Mr. Blair

“ Every morning, with varying unpunctuality, Blair came into her office at the Works where she had had a desk placed for him. He was present, because she insisted that he should be, at the regular conferences which she held with the heads of departments. She made a pretense of asking his advice, which was as amusing to Mr. Ferguson and the under-superintendents as it was tiresome to Blair. For after his first exhilaration in responding to Mrs. Richie's high belief in him, the mere doing of duty began gradually to pall. ”

“ Will a cocktail do? All sorts in bottles. Higgins, fix Mr. Blair a Martini.”
As the dresser rose from her stooping position, the rest of Letty Lane’s dressing-room unfolded out of the mist and smoke. On a sofa covered with lace pillows Blair saw a man sitting, smoking as well. He was tall and had a dark mustache. It was Prince Poniotowsky, whom Dan had already met at the Galorey shoot.
“Prince Poniotowsky,” Miss Lane presented him, “Mr. Blair, of Blairtown, Montana. Say, Frederick, give me my cap, will you? It is over by your side. I’ve got to hustle.” ”

“ Ben responded.
Sidwell felt that he too could afford to be generous.
"If there's anything in the way of amusement or otherwise that I can do for you, Mr. Blair, let me know," he said, proffering his address. "I am at your service at any time."
Ben had reached the walk, but he turned. For a moment wherein Florence held her breath he looked steadily at the city man.
"We Western men, Mr. Sidwell," he said at last slowly, "are more or less solitaries. We take our recreation as we do our work, alone. In all probability I shall not have occasion to accept your kindness. ”

“ He did not relish taking vengeance on a woman.
Mrs. Blair, as if inspired by a new spirit, sat up, and disdaining Skelton’s arm, and even Mrs. Shapleigh’s or Sylvia’s, rose to her feet. Just then Blair came up. In ten minutes he had aged ten years. He had had a crazy moment or two, but now he was deadly calm and pale.
“The boy is all right,” he said. As a matter of fact, Hilary was far from all right, but Blair did not intend to tell Mrs. Blair then. “Mr. Bulstrode has already put him in his chaise, and will take him home. Do you feel able to ride home?” ”

“ Sidwell meanwhile was bringing a third chair and glass. "Come over, gentlemen," he invited, "and we'll celebrate this, the proudest moment of my life. You drink, of course, Mr. Blair?"
Ben did not stir. "Thank you, but I never drink," he said. [Pg 275]
"What!" Sidwell smiled sceptically. "A cattle-man, and not refresh yourself with good liquor? You refute all the precedents! Come over and take something!"
Ben only looked at him steadily. "I repeat, I never drink," he said conclusively.
Sidwell sat down, and Hough followed his lead. ”

“ My old comrades, who shared the dangers of the Crimea with me, I am and always shall be happy to see.’
The old lady here had to shed a few tears. ‘Is this the gentleman, Tom, as saved your life?’ she asked gently.
‘Yes, mother, this is the Jack—I mean Mr Blair—I’ve so often told you about.’
‘Indeed, sir,’ said the old lady dropping a curtsey,{390} ‘he talks of you by the hour. If an old woman’s blessings and prayers are of any value you have mine, for you saved to me my son, my only boy, and now my sole support.”
‘Say no more, Mrs Callon. What I did for Tom he would have done for me. ”

“ Ben Blair now turned to the host, and as he did so his wiry figure underwent a transformation that lived long in the spectators' minds. With his old characteristic motion, his hands went into his trousers' pockets, his chest expanded, his great chin lifted until, looking down, his eyes were half closed.
"You, Mr. Sidwell," he said, "can stand or sit, as you please; but one thing I warn you not to do—don't lie to me. We're in the home of lies just now, but it can't help you. Your face says you are used to having your own way, right or wrong. ”

“ Blair to Jefferson Davis. The visit of Mr. Blair resulted in the appointment by Davis, of Alexander H. Stephens, R.M.T. Hunter, and John A. Campbell, to confer with the President on the subject of peace, on the basis of his letter to Mr. Blair. When their arrival at the camp of General Grant was announced, Secretary Seward was charged by the President with representing the government at the proposed informal conference. With the frankness which was characteristic of Mr. Lincoln, he instructed Mr. ”

“ Thus he interpreted selling a vote.
"No, I'm not mad. But that is my price." Blair also rose, unexpectedly committed to a fixed statement.
"You'll never get it!" roared Moore. "I'll see you damned first! We'll find others who aren't so high-priced! You have over-reached this time, Charlie Blair!" And they parted in unfriendly fashion.
[240] The next day the Honorable Mr. Moore notified Mrs. Latimer that all she had done for Mr. Burroughs would avail nothing if she failed to secure the vote of Senator Blair.
[241]
"Well, well, well! ”

“ Blair, who was in London in 1649, was sorely vexed with ‘the most illegal, irreligious, and wicked proceedings and actings of the sectarian army;’ one of their crimes being the attempt ‘to ruin religion by their toleration.’ Continuation of the Autobiography of Mr. Robert Blair, Minister of St. Andrews, p. ”

“ While Blair, sighing for woman's tact, wishes Mrs. Dale was with him, when a sudden thought occurs to him; rising, as if to go, he says, with assumed carelessness:
"Very well; if you won't help yourself and me, by making a clean breast of it, things will have to take their own course, and that man," indicating by a gesture the photograph of Mr. Cobbe, "and that man will be lost to you, as the husband of a certain lady in the north-west end." ”

“ He sat on the edge of that chair there, and his teeth chattered and his voice shook——"
"Small wonder!" said Crane. "Mac is a very nervous man, and a shock such as he must have had——"
"Go on, Hastings," ordered Doctor Middleton.
"Well, Mr. Thorpe said Mr. Blair was ill, and told me to go in and see him. Now, of course, Mr. Thorpe knew Mr. Blair was dead, but he said he was ill. Why did he do that?"
"Tell your story," said Crane, scowling at him. "Don't ask fool questions as you go along!"
"Yes, sir. Well, I went in and I saw Mr. Blair was dead. And I told Mr. ”

“ Steve and Jacquelin were both away from the County attending Court in another county. Blair was much disturbed.
“Why, they are going to do it on your account,” said Rupert. “They say this school was started to break up your school.”
“Nonsense! Do they think that’s the way to help me? The teacher is a woman,” urged Blair. Rupert’s countenance fell.
“They aren’t going to trouble her—are just going to scare the negroes so there won’t be any more meetings held there. Some say she’s kin to Leech—or something.”
“She is nothing of the kind,” asserted Blair. “Ruth Welch told me she had never seen Mr. ”

“ Her aspirations seemed of small account after that tap that could not be answered.
"Get Charlie Blair's promise, and we'll be [229] satisfied," said Moore, not unkindly. "You have done very well."
"Will Mr. Burroughs keep his promise? He knows that I——" Eva could not speak to Moore of her fear of the man whose money she would accept.
"Burroughs is all right. Words don't count, these days; it's money that turns the trick."
"But I want more than money. I want that place for Arthur." ”

“ It was there in Blair's white face—the dreadful truth. He wore a ribbon on his breast and he leaned on a crutch. For the instant, as father and son faced each other, there was something in Blair's poise, his look of an eagle, that carried home a poignant sense of his greatness. Lane thrilled with it and a lump constricted his throat. Then with Blair's ringing "Dad!" and the father's deep and broken: "My son! My son!" the two embraced.
In a stifling moment more it seemed, attention turned on Red Payson, who stood nearest. Blair's folk were eager, kind, soft-spoken and warm in their welcome. ”

“ Ne'er sunshine broke, nor smile was seen to rise;
Whose sickly goodness lives upon grimace,
And pleads a merit from a blubber'd face.
Thou kept thy raiment for the needy poor,
And taught the fatherless to know thy door;
From griping hunger set the needy free;
That they were needy, was enough to thee.
Thy fame to please, whilst others restless be,
Fame laid her shyness by, and courted thee ”

“ These are times to think on these things, my boy, if we really love our country. No man liveth unto himself. His home, his state, his country is in a degree blessed or cursed for his sake. Dear Blair, you cannot be a true patriot without God's grace to help you rule your heart, guard your lips,23 and purify your life. May you this day begin, for your own sake as well as for that of your country, to serve the God of our fathers. He has mercifully spared you the bitter self-reproach to which you might have been doomed. Go in repentance to his footstool, and he will abundantly pardon. ”

“ You are squeezing the life out of Blair by giving him money. You've always done it, because it was the easy thing to do. Let up on him! Give him a chance. Let him earn his money, or go without. Talk about making him independent—you've made him as dependent as a baby! I don't know my Bible as well as you do, but there is a verse somewhere—something about 'fullness of bread and abundance of idleness.' That's what's the trouble with Blair. ”

“ Bewilder'd in the greatness of thy fame,
What shall the Muse, what next in order name?
Which of thy social qualities commend—
Whether of husband, father, or of friend?
A husband soft, beneficent, and kind,
As ever virgin wish'd, or wife could find ”

“ Blair blushed for the honor of his country, to find such men among her avowed defenders. Oaths and obscenity made even more hateful the rough narratives in which each strove to prove himself more hardened and abandoned than the last speaker. Blair's soul recoiled with horror from the taint of such companionship; yet for him there was no escape. Among these coarse rovers he was forced to eat and sleep, to live and labor, while many weeks went by. ”

“ And to leave him in a nameless grave is to dishonor not him alone, but myself.”
“You would claim the body?” cried Alexander Blair.
“What else is there for us to do?” she countered.
“And bring down upon us unavoidably the publicity which we have escaped at so bitter a price?” cried the elder Blair. “Have we not suffered enough from the scandal of his life, that we should be further involved in the scandal of his death?”
“He’s right, miss. It won’t do,” said the sheriff kindly.
“Silence is best,” said Sedgwick.
“What the papers would do with this,” opined Preston Jax, “would be a plenty.” ”

“ Pluck'd from their orbits, shall the planets fall,
And smoke and conflagration cover all:
What, then, is man? The creature of a day,
By moments spent, and minutes borne away.
Time, like a raging torrent, hurries on ”

“ It was Blair’s turn to grow red now. “Do you mean, sir, that you—that you—would advance the half of the money? But it would be too generous. I have no claim on you——”
“No claim on me!” burst forth the Squire, in a passion, pinning him against the wall of the pigeon-house. “No claim on me! When you saved my son from drowning only a few weeks ago! And had an ague through it! No claim on me! What next will you say?”
“But that was nothing, sir. Any man, with the commonest feelings of humanity, would jump into the water if he saw a fellow-creature sinking.” ”

“ Blair’s letter to Jacquelin in reply was more to him than General Legaie’s mention of his name in his report.
Blair was growing up to be almost a woman now. Women, as well as men, age rapidly amid battles, and nearly every letter Jacquelin received from home contained something about her. “What a pretty girl Blair has grown to be. You have no idea how we all lean on her,” his mother wrote. Or Miss Thomasia would say: “I wish you could have heard Blair sing in church last Sunday. ”

“ Here was an end, in their minds, to the Fairport Guard, and every other species of fun in which Blair had been so long a leader and abettor.
Blair was at first inclined to shrink from his old companions; but as the right spirit grew and strengthened within him, he mingled among them more freely, actuated by the desire to win new citizens for the kingdom of heaven, and to guide46 his wild associates into such paths as would make them a blessing to their native land. ”

“ One hardly knows whether to smile or be provoked to see Blair, once the admired preacher of the coldest and tritest of sermons, looking down as from an eminence upon Barrow, and, while admitting ‘the prodigious fecundity of his invention,’ complaining of his ‘genius often shooting wild and unchastened by any discipline or study of eloquence,’ and of his style being irregular and incorrect ”

“ Blair I knew very well by sight. I had heard him speak in the canvass of 1858, possibly several times, but I had never spoken to him. As the troops marched out of the enclosure around the arsenal, Blair was on his horse outside forming them into line preparatory to their march. I introduced myself to him and had a few moments' conversation and expressed my sympathy with his purpose. This was my first personal acquaintance with the Honorable—afterwards Major-General F. P. Blair. Camp Jackson surrendered without a fight and the garrison was marched down to the arsenal as prisoners of war. ”