Mr. Long

“ Long was in despair, not knowing what to do about the minerals. He was confident that they were somewhere—but where? No one knew, and he couldn’t imagine.
“It’s too bad,” he cried, as his indignation grew irrepressible. “It’s too bad. Our expedition has been ill organized. I don’t blame anybody, but we’ve certainly had very bad luck. With only a week we have wasted or lost every day but one. Last Monday we were kept all day and all night at the wharf.”
“Wal, Mr. Long,” said Captain Corbet, “I s’pose you’re kind o’ blamin’ me; but what could I do? Ef a man has a babby, mustn’t he nuss it?” ”

“ Sheridan,” said O’Teague. “On the contrary, sir, it appears to me that a man who behaved so dishonourably as my friend Captain Mathews has done, makes a most suitable antagonist for a gentleman of honour like Mr. Long or yourself, sir.” ”

“ I hope my dear sir and you are quite reconciled.—O, madam, said he, how good you are! Why, I cannot contain myself for joy! and then he wiped his eyes; good man!
Said my master, Yes, I have been telling Longman that I am obliged to him for his ready return to me; and that I will entirely forget his appeal to Lady Davers; and I hope he’ll find himself quite as easy and happy as he wishes. My dear partner here, Mr. Longman, I dare promise you, will do all she can to make you so.—Heaven bless you both together! said he. ’Tis the pride of my heart to see this! ”

“ Olds is the queerest lady,” he went on, “always watching the clock. An’ she don’t like our ways, Mr. David—she said so! She says we’re slip-shod. Hit and miss, she says, that’s the way we live. My, she’s funny! At night [152] she says, ‘Well, I’m glad this day is over,’ an’ in the morning she says, ‘Dear me! I thought it would never come morning! I’m glad the night is gone.’ I said to her—I said to her—” Joey paused, having used up his breath, and requiring a fresh supply.
“Go slowly,” I advised. “What did you say, Joey? Get a good breath and tell Wanza and me.” ”

“ Foreman, but, if Captain Rudd will allow me, I don't think it has. We haven't been here hardly any time. There's no hurry, so long as we're doing our duty. I daresay we'll all agree yet before we've finished. All we want is a little patience."
"And something to eat," said Mr. Timmins.
"Then do you mean to say," exclaimed Mr. Longsett, as he commenced upon another sandwich, "that you'd send a young lad to gaol, and blast his good name for ever, just because you're hungry?"
"May I be permitted to make a remark?" The inquiry came from Mr. Tyler. He was holding his handkerchief to his ear ”

“ Longworth, gazing reproachfully at him through his glittering monocle, 'that I am equally interested in this project with you. It is just as much to my interest to save time as it is to yours. You must not worry about the matter, Mr. Wentworth; everything is all right. The men are doing a good job for us, and it will not be long before their work is completed. As I have told you time and again, a great deal depends on the appearance we present to the public. We have nearly the best offices in the City. ”

“ Had I thought of Haidee so?
When I turned back to the cedar room, Mrs. Olds met me at the door with a whispered, “Joey is lucid—he is asking for you.” I crossed swiftly to the bed, knelt down and took my lad’s hand. He smiled at me in his old way, but his eyes went past me to Mrs. Olds. His voice was distinct as he ordered, “Go, get Wanza, Mrs. Olds, please.”
I heard Wanza’s step at that moment. She came softly forward and crouched beside me. “I am here, Joey,” she said in her rich young voice.
“That’s all right then! Wanza; if I don’t get well you got to marry Mr. David.” ”

“ I frowned at her, and received a moue in return.
“I’ve been telling the big man about my peddler’s cart,” she ventured finally. “He’s so set on seeing it, soon as he’s well enough! Seems he never saw one. He can’t talk much, he’s that weak yet—like a baby! But I can talk to him.”
“I shall not ask you not to talk with him, again, Wanza,” I announced.
“It’s just as well, seeing as I know what I’m about. Land! the poor man! He needs some one to talk to him. I don’t notice you hurting yourself seeing after him, Mr. David Dale!” ”

“ I got off Buttons, but I said: ‘No, I’ll not go with you. I’ll ask Mr. David, first!’ The big man laughed and said you’d find out soon enough. I kicked and kicked, Mr. David, when he grabbed me by the arm. And [290] then another big man came out of the bushes, and they tied up my mouth and they carried me to a boat and locked me up in a funny little cupboard. By and by I went to sleep. Then one morning I woke up and I was here. I heard the big man say to the other man: ‘I’ve got him, Bill. My wife’ll have to come to terms now.’”
Again Joey paused, and I writhed and was silent. ”

“ Miss Wolcott regarded him for a moment with an observant scrutiny which she made no attempt to disguise, and then she turned to her grandfather.
"It is time for your walk, Dandy," she said. She got him his overcoat, hat, and stick from the hall, and herself buttoned his coat up to his throat.
"You see how she spoils me," Mr. Wolcott said, with evident pride in his voice. "I'm old enough to look out for myself."
Edith did not speak. In grave silence she gave him his gloves, and watched him put them on while Lyon as intently watched her. ”

“ Longman, That all your honour’s old servants are now happy, but one. You mean John Arnold? said my master. I do, indeed, said he, if you’ll excuse me, sir. O, said I, I have had my prayer for poor John answered, as favourably as I could wish.—Why, said Mr. Longman, to be sure poor John has acted no very good part, take it altogether; but he so much honoured you, sir, and so much respected you, madam, that he would have been glad to have been obedient to both; and so was faithful to neither. But, indeed, the poor fellow’s heart is almost broke, and he won’t look out for any other place ”

“ With the cage clasped in her arms, her eyes [224] flooded with tears, but with smiles on her mobile lips, she went from the shop, backward, step by step.
After Wanza came Joey. A transfigured Joey. Wild with rage at the big man, threatening, and bombastic. Then softening into plaintive grief, wailing:
“Oh, Mr. David, my Bell Brandon’s going! She’s going! She won’t be here to-night for my sleep-time story. She won’t be here when I wake up to-morrow. She won’t ever stay here again.”
“No, lad,” I replied.
“Won’t she, don’t you ’spose? P’r’aps if she don’t like it at Hidden Lake she’ll come back. ”

“ My [291] eyes opened straight into Joey’s, and I reached out and took his hand in mine. “Joey,” I whispered, seeing shining drops on his cheeks, “Joey, I’m in trouble. I must think, lad! The big man won’t be back, lad—he’ll not return at all—I know that—you will never see him again. But after awhile you and Bell Brandon will be very happy together—after awhile.”
“What do you mean, Mr. David? Ain’t I going to live at Cedar Dale again, with you, and Jingles and Buttons, same as ever? Oh, ain’t I, Mr. David?” my little lad cried out, and his tears fell fast. ”

“ When the last little envelope had curled up into filmy ash, he rose. She was standing erect before the fire, with a vitality and radiance in every line of her figure that made her like a different being. "Truly, women are beyond all understanding," thought Lyon, as he waited for her next word.
"Thank you," she said, and the simple phrase on her lips seemed like a pæan of thanksgiving. "Now,--one thing more. You know everything,--you are the only one who does. Will you tell Mr. Lawrence about these letters? He has always been a good friend, and--I should like to have him know!" ”

“ Fancy 'getting' Mr. Longdon anything or anywhere whatever! Don't you feel," Vanderbank threw out, "how the impossibility of exerting that sort of patronage for him immediately places him?"
Mrs. Brook gave her companion one of those fitful glances of almost grateful appreciation with which their intercourse was even at its darkest hours frequently illumined. ”

“ "I should like to ask you:—Does your childhood seem far off? Do the days when you sat at your mother's knee, seem days of very long ago?"
Responding to his softened manner, Mr. Lorry answered:
"Twenty years back, yes; at this time of my life, no. For, as I draw closer and closer to the end, I travel in the circle, nearer and nearer to the beginning. It seems to be one of the kind smoothings and preparings of the way. My heart is touched now, by many remembrances that had long fallen asleep, of my pretty young mother (and I so old!) ”

“ Then they waited, paralyzed with undescribed emotions, in a large room with books and swords and glass book-cases with rotten-looking odds and ends in them. Mr. Longchamps was a collector. That means he stuck to anything, no matter how ugly and silly, if only it was old. ”

“ With a surreptitious glance at his watch, he fell into step beside Mr. Wolcott.
"Your quiet neighborhood has made itself rather notorious," he began, at a safe distance from his objective point. "I suppose you first learned of the murder through the papers this morning. Or did you hear the excitement last night?"
"I heard the grocer boy telling Eliza this morning," Mr. Wolcott answered. "I don't read the paper very much. My eyesight is all right,--my faculties are all as good as ever,--but they print the papers in such fine type nowadays, I don't care to read them." ”

“ I dare say you've been in his father's store many a time,—Longworth & Whittles, one of the biggest and best dry-goods stores on Sixth avenue. The old gentleman's rolling in gold, and there ain't a nicer lady in New York City than Mrs. Longworth. You see, it was this way. Young Mr. Longworth didn't like business, and they sent him abroad to be educated, and when he come back he just fooled around and went out a good deal, and finally, he got in with some literary folks. One of his friends took him to their receptions, and he got it into his head he was going to be a writer. ”

“ Longworth, in his impetuous, nervous manner. "Do not imagine you are ever to do it again. Tell me," he said, lowering his voice, and leaning toward me so that he could see my face, shaded by the vine-hung trellis. "Could you be happy—"
We heard Mr. Hopper moving around the room uneasily, and instinctively Mr. Longworth paused.
"Ma," said the old man, a trifle reproachfully, "I'm afraid you don't try to make it cheerful for them young folks. Why don't you go out and set for a spell? ”

“ Right comes, it will be a different matter."
"She wouldn't have a word to throw to the rightest Mr. Right in the world just now," said Mr. Whyte. "She is taking Gene's trouble pretty hard. But that little Jean is a wonder! She will be a heart-wrecker all right."
"Now, Carroll, don't put any such ideas into her head. She is a mere child."
"She is Gene's twin," said Mr. Whyte, shrewdly. "If his devotion to Katherine is to be treated respectfully, you can't act as though Jean were just out of the kindergarten. I'll bet she has had a broader experience with love-affairs than Katherine has." ”

“ When a girl has no mother and is, besides, as wilful as Jean is,--and she is wilful, Katherine, although I admit she is charming about it, and I should be in love with her myself if I were a man,--the sooner such a girl is married to a steady young man, the better."
"Is the steady young man Mr. Garney?" I asked. The annoyance with which I had observed his prostration before Jean probably betrayed itself in my voice, for Miss Thurston looked up to answer reassuringly. ”

“ Longways, the Company's agent.
So soon as the Cassandra's boat had come alongside he skipped up the side like a monkey, and gave me a very civil bow immediately his feet touched the deck, which I returned with all the gravity I was able to command.
Mr. Longways was a lean, slim little man, and was dressed with great care, and in the very latest fashion that he could obtain;15 from which, and his polite, affected manners and grimaces, I perceived that he rarely had the opportunity of coming upon board of a craft where there were ladies as passengers. ”

“ Mitchy developed, "it's happy."
This too, though rather ruefully, Mr. Longdon could take from him. "Yes—in its way."
"Any passion so great, so complete," Mitchy went on, "is—satisfied or unsatisfied—a life." Mr. Longdon looked so interested that his fellow-visitor, evidently touched by what was now an appeal and a dependence, grew still more bland, or at least more assured, for affirmation. "She's not too sorry for herself." ”

“ It is dangerous for a woman to play at meekness! She recovered herself quickly, and struck gayly into another theme. "Guess who's engaged!"
They had been walking up the path to the house, but at this he stopped short. "Engaged? Here? Some one I know?"
"Yes!"
"Not your brother?"
"Henry? Why, no. What made you think of him? It's Mr. Selby!"
"And Miss Hadley?" he asked, in dismay.
"Yes! How clever of you! How did you guess?"
"Wait a minute. Don't go in just yet," said Burton, stopping at the door. He led her aside to a garden bench which stood against the wall. "I want to consider this. ”

“ Mr. Longdon, who, as compared with her, might have struck a spectator as infernally subtle, took an instant to think. "I've never met Mr. Mitchett before."
"Well, he always thinks one doesn't like him," Nanda explained. "But one does. One ought to," she added.
Her companion had another pause. "He likes you."
Oh, Mr. Longdon needn't have hesitated! "I know he does. He has told mother. He has told lots of people."
"He has told even you," Mr. Longdon smiled. ”