Meldrum

“ With a crash, Meldrum kicked open the door and entered the room, covering Needham with his revolver. The baboon, its attention distracted by the noise of Meldrum’s entry and apparently finding Needham’s influence withdrawn, now appeared to feel the full effect of the whisky fumes once more, and sank back into the armchair more fuddled than ever. Norton had by this time fallen back in his seat, his head tilted toward the ceiling. Needham, however, has his wits about him, and his ghastly yellow face, convulsed with fury, attempted to force a sickly smile. ”

“ Meldrum's was glazed and barred, he went on to assert that only the horror of that image, looming out at herself, could be the reason of her avoiding the person who so forced it home. The fact he had encountered made everything hideously vivid, and more vivid than anything else that just such another pair of goggles was what would have been prescribed to Flora.
"I see--I see," I presently returned. "What would become of Lord Iffield if she were suddenly to come out in them? What indeed would become of every one, what would become of everything?" ”

“ He doesn’t even get anyone to clean it up apparently. Some strange people in this old world!”
With this philosophical reflection, Meldrum passed on in the direction of the park.
Term examinations kept Meldrum busily occupied during the days that followed, and the friends did not have occasion to see one another for nearly two weeks. Then, when they did meet, it was again through the instrumentality of Needham, after the evening of the party at the Miner home. The Miners were neighbors of Norton’s sweetheart and lived out some distance beyond Ethan Allen Park. ”

“ Taken at advantage by the suddenness of the meeting, Meldrum gave ground with a muttered oath. The young cattleman nodded to the trio and kept on his way. None of the others knew that his heart was hammering a tattoo against his ribs or that queer little chills chased each other down his spine.
Chet Fox ventured a sly dig at the ex-convict. "Looks a right healthy sick man, Dan."
"Who said he was sick?" growled Meldrum.
"Didn't you-all say he was good as dead?"
"A man can change his mind, Chet, can't he?" jeered Hart.
The blotched face of the bad man grew purple. ”

“ He crossed to the wall near the fireplace and switched on some lights that illuminated the whole room. Then, seeing Meldrum for the first time, he advanced toward him and shook hands.
“It’s not quite the right thing to steal into a man’s house in this way, I know,” said Meldrum. “I am sorry if we startled you. We rang and raised a rumpus down below, but without effect. I was taking a walk with Norton after the storm, and it occurred to him to come up and see you and apologize for his absence this evening. So we came together.”
“It’s quite all right,” said Needham, in his peculiar nasal tones. ”

“ Stumbling blindly in the darkness, Meldrum endeavored, without success to locate the switch in the hallway, but finally a faint glimmer showed him the outline of the front door, and he dashed forth into the street.
Several people had collected on hearing the shot, and aid was quickly forthcoming. Together with several neighbors and others, Meldrum again entered the house, and the light in the hall was turned on. ”

“ Meldrum's conviction that nothing was to be expected of him but the most futile flirtation. The girl had a certain hold of him, but with a great deal of swagger he hadn't the spirit of a sheep: he was in fear of his father and would never commit himself in Lord Considine's lifetime. The most Flora might achieve would be that he wouldn't marry some one else. ”

“ Dingwell nodded slowly. He wanted to get the full flavor of this joyous episode that had occurred. "And the kid lit his cigarette while Meldrum, crazy as a hydrophobia skunk, had his gun trained on him?"
"That's right. Stood there with a kind o' you-be-damned placard stuck all over him, then got out the makings and lit up. He tilted back that handsome head of his and blew a smoke wreath into the air. Looked like he'd plumb wiped Mr. Meldrum off his map. He's a world-beater, that young fellow is—doesn't know what fear is," concluded the buyer sagely. ”

“ At this juncture, Meldrum resolved, at all hazards, to attempt to swim to the vessel. If he remained in the boat, certain death would be the fate of himself and his companion: on the other hand, he might perish in the sea, but if he reached the brig, both would be saved. Without a moment's hesitation, he communicated his design to Maclean, and then, committing himself to the pretection of the Almighty, sprang overboard.
The idea of solitude is so repugnant to human nature, that even death would be preferable. ”

“ The world is wide enough to hold both of you."
Often in the days that followed, Meldrum, moved by curiosity he could not quite account for, took his evening walk out on North Avenue past Needham's house. Of Needham himself he saw nothing. One he heard the weird tinkling of the piano, but generally the form of the little monkey in its red jacket could be seen sitting motionless at the upper front window looking out on the street. It struck Meldrum as strange that the creatures should sit so quietly. ”

“ I was still more surprised.
“Oh, Flora can’t keep a secret!” Mrs. Meldrum humorously declared. She went up to poor Dawling and laid a motherly hand upon him. “It’s all right—it’s just as it ought to be: don’t think about her ever any more.” Then as he met this adjuration with a dismal stare in which the thought of her was as abnormally vivid as the colour of the pupil, the excellent woman put up her funny face and tenderly kissed him on the cheek. ”

“ Wickedness, my child, ever begets wickedness!” Mr Meldrum then lapsed again into silence.
The raft proceeded but very slowly, in spite of the exertions of the towing party in the jolly-boat. This was on account of the current and the tideway neutralising each other, instead of being both in their favour, as Mr Meldrum had expected; so, in order to fight against the drawback, he ordered Ben Boltrope to get up a sail on one of the studding-sail booms which was rigged as a yard across the mizzen topgallant mast that had been stepped in the centre of the platform. ”

“ Emerging from Church Street, Norton and Meldrum turned up toward the University, while Needham strode off in the direction of the lake.
“Better lay aside your prejudice and think the best of the man,” said Meldrum to Norton as they parted. “He is a mighty interesting fellow, and has a fund of knowledge that is remarkable.”
Two days later found all Burlington in a state of excitement. Through a piece of carelessness the door of the baboon’s cage had been left unlocked and the old gray baboon had made a successful dash for liberty and got clear away. ”

“ You're not the woman I talked to at Asaph's, at all. You're like a girl–with silver hair–only you've got a woman's big heart, and you haven't the selfishness of the young, but that kind of wonderful sadness that sweetens a soul more than anything else."
Meldrum was as much amazed as Deborah was at hearing such rhapsodies from his matter-of-fact soul. ”

“ She told her immediately, as if it were something for her to hold on by, that she was soon to sit to me for a “likeness,” and these words gave me a chance to inquire if it would be the fate of the picture, should I finish it, to be presented to the young man in the knickerbockers. Her lips, at this, parted in a stare; her eyes darkened to the purple of one of the shadow-patches on the sea. She showed for the passing instant the face of some splendid tragic mask, and I remembered for the inconsequence of it what Mrs. Meldrum had said about her sight. ”

“ He had to try to better it by marrying the Swede hash-slinger from Los Angeles. Later she fed him arsenic in his coffee. A man's a fool to overplay his luck."
At the showdown Meldrum disclosed a four-card flush and the cattleman three jacks.
As Dave raked in the pot he answered Rutherford casually. "Still, he hadn't ought to underplay it either. The other fellow may be out on a limb."
"Say, is it any of your business how I play my cards?" demanded Meldrum, thrusting his chin toward Dingwell. ”

“ Finding that he could not free his mind from an unaccountable anxiety, he swung round presently and made his way to North Avenue.
It did not take him long to reach the house, and as he drew near he observed, with a slight feeling of surprise, that one of the downstairs rooms was illuminated—a room he had never yet seen lighted. It lay toward the rear of the house, its windows facing a broad gallery.
Obeying a sudden impulse, Meldrum, instead of going to the front door, walked quietly along the gallery and peeped through a corner of the blind [179] into the room. ”

“ Other fellows pay attention to her, too, of course, but that’s because they admire her. It was not so in his case, I am convinced. After we left him Elsie said: ‘What a fine-looking man!’ And then she added: ‘No he isn’t—he’s a horror!’”
“Well,” said Meldrum heartily, “apparently you do not need to fear her falling in love with him, however it may be in his case. I really am afraid it’s a case of ‘I do not like thee, Dr. Fell.’” Meldrum laughed. “But I hardly think,” he wound up, “you have any solid grounds for quarreling with him. ”

“ Llewellyn stammered out, with his usual stutter when spoken to sharply.
“Rouse up, man, and turn out at once,” said Mr Meldrum. “What do you mean by hiding yourself here, cowering in a corner like a frightened hound, when the ship’s in danger and there’s work for all hands to do.”
“I thought she was going down, sir, and—and—”
“And you hadn’t the pluck to face your fate like a man, eh!” continued Mr Meldrum, finishing his sentence for him. “But you must know that brave men don’t allow cowards to hamper their movements! ”

“ This could not have occurred without my hearing of it; and moreover if she had become a person of such fashion where was the little court one would naturally see at her elbow? Her isolation was puzzling, though it could easily suggest that she was but momentarily alone. If she had come with Mrs. Meldrum that lady would have taken advantage of the interval to pay a visit to some other box—doubtless the box at which Flora had just been looking. Mrs. Meldrum didn't account for the jewels, but the refreshment of Flora's beauty accounted for anything. ”

“ The curio dealer checked and entered a mild protest. "Is this a poker game or a conversazione, gentlemen? It's stuck with Meldrum. I reckon he's off in Lonesome Park gold-mining the way he's been listening."
Meldrum brought his attention back to the game and bet his pat hand. Dave called. After a moment's hesitation Rutherford threw down his cards.
"There's such a thing as pushing your luck too far," he commented. "Now, take old man Crawford. He was mightily tickled when his brother Jim left him the Frying Pan Ranch. ”

“ His lips only worked feebly, without any sound coming from them, and he stumbled and fell forwards on his face when he tried to rise by the aid of Mr Meldrum’s arm.
“Bedad, they’re in a bad way, sorr,” said Mr McCarthy sympathisingly, coming up and helping Mr Meldrum to lift the man out and place him on the beach, where he had already laid down the corpse that had been in the bows, throwing a bit of the sail over it to hide it for the time from observation. “The poor divil can’t spake, sure. ”

“ He told me what you had told him you had seen in your shop."
Mrs. Meldrum, I perceived, had come to Welbeck Street on an errand identical with my own--a circumstance indicating her rare sagacity, inasmuch as her ground for undertaking it was a very different thing from what Flora's wonderful visit had made of mine. I remarked to her that what I had seen in the shop was sufficiently striking, but that I had seen a great deal more that morning in my studio. "In short," I said, "I've seen everything."
She was mystified. "Everything?"
"The poor creature is under the darkest of clouds. ”

“ Nervous persons kept to busy thoroughfares after dark. But the actual whereabouts of the creature remained a mystery.
Fresh stories went around of stealthy prowlings round houses and mysterious rattling of doors in the small hours of the morning. Chancing to see some of this in one of the evening papers, Meldrum's attention was again drawn to the subject, and there returned to his mind his encounter with Needham at the circus. Obeying a sudden impulse, he set off in the direction of Needham's dwelling in North Avenue. ”

“ Meldrum had been an Episcopalian; but in consequence of some offence he joined the Presbyterians in 1687, and now wished to persecute his old friends. Sage's Work, consisting of several Letters, originated in Meldrum's Sermon. In the close of his Preface he says: "I cannot think but that all good men, and true sons of the Church of England, are sensibly affected with the calamities of their sister Church of Scotland; and it must move their pity to see her in the dust, for no other reason, but because she is Episcopal, and consequently Apostolical." ”

“ MELDRUM, GEORGE (1635?–1709) , rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen, and professor of divinity in the university of Edinburgh, was ‘the fourth son of a family in Aberdeenshire of the old house of Meldrum (Wodrow, Analecta, i. 175) . At seventeen years of age, and before he had taken the degree of M.A., he was made one of the regents of Marischal College, Aberdeen. On 1 Dec. 1658 he was chosen by the town council to be minister of Aberdeen. ”