Otway

“ Out of weakness there had come forth strength, and out of insignificance a simple, unshaken heroism.
“I don't want to be held for your murder,” said Otway from between white lips.
“That is easily avoided. You will give me the serum, with instructions how to use it. When I am taken ill, I shall send for you as for an ordinary doctor. You will attend me and draw your conclusions as to the worth of your discovery. No one will blame you if I succumb to—diphtheria.”
Again silence. Otway had turned his back to his visitor, and Enid saw his face distorted with the violence of his temptation. ”

“ A young man, Henry Otway, was reading, with his feet on the fender. He had a fine head, the brow arched in the Elizabethan manner, but the gentle, honest eyes were rather sceptical than glowing with the Elizabethan vigour. ”

“ Strangers with whom Piers Otway had business at this time saw in him a young man of considerable energy, though rather nervous and impulsive, capable in all that concerned his special interests, not over-sanguine, inclined to brevity of speech, and scrupulously courteous in a cold way. He seldom smiled; his clean-cut, intelligent features expressed tension of the whole man, ceaseless strain and effort without that joy of combat which compensates physical expenditure. ”

“ Otway, the widely famed naturalist-explorer, peering through round, shell-rimmed spectacles set on a face almost equally round and generally beaming with cheerfulness, walked beside young Sigsbee, whose life, before the present expedition, had been rather empty of adventure, but who was ready to welcome anything in that line. ”

“ Otway gave an expressive look.
"That's right. Oh, the sham philanthropic talk that goes on in England! How it relieves one to say flatly that one does not love the multitude!—No seaside, then. Lakes—no; Wales—no; Highlands—no. Isn't there some part of England one would like if one discovered it?"
"Do you want solitude?" asked Piers, becoming more interested.
"Solitude? H'm!" She handed a box of cigarettes, and herself took one. "Yes, solitude. I shall try to get Miss Derwent to come for a time. New Forest—no, Please, please, do suggest! ”

“ Captain Otway then hailed the Eling, and desired her commander to take possession of the Holstein, to cut her cable (the wind being off the land) , and to make the signal for immediate assistance. The Harpy gun-brig instantly slipped her cable, and towed the prize out to the British fleet. During this transaction. Lord Nelson, who was rowing round the prizes, learned that Captain Otway was on board the Danish commodore, and seized the opportunity of following him, in order, as he said, to look round him, in the event of a renewal of hostilities. ”

“ Over his bowed head she met the somber question in Otway's eyes.
“I am sorry,” she said. “I have misled you because I misled myself. I tempted you—to commit a crime. It was a crime. However wronged you were, you had no right to accept the atonement of Peter's life. It happens to be of value, after all, to me. It is worth more to me than your discovery—yes, and the cause you serve. It is mine, and I cannot give it up for the whole world. Peter, if you can forgive me, take me home.”
Otway held open the door. The evil had gone out of his face, leaving it haggard, but curiously at peace. ”

“ I defy any one to object.” She laughed with a smothered excitement. “To celebrate!” she whispered.
Still he hesitated. Then, looking up, he saw that Warren, mounted on a chestnut, had taken his place on Enid's off side. For the second time, the two men studied each other in silence. Warren's face was whiter than usual; there were lines about his small face which suggested that every muscle was drawn taut. His gaze dropped before Otway's—or, rather, shifted—wandering over the wide sweep of country with an expression which Otway did not understand. ”

“ Otway’s journey to London, the easy earning by good old Anna of a florin for Alfred Head’s brief sight of Jervis Blake’s letter, and the exchange of confidences between the mother and daughter, were comparatively happy, peaceful days at the Trellis House.
Her visit to 20, Arlington Street, had greatly soothed and comforted Mrs. Otway. She felt sure somehow that those kind, capable people, and especially the unknown woman who had been so very good and—and so very understanding, would soon send her the tidings for which she longed. ”

“ Bruce touched his cap to the pale-faced, violet-eyed clergyman's wife, and turning to the break of the poop, at once gave orders to "heave short," leaving the field clear to Mr. Charles Otway, the supercargo of the Tucopia , who was twenty-two years of age, had had seven years' experience of general wickedness in the South Seas, thought he was in love with Mrs. Lacy, and that, before the barque reached Samoa, he would make the lady feel that the Reverend Wilfrid was a serious mistake, and that he, Charles Otway, was the one man in the world whom she could love and be happy with for ever. ”

“ Humphry Otway, rector of Wolbeding in Sussex, and was born at Trottin in that county, on March 3, 1651. He received his education at Wickeham school, near Winchester, and became a commoner of Christ Church in Oxford, in the beginning of the year 1669. He quitted the university without a degree, and retired to London, though, in the opinion of some historians, he went afterwards to Cambridge, which seems very probable, from a copy of verses of Mr. Duke's to him, between whom subsisted a sincere friendship till the death of Mr. Otway. ”

“ A slow, ironical smile played round Otway's thin lips.
“It is scarcely ever safe in these parts. I am not afraid, if that is what you mean. Will you not go on ahead and clear the way?”
Warren held out his hand, but the other seemed to overlook the offer, and he went out onto the landing. Enid lingered for an instant. ”

“ Hilbery, Katharine, Rodney, and Henry should drive to Lincoln, and any one else who wished to go should follow on bicycles or in the pony-cart. Every one who stayed at Stogdon House had to make this expedition to Lincoln in obedience to Lady Otway’s conception of the right way to entertain her guests, which she had imbibed from reading in fashionable papers of the behavior of Christmas parties in ducal houses. The carriage horses were both fat and aged, still they matched; the carriage was shaky and uncomfortable, but the Otway arms were visible on the panels. ”

“ Otway went on cuttingly. “You don't ride straight. You ought to have some one to open the gates for you.”
Enid, who had seen Warren's face, held out a protecting, appealing hand. The sporting spirit in her revolted at this chastisement of an already beaten man. Warren, not Otway, saw the movement. He pulled himself up. ”

“ CHAPTER XXIX
"I will be frank with you, Piers," said Daniel Otway, as he sat by the fireside in his shabby lodgings, his feet on the fender, a cigarette between his fingers. He looked yellow and dried up; shivered now and then, and had a troublesome cough. "If I could afford to be generous, I would be; I should enjoy it. It's one of the worst evils of poverty, that a man can seldom obey the promptings of his better self. ”

“ The boat had on board a large hawser; but Captain Otway would not wait to have it discharged; and in that dangerous vehicle passed through the enemy’s fire to the Elephant. Had a shot struck her, she must have sunk like a stone; but Captain Otway fortunately reached his destination in safety. Before he got on board, the signal to leave off action was made: it was, however, disregarded by Nelson; and as Captain Otway had verbal authority from Sir Hyde Parker that the battle should continue if he saw there was a probability of success, the action was continued till the enemy submitted ”

“ Otway?” She stopped, and answered, not very graciously, [Page 211] “Yes, I’m Mrs. Otway—who is it?”
There came a bubble of laughter, and she knew that this was a very old acquaintance indeed, a Mrs. Riddick, whom she had not seen for some time.
“I don’t wonder you didn’t know me! It’s impossible to see anything by this light. I’ve been having such an adventure! I only came back from Holland yesterday. I went to meet a young niece of mine there—you know, the girl who was in Germany so long.”
“In Germany?” Mrs. Otway turned round eagerly. “Is she with you now? How I should like to see her!” ”

“ Mrs. Otway already knew the fact; whence her habitual coldness to Piers, and the silent acerbity with which she behaved to him at this juncture.
"Mrs. Otway," said Piers to her, on the day of the inquest, "I shall stay for my father's funeral, and to avoid gossip I still ask your hospitality. I do it with reluctance, but you will very soon see the last of me."
"You are of course welcome to stay in the house," replied the lady. ”

“ Sikes from the table. "Ah, Papa Otway! Three cheers for Papa Otway in very discreet whispers. Messman, one of those very stiff whiskies for Captain Otway."
Otway laughed pleasantly. "No, chuck it, I'm not drinking. Hood, I want you; and you, Carmichael, and you, Bullen." He saw Sabre and came to him. "Hullo, Sabre. You've heard now. We've managed to keep it pretty close, but it's all over the place now. Yes, we entrain at daybreak."
Sabre felt frightfully affected. He could hardly speak. "Good Lord. I can't realise it. I say, Otway, do you remember predicting this nearly two years ago? ”

“ The high excitement of the young men, their eager planning, the almost religious ecstasy of Otway at the consummation of his life's dream, moved Sabre, visioning what might await it all, in depths profound and painful in their intensity. His mind would not abandon them. He sat up that night after Mabel had gone to her room. How on earth could he go to bed, be hoggishly sleeping, while those chaps were marching out?
He could not. At two in the morning he went quietly from the house and got out his bicycle and rode down into Tidborough. ”

“ Otway was fortunate. There was plenty of hard work to do that winter in Witanbury, and, in spite of her supposed lack of interest in the War, Mrs. Otway had a wonderful way with soldiers’ wives and mothers, so much so that in time all the more difficult cases were handed over to her.
“This is to warn you that you are being watched. A friend of England is keeping an eye on you, not ostentatiously, but none the less very closely. Dismiss the German woman who has already been too long in your employment. England can take no risks.” ”

“ These are but gleams: for the most part Otway is a poet of his time, dull and forced in color; buried, like the rest, in the heavy, gray, clouded atmosphere, half English and half French, in which the bright lights brought over from France, are snuffed out by the insular fogs. He is a man of his time; dike the rest, he writes obscene comedies, "The Soldier's Fortune, The Atheist, Friendship in Fashion." He depicts coarse and vicious cavaliers, rogues on principle, as harsh and corrupt as those of Wycherley, Beaugard, who vaunts and practises the maxims of Hobbes ”

“ Otway said of him, "There goes one of the bluntest, and [Pg 276] yet the kindest, people I know. It would seem as if Nature, in forming my worthy neighbour, had been playing at hide-and-seek with herself; for in his character there is a jumble of the most heterogeneous materials: rude as a bear, he is gentle as a lamb; and though sly as a fox in detecting the wiles of his species, he is one of the most single hearted persons I have ever met with, in all his own dealings with mankind. The penetration with which he delves into character, is almost supernatural. ”

“ Otway at once poured out a nip of brandy for himself, and clinked his glass against that of the clergyman.
"Pon my soul, I couldn't make it out, and I apologise. But a man's nerves go all at once sometimes—can't help himself, you know. Mine did once when I was in the nigger-catching business in the Solomon Islands. Natives opened fire on us when our boats were aground in a creek, and some of our men got hit. ”

“ In September 1785 he joined the Phaeton in the Mediterranean. The Phaeton was paid off in August 1786, and in November Otway joined the Trusty, going to the Mediterranean with the broad pennant of Commodore Cosby. On the return of the Trusty in February 1789, he was entered on board the Blonde, going to the West Indies, where, and on the coast of Africa, in different ships, he remained till promoted to the rank of lieutenant. ”

“ Supper was over, and as the skipper, Burr, and Otway paced the quarter-deck before going ashore to play a game or two of billiards and meet some friends, a boat came alongside, and a man stepped on deck and inquired for the captain. As he followed Robertson down the companion, Otway saw that he was a well-dressed, rather gentlemanly-looking young man of about five and twenty.
"Who's that joker, I wonder?" he said to Burr; "not any one living in Samoa, unless he's a new-comer. ”

“ Waring gasped. "D'you mean—Did I swing all those tons of rock around with one easy little push on that bar?"
"Seeing is believing," asserted Otway, as the revolving mass turned easily back into place, and they once more looked into a hollow, sooty bowl. "Those ancient engineers knew a lot about leverage. How were the enormous stones of this pyramid brought across the lake and lifted into their places? This bowl is somehow mounted at the sides like a smelting pot on bars that pass beneath the pavement. ”

“ Enid nodded. She had seen the danger toward which they were rushing the moment the first warning had passed Otway's lips—the high wall which stretched like a white ribbon along the field—and in her mind she already pictured the ditch beyond. She turned a little in her saddle. As in a confused dream, she saw the distended nostrils of Otway's horse close to her girths; she saw Otway's face, grim and set, his eyes fixed on her bridle in calculating intensity.
“Keep back!” she called to him. “She has bolted. ”