Mr. Harrington

“ Thank heaven! he did not identify me. And then he told an anecdote of Papa. It was the dreadful old ‘Bath’ story. I thought I should have died. I could not but fancy the Admiral suspected. Was it not natural? And what do you think I had the audacity to do? I asked him coolly, whether the Mr. Harrington he mentioned was not the son of Sir Abraham Harrington, of Torquay,—the gentleman who lost his yacht in the Lisbon waters last year? I brought it on myself. “Gentleman, ma’am,—MA’AM!” says the horrid old creature, laughing, “gentleman! he’s a —— I cannot speak it: I choke!” ”

“ Harrington drew from his pocket the money he had received from Muriel, and counted him out twenty-five dollars.
“Here, Driscoll,” he said, holding out the bills to him.
“Oh, begorra, Mr. Harrington, but I’ll niver take it from you. Plaise don’t offer it to me.”
“Driscoll, I insist upon your taking it. You shall.”
[479]
He seized the stevedore’s hand, and put the money into it.
“There. Don’t thank me, but attend to what I say. Driscoll, that negro is a poor laboring man like you. He has as good a right to his freedom as you have. ”

“ Among [90] the neighbors I was introduced to, was a Mr. Harrington, about seventy-five years of age. When he spoke, and while he spoke, his tongue was sounding in my ears as if it was jingling on the hearthstone of my childhood.
“Where in the world, Mr. Harrington,” said I to him at last, “were you living when you were growing up a child?”
“I was living in Dunmanway,” said he.
“I have never met you before,” said I, “but your voice sounds to me as if I heard it before; I must have known some people belonging to you. What was your mother’s name?” ”

“ Muriel started from her stillness, and with something of her usual frank and cordial air, advanced and held out her hand to him. The negro, suddenly disturbed, as though just conscious of her presence, took the offered hand, half ashamedly, and bowed low.
“Excuse my language, Miss Eastman,” he said, “but I kind o’ forgot you were in here. Now, Mr. Harrington,” he said, hurriedly turning from her with a look of trouble, “I don’t know how we’ll get this curse out of here. I’m afeard the folks’ll fly at him when they see him. The women folks’ll be the worst to manage. ”

“ But a man can always peg along in the bush; and it's an awful thing for a child like that to be adrift in a big city.”
The kind-hearted police doctor looked steadily into Harrington's face for a moment, then he said quietly—
“An awful thing indeed. But there are some good men in the world, Mr. Harrington, who are able and willing to save pure souls from destruction. You are one of them. Tom Walters and myself are both hard-up devils—we see a lot of misery, but can do nothing to alleviate it; a few shillings is all we can give.” ”

“ Her father, of course, will exercise his judgement.” (Lady Jocelyn said this to uphold the honour of Sir Franks, knowing at the same time perfectly well that he would be wheedled by Rose.) “I confess I like this Mr. Harrington. But it’s a great misfortune for him to have had a notorious father. A tailor should certainly avoid fame, and this young man will have to carry his father on his back. He’ll never throw the great Mel off.” ”

“ We only wish to give enough to repair matters, and set you right with the New Orleans folks. Lafitte can appraise his slave, and regard for public opinion will make him keep within reason. Still we are ready to do anything rather than have you prejudiced in your business, or your sister injured as, at her time of life, this matter would injure her.”
“I don’t see why you should interest yourself so much in this affair, Mr. Harrington,” grumbled the merchant.
“Pardon me, I am only an agent,” replied Harrington, with a sweet civility which not even Atkins could resist. ”

“ Harrington,” continued Mrs. Atkins, after much eulogium of the Southern gentleman who had done us the honor [253] of dining with us to-day, “if you could only meet Mr. Lafitte, you would have such different ideas of the Southern gentlemen.”
“Indeed, madam,” replied Harrington, courteously, “I should be sorry to have my ideas of Southern gentlemen changed, for I credit them with many fine and high qualities. Don’t think that I imagine Northerners and Southerners in the absolute colors of good and evil—black and white; all the white on our side, and all the black on theirs.” ”

“ She examined the pair, and added: “Oh, no. It must be the tall one they mistook for the small one. But Mr. Harrington ought not to demean himself by keeping company with such, and my lady should know of it.”
My lady, alighting from the Lymport coach, did know of it, within a few minutes after Evan had quitted the Green Dragon, and turned pale, as high-born dames naturally do when they hear of a relative’s disregard of the company he keeps.
“A tailor, my lady!” said scornful Maria; and the Countess jumped and complained of a pin. ”

“ Harrington?”
Harrington met the insulting exultation of the merchant’s gaze, with a look quiet and firm.
“Since you ask me what I think of it, Mr. Atkins,” he replied, tranquilly, “you must permit me to say that I think it atrocious.”
“And so do I,” said Mrs. Eastman, crimson with indignation. “And you ought to blush, Lemuel, to say that you would give legality to a ferocious murder.”
“Ought I?” replied the merchant, coolly. “Well, I don’t, Serena. In such a case, killing’s no murder. Murder, indeed! Ha! men like those to dare to wage war on the institutions of their country!” ”

“ As there is hardly any situation, however, so interesting to reflect upon as that of a man without a penny in his pocket, and a gizzard full of pride, we will leave Mr. Evan Harrington to what fresh adventures may befall him, walking towards the funeral plumes of the firs, under the soft midsummer flush, westward, where his father lies. ”

“ Harrington takes the table, don't you see?'
'Yes,-ah!' croaked Goren. 'The head of the family, as the saying goes!'
'I suppose we shan't go into business to-day?' Joyce carelessly observed.
Lawyer Perkins answered:
'No. You can't expect it. Mr. Harrington has led me to anticipate that he will appoint a day. Don't you see?'
'Oh! I see,' returned Joyce. 'I ain't in such a hurry. ”

“ Atkins,” replied Harrington, laughing—alas! [459] he found it hard to laugh, poor gentleman—“do you not see that if Mr. Lafitte refuses to take so extravagant a sum, he will only make himself ridiculous in the eyes of the New Orleans people. Why, they will hoot at him! And besides, they will extol your public spirit to the skies. It will give you a name there no other merchant possesses. Just think of it! Why, Lafitte would be forced to accept out of pure shame, even were he indifferent to the advantage of having the round sum of ten thousand dollars.” ”

“ Harrington turned to his shelves, and took down a Douai Bible, its covers blazoned with a golden cross.
“Driscoll,” said he, “you are a Catholic. Here is the Catholic Bible. It is opposed to slavery. There have been great men of your church who hated slavery. The Pope himself has cursed slavery. See, here is the cross of your church on the cover. Take this book in your hands, and swear that you will never speak to any person, man or woman, of what you have done, of what passed between Mr. Atkins and you, of what has passed between us here. ”

“ The little imps pluck at you: the big giant assails you: the seductions of the soft-mouthed siren are not wanting. Slacken the knot an instant, and they will all have play. And the worst is, that you may be wrong, and they may be right! For is it, can it be proper for you to stain the silvery whiteness of your skin by plunging headlong into yonder pitch-bath? Consider the defilement! Contemplate your hideous aspect on issuing from that black baptism!
As to the honour of your family, Mr. Evan Harrington, pray, of what sort of metal consists the honour of a tailor’s family? ”

“ But this Harrington’s poor as poverty. How should he be buying your negro?”
Mr. Lafitte shrugged his shoulders.
“Who knows?” he returned. “Perhaps the dear William has earned the cash, and wants to treat himself to a bit of black brother in his old age. Perhaps,” he added, with a sly, sardonic smile, “your lovely niece wants to do a little philanthropy [301] for him. She’s rich, you told me. Your Boston ladies are so fond of the philanthropy business, you know. And Harrington’s sweet upon her, isn’t he? Who knows but that he has put her up to it. ”

“ Bagasse removed his cap, and sitting on the sofa, kept his upturned visage pointed in dubious inquiry at Harrington, who had resumed his chair.
“You know I have been married,” said Harrington smilingly.
“Marry! No! Mon Dieu, no! I haf not hear zat!” exclaimed Bagasse, with a start, and his bright eye glowing from a flushed visage.
“Yes,” replied Harrington. “To that beautiful rich lady Mr. Witherlee told you of.”
Bagasse turned the color of heated iron, partly with joy at this intelligence, partly with wonder at Harrington’s knowledge of what had passed between himself and Witherlee. ”

“ I feel badly for what has happened, but I am not angry with you, Charles.”
The miserable Tugmutton, inert in his suspension, opened his big mouth wide, and burst into a roar of tears.
“My gosh! Mr. Harrington,” he howled, amidst his grief, “there aint a more mis’able young nigger this side of Jordan than me. He’s took off, and I’m the guilty party, Mr. Harrington, when I didn’t mean it. Oh, Lord A’mighty, I can’t provide for that family never no more, and the man that won’t provide for his family, is just wus than an infidel, and that’s in the Holy Bible, Mr. ”

“ Mr. Atkins was thinking of Harrington, if Harrington could but have known it. The moment Mrs. Eastman had told him that Antony had been sheltered in her house, a feeling [483] had come to him that the young scholar, whose dauntless temper he had some notion of, might possibly attempt a rescue, and he took his measures accordingly. This accounted, too, for Antony not being on board the Soliman.
“But look a-here, John,” pursued the Captain. “Satan’s niver onready to play ye a trick, an’ there’s no countin’ on what’s likely with him. ”

“ Harrington gave the order to the driver, and in a few minutes they arrived at the hotel. By that time Lafitte had recovered, and Harrington assisted him to button up his shirt and vest, resume his neckcloth, and get himself into something like decent trim.
Leaning on Harrington’s arm, he got from the carriage, and stood, weak and ghastly, on the sidewalk. The flurried driver, pointing to his horses, which stood reeking, and covered with froth and pasty foam, remarked that “if them animals ain’t blown, it’s nobody’s fault—that’s all.” Mr. ”

“ It will be pardoned to her by those who perceive the profound piece of feminine discernment which precedes it.
“I do think I shall now have courage to stay out the pic-nic,” she continues. “I really do not think all is known. Very little can be known, or I am sure I could not feel as I do. It would burn me up. George Up— does not dare; and his most beautiful lady-love had far better not. Mr. Forth may repent his whispers. But, Oh! what Evan may do! Rose is almost detestable. Manners, my dear? Totally deficient!
“An ally has just come. Evan’s good fortune is most miraculous. ”

“ He smelt at the roses, and turned the letter this way and that. His name was correctly worded on the outside. With an odd reluctance to open it, he kept trifling over the flowers, and then broke the broad seal, and these are the words that met his eyes:
'Mr. EVAN HARRINGTON.
'You have made up your mind to be a tailor, instead of a Tomnoddy.
You're right. Not too many men in the world—plenty of nincompoops.
'Don't be made a weathercock of by a parcel of women. I want to find a man worth something. ”

“ It is politic in you to adopt them, and so curry favor with the one that you may mend your poverty by a rich marriage with the other.”
And with these brutal words, the merchant threw back his [261] head, glaring at the young man with open mouth, and a frightful smile on his blanched visage, which was at that moment the visage of a demon. Harrington met that glare with a look of such majestic severity, such a stern glory of anger lighting his calm eyes and brow, that the merchant’s face fell, and he slunk a pace away. The company had left the parlor, and were talking in the hall, as Mr. ”

“ The long blackness of their frock-coats and the sable accompaniment of their silk hats, gloves, and ties appealed to the observant faculties of Harrington as in harmony both with the high social position of the parties and the peculiar sadness of the occasion. That a young man and woman, on the eve of matrimony, and with everything to live for, should be hurled into eternity (a Harringtonian figure of speech) by a railroad train at a rustic crossing, while driving, was certainly an affair heartrending enough to invite every habiliment of woe. ”

“ Harrington was a new man, and he came from the Virginia mountains, and was most obliging and altogether engaging. This was all the information acquired even by the indefatigable Miss Mollie Merk, whose success in extracting from individuals information it was their dearest desire to conceal had made her a star member of the Searchlight's staff. It was to Miss Merk, however, that Harrington announced his first important discovery. Leaning across her desk one evening after his successor had taken the "car," the new elevator man touched a subject much upon his mind. ”