Panton

“ The burning pieces of wood increased in number now, lighting up the huge cavern weirdly, and the blacks were not a hundred yards away, and approaching cautiously.
“What do you say, Panton—fight or run that horrible risk and retreat?”
“I’d say fight,” replied Panton, with a shudder, “but we should not beat them off. They’d never dare to follow here. Let’s try it. Wriggs got through, why should not we?”
“Yes, go on,” cried Oliver. “You cannot talk to the men, and it’s as well they do not know the danger. Lead on, Wriggs, and Heaven help us all.” ”

“ Ah! I should have liked to have one turn at the fellow who drew a bow at me. Hark! they’re fighting.”
“Fighting! Yes; and oh! it is dreadful to have to lie here and not be able to help.”
“Yes, I should like to help our fellows,” sighed Panton, “Drew is there, I suppose?”
“Yes, of course. Hark! they’ve begun firing.”
They lay listening for some minutes, and then Panton suddenly exclaimed,—
“I’m weak and faint as can be, but I can’t lie like this. Look here, Lane, old chap; if those blacks get the best of it, they’ll come down here and murder us.”
“Without mercy,” said Oliver, with a groan. ”

“ Gresham’s being unhappy is patronage? By accident I made use of that word in speaking of old Panton’s quarrel with me, and he cursed the word the moment I pronounced it: ‘Yes,’ he exclaimed, ‘it is twice accursed—once in the giving, and once in the receiving.’ Then he began, in a most feeling manner, to describe the evils attendant upon being a patron. He has done his utmost to relieve and encourage genius in distress; but among all the poets, painters, artists, and men of letters, whom in various ways he has obliged, he has scarcely been able to satisfy the vanity or the expectations of any. ”

“ Panton’s subliminal self. “You say things that mean nothing, just because you like the sound of them. Do you know how you've always seemed to me?”
“No,”
“I'll tell you, now I’ve the chance. You're a spuffling absurdity. You've made me feel I was locked up inside a bumble bee. You buzz, and you get emotional ; you're in and out of paddies, and there is nothing to you at all but arrant curiosity about unessentials.”
“It’s a bit thick, coming into my house, with no clothes on, to tell me off like this!”
“I've always been in your house. You think I’m absurd because I’ve no clothes on. ”

“ To his unbounded astonishment, his inward confusion, no sooner had his guests entered Foxwood Court, than they expressed a wish to see the place called the Maze, and requested Sir Karl to conduct them to it.
"I was telling Panton about the Maze last night--talking of the Court and its surroundings," observed the General. "Panton does not believe it possible that one could lose oneself in any maze whatever: so I promised him he should have a try at it. You will afford us the opportunity of seeing it, Sir Karl." ”

“ Then Drew spoke and told him all.
“What, and you stand there like that without making another try!” said Mr Rimmer fiercely.
“There! You hear?” cried Panton. “I’ll go with you, Mr Rimmer. The poor fellow must be saved.”
“By acts, Mr Panton, not by talking,” said the mate, sternly. “This way, my lads,” he cried, as first one and then another of the Planet’s crew hurried to his side. “Here’s fresh work for you, I’ve found some of the party, but young Mr Oliver Lane’s missing. Volunteers to find him?”
“All on us, sir,” came eagerly. ”

“ PANTON, THOMAS (1731–1808) , sportsman, born in 1731, was son of Thomas Panton, who was master of the king's running-horses at Newmarket. A sister, Mary, married in 1750 Peregrine Bertie, fourth duke of Ancaster. Thomas Panton the younger lived as a country gentleman at Fen Ditton in Cambridgeshire, and was high sheriff for that county in 1789. He kept foxhounds, and is said once to have killed a fox close to the Rubbing House at Newmarket, after a twenty-five mile run without a check. The time, unhappily, is not recorded. His chief reputation was gained as an owner of racehorses ”

“ He had an odd sensation, also, as though he were choking and bursting. A moment later he tore off his collar, which was strangling him, The next thing he did was to get out of his clothes while he could. All the time he watched the body on the floor, though not very closely. When he had nothing on but his shirt he knelt down beside the corpse.
That is, he would have done if there had been one to kneel beside. There was not. There was only a heap of garments. Mr. Panton looked at himself, felt himself, and went upstairs. ”

“ Either o’ you gents think o’ bringing a bit o’ candle or a lantern?”
“Candle?” cried Panton in dismay. “No.”
“What, didn’t yer think o’ that rubub and magneshy stuff, sir?”
“The magnesium wire? Yes, I brought that.”
“Well, that’s something, sir, but we do want candles.”
“And we must have some. Here, Smith, you must go back,” cried Panton.
“Right, sir, on’y shouldn’t I be useful to you when we gets there?”
“Of course, very: but we can’t do without a light.”
“No, sir, that we can’t. How many shall you want?”
“Ask for half-a-dozen,” said Panton, “and be as smart as you can.” ”

“ No persuasion would alter the mate’s plans, but he eagerly forwarded those of the naturalists, and arranged for Smith and Wriggs to bear them company, even offering two more men, but Panton was of opinion that the smaller their number was the more likely they were to be successful, and the next morning they started—a well armed party, Wriggs and Smith carrying a ladder and little tent, the others the food and water. ”

“ I know I can’t stand straight, for all the bones has gone out of my legs, and soon as I move I go wobble-wobble like cold glue.”
“Yes, yes, I know, I’m unsteady, too,” said Panton impatiently.
“But is it fits, sir? And do they take you like that?”
“No, no, my man, I suppose it’s the gas.”
“Gas, sir,” cried Smith, looking round stupidly. “What’s it been escaping again? Gammon, sir: they aren’t got no gas out here. I say, Billy Wriggs, don’t make a hexibition of yourself. Keep quiet, will yer?”
“I can’t, mate. It’s a rum ’un, it is. What have the guvnors been givin’ of us to drink?” ”

“ Formerly it denoted a performance of Italian comedy in which the action took place in dumb show, so called from the Greek pantomimos, an imitator of all or everything. The Roman mimes or mimi were not theatrical performers, but mutes at funerals, whose function it was to imitate the characteristic actions of the deceased--e.g. the virtue of generosity.
Panton Street. After a noted gamester, Colonel Thomas Panton, whose daughter became connected by marriage with the family of the ground landlord, Lord Arundel of Wardour.
Pants. Short for “pantaloons,” an Americanism for trousers. ”

“ My best and dearest — dearest now.
They may not know for what I sigh,
What brings the shadow on my brow.
Ghosts at the best; so let them be,
Nor come between my life and me.
They only rise at twilight hour ”

“ Money is poured out like water on carpets that are nightmares, and on papers that are as absolutely meaningless as they are ugly, and the despair of anyone who is called in, as I am constantly, to mitigate the horrors of some gigantic monument of bad taste and lavish expenditure. ”

“ I would rather have hideous decorations put up by hands that loved one, on such an occasion, than the most exquisite trophies ever designed by Mrs. Green and put up by those who do not even know the bride and bridegroom by sight. ”

“ No amount of decoration can embellish walls decorated with the hopes and joys of our youth, and one’s first playing at Motherhood; no other paper and paint give us the idea, or remind us as do the old papers and paint, of a thousand and one things no one can possibly want to forget; not even the miseries endured during serious illness, the anxieties turned into joy, or may be deepened into dreadful gloom by death itself, should be forgotten ”

“ But now that one of the Senior Form had taken up the baiting, Plunger had been compelled to give way to him. He was only a cipher in the mob of laughing, jeering boys who had gathered round Harry.
"Chest, twenty-eight inches. What a Samson it is!" jeered Newall. "All your own?" He tapped Harry smartly on the chest with his knuckles, as though he were testing it. "Yes, genuine article. You're a wonder—a perfect wonder! And what's the biceps! Eight inches! Why, it's a regular Hercules! It isn't every day that a marvel like you comes to Garside; so walk round and show your muscle, kid." ”

“ They may not be read at first—nay may never be really read at all—but the name of the writer will always be remembered warmly, and as that of one who knew that sympathy is the most precious gift we can any of us receive when we are in the depths, and that dark curtain descends which seems as if it would lie for ever between us and the outside world. Ah me! no matter who has died, it will rise again, and life will flow on just the same as if we had never lost those who were so near and so dear to us. ”

“ And I have no doubt that the country mice are as miserable in the town in their turn: they miss the intimate conversations, the familiarity of their friendships; they pine for fresh air, and weep over ‘smuts;’ the noise and bustle we love so dearly bewilders and distresses them ”

“ It was so sudden, so unexpected, that Paul could not move. He stood there as one rooted to the spot. Before he could move, the man had sprung upon him with the swiftness of a tiger, and seizing him by the throat, dragged him to the light.
"You!" he cried. "The boy from Garside. Your name is——"
"Paul Percival," gasped Paul, as the fierce grip relaxed.
"Paul Percival. Ach Himmel! It is Fate itself."
He had in turn shrunk back, as though Paul were no longer a being of flesh and blood, but a phantom. Then he murmured hoarsely to himself: "Weevil was right. The hand of a Higher than man is in it." ”

“ But all the same, it must be a hardened heart indeed that can contemplate an empty nursery and have no other thoughts than how best to decorate or use the room for a totally different purpose. There is a peculiar serrement de cœur, which, once experienced, can never be forgotten, when we enter a room made sacred to us by a thousand dreams and romances—a thousand dreads and fears we have never spoken of to any soul on earth, and have to consider how best we can alter it to another purpose. ”

“ I have seen pennies played for which begat the taste for gambling for much larger sums; and I have never seen a house where gambling was allowed truly prosper, or be anything save the residence of those whose ideas and hopes were centred in this world only, and never rose above the mere ‘society’ existence, than which nothing can be more despicable and awful. ”

“ Plunger and Moncrief minor happened to be out on an expedition of their own that afternoon on Cranstead Common. Plunger caught sight of Paul as he turned the bend of the road leading to St. Bede's.
"That was Percival, I'm pretty well sure of it," he cried. "Didn't you see him?"
"No. By himself?"
"Isn't he always by himself? But let's make certain."
The two boys ran to the roadway and glanced along it. There, sure enough, was Percival striding quickly along in the direction of St. Bede's.
"Where's he making for? For the seminary of the crawlers, seems to me," said Plunger. "Queer sort of chap! ”

“ Immediately she had gone from the room Hibbert turned eagerly to Paul.
"I've been waiting to go on with what I was telling you when you were last here, Percival. It has lain here—here!"—beating his breast. "It has kept me awake at night, and—and the time seemed so terribly long and dreary. I watched and waited for your coming, but though you came they would never let me see you. Mr. Weevil was the only one I could speak to, and I could not tell him what was on my mind."
"Why not? He is very kind to you."
"Why not—why not! When I've told you, you will understand."
"You must not excite yourself. ”

“ There was no sign of the flag. At length Paul's glance rested upon the decayed old elm-tree, near which they were standing.
"You're getting warmer," smiled Wyndham. Then, as Paul walked towards the tree: "In fact, quite hot."
Paul put his hand into the hollow of the tree, and drew out the missing flag, wrapped in a covering of American leather-cloth, just as it had been when Mellor and Crick had taken it to St. Bede's. ”

“ I have never yet come across anyone who was perfectly satisfied with his or her belongings; certainly I have never met anyone who had not bitter complaint to make about the special locality he or she inhabited, and yet who did not ruffle up their feathers the moment any stranger found fault with it. But a neighbourhood is like a house, and requires locally knowing; and if we are for ever changing our neighbourhood, we can never feel at home anywhere. ”

“ Why should we be left out in the cold, eh?"
"Why?" echoed Parfitt. "Let's give him a rouser."
Parfitt led off the cheers—cheers which fell with a hollow sound on Paul's ears, for he knew well enough they were only mocking him.
"When we hear about a smart thing, we're naturally anxious to know how it was done," jeered Parfitt.
"Naturally," echoed Newall, followed by cries of assent from the rest.
"Order! Order for Percival!" exclaimed Stanley, holding up his hand for silence.
Silence instantly reigned. You might have heard a pin drop as they waited for Paul to speak; but they waited in vain. ”

“ Paul could scarcely believe his ears. Had he heard Mr. Weevil aright?
"He seems to look forward eagerly to your visits, more than to the visits of anybody"—a sigh, so slight as to be almost imperceptible, escaped the master's lips. "It would be cruel to debar the poor little fellow from any pleasure we can give him. Therefore, Percival, I hope you will understand that you are quite at liberty to visit him when you feel inclined." ”