding a bank?"
"Certainly not."
"Is it not a fact that every man with money possesses a bank account?"
"I suppose that is true."
"Consequently, must not all the customers I procure for my bank be drawn from some similar institution?" ”

“ Ah, well, a few hundred thousand pounds will buy quite a quantity of half-crown shares, and if we act simultaneously, as the king struck, we will acquire everything in sight before the stuff has time to rise. Come along, Mr. Mackeller, there's not a moment to lose. If you organize this sortie in silence and effectively, you will show the savage seven there's life in the old dog yet. ”

“ That’s not a bad receipt of yours, Mackeller. I didn’t think so serious a man as you was capable of such frivolity. The Rajah is in Chancery, in litigation, in irons, in Plymouth harbor, in-junctioned. I expect it will be a long time before the Rajah gets out of court. Captain Wilkie is all right, and back on my yacht. The Wychwood, with Simmons in command, is off to Paramakaboo. ”

“ He calls upon the estimable firm of solicitors, and either convinces them, or fails: gets his money, or doesn’t. So you see, my affairs are competently transacted, and I avoid the emotional strain of listening to explanations which probably I have not the mental grasp of business to understand. Now, which of these four cards may I have the pleasure of autographing for you?”
“Not one of them, my lord,” replied Mackeller. “The Honorable John Hazel said that if you would listen to me, he thought I might interest you.” ”

“ We must lure the principal newspaper men aboard, and all these millionaires who have been so kind to me."
"Don't you think," suggested Mackeller, "that it would be better to postpone the public trial until we are sure who owns the patent? You see, we are unnecessarily coming right out into the open. Flannigan will then be certain that we are determined to acquire the invention." ”

“ So, as Mackeller knew there were no gun shops along the Paramakaboo River, he took precaution to make provision beforehand without saying anything to his peace-loving master. A man whose daily walk is Piccadilly is scarcely in a position to predict what may happen on the Paramakaboo. ”

“ An English specialist who has successfully attended a member of the Royal Family, thus attaining instantaneously a European fame that years of hard work would never have achieved, does not temper the wind to the shorn lamb, but states the result of his diagnosis with a terseness that rather appals the ordinary man. The blow in Mackeller's case was softened by the fact that the big-boned Scotchman did not believe a word the expert said. ”

“ Mackeller, that the hammering of this mine has caused a financial panic in the city?”
“Oh, no, no! When I refer to a panic, I mean only among those few that have gone in with me; that believed me when I told them this was one of the best things I ever had offered to me. The Red Shallows flotation is too small an affair to cause even a flutter in the city, yet it threatens to grind me to pieces.”
“There are, you say, twenty stockbrokers selling these shares, and you know their names. Where do they offer the shares?” ”

“ They’d surely fight if confronted with such a prospect as that.”
“How can they fight? They’ve undertaken to turn over to you anywhere from sixty to seventy thousand shares of Red Shallows, which they do not possess, and cannot obtain. You’re the only man in the world from whom they can buy this material which they have sold. There is no competition in this deal. They must pay the price you ask. If you say these shares you bought for two-and-sixpence are now worth ten pounds, they must pay the difference, or go broke.”
“Well, Mr. Mackeller, that seems simple enough, doesn’t it? ”

“ Mackellar,” said Mrs. Henry. “What does this man value reputation? But he knows how high we prize it; he knows we would rather die than make these letters public; and do you suppose he would not trade upon the knowledge? What you call your sword, Mr. Mackellar, and which had been one indeed against a man of any remnant of propriety, would have been but a sword of paper against him. He would smile in your face at such a threat. He stands upon his degradation, he makes that his strength; it is in vain to struggle with such characters.” ”

“ Well; they did talk over the matter, cautiously and discreetly, for a few hours, for Captain Mackellar was a hard man at a bargain, and he would not agree to give them a passage at anything less than two pound a head. At last negotiations were concluded, the men got aboard the Bonnie Doon and piloted her out of the lagoon. They reached the Clyde in safety, having on the voyage found that Captain Mackellar was a religious man and never used any but the most God-fearing of oaths at his crew. ”

“ Canker, I know nothing of the Matter because I did not like your Play; but I would have you to know, Sir, that my Lady and I know a good Play when we see or read it as well as you for all your Aristotle and your Cook upon Littleton, and all your great Criticks. (Exit)
Cank. Psha! an ignorant Creature, Mr. Heartly, your Servant; I'll go and see for the Ladies.
Heart. So you have nettled him, Mrs. Chatter.
Chat. O hang him, he can't abide me upon your Account and Miss Harriet's; a conceited envious Wretch; he will allow nobody to have Judgment but himself. ”

“ In the absence of temptation even a rogue may be honest; and Mackcoull acquired so good a character in the navy, that he was in a few years appointed purser’s steward, and in the course of nine years saved a considerable sum of money. In 1785 he returned to London, where, in a short time, he dissipated all his earnings in the society of the dissolute and abandoned, and to repair his finances had recourse to his former habits of dishonesty. He soon eclipsed all his companions in iniquity, and shone pre-eminent as a pugilist, horse-racer, cock-fighter, gambler, swindler, and pickpocket. ”

“ Mackellar, you might live a thousand years and never understand my nature,” he would say. “This battle is now committed, the hour of reflection quite past, the hour for mercy not yet come. It began between us when we span a coin in the hall of Durrisdeer, now twenty years ago; we have had our ups and downs, but never either of us dreamed of giving in; and as for me, when my glove is cast, life and honour go with it.” ”

“ Macklin condensed and tightened Regnard's five-act plot into a two-act afterpiece; the role of the apothecary is greatly reduced into the stock London-stage Frenchman, du Maigre, who can barely speak English; the servant Lucy is more the English maid than the French bonne of the Regnard play who gave orders to her master; and the satire of Macklin's afterpiece is directed not only at lawyers and physicians, as in the Regnard play, but at Methodist itinerant preachers. ”

“ Macklin was proud and impetuous, and often lost engagements, by offending; and regained them by publicly apologising. He was an actor well established in favour, when, in the season of 1745-46, he made his first appearance as an author in an àpropos tragedy for the '45 era, "Henry VII., or the Popish Impostor." The anachronism in the title is only to [71] be matched by the violations done to chronology and propriety in the play,—a crude work, six weeks in the doing. It settles, however, in some degree, the time when Macklin left the Church of Rome for that of England. ”

“ No Madam, Posterity shall never say such a wretched Performance as the Suspicious Husband had the sanction of Francis Canker.
Har. Then, Sir, your humble Servant—I am glad I know your Mind. Our Treaty ends here. (Going, he holds her)
Cank. Dear Harriet, stay! Why will you urge me to a Behaviour so contrary to my Nature? Consider, Madam, how ridiculous it will make me appear to the World. Why People will think me mad.
Har. You are mistaken, Sir; they will only think that your good Nature has at last got the better of your Envy. ”

“ Mainhall, indeed, knew almost every one, and he babbled on incontinently, screwing his small head about over his high collar. Presently he hailed a tall, bearded man, grim-browed and rather battered-looking, who had his opera-cloak on his arm and his hat in his hand, and who seemed to be on the point of leaving the theater.
“I say, MacConnell, let me introduce Mr. Bartley Alexander. It's going famously to-night, Mac. And what a house! You'll never do anything like this again, mark me. A man writes to the top of his bent only once.” ”

“ There was a Stile for Tragedy!
Omnes. Ha! ha! ha!
Smart. Well, I wish his Farce may succeed, however.
Snarle. O so do I upon my word, Sir.—I have a great Regard for Macklin—but to be sure he is a very egregious Blockhead ever to think of writing; that I believe everybody will allow.
Omnes. Ay, ay, there's nobody will dispute that with you, Mr. Snarlewit.
Snarle. Notwithstanding he is such a Blockhead, I assure you, Mr. Smart, I have an Esteem for him.
Smart. Do you know what Characters or Business he has in his Farce? ”

“ Macculloch was, as I have stated, a native of the parish of Cromarty, and passed the greater part of a long life as a Society schoolmaster, on a salary of twelve pounds per annum. Out of this pittance he contrived to furnish himself with a library, which, among other works of value, contained the whole of the Encyclopædia Britannica in its second edition. Though full of compliment and gallantry in his younger days, he was for the last forty years of his life, so thoroughly a woman-hater, that he would not suffer one of the sex to enter his cottage, cook his victuals, or wash his linen. ”

“ In the end, Mackinsy kept his law-office or got it restored to him; 3,000 pounds a year without excess of work; a man much the gentleman, according to the rule then current: in contemplative rare moments, the man, looking back through the dim posterns of the mind, might see afar off a certain pirouetting Figure, once far from indifferent, and not yet quite melted into cheerless gray smoke, as so much of the rest is—to Mr. ”

“ By 2 June 1858 he had returned home, and in the following year brought to an end his association with the ‘Illustrated London News.’ In 1860 he established the ‘London Review,’ and his editorship was inaugurated on 2 July by a banquet at the Reform Club. Another new periodical, ‘Robin Goodfellow,’ was started by him in 1861. Neither proved successful. From February 1862 to December 1865 Mackay was the special correspondent of the ‘Times’ at New York during the civil war, and in the autumn of 1862 he revealed in the ‘Times’ the existence of the Fenian conspiracy in America. ”

“ Mackworth went on—
"One of my earliest recollections, my lord, is of being at a French lycée."
"The fault of those establishments," said Lord Saltire, pensively, "is the great range of subjects which are superficially taught. I ask pardon for interrupting you. Do you take snuff?"
Mackworth declined, with great politeness, and continued—
"I was taken to that school by a footman in livery."
"Upon my honour, then, I owe you an apology. I thought, of course, that the butler had gone with you. But, in a large house, one never really knows what one's people are about." ”

“ Mackellar," said he, "not every man is so great a coward as he thinks he is - nor yet so good a Christian." He did not guess how true he spoke! For the fact is, the thoughts which had come to me in the violence of the storm retained their hold upon my spirit ”

“ Mackworth, will nothing induce him to move his vast machinery in our cause?"
"I am all attention, my lord."
"In case of our finding Charles, then?"
"Yes," said Mackworth, calmly.
"Twenty thousand?"
"No," said Mackworth. "It wouldn't do. Twenty million wouldn't do. You see there is a difference between a soldier disguising himself, and going into the enemy's camp, to lie, and it may be, murder, to gain information for his own side, and the same soldier deserting to the enemy, and giving information. The one is a hero, and the other a rogue. I am a hero. ”

“ Mackworth, his smile unchanged. Then his smile faded and he gave each boy a straight look. “Young men,” he said slowly, “the men before you who are so carefully dressed are not ‘dolls’ and [77] each has considerable ‘else to do.’ They have seen fit to make themselves comfortable in certain clothing as you boys have seen fit to do the same thing in your own way. But you may be sure than neither of them would have commented on that loose button on your shirt, Frank, or that spot on your collar, Phil.” ”