Mr. Manning

“ The maid stared at the little old gentleman and at the drooping dog in his arms and opened her mouth several times before she could articulate. “Why, why, Mr. Manning's dead, sir!”
The visitor stepped back. He seemed immeasurably shocked and grieved. “Dead—not Mr. Gerald Manning?” ”

“ Another cause of wonder was the hermit's visits to the city. Since he had heard that his grandson was living, he went up often to consult with Mr. Hardy. Family affection in him had not died out. It had only been dormant, and now it was thoroughly reawakened.
"I long to see my daughter's boy," he said. "It will give me something to live for. I tremble lest the cup of happiness should be dashed from my lips, just as my hopes are awakened."
"Don't be anxious, old friend. Your affairs are in good hands. Mark is only a boy, but he has far more discretion and fidelity than most men. ”

“ Manning shortly. “Let him go there in the morning.”
Eugene was not daunted by this message. “Repeat carefully my words,” he said to the amused maid; and his eyes flamed as he looked at her. “To-morrow I shall be on my way to France. I have now a last chance to see the gentleman of this house. If he refuses, he may regret his loss.”
The maid once more bent her footsteps toward the staircase, and on the way met Bridget, with whom she had a whispered colloquy.
“It’s the little French boy, sir, that plays with Miss Virgie,” she said on returning to Mr. Manning. ”

“ Forsythe leaned back in his chair, his hands clasped behind his head. "You might say I've been a huckster all my life, Mr. Manning."
Life-long pitchman, Manning figured coldly. Helped the medicine man when he was a youngster and ran away with a carnival when he was in his teens. During the Depression he probably had a set-up on a street corner selling spot remover, dealt in nylons during the war, and saved enough to branch out in a big way after the war was over.
"Look, Forsythe, I don't know who put you on to this racket or whether you're fronting for somebody else or not, but it's no go. ”

“ The curé beamed amiably at Mr. Manning, and not a suspicion of envy found lodgment in his gentle breast. He was delighted to see a man in possession of so much luxury. “I [Pg 170] felicitate you, sir,” he murmured when Mr. Manning briefly asked him what relation he bore to Eugene.
“He cannot understand you, sir,” interposed Eugene, “unless you speak French or slow American.”
Mr. Manning made a gesture that significantly commended the curé to the pleasant company of his own thoughts. He was not the man to talk “slow American” when a few quick sentences would dispose of the business in hand. ”

“ Ballou."
With mystification wrinkling their faces the hosts turned to the clergyman. Perspiration was beaded on his forehead. His lips moved wordlessly. He raked his trembling fingers through his whisker tufts, As he did not speak, Manning said brusquely.
"Doctor Wallace is tired and played out to-night, Tom. Whatever your business is it must wait till morning. After a good sleep he—"
"I beg your pardon, Mr. Manning, but my business cannot wait, and as for sleeping, this man cannot sleep under my roof, humble as it is. ”

“ The neighbouring Archdeacon, Mr. Hare, was a low churchman; Manning made friends with him, as warmly, it seemed, as he had made friends with Newman. He corresponded with him, asked his advice about the books he should read, and discussed questions of Theology—"As to Gal. vi. 15, we cannot differ. ... With a man who reads and reasons I can have no controversy; and. you do both." Archdeacon Hare was pleased, but soon a rumour reached him, which was, to say the least of it, upsetting. Manning had been removing the high pews from a church in Brighton, and putting in open benches in their place. ”

“ It has always to be borne in mind that Manning was essentially a man of the world, though he was much more than that. Be it far from me to disparage the ordinary type of Roman ecclesiastic, who is bred in a seminary, and perhaps spends his lifetime in a religious community. That peculiar training produces, often enough, a character of saintliness and unworldly grace on which one can only "look," to use a phrase of Mr. Gladstone's, "as men look up at the stars." But it was a very different process that had made Cardinal Manning what he was. ”

“ Mark did so.
Just as he was leaving the ticket-window, his former employer, Mr. Collins, the shoe manufacturer, took his place.
"Are you going to the city?" he asked.
"Yes, sir."
"Who goes with you?"
"Mr. Taylor."
"Mr. Taylor?"
"The—the hermit."
"Oh!" returned the manufacturer, arching his brows, "are you working for him?"
"Yes, sir."
"You might have been working for me, if you had behaved yourself."
"I am satisfied with the change," answered Mark.
"That boy is impertinent," soliloquized the village magnate. "He can't get much pay from a pauper. However, it serves him right. ”

“ I called you Harry because everyone was calling everyone else by his first name. Your last name made no impression on me at all. By George!" he concluded, in a new burst of amazement.
"What were the circumstances, exactly?" asked Hatch.
"I'm a traveling man," Manning explained. "I go everywhere. A friend gave me a card to the Lincoln Club in Pittsburg and I went there. There were five or six of us playing poker, among them Mr.--Mr. Doane here. I sat at the same table with him for twenty hours or so, but I can't recall his last name to save me. It isn't Doane, I'm positive. ”

“ The boy's eyes sparkled with excitement.
"I should like nothing better," he said.
"The commission will be to trace out Mr. Taylor's daughter, and find out whether she left a child. Necessary instructions will be given in writing."
"Do you think I am old enough?" asked Mark, excited but doubtful whether he was competent for the duty assigned him.
"Discretion is more needful than age," answered Mr. Hardy. "Perhaps an older messenger would be better, but as my friend wishes to avoid publicity, he is disposed to try you. Would your mother be willing to have you go?" ”

“ S'incliner devant Dieu, c'est toujours le moins humiliant."
Manning died on January 14th, 1892, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. A few days later Mr. Gladstone took occasion, in a letter to a friend, to refer to his relations with the late Cardinal. Manning's conversion was, he said, "altogether the severest blow that ever befell me. ”

“ Manning, on her side, reflected. "Yes, ma'am. She always goes straight."
"Not always," said Mrs. Beever. "But she's quiet there?"
"Very quiet."
"Then call Mr. Vidal." While Manning obeyed she turned to the window and stared at the gathering dusk. Then the door that had been left open closed again, and she faced about to Dennis Vidal. ”

“ MARK RECEIVES A TELEGRAM. "My good friend," said Mr. Hardy, "have you any reason to think your nephew's statement is to be relied upon?"
"I hope so," answered Anthony. "I am getting to be an old man, and I should like to feel that some one of my own blood would survive me, and profit by a part of the competence which God has bestowed upon me."
"It may be simply a money-making scheme on the part of Lyman," said the agent, thoughtfully. "Finding that he has little chance of becoming your heir, he wants to secure a handsome reward for restoring to you your grandson. ”

“ Mark was privately of opinion that he had as much right to ask the manufacturer's business as the latter his, but he answered: "Mr. Taylor had business here."
Squire Collins smiled contemptuously. It did not strike him that the hermit's business was likely to be of any great moment. So people often deceive themselves and assume a superiority to which they have little claim.
"Probably old Anthony has just been paid his pension," he thought, as he left them, and made his way to the elevator. ”

“ You don’t look like much of a kicker. But I kin tell you that you’ll git mussed tryin’ and there’ll be a rumpus in this office that Mr. Manning will hear—and he’ll come bustin’ out to find out what’s the trouble. Then where’ll you be? Kicked out yourself. Jest come right on and try it.”
“Git out!” says Johnnie, but he didn’t come any nearer.
“Are you going to tell Mr. Manning I want to see him?
“No. Git!”
Catty walked up to the rail and looked at Johnnie a second. Then what did he do but open his mouth and holler, “Mr. Manning!” as loud as he could. ”

“ But I sayd, I must goe home, and wished I had gone sooner, and woulde he let Diggory take me! No, he sayd, not a Man Jack on his Land shoulde saddle a Horse for me, nor would he lend me one, to carry me back to Mr. Milton; at the leaste not for a While, till he had come to Reason, and protested he was sorry for having writ to me soe harshly.
"Soe be content, Moll, and make not two Enemies instead of one. Goe, help thy Mother with her clear-starching. Be happy whilst thou art here."
But ah! more easily said than done. "Alle Joy is darkened; the Mirthe of the Land is gone!" ”

“ You don't seem to care."
"Why should I? Care killed a cat."
Arrived at the store, Mark stepped up to the counter and called for two pounds of sugar and two pounds of butter.
Mr. Palmer, the grocer, had heard of Mark's dismissal, and being a cautious man, inquired:
"Are you going to pay cash?"
"Certainly."
"I heard you had lost your place at the shop."
"Yes," answered Mark, smiling, "I discharged Squire Collins."
"It'll be rather hard on you, won't it?"
"I guess I can pay my bills, Mr. Palmer. At any rate I can pay for what I am buying now." ”

“ Direck.
"Yes. Manning is a London journalist. He has a little cottage about a mile over there"—Mr. Britling pointed vaguely—"and he comes down for the week-ends. And Rendezvous has found out he isn't fit. And everybody ought to be fit. That is the beginning and end of life for Rendezvous. Fitness. An almost mineral quality, an insatiable activity of body, great mental simplicity. So he takes possession of poor old Manning and trots him for that fourteen miles—at four miles an hour. ”

“ I want you to understand, Mr. Mate, that I'll have no interference with her. Instead of chasing bugaboos, suppose you check the course through the planetoid belt. I'll leave you with it; that will give you something real to worry about for a change."
Adam stared hopelessly after his retreating back. Damnation! Everything had seemed to go wrong since the beginning of this voyage. The harder he tried to prove himself worthy of the appointment as second-in-command to "Old Steel-Wall" the worse things went. With a shrug he turned doggedly to the chart work. ”

“ I only wish to make you happy. Were you not happy with Mr. Milton during the Week you spent together here at Sheepscote?" Thereat I coulde not refrayn from bursting into Tears. Rose now sprang forward; but Mr. Agnew sayd, "Let her weep, let her weep, it will do her good." Then, alle at once it occurred to me that my Husband was awaiting me at Home, and I cried, "Oh, is Mr. Milton at Forest Hill?" and felt my Heart full of Gladness. Mr. Agnew answered, "Not soe, not soe, poor Moll:" and, looking up at him, I saw him wiping his Brow, though the Daye was soe chill. ”

“ Just then, Dick comes in with his usual blunt Salutations, and then cries, "Well, Moll, are you ready to goe back?" "Why should I be?" I sayd, "when I am soe happy here? unless Father is ill, or Mr. Agnew and Rose are tired of me." They both interrupted, there was nothing they soe much desired, at this present, as that I shoulde prolong my Stay. And you know, Dick, I added, that Forest Hill is not soe pleasant to me just now as it hath commonlie beene, by Reason of your Oxford Companions. He brieflie sayd, I neede not mind that, they were coming no more to the House, Father had decreed it. ”

“ Gladstone failed to carry the Cabinet with him; and when at last a proposal was definitely made that the English Government should invite the Powers of Europe to intervene at the Vatican, it was rejected. Manning always believed that this was the direct result of Mr. Russell's despatches, which had acted as an antidote to the poison of Lord Acton's letters, and thus carried the day. If that was so—the discretion of biographers has not yet entirely lifted the veil from these proceedings—Manning had assuredly performed no small service for his cause. ”

“ Speaking of this correspondence in after years, Cardinal Manning said—"From the way in which Mr. Gladstone alluded to the overcasting of our friendship, people might have thought that I had picked his pocket."
VIII
In 1875 Manning's labours received their final reward: he was made a Cardinal. His long and strange career, with its high hopes, its bitter disappointments, its struggles, its renunciations, had come at last to fruition in a Princedom of the Church. "Ask in faith and in perfect confidence," he himself once wrote, "and God will give us what we ask. ”

“ Read Plato; he wrote on Marble, with a Diamond; but above alle, read the New Testament. 'Tis the Key to the Kingdom of Heaven."
To Mr. Gunnel, he said smiling, "Have a Care of thyself, dear Gonellus, and take a little Wine for thy Stomach's Sake. The Wages of most Scholars now-a-days, are weak Eyes, Ill-health, an empty Purse, and shorte Commons. I neede only bid thee beware of the two first."
To Bess, "Farewell, Bessy; thank you for mending my bad Latin. When I write to you, I will be sure to signe myselfe, 'Roterodamius.' Farewell, sweete Cecil ”

“ Manning. "I have been paying five dollars a month rent, and if that is satisfactory——"
"The fact is, Mrs. Manning," interrupted the squire, "I have other views. I intend to raise the house a story, and have promised to rent it, when completed, to my foreman, Mr. Lake, who contemplates marriage. He is boarding at present, as you know."
Mrs. Manning was very much disturbed. It is no light thing to be forced to leave a house which has been one's home for a period of ten years, especially in a country town where surplus houses are generally scarce and hard to find. ”