Mr. Ellsworth

“ Van Kamp, back in the woodshed, looked about him with an eye of content.
“Rather cozy for a woodshed,” he observed. “I wonder if we couldn’t scare up a little session of dollar limit?”
Both Uncle Billy and Mr. Ellsworth were willing. Death and poker level all Americans. A fourth hand was needed, however. The stage driver was in bed and asleep, and Mr. Ellsworth volunteered to find the extra player.
“I’ll get Ralph,” he said. “He plays a fairly stiff game.” He finally found his son on the porch, apparently alone, and stated his errand. ”

“ Jane and Harry, your intimate companions in childhood, will be separated from you by ties and duties of their own. What will you do, my child? An affectionate disposition like yours cannot be happy alone. On the other hand, here is Mr. Ellsworth, who is certainly attached to you; a man of excellent character, with every important quality that can be desired. You say you wish to be reasonable; judge for yourself what is the wisest course under these circumstances."
Elinor was silent for a moment ”

“ Seems a pity that the only thing that prevented a clean sweep was a little three-foot pocket edition of a boy scout——"
At this moment, Pee-wee, by a miracle of dexterity, landed a ball of twine plunk in the middle of Roy's face.3
"Roy," laughed Mr. Ellsworth, "you're a good campaign manager."
"He's a boss," shouted Pee-wee, "that's what he is. A boss is a feller that has people elected and then makes them do what he says." ”

“ I give a man four dollars fer one o’ them check things oncet, an’ I owe myself them four dollars yit.”
Mr. Van Kamp retired in disorder, but the thought of his wife and daughter waiting confidently on the porch stopped him. Moreover, the thing had resolved itself rather into a contest between Ellsworth and himself, and he had done a little making and breaking of men and things in his own time. He did some gatling-gun thinking out by the newel-post, and presently rejoined Uncle Billy. ”

“ Mr. Eliot's manner must have been particularly attractive, judging from the accounts of his contemporaries and of several strangers who visited him. Dankers & Sluyter, agents for the Labadist community, in the record of their visit made in 1680, speak of him as “a very old man, named John Eliot, as the best of the ministers who we have yet heard” in Boston and its vicinity. John Dunton, a bookseller from London, describes him in 1686 as “the glory of Roxbury, as well as of all New England” ”

“ All through his work he had firmly believed that a Higher Power was directing his work, and bringing to the world, through his invention, a new and uplifting force; and so when all seemed lost he did not lose heart.
In the morning a friend, Miss Ellsworth, called and offered her congratulations that the bill had been passed by the Senate and thirty thousand dollars appropriated for the telegraph. Being the first to bring the news of his success, Mr. Morse promised her that the first message over the new line should be hers. ”

“ Olive and Ela said I had nothing fit to wear at Ellsworth."
"I have never seen a prettier or more becoming gown than the one you have on now," he replied, with an approving glance at her crisp, freshly laundered blue linen, while he added: "We have some very nice young men in the neighborhood of Ellsworth, and I am sure they will all fall in love with you at sight." ”

“ Ellsworth had had so many triumphs, that she regarded this one as only her due—a reward of her clever plotting, as it were.
The removal of Love to a sanitarium would be a great relief to her mind; and she jumped at the proposition with [198] alacrity, even twitting the old doctor with her superior judgment.
"I told you all along that you were foolish ever to expect his recovery, and you see I was right."
"The women are always right," he replied, gallantly, in his joy at having gained his point. ”

“ The group looked solicitous, and the sportsman, taking a black bottle from the pocket of his hunting-bag, said:
"Take some of this, man; you musn't fool with a pain like that."
"I come from the State of Maine," said the sufferer, "and I'm opposed to strong drink. But, rather than delay the game, gentlemen, I'll take a little as medicine."
"Of course; it's the only thing to do," interrupted the other players.
The man from Maine put the bottle to his lips, and then coughed and said that he didn't know whether the liquor did it, but that he certainly felt better. ”

“ To Miss Ellsworth, who came in later, hurried and amazed, she was inexplicable. She had travelled much, this successful, ordinary woman, and she was well educated, as women count such matters to-day; but this quiet spinster, sitting out of the strong currents of life, alone in her quaint, old-time parlor with its rose-leaves and mahogany of another day, had somehow left her behind with all her experiences and acquisitions, and bade her good-by with a manner that obliterated forever from her friend's mind the image of deprecating gentleness she had so long patronized. ”

“ Johnny Ellsworth,” they were calling. “Come down and sing; oh, Johnny Ellsworth.”
Pendleton’s chubby face lost the masterful lines. He chuckled. “We’ll have to go,” he said. “I’ll take this,” and he folded the drawing and put it in his pocket, and caught Ellsworth’s arm and drew him down the hall and into the big room where the greater part of the Thirties were gathered.
“It isn’t time for lunch,” the ambassador explained. “And Molly Allen has been talking medicine till we’re sick, and we want you to make music, Johnny Ellsworth. Get up there and sing till you bust, please.” ”

“ You see, Miss Ellsworth" (Miss Ellsworth was the General Secretary of the Women's Alliance) "Miss Ellsworth thought I knew you next best, and so, and so—oh, Rebecca, are you going off again with Dr. Booth to-night?" she broke off.
Reba flushed. "Why, yes," she said, "I was. He asked me to go to dinner with him." Then after a miserable silence, "Is it about him Miss Ellsworth asked you to speak to me?"
Louise Bartholomew did not reply directly to that. "We workers here have to be so careful about whom we go with, and how we conduct ourselves," she explained. "We're sort of examples, you see. ”

“ It is difficult for those of the present day to understand what a wave of intense emotion spread over the land when Ellsworth was killed, but they can secure some idea of it by observing what a number of living men bear the name Elmer E. He was young, courageous and attractive, and became one of the earliest sacrifices offered up to the moloch of slavery. ”

“ His mood was that of the disciple only eager to be enrolled. And what he found was a quiet, friendly host, surrounded by a group of men talking the ordinary pleasant Oxford chit-chat—the river, the schools, the Union, the football matches, and so on. Every now and then, as Elsmere stood at the edge of the circle listening, the rugged face in the centre of it would break into a smile, or some boyish speaker would elicit the low spontaneous laugh in which there was such a sound of human fellowship, such a genuine note of self-forgetfulness. ”

“ Elsworth knew Crowe did not like him. They had never quite got on together since he neglected to attend his experimental physiology class which met at church time on Sunday mornings in his own private laboratory—the chamber of horrors it was called. He could never bring himself to do so.
“Neither a fall nor a rise,” rejoined Elsworth, quietly; “nothing but a very matter-of-fact story of disgust with the noisy world of men, and a relish for a sojourn in the wilderness for study and meditation. Not quite without precedent in the history of civilisation, eh, Mr. Crowe?” ”

“ By the way, Miss Elsworth, I believe that there are a couple of gentlemen without, who are old admirers of yours—Captain Arbald and Lieutenant Marvin.
ROSE. Old, Major! You flatter my taste.
CLEVELAND. Why, with beauty I thought the conquest of the morning stale matter by night.
ROSE. Oh, sir, if staleness went to make their age, they would be proverbed instead of Methuselah.
CLEVELAND. They took very much to you.
ROSE. So did the measles, sir.
CLEVELAND. They are desperately enamoured of you—would do any difficult thing—even die for you. ”

“ Love's condition was changing, they said, from simple idiocy to active insanity that would necessitate his removal from Ellsworth to a place of close confinement.
"He may develop at any moment a homicidal mania, and prove terribly dangerous to his attendants. Indeed, Franklin has grown nervous already over some of his more violent moods, and threatens to resign his place," said Doctor Platt.
This was indeed most welcome news for Mrs. Ellsworth. Nothing except Love's death could have pleased her better. ”

“ Henslowe must give way. The law was on their side, and every laborer in Surrey would be the better off for their refusal to be housed like pigs and poisoned like vermin.
In vain. There is an inexhaustible store of cautious endurance in the poor against which the keenest reformer constantly throws himself in vain. Elsmere was beaten. The two men got his word, and shuffled off back to their pestilential hovels, a pathetic content beaming on each face.
Catherine and Robert went back into the study. Rose heard her brother-in-law’s passionate sigh as the door swung behind them. ”

“ The poor young soldier has gone where it is impossible for him to redress his wrongs, otherwise we fear he would be as anxious to tear down this monstrously pretty likeness as he was to uproot the rebel flag. If it were a likeness of Little Mac, for instance, that gentleman could, if he pleased, take the presentation sword—which he didn't get—and cut it down, annihilate it, and bestow its value on the Fair. But a dead hero is helpless, and Ellsworth in wax is sufficient to make any soldier exclaim, "May I never be a hero, lest ladies innocently and horribly perpetuate me in wax!" ”

“ He led the way into the suite and struck a match. One solitary candle had been left upon the mantel shelf. Ralph thought that this had been overlooked, but his mother afterwards set him right about that. Mrs. Van Kamp had cleverly left it so that the Ellsworths could see how dreadfully bare the place was. One candle in three rooms is drearier than darkness anyhow.
Mrs. Ellsworth took in all the desolation, the dismal expanse of the now enormous apartments, the shabby walls, the hideous bright spots where pictures had hung, the splintered flooring, the great, gaunt windows—and she gave in. ”

“ That young rector might be worth looking after. The dinners in Martin Street were alarmingly in want of fresh blood. As for poor Mr. Bickerton, he had begun to talk hastily to Catherine, with a sense of something tumbling about his ears; while Mr. Longstaffe, eyeglass in hand, surveyed the table with a distinct sense of pleasurable entertainment. He had not seen much of Elsmere yet, but it was as clear as daylight that the man was a firebrand, and should be kept in order. ”

“ Both girls were handsome and stylish in their way—Olive, a tall, dark, haughty brunette of twenty-four, while Ela Craye was twenty-two, pretty and delicate-looking, with a waxen skin, thick brown hair, and limpid, long-lashed gray eyes. Each girl cherished a hope of winning the rich and handsome heir of Ellsworth, and they feared the rivalry of a girl as fresh and lovely as the morning, and with the rounded slenderness of eighteen, piquant features, rose-leaf complexion, delicious dimples, a wealth of curling golden hair, and large, deep, violet-blue eyes full of soul and tenderness. ”

“ There was a chance this way ... one chance ... the only chance, not alone of saving his own life and clearing his own name, but of bringing to justice the inhuman fiends who had taken David Ellsworth’s life ... there was a chance ... one chance ... this way ... that someone would pay ... if he, Billy Kane, lived, that someone would pay!
There came a short, curt shout from behind him, an imperative order to halt. He had gained the courtyard now, and was running along the garage driveway, heading for the street. ”

“ Robert, standing on the step of a cottage, watched him give his orders, and took vigilant note of their substance. They embodied the inspector's directions, and the rector was satisfied. Henslowe was obliged to pass him on his way to another group of houses. At first he affected not to see the rector, then suddenly Elsmere was conscious that the man's bloodshot eyes were on him. Such a look! If hate could have killed, Elsmere would have fallen where he stood. Yet the man's hand mechanically moved to his hat, as though the spell of his wife's harangue were still potent over his shaking muscles. ”

“ Wendover, would it be impossible for you to authorise me to make one or two alterations most urgently necessary for the improvement of the Mile End cottages?'
[Pg 259]
The squire burst into an angry laugh.
'I have never yet been in the habit, Mr. Elsmere, of doing my repairs by public subscription. You ask a little too much from an old man's powers of adaptation.'
Robert rose from his seat, his hand trembling as it rested on his walking-stick. ”

“ He shook his head ruefully.
‘The Squire is a tough customer—most men of sixty-seven with strong wills are, I suppose. At any rate, he is like one of the Thurston trout—sees through all my manoeuvres. But one piece of news will astonish you, Catherine!’ And he sprang up to deliver it with effect. ‘Henslowe is dismissed.’
‘Henslowe dismissed!’ Catherine sat properly amazed, while Robert told the story.
The dismissal of Henslowe indeed represented the price which Mr. Wendover had been so far willing to pay for Elsmere’s society. ”