Mr. Briggs

“ Briggs growled.
“From Scaleber,” he said, offering the tag end of truth. “My name’s James Inman and luck sent me here—your luck and mine. I came to seek a job with you, and when I heard you sack yon ninny I knew I’d come in the nick of time.”
“Oh, did you?” replied Mr. Briggs sharply. “It takes two to make a bargain, young fellow, and I wouldn’t be too sure o’ that. Trade’s slack just now and I’m thinking I can do without another man for a week or two till it mends. ”

“ Briggs much satisfaction,” remarked Frank. “There he is running back and forth between the store and the stack of goods we piled up in the street.”
“I reckon he is afraid the police will steal some of the silks,” chuckled Bobolink.
“The fire is going down right fast now,” Tom Betts affirmed. “What’s left of the Briggs’ store may be saved. But Mr. Briggs is bound to lose a heap, and it cuts the old man to the bone to let a dollar slip away from him.”
“To think of such a smart business man allowing his insurance policy to lapse, and to lie unrenewed for a whole month!” exclaimed Bluff. ”

“ His ruddy color was gone too, and his face, pale with sorrow and experience, had a new expression. His buttoned-up coat and white collar, so unlike his usual self, also had its suggestions—which Miss Mayfield was at first inclined to resent. Women are quick to notice and augur more or less wisely from these small details. Nevertheless, she began in quite another tone.
“Do you remember your mother—MR.—MR.—BRIGGS?”
Jeff noticed the new epithet. “No, miss; she died when I was quite young.” ”

“ Briggs returned to the dining-room, his wife accosted him.
“Well, you had a secret conference with your promising protegé,” she said.
“Not secret. I am willing to tell you all that passed between us.”
“Well?”
197“I invited Gilbert to attend Randolph’s party next Wednesday.”
“Good heavens! Mr. Briggs,” exclaimed the lady, angrily, “this is a little too much. Of course the boy snapped at it. He has more effrontery than any boy I ever knew.”
“He declined the invitation,” said Mr. Briggs. “He said that while resting under this charge he was unwilling to be present on such an occasion.” ”

“ No quarrel proceeds exactly as we expect; people have such a way of behaving illogically! And here was Miss Mayfield, who was clearly derelict, and who should have acted under that conviction, walking along on the other side of the road, trailing the splendor of her parasol in the dust like an offended goddess.
They had almost reached the house. “At what time do you go, Mr. Briggs?” asked the young lady quietly.
“At eleven to-night, by the up stage.”
“I expect some friends by that stage—coming with my father.”
“My aunt will take good care of them,” said Jeff, a little bitterly. ”

“ If only they could be induced to stand more on their own feet. Why couldn’t Mr. Briggs be more like Lotty, who never wanted anything of anybody, but was complete in herself and respected other people’s completeness? One loved being with Lotty. With her one was free, and yet befriended. Mr. Briggs looked so really nice, too. She thought she might like him if only he wouldn’t so excessively like her.
Scrap felt melancholy. Here she was shut up in her bedroom, which was stuffy from the afternoon sun that had been pouring into it, instead of out in the cool garden, and all because of Mr. Briggs. ”

“ Briggs.
When they were in the hall, he said, “Next Wednesday Randolph is to have a birthday party. I shall be glad to see you here.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Gilbert, gratefully. “I 196thank you all the more, because it shows that you believe in my innocence. But all the same, I would rather not accept. I shall still be resting under this false charge, and Mrs. Briggs evidently believes me guilty.”
“Women are apt to be prejudiced,” said Mr. Briggs, apologetically. ”

“ This was the side line up to Providence that connected with the Boston express from New York.
"Expecting some of your folks up?" asked Mr. Briggs pleasantly. Nobody could say that friendly interest in strangers and their affairs was not evinced around Nantic. It was part of the joy of life to Mr. Briggs to locate their general intentions.
"My Mother and sisters," Jean answered happily.
"Figure on staying a while, do they?"
She nodded rather proudly. "We're going to live here. We're Miss Robbins' cousins. You'll have the freight car up with our goods this week." ”

“ I am sorry that my guardian has been wicked enough to attempt to cheat me out of it.”
“What sort of a man is Mr. Briggs?”
“At first I was not prepossessed in his favor; but he improved on acquaintance. When his wife and son spoke against me, he always took my part. When 332I was charged with dishonesty, he refused to believe it.”
“I think it quite possible that he is a naturally kind-hearted man,” said the sick man; “but human nature is sometimes inconsistent. ”

“ Mr. Briggs understood Gilbert better.
“No fear of that!” he said. “Gilbert is a boy 116of spirit. He is not one to seek or accept patronage. His pride is quite as great as Randolph’s.”
“What has he to be proud of, I should like to know,” said Mrs. Briggs, with a sneer.
“He is my ward,” said Mr. Briggs, stiffly, “and it is quite proper that my son should pay him some attention.”
“You seem to be infatuated about that boy,” said his wife coldly. “I suppose you will want him invited to Randolph’s birthday party next month.”
“I certainly shall,” said Mr. Briggs. ”

“ Whatever taste he has in art is, like his taste in letters, Flemish.
Mr. Briggs's personal appearance is not prepossessing. He is about five feet six inches in height, somewhat slightly framed, with a sharp, thin face, narrow and low forehead, pert-looking nose, mouth rather pleasant in expression, eyes not so good, gray and small, although occasionally brilliant. In dress he is apt to affect the artist, priding himself especially upon his personal acquaintance with artists and his general connoisseurship. He is a member of the Art Union. ”

“ Still Paul was a sensible lad, and he realized that Mr. Briggs could hardly be held responsible for what he said at such a time. 79
“Better forget all about it, Bobolink,” he told the other, who was still fretting under the unmerited charge. “Perhaps when he cools off and realizes what a serious thing he has said, Mr. Briggs will publicly take his words back, and will thank you fellows in the bargain.”
“But how came it you were so slow in getting to the fire, Paul?” asked Tom Betts; for, as a rule, the patrol leader could be counted on to arrive with the first. ”

“ Among so many triumphs of art and sportsmanship, it is difficult to say which of the many excellent examples is to be preferred; all are admirable, but I think the one I have chosen for illustration is my favourite. Mr. Briggs is deer-stalking, and though he occasionally suffers, even to prostration, from the heat of the weather, and the difficulties presented by hills, rocks, and heather, he really enjoys creeping and hiding with his gillies, until the royal hart, which the forester has seen through his glass, is well within rifle shot. He fires, misses ”

“ Briggs’s mother enters from [17] the right. Mrs. Briggs is a handsome woman of forty-five or fifty, not now in a gracious mood. She comes in decisively, halts, and stares at Mrs. Curtis’ back. Then she looks over the room in an annoyed and puzzled manner. Mr. Briggs’s sister Jessie comes in from the left. She is a pretty girl of about twenty, but her expression is now rather cross. Her dress and equipment show that she has just come in from the golf course.)
JESSIE (calling as she comes in)
Lancelot! (She halts, puzzled, and looks inquiringly at her mother.) Mamma, where’s Lancelot? ”

“ Briggs heard Benny's story of the poor Indian woman, their excellent hearts were at once filled with compassion for so forlorn a creature. Mr. Briggs had very radical theories about equal mercy and justice for each member of the human race.
"It isn't likely," he often said, "that some have a right to be in this world and others haven't;" ”

“ Briggs’s roof. A noise enough to wake the dead has awoke Mr. Briggs at the unpleasant hour of five in the morning. Flower-pots and bricks fall past his dressing-room window. He finds “no time has been lost, and that the workpeople have already commenced putting the roof to rights.” The builder would not be true to his craft if he did not improve the occasion and show his employer how easy, now that the workpeople were about, it would be to make certain additions in the shape of a conservatory, etc., to the house. Briggs weakly listens to the voice of the charmer ”

“ Briggs,” Carrie Cora stammered, through her embarrassment. At that moment she looked pretty.
Briggs patted her hand. “My dear child, no man is worth half as much as a nice girl like you.”
“Now, don’t you go to spoilin’ my children, Mr. Briggs,” Mrs. Burrell exclaimed, rising. “Come on, father.”
Helen rose at the same moment. “But we’ll [Pg 255] see you again, of course. Come to dinner to-night, won’t you?”
The girls looked delighted. “Oh!” they exclaimed.
Mrs. Burrell assumed an expression of severity. ”

“ Briggs, Professor of Mathematics at Gresham College, London, was so surprised with admiration, that he could not rest till he had seen the noble inventor, and actually went to Scotland for that purpose in 1615. Lilly, the astrologer, thus describes the interview:—"Mr. Briggs appointed a certain day when to meet at Edinburgh; but, failing thereof, Merchiston was afraid he would not come. It happened one day, as John Marr and the Lord Napier were speaking of Mr. Briggs: 'Ah! John,' said Merchiston, 'Mr. Briggs will not come.' At the very instant, one knocks at the gate ”

“ These facts, in connection with the fact that he is in a locality where all the bees, for miles around his apiary, have been Italianized by him, show whether the assumed idea in Mr. Briggs’ article has a shadow of foundation. Now, shall any one of the queen-raising brotherhood assume that a man is a sharper who sells queens for $2.50, without proving that the purchasers thereof have been swindled? For one, I answer no! And if I can buy pure queens of Mr. Alley for $2.50, I shall not send to Mr. Briggs, and pay him from $8 to $10, even for his four or more banded mothers. ”

“ Briggs to take it over to Keepton to-day and bank it, or else let me go earlier and break my journey.”
He turned his eyes on his master as he spoke and contrived to allow a doubt of Baldwin’s ability to journey anywhere appear in them. Instantly there was a flash.
“I daresay I can manage to mind my own business,” Mr. Briggs snapped. “Some folks is a damned sight too ready to put their fillings in. If I take it I shall know where it is!”
Mr. Jones laughed and Inman allowed himself to smile.
“If you don’t get it in to-day, Mr. Briggs—though I think you’d do well to take Mr. ”

“ Men, when she clears, we’ll box her off with the fores’l—we’ll beat ’em yet!”
Once more allegiance knit itself to Briggs. Despite that double murder (as surely done by him as if his own hand had wielded the kris that had beheaded Mr. Scurlock and the boy) , the drums and shoutings of the war-fleet, added to this new hope of getting clear of Ulu Salama, fired every white man’s heart with sudden hope.
The growl that had begun to rise against Briggs died away.
“Mr. Crevay,” he commanded, striding aft, “livelier there with those pigs! They’re not doin’ half a trick o’ work!” ”

“ If Miss Sophia Taunton learnt a new song, two of the Miss Briggses came out with a new duet. The Tauntons had once gained a temporary triumph with the assistance of a harp, but the Briggses brought three guitars into the field, and effectually routed the enemy. There was no end to the rivalry between them.
Now, as Mr. Samuel Briggs was a mere machine, a sort of self-acting legal walking-stick; and as the party was known to have originated, however remotely, with Mrs. Taunton, the female branches of the Briggs family had arranged that Mr. Alexander should attend, instead of his brother ”

“ For they’ll hang him as sure as he’s a man,
For he got up to his rigs, and murdered Mr. Briggs
While riding in a railway train. London: Printed for the Vendors.
CHASE, CAPTURE, AND ARRIVAL OF
MULLER,
FOR THE MURDER OF MR BRIGGS, IN A RAILWAY TRAIN.
The clue to the murderer of Mr. Briggs was obtained as follows:—A little girl, the daughter of a cabman, was playing with a small card box, such as jewellers put small trinkets in, and upon exhibiting it to her father, he remembered the name of the jeweller with whom the chain of the late Mr. ”

“ Get out, now. Go, tell Mr. Scurlock I want him. Jump!”
The lad ducked another blow, ran to the cabin-door and sprang for the stairs. Ill-fortune ran at his side. He missed footing, sprawled headlong up the companion stairway.
With a shout of exultation, Briggs caught up from [19] a corner a long, smooth stick, with a polished knob carved from a root—one of the clubs known in the Straits as “Penang-lawyers,” by reason of their efficacy in settling disputes. ”

“ Kite-flying's popular here too—that's Mr. Morrell's, the big star-shaped one. The bathing-tents and deck-chairs are mostly hired from Howell Gruffydd, but there are no boats yet except Percy Briggs's twenty-five-pound collapsible one; those who want to go fishing have to use one of those old Copley Fielding things by the jetty there.... Now we're coming to the people. Here's Raymond Briggs with Mr. Lacey, Raymond in his orange-and-black blazer and a white Homburg hat, Philip in a blue blazer with white braid and a plain straw hat ”