Miss Phipps

“ Phipps, like the woodsman from Maine that he was, hewed his way from one group to another, shouting to his men, hoarsely. The beef-eaters, as inseparable as when they were dancing, chose but one man between them, and one such they peeled to a horrid core, as the demon rushed upon their sharpened weapons. ”

“ I believe Mademoiselle is sorry already that she made such a fuss, but Miss Phipps won’t rest until she has found out what she wants. If you will be obstinate, you must expect to be punished, but it’s hard lines on the rest of us who have done nothing wrong.”
“And we were all so kind to you, Pixie O’Shaughnessy, and made a regular pet of you—you know we did! We helped you like angels when you couldn’t do your lessons. I’ve been in this school five years, and I’ve never seen a new girl made such a fuss of before. ”

“ William Phipps, having thought the boy to be following more closely than he was, stopped to let him catch up. Thus he noted the look of anguish with which the lad was leaving that grim remnant of King Philip behind. Phipps was one of Nature’s “motherly men”—hardly 17ever more numerous than rocs’ eggs on the earth. He felt his heart go forth to Adam Rust. Therefore it was that he looked down in the boy’s face, time after time, as they walked along together. Thus they came to the water-front and wharves, at the end of one of which the brig “Captain Spencer” was swinging. ”

“ Miss Phipps shook her head impatiently.
“The idea of Raish Pulcifer's cartin' him 'way over here and then leavin' him in the middle of the road,” she said. “It's just like Raish, but that doesn't help it any; nothin' that's like Raish helps anything—much,” she added.
The doctor laughed.
“I'm beginning to believe you're right, Martha,” he agreed.
“I'm pretty sure I am. I think I know Raish Pulcifer by this time; I almost wish I didn't. Father used to say that if ignorance was bliss the home for feeble-minded folks ought to be a paradise. But I don't know ”

“ Phipps received his honors modestly. He was too patriotic to desert America and bluntly said so to his King. He and Adam received, as their share of the treasure, the one tenth agreed upon, amounting to thirty thousand pounds, of which sum all that the Captain could prevail upon Rust to accept was a third, a sum, the rover said, far in excess of the needs of his retinue and himself. ”

“ Peter Phipps, who knew men through and through, and had also a profound acquaintance with women of a certain class, was face to face, for once, with a type of which he knew little. The woman who could refuse his millions, offered in such a manner, could have no real existence for him. ”

“ There was no house in Westbourne that gave her abilities half such scope as that of Mrs Captain Phipps—so the lady continued to style herself. Miss Jenny's father had advised there till he departed; after which event, the widow and her son confided in his heiress. Master Harry Phipps was not what would be called a successful young man. He was not either wild or remarkably stupid, as the world goes; his mother knew him to be a dear domestic fellow, who would play the flute or dominos for weeks of evenings in her back-parlour. ”

“ Phipps's view of Janet, however, was far from being the prevalent one in Milby. Even neighbours who had no strong personal interest in her, could hardly see the noble-looking woman in her widow's dress, with a sad sweet gravity in her face, and not be touched with fresh admiration for her—and not feel, at least vaguely, that she had entered on a new life in which it was a sort of desecration to allude to the painful past. ”

“ She had never been so angry in her life, and it seemed to her an age that she sat there rigid and indignant, suffocated by his nearness but powerless to move away. Then she got the car stopped, and announced with great dignity that she was nearly home and that she would have to ask him to get out.
Captain Phipps lazily descended from the car, then stood with elbows on the ledge of the door and rolled a cigarette with great deliberation. Eleanor, in spite of her wrath, could not help admiring the graceful, conscious movement of his slender hands with their highly polished nails. ”

“ Tut, tut, tut! You certainly have a great imagination, of its kind. I shouldn't worry about Mr. Bangs' disease, if I were you. The poor man isn't really strong yet and he has been runnin' back and forth to Boston lately altogether too much for his own good. He is tired and his nerves are tired, too; so we must make it as easy as we can for him, Primmie, you and I.”
“Yes'm. He's a good man, ain't he?”
“Indeed he is!”
“Yes'm. Even if he is so kind of—of funny.”
Often, in earlier conversations with her housemaid, Miss Phipps had agreed that her lodger was, to say the least, “funny” ”

“ Meanwhile Phipps acted as secretary to his brother, Constantine Henry, first marquis of Normanby [q. v.] , when governor of Jamaica, 1832-4, and in that capacity went from plantation to plantation, announcing to the slaves that they were to be free. When his brother went to Ireland as lord lieutenant in 1835, Phipps became steward of the viceregal household, and held the office until 1839. For a short time he was secretary to the master-general of the ordnance. On 1 Aug. 1846 he became equerry to the queen, and on 1 Jan. 1847 private secretary to the prince consort. ”

“ When Sir William Phipps heard of this, his heart was touched with compassion for the old man, who had unlocked the golden gates of knowledge to him, and, at the suggestion of his gentle wife, he sent an urgent request that Elizabeth, the daughter whose education had been the business and solace of the old man's life, should spend a portion of her seventeenth year with Lady Phipps, who, childless herself, would become a second mother to her. ”

“ Rose asked sharply.
"They're sweethearts," said Myrna, with the frightful astuteness of twelve. "And old Madam Bartlett won't let him come to the house, and Nell has to see him on the sly."
"Tut, tut, child! Where did you get that notion?" asked Mr. Martel, peeling an orange with his little fingers gracefully extended. "Harold Phipps is years older than Nellie. He is interested solely in her professional career. He has a lovely, detached soul, as impersonal—What is the matter, Rosalind?" ”

“ On Sunday morning Captain Phipps betook himself to his brig, as she lay in mid-stream, to pother about by himself, while Adam dutifully escorted Goodwife Phipps to meeting, at South Church, which was nearer than the old church and more popular as well.
It was a solemn, black procession of Puritans that walked decorously to meeting in the sunlight. The day was one of almost unseemly beauty, for Nature was fairly barbarous in the colors which she wore like jewels. ”

“ But Sir William Phipps had not always worn a gold-embroidered coat, nor always sat so much at his ease as he did in Grandfather's chair. He was a poor man's son, and was born in the province of Maine, where he used to tend sheep upon the hills in his boyhood and youth. Until he had grown to be a man he did not even know how to read and write. Tired of tending sheep, he next apprenticed himself to a ship-carpenter, and spent about four years in hewing the crooked limbs of oak trees into knees for vessels. ”

“ Josephine, who had been standing up for the last few moments, touched the bell.
“You will keep your rivalry for the City, I trust,” she said.
It was just then that Phipps surprised a little glance flashed from Josephine to Wingate. He seemed suddenly to increase in size, to become more menacing, portentous. There was thunder upon his forehead. At that moment, the butler opened the door and Josephine held out her hand.
“It was very kind of you to call, Mr. Phipps. I will think over all that you have said, and discuss it—with my husband.” ”

“ She now met Sir William Phipps, Governor-elect of New England, who had finally arrived and who was scanning the gathering company for a sight of Adam Rust.
“Oh, how well you are looking, Sir William,” she cried to Phipps, delightedly.
377“I am looking for a friend,” said the captain, with his customary bluntness. “But thank you, Lady Margaret, thank you, heartily.”
“If you are looking for a friend, why, look over my head?” she said to him, prettily. “Oh, you dear Colonial Governors are such delightfully honest people. We all have to like you, really.” ”

“ I hope to be stabbed with a gridiron," said Phipps, "if there ain't more niggers—look at 'em—more niggers than would patch and grade the infernal regions eleven miles! Guess I've enough niggers for a spell," continued Phipps, "so I'll just pop in here, and see how this feller sells his notions." And so Abner, having reached Dock square, saunters into a gun, pistol, bowie, jack-knife, dog-collar, shot-bag, and notion-shop in general. Unlucky step.
The stiff-dickied, frizzle-headed, polished and perfumed shop-keeper was on hand, and particularly predisposed to sell the stranger something. ”

“ They left their respective abodes for here in a secrecy which they themselves encouraged, for Rees imagined that your husband had urgent need of him, and Phipps was ass enough to believe that your summons meant what he wished it to mean. There has been no leakage of information anywhere.—Honestly, Josephine, I think that you may banish your fears."
"A woman's fears only, dear," she admitted, as she gave him her hands. "Why did nature make my sex pessimists and yours optimists, I wonder? I would so much rather look towards the sun." ”

“ Behind his cynical exterior, his evil brain had begun to work.
"Look here, Phipps," he said, "I don't care about this conversation. If a man happens to admire another man's wife, her husband is scarcely the proper confidant."
"Oh, yes, I know your theory!" Phipps scoffed. "You're willing enough to hide your head in the sand and take the goods the gods send you. That doesn't suit me. I happen to need your help."
"My help?" Dredlinton repeated. "The poor little spider to help the mighty Phipps! You're not finding difficulties in the way of your suit, are you?" ”

“ Phipps had sprung from a poor apprentice boy, to be the richest and most powerful man in New England. He had won title and wealth from the mother government, by his indomitable energies, while Samuel Parris had dreamed his life away, under the roof where the embryo great man had taken his first charity lesson. But though one was a man of thought, and the other of progress, no distance of time nor station could separate them.
Governor Phipps was in the prime of life, a man of noble presence, strong in intellect and in power. Parris was old and bowed to the earth with trouble ”

“ Mrs. Phipps thanked him. "It's very kind of you to take so much trouble," she said, quietly; "some people would have lost the cages too while they were about it."
"I did my best," said Mr. Smithson, in a surly voice.
"I know you did," said Mrs. Phipps, thoughtfully, "and I am sure I am much obliged to you. If there is anything of yours I can look after at any time I shall be only too pleased. When did you say Mr. Clarkson was coming back?"
"He don't know," said Mr. Smithson, promptly. "He might be away a month; and then, again, he might be away six. It all depends. You know what business is." ”

“ But the king replied, that he knew Phipps to be an honest man, and that he and his friends should divide the whole treasure amongst them, even though he had returned with double the value. Phipps’s share was about £20,000, and the king, to show his approval of his energy and honesty in conducting the enterprise, conferred upon him the honour of knighthood. ”

“ Dredlinton sank a little wearily into an easy-chair, after a glance of disappointment at the retreating figure.
"Can't think why you always have such damned ugly girls about you,
Phipps," he yawned. "Gives me the creeps to look at them."
Peter Phipps smiled as he drew a box of cigars from his desk.
"Then I will tell you the reason, my friend," he said. "For pleasure there is no one who appreciates beauty more than I do. ”

“ Your wife, together with that fellow Wilshaw and Miss Baldwin, have accepted an invitation from Wingate to dine and go to a theatre to-morrow night. You must see that your wife does not go."
"Very well," Dredlinton promised, "I'll manage it somehow."
"See that you do," Phipps enjoined earnestly. "Your wife is one of those misguided women with a strong sense of duty. Unless you behave like a damn fool, you can reestablish some measure of control over her. ”

“ Peter Phipps was a man whose life had been spent in facing and overcoming difficulties, but, as he took the chair to which Josephine had somewhat ungraciously pointed, he was compelled to admit to himself that he was confronted with a task which might well tax his astuteness to the utmost. ”

“ It was clearly the intention of both that Josephine should realise the situation. Attracted by a gesture from her husband, she glanced across at them. For a single moment she half hesitated. There was a queer look in her eyes, a look of surprise mingled even with pain. Then she flashed a brilliant smile upon Wingate, ignored her husband and Phipps, and passed on.
"Cut!" Lord Dredlinton exclaimed, with mock dismay. "Cut, my friend Phipps! Me, her husband, and you, her dear friend! Really, it's a most uncomfortable thing to have a disapproving wife going about to the same restaurants and places. ”

“ He had to pass the table at which Wingate was presiding, and it chanced that Josephine, looking up, met his eyes. There was a moment's hesitation in her mind. Women are always merciful when happy. Josephine was very happy, and Peter Phipps showed signs in his bearing and in the lines upon his face that he was not the man of six months ago. She smiled very slightly and bowed, a greeting which Phipps returned with a smile which was almost of gratitude. The Cabinet Minister, who had met Phipps and remembered little of his history, followed Josephine's lead ”