Rathbone

“ Mrs Rathbone wrote in her husband’s name, as well as her own. She said that Jane had probably heard through Mr Barker that they hoped to be of use to Alfred whenever it should be time to think of placing him out: that it was time the boy should have some idea of his future destination, and that his family should know what to look forward to. She went on to say,—
“Mr Rathbone has influence in India, and if Alfred’s talents are what we understand them to be, there can be no doubt of his distinguishing himself in the Company’s service, and of procuring solid advantages to his family. ”

“ I have spent the day at Woodcroft with Richard Rathbone. Mrs. Rathbone wishes me to teach her how to paint in oils. Now is it not too bad that I cannot do so, for want of talent? My birds in water-colors have plumage and soft colors, but in oils—alas! I walked into town with Richard Rathbone, who rode his horse. I kept by his side all the way, the horse walking. I do not rely as much on my activity as I did twenty years ago, but I still think I could kill any horse in England in twenty days, taking the travel over rough and level grounds. ”

“ Mr Rathbone has not experienced these dangers, because he has made his fortune by commerce, not by war. Besides, I must think Mr Rathbone a very rare instance of the power of principle against temptation. There are few indeed who spend their Indian wealth so generously for others, though every one who goes out with any principle to direct him, hopes that he shall be able to hold a straight course, though almost all others have gone astray. I could not, neither, I am sure, could you, encourage this confidence with respect to Alfred. ”

“ Rathbone, who was probably a worthy but disappointed man, had inspired the youth with his own aversions to serving in the royal navy, without a due consideration being made for the differences of their respective interests. This gentleman, with the utmost purity of design, might wish to prepare the nephew of his friend for mortifications and disappointments to be expected in the profession he had just embraced ”

“ Afraid of the home influence. He remained there, under the name of Hawksley, for something like fourteen years, under the guardianship of this fellow Gregory. Of Gregory I know positively nothing. The young fellow is, to all purposes, methods of living, points of view, an Englishman. Rathbone, who was educated at Oxford, met him there and they shared quarters. But it was only in recent years that he learned the identity of his friend. In 1914 the young fellow returned to Russia. ”

“ William Rathbone, then M.P. for Liverpool, once proposed to your father to be the companion of my first Indian journey in 1874-5, he, William Rathbone, paying all your father's expenses. (Of this, Dr. Tyndall wrote to Mrs. Huxley:—"I want to tell you a pleasant conversation I had last night with Jodrell. He and a couple more want to send Hal with Grant Duff to India, taking charge of his duties here and of all necessities ghostly and bodily there!") Mr. ”

“ Rathbone, for the most part, good-naturedly 18silent, Phillida and himself talking swiftly.... In shaded light and a solid, pleasant comfort; ordinary comfort, which he took for granted as an element of daily life, but which yet was the heritage of many generations, the product of long centuries of striving and cunning invention.... Later, in the drawing-room, the girl made music—and he saw himself listening from his corner of the sofa with a cigarette, unlit, between his fingers. Above all it was her quality of daintiness that pleased him ”

“ Previously nearly all cotton had come from the eastern West Indies, and the consignment was seized at the custom house as an evasion of the navigation laws, on the ground that cotton was not grown in America.
Educated as a Friend, Rathbone had always been opposed in some points to the strictness of the society's discipline, objecting especially to the exclusion of members for mixed marriages, and for the voluntary payment of tithe. He held also that a wide latitude in doctrine was compatible with Friends' principles ”

“ Rathbone—a man like that, tattooed, and collecting old programmes of theatres. Well, he's as dull as ditchwater, perfectly stupid and always saying the right thing to the wrong people. Then Captain Foster, who seemed perfectly harmless and only decorative, turns out to be really dangerous, and to count. He's in love with Daphne, and he has got his mother, who is very weak and foolish and sentimental, round on his side, and Daphne's always going to tea or to lunch there, and they've utterly spoilt her—at least, her taste in hats has gone all wrong, and she told me that Mrs. ”

“ She finally retired to Liverpool. There age overtook her, exertions of her extraordinary kind grew very painful, and she fell into poverty, which was only lightened by the benevolence of Mr. Richard Rathbone, who organised a subscription for her benefit. She died 2 Oct. 1860, aged sixty-six years.
[Chambers's Book of Days, vol. ii. p. 404; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of British School; Handbill to the Nobility, Ladies, and Gentlemen, No. 1881 a 2, Brit. Mus.; Gent. Mag. vol. xxxiv. new series, 1850, p. 668.] ”

“ Rathbone says he's handsome, gay, but decent, considering. Humanity is being knocked about some. The hour has come for our lawyers to go back to their offices. Politics must step aside for business. We ought to hang up signs in every state capitol in the? ”

“ Now they hear the clatter of a horse's hoofs; the sound heads toward Algiers.
"Has that horse a rider, Mustapha?" asks John, ready to rest his decision upon the trained ear of the Arab.
"It is even so. You hear yourself; he runs too regularly to be loose."
As he speaks they catch a cry from the quarter where the horse runs, a cry as of a rider urging his steed on.
"That is enough. Monsieur Constans is on the way to the Kasbah. Now we can turn our heads in the direction of the mines of Metidja."
"It is well. Follow me, monsieur," says the courier, gravely. ”

“ A Four-Footed Faith and a Two
On Monday Rathburn took the dog far up the trail. Stub was no blue-ribbon, petted dog of records and pedigree; he was a vicious-looking little yellow cur of mixed ancestry and bad habits—that is, he had been all this when Rathburn found him six months before and championed his cause in a quarrel with a crowd of roughs in Mike Swaney's saloon. Since then he had developed into a well-behaved little beast with a pair of wistful eyes that looked unutterable love, and a tail that beat the ground, the floor, or the air in joyous welcome whenever Rathburn came in sight. ”

“ John’s back is no longer toward him—they look into each other’s face. Phœnix is terribly stricken. As if by magic the jaunty air leaves him, his knees quake, and his whole appearance is that of a man upon whom a thunderbolt has descended without the slightest warning.
“Good God! John Atherton—here!”
“Why not—my father’s house. The question is what brings you here—you whose duty lay in faithful service while I was away. Ah, Jack! your eyes fall. I was terribly mistaken in you. We know all. Colonel Bob Rocket, a sheriff from Denver, left this house not more than fifteen minutes ago. ”

“ Brother, it must be he recognized a familiar sound in—Look, several men are coming, and they are hunters, too!"
"That one in front, Bob, with the bold air—I have not forgotten that Pat told us how one man he knew seemed born to command. Did you ever see a face like that? It is,—it must be Colonel Boone himself!"
All was now excitement in the emigrant camp. Dogs barked, horses neighed, men shouted, and women laughed; while children added their shrill cries to the general clamor. Just the coming of five men clad in buckskin had caused this uproar; but such men! ”

“ None of us was positive how much farther we had to go—it might be leagues to the border. So much for not having a guide; but, truth to tell, Robbins had not been able to discover a single chap in all Bolivar whom he thought he could trust.
We only knew that the fellows in our rear were getting too close for comfort, and that the chances for a ruction seemed good.
I saw there were but nine now—the rest had dropped out, and with them, the white-headed old reprobate who claimed the ties of kindred with my Hildegarde. ”

“ There were many among them whose hearts sank at this attitude in a man who had made it his boast that he knew every hand in his mills by sight, and who, in the past, had had a nod or a friendly word for each and all of them. For the first time a premonition settled upon them of what this strike, which had been welcomed principally for novelty’s sake, might mean. It was the first the Rathbawne Mills had ever known. Some of those who saw the face of Peter Rathbawne that afternoon were already hoping that it might be the last. ”

“ To avoid the possibility of noise she placed it on the washstand, and, as she approached the light, her eye was caught by the faded photograph which hung directly above on the wall.
It was of Colonel Rathbourne, the dead man below-stairs. Outwardly the portrait was a thing of little beauty. A mere drabbish presentment of a young man, dressed in the fashion of the sixties, with somewhat sloping shoulders, and whiskers of extravagant shape. Not that Mrs. Rathbourne saw either the whiskers or the shoulders. ”

“ He may tell some others just as tough as himself; and how could we hold up our end if half a dozen tackled us?" grumbled Thad, as he stalked along at the side of his chum.
"Shall we go back, then?" asked the other.
"Nixy. I don't care if there's a dozen coming, we're going to get to George all right. You hear me, Maurice."
"That's the right way to speak. But, after all, perhaps we won't have the least bit of trouble. Didn't you hear Mr. Stallings say the sheriff was abroad with a posse, looking for rascals. Strikes me that this wouldn't be a good time for our friend to try any of his tricks. ”

“ Still, these may be another lot, connected with your friend with the sorrel-top!" declared Maurice, who died hard.
"Rats! You know now just as well as I do that yonder is the sheriff and his posse! Perhaps they think we're some of the riffraff they've been chasing, and that's why they keep aiming their blamed old guns at us that way. Hadn't we better hold up our arms, Maurice, and give 'em to understand that we surrender? Some fool might think it fine to take a snapshot at us and explain afterwards he thought we meant to fight!"
"That's right, Thad; a clever idea. So up you go, my boy." ”

“ The road was villainous, and it made me actually sore in the endeavor to protect my dear one from bruises—the stage jolted and bounced and rocked when the horses ran, with much of the pitching motion felt in a smack at sea when the waves toss wildly.
I almost pitied the stout old mayor, he was bounced about so, as though but a rubber ball. Twice I had him in my lap, and it required all my powers to protect Hildegarde, who sat in the very forward end of the seat. ”

“ Just ten minutes later young Gordon was galloping down the trail at breakneck speed, while Mr. Rathburn remained in attendance upon the sick boy.
As long as there was light in the sky he had turned frequently to the window and followed with his eyes the dusty streak of gray across the range that marked the windings of the trail, but from without the distance there came neither sound nor sight of life.
By turns, as the night wore on, Mr. Rathburn was nervous and reflective, now sitting in a chair beside the cot, now pacing the floor restlessly. The present experience was a new one for him. ”

“ The kindly, loyal, and withal quaintly sarcastic man, who had struggled with disease within those four walls, had been posed, too, in the foolishly conventional attitude of the dead, the white sheet transforming the body into the mere shapeless outline of a man. He was hidden, covered up, put away, as he would soon be beneath the earth, to be forgotten.
Mrs. Rathbourne drew near the bed, holding the feeble light aloft with a trembling hand. ”

“ Have you no plan, Ralph?” said Barry.
“We’ll stop not over three hundred yards from hyar,” answered Ralph.
“How’s that? There’s not a tree, log or rock around. Explain what you say,” said the young hunter, turning to the guide.
“Why we can’t reach the river, that’s certain. We’ve got to do something, fur thar’s no fun in being burned up by the pesky fire. Now what I propose is this. We’ll fight fire wid fire. What d’ye say to that, now?” called out Ralph, to make himself heard above the trampling hoofs, and the roaring and crackling of flames, which came rushing on like a huge wall. ”

“ Use your knife, Mr. Eagle Feather!" for, though he had no idea of what the name of the brave might be, he recognized the three feathers in his scalp-lock as belonging to the king of birds.
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"Ugh! paleface boy say true. No danger run away!" and with the words the other drew his knife, the same with which he had once threatened Sandy, across the stout buckskin thongs.
"That feels better; and thank you for it," observed the boy, with a nod, as his hands fell apart, and he could chafe his numb wrists into a state of feeling.
"Ugh! paleface boy much brave! Tell Swift Bullet him fool! Ugh!" ”

“ A minute later the curtains between the two rooms were drawn back, and Rathborne entered. She rose and bowed slightly, looking more princess-like than ever in her beauty and stateliness, and in the midst of the luxury which surrounded her. No detail of her appearance or her manner was lost upon the man who had come with his heart full of bitterness toward her. And if an additional touch to this bitterness had been needed, her haughtiness, and her air of calmly possessing a place where she belonged, would have given it. ”

“ For they had passed another shack, where the squalor was even more positive than in the former case, and come in sight of George's home.
"Bully!" Thad could not help saying, as soon as his eager eyes alighted on the little cabin.
Maurice understood just how he felt; indeed, he was experiencing the same sense of relief; for the sight of filth and poverty combined is a terrible thing.
But the Stormway cabin was different. Everywhere could be seen evidences of a woman's hand. Flowers adorned the beds in front, and in the rear there were vegetables calculated to give the family many a meal. ”