Mr. Townsend

“ You behold a desperate man, a merciless creditor, a tussock of ore from the bogs of Nassawongo, yet one whose only crimes have been to adore you, and to wear his forefathers' hat."
"Is this pride, then, wholly insulted sensibility, Mr. Milburn?"
"I cannot say, Miss Custis. You may smile, but I think it is aristocracy."
"I think so, too," exclaimed Vesta reflectively; "you are a proud man. My father, who has had reason to be proud, is less an aristocrat, sir, than you." ”

“ Behind the barn were hen yards, pigsties, and, beyond these, the rolling acres of Townsend pastures, meadows and pine groves.
In the white painted stables beyond the carriage house the captain found Mr. Gifford seated upon an overturned bucket. Upon his shriveled little face was an expression of huge satisfaction. His puckered lips widened in a grin as Townsend came in.
“Been waitin’ for you, Cap’n Foster,” he announced. “Ain’t touched a thing. Left the whitewashin’ job just as ’twas for you to see. You stay right where you be and I’ll fetch him out.” ”

“ Townsend, were engaged in showing books, or wrapping up parcels.
Seeing that Mr. Townsend was busy, Tom decided to defer for the present reporting on the result of his errand. He hung up his coat and hat, and as there seemed to be nothing else for him to do, he proceeded to tidy up a table of small booklets, that was usually in disorder, as customers were continually looking over the stock.
While he was thus engaged he was approached by a young man, whose clothes were of expensive cut and material. ”

“ Vesta sat down in the fairy rocker, and detained him.
"You have told me the feeling you think you had, Mr. Milburn. Poor as we Custises are now, it will not do to be proud. How did you ever think that feeling could be returned by me? My youth, my connections, everything, would forbid me, without haughtiness, to see a suitor in you. Then, you took no means to turn my attention towards you. You could have been neighborly, had you desired. You did not even wear the commonest emblems of a lover—"
She paused. Milburn said to himself:
"Ah! that accursed Hat." ”

“ Tom found the book-store proprietor and told him of Dr. Spidderkins’ desires.
“Tell him to take the book, and welcome,” was the reply Mr. Townsend sent back. “He can take all the books he wants. He is good for them.”
The doctor left, after insisting that a messenger must be sent to his house that evening for the ten dollars, in case he did not send it sooner.
“I guess you’d better stop up and see the doctor, Tom,” said Mr. Townsend, when it came closing time. “He hasn’t sent the money, and, while I know he’ll pay it, he always likes to have things done just as he requests. ”

“ I bolted into the office, and cried [Pg 14] —
"The article on the Homestead Bill is mine, so is every other article in to-day's paper. Mr. Watch does not tell the truth; he is ungenerous!"
"What's this, Watch?" said Axiom.
"Alfred," exclaimed Mr. Watch, majestically, "adopts my suggestions very readily, and is quite industrious. I recommend that we raise his salary to five dollars a week. That is a large sum for a lad."
That night the manuscript was overhauled in the composing room. Watch's dereliction was manifest; but not a word was said commendatory of my labor ”

“ The clerk put the telephone into operation, and presently reported to Mr. Townsend:
“He says the man forgot to call on his afternoon trip, and it’s too late now.”
“That’s too bad!” exclaimed Mr. Townsend. “Those books must go to Dr. Spidderkins to-night, or he’ll be very much disappointed, and he’s too good a customer to disappoint. Tom, you had better jump on a car and take them to him. Do you know your way around the Back Bay district?”
The Back Bay district is the section of Boston where are located the residences of the rich, and it is quite exclusive. ”

“ Regarding her a moment with increasing interest, Judge Custis came forward and kissed her forehead.
"Amen, then!" he said. "May you love your husband! I will do all I can to love him, too."
"That is spoken like a true man," Vesta said. "And now, father, good-night! Be ready here for Mr. Milburn's arrival. Ring for a decanter and some cake. It will not hurt you, after your fast, to drink a glass of sherry with the bridegroom." ”

“ It was the man Mr. Milburn knocked down for mashing his hat; he was afraid Mr. Milburn would throw him into jail, so he asked master to hide in the kitchen. But Hominy was almost crazy with fear of Mr. Milburn before that." [Pg 242]
Vesta held up her beautiful arms with a look of despair.
"What has not that poor old hat brought upon every body?" she cried. "Oh, who dares contest the sunshine with the tailor and hatter? They are the despots that never will abdicate or die."
"The idea of your father letting a tramp like that sleep in the kitchen among the slaves!" cried Mrs. Custis. ”

“ As for my friend, the gentleman--we should see.
Oddly enough, I came across Mr. Reginald Townsend that very afternoon. I had been shopping--shopping was about all there was for me to do; after Strikehigh City I found life pretty dull West Kensington way, but then I had expected it to be dull. As I was strolling homewards, who should I see but Mr. Reginald Townsend. He was a sight for sore eyes--at least, he was a sight for mine. I like to see a man that is a man--handsome, well set up, and dressed as only the thoroughbred man knows how to dress. ”

“ No longer able to advance upon consignments, or guaranty sales, those who wished advances would not send him their goods, and those who were willing to waive the guaranty, would be afraid to trust their sales to a man who had committed the mistake [Pg 137] of selling to a house just on the eve of its failure.
That this would be the result of an exposure of his affairs, Mr. Townsend felt well assured. It was just as he had acted in his days of prosperity. He never regarded the interests of any man, and never extended the slightest sympathy toward the unfortunate. ”

“ Livingstone, there was something in his manner which forbade her treating him as aught save an equal. He was not to be trampled down, and for once in her life Mrs. Livingstone had found a person who would neither cringe to her nor flatter. The children were not presented to him until dinner time, when, with the air of a young desperado, John Jr. marched into the dining-room, eyeing his teacher askance, calculating his strength, and returning his greeting with a simple nod. Mr. Everett scanned him from head to foot, and then turned to Carrie half smiling at the great dignity which she assumed. ”

“ Very respectfully, yours, etc.”
“Forty thousand dollars more as good as cast into the sea!” said Mr. Townsend, with forced composure, as he read the last sentence of this letter, and comprehended the whole matter. “Fool! Fool! Why did I not send the agent before I made the purchase? Was ever a man so beside himself!”
As soon as the mental blindness and confusion [Pg 46] that this intelligence produced, had, in a degree, subsided, Mr. Townsend began to think whether he could not save something by a forced sale of his interest in “Eldorado.” ”

“ The fire had tried and proved them, and the gold [Pg 185] was purer than even a father’s partial affection had believed it to be.
Such were the thoughts and feelings of Mr. Townsend, as he sat musing in the great calm that had succeeded to the strong agitation of mind suffered for many days. In the midst of these reflections, he was interrupted by the entrance of an individual of whom he had recently thought very frequently. That individual was Rufus Albertson.
Of late, business had brought the young man to his store several times ”

“ Townsend has been undeservedly neglected as a poet. Many of his lyrics, which possess much charm and grace, are scattered through manuscript miscellanies. His reply to ‘The Enquiry’ (a poem attributed to Carew or Herrick) , entitled ‘His Mistress Found,’ is printed in Carew's ‘Poems and Masque’ (ed. Ebsworth, 1893) . Beloe included it and another poem by Townsend, entitled ‘Youth and Beauty,’ in his ‘Anecdotes of Literature’ (1812, vi. 195, 198) . Mr. A. H. Bullen in ‘Speculum Amantis’ (1889) printed Townsend's poem ‘To the Lady May’ from the Malone MS. 13, f. ”

“ If I was strong, like other little boys, I would make money for her, so that she shouldn't keep any boarders—except Mr. Reybold. Oh! she has to work a lot; but she's proud and won't tell anybody. All the money I get I mean to give her; but I wouldn't have it if I had to beg for it like that man!"
"O Beau," said Colonel Jeems Bee, "you've cotched it now! Reybold's even with you. Little Crutch has cooked your goose! Crutch is right eloquent when his wind will permit." ”

“ It was the first prayer that had ever ascended from the heart of the merchant—the first deeply-felt acknowledgment of his own powerlessness, and dependence upon a Supreme Being.
To the mother and sister this last intelligence [Pg 74] brought a ray of hope, feeble though it was, and scarcely to be called light.
Three days more went by, and in all that time—an age of suspense—there came no word of the sick son and brother.
“Has there been a failure of the southern mail?” asked Mr. Townsend every day. The answer “No,” fell each time upon his feelings like a stroke from a hammer ”

“ The merchant nodded in reply, impatiently, and waved his hand.
The head clerk came back again, and laying his hand on Arthur's shoulder, said, quietly:—
"I overheard you, I think, saying to Mr. Delancey you were not quite well. You are unacclimated, remember, and must take care of yourself. Go up stairs, and see if lying down awhile will not restore you."
Although Arthur felt certain now, that Wilkins knew all, he felt inexpressibly grateful for his apparent ignorance of it, and his kindness towards him, and showed as much in his manner. ”

“ Freckle.
"Dear Pisgah," read the text, "I am here at claim of restaurateur; shall die to-morrow at or before twelve o'clock, if Andy Plade don't fork over my subscription of two hundred francs. Andy Plade damned knave—no mistake! No living soul been to see me, except letter from Hon. Mr. Slidell. He has got sixteen thousand dollars in specie for Simp. Where's Simp, dogorn him! Hon. S. sent to Simp's house; understood he'd sailed for America. Requested Hon. S. to give me small part of money as Simp's next friend. Hon. S. declined. Population of prison very great. ”

“ Townsend, with whom I lately parted, speaks of him as the greatest man that has lived in this century, and begs his life may not be penned in haste.”
In another unpublished letter, also addressed to Mrs. Fletcher, and dated “October 6, 1786,” Mr. Ireland wrote:—
“I never saw Mr. Fletcher’s equal. On him great grace was bestowed. What deadness to the world! What spiritual mindedness! What zeal for souls! What communion with God! What intercourse with heaven! What humility at the feet of Jesus! What moderation towards all men! What love for the poor! ”

“ Milburn was taken to his bed Saturday evening, and on Sunday father went to Delaware on legal business for my husband."
"That is Meshach Milburn, I hear," the bay sailor remarked, with a penetrating look. "Shall I go and see him on this nigger business?"
"No," Vesta replied; "he is too sick, and it is a delicate subject to name to him. My girls, Virgie and Roxy, think old Hominy ran away from a superstitious fear she had of Mr. Milburn, who had become the master of Teackle Hall by marriage."
"Yes, by smoke! every nigger in town, big and little, is afraid of Milburn's hat." ”

“ With Lena and Anna he seemed better pleased, holding their hands and smiling down upon them through rows of teeth which Anna pronounced the whitest she had ever seen.
Mr. Livingstone was not at home, and when his mother appeared, Mrs. Livingstone did not think proper to introduce her. But if by this omission she thought to keep the old lady silent, she [Pg 268] was mistaken, for the moment Mrs. Nichols was seated, she commenced with, "Your name is Everett, I b'lieve?" ”

“ He was attached to the provincial press, and had been with the army of the West until recently. Without any exception, he was the "fussiest," most impertinent, most disagreeable man that I ever knew. He always made a hero of himself in his reports, and if I remember rightly, their headings ran after this fashion:—
Tremendous Battle at Roanoke! The Correspondent of the Blunderbuss hoists the National Flag above the REBEL RAMPARTS!!!" or again—Grand Victory at Shiloh! Mr. Twaddle, our Special Correspondent, TAKEN PRISONER!!! He ESCAPES!!! He is FIRED UPON!!! ”

“ Plade alone, of all the Americans in Paris, asserted from the first that Hugenot was far-sighted, close, capable. Indeed, he was so earnest in this enunciation that few thought him disinterested.
It was Master Simp who heard a bold step on the stairs that night, and a resolute knock upon his own door.
"Arrest for debt!" cried Mr. Simp, falling tearfully upon his bed; "I have expected the summons all day."
"The next man may come upon that errand," answered the ringing voice of Andy Plade. "Freckle sleeps in Clichy to-night; Risque cannot be found; the rest are as badly off ”

“ She discerned that his combative spirit would start to the defence of his hat if it should become the subject of family rancor, because no man forgives an insult to his personal appearance; and this article of wear had ringed his brain with gangrene, and war made upon it would be met by war, while Vesta had expected to induce forgetfulness of the rusty old tile, to charm away the remembrance of it, and to have it laid forever aside.
"I am not the daughter of Uncle McLane," Vesta protested. "I am, besides, a woman, free of my minority. Mr. Milburn is hardly the man to submit to any trespass. ”