Regan

“ The boy listening intently agrees with Regan. "'T is too bad I promised Craney and have the duty."
"You are far from a fool," says Regan; "look out of the window here with me." And as they stare up the yards, awink with the colored lamps of the switch stands: "Do you see the giant black engines and cars, and the shops beyond with their roaring mountains of machinery; the tracks stretching thousands of miles, all swarming with trains and men? ”

“ Labor is the delight of Heaven!”
“When shall I chain my star? When may I drive it like the isle? When may I say to adverse fate, ‘Stand still?’” asked Regan.
“When you have eradicated sin from the hearts of all this humanity, now removed from the curse of Earth, when you shall have grown more aged and more wise than am I, for I cannot do that,” answered their guide; “no, I cannot do that!”
“What is the limit of our power?” asked Father Renaudin.
“There is no bound to what knowledge humanity may attain, save the clog of sin! Time, strength and study will overcome all other barriers!” ”

“ It seemed to me that the life of his soul was demon-bred, but chained to certain customs of humanity, because weighted with the accident of a human body.
Regan’s name was the town’s disgrace; though so young he had no friends, accepted no truths, 26discarded all faiths. He talked of a Destiny, which, he claimed, blundered in ruling the universe—a creature blind and non-reasoning, of immensity itself a part; a monstrous something driven like the sun, but by some causeless motor, forever. ”

“ Regan girded good-humoredly.
“I’d like to meet this Alvarez Torres just the same,” the young man responded.
“Fool’s gold,” Regan continued. “Though I must admit that the cuss is most exasperatingly plausible. Why, if I were younger—but oh, the devil, my work’s cut out for me here.”
“Do you know where I can find him?” Francis was asking the next moment, all unwittingly putting his neck into the net of tentacles that Destiny, in the visible incarnation of Thomas Regan, was casting out to snare him. ”

“ On this was a silver canopy where they reposed to watch the scene.
They paused before a length of smooth rising shore, and there were assembled the shimmering multitudes, hailing in earthly voices the advent of the earth-king, Regan. Each one was in robes of jeweled cloth, for it was a gala day. Twelve were to be chosen to go outside the gates, and each one desired to be one of the twelve. They had been happy there for ages, in their constantly expanding kingdom, but they were human and they wanted change. ”

“ They summoned all faithful Irishmen to attend a meeting to be held at three o'clock in the afternoon to honor the memory of General John Regan. They promised that Father Cassidy would take the chair, and that the principal speaker would be the Right Hon. Joseph P. Caledon. Mr. Flanagan prefixed the Right Hon. on his own authority, and substituted the initial "P" for the name "Prince," because anything which savors of royalty excites prejudice in the west of Ireland. Speculation was rife during the morning as to who General John Regan might be. ”

“ It falling out about this time that the Duke of Cornwall, Regan's husband, died, Regan immediately declared her intention of wedding this Earl of Gloucester, which rousing the jealousy of her sister, to whom as well as to Regan this wicked earl had at sundry times professed love, Goneril found means to make away with her sister by poison; but being detected in her practices, and imprisoned by her husband, the Duke of Albany, for this deed, and for her guilty passion for the earl which had come to his ears, she, in a fit of disappointed love and rage, shortly put an end to her own life. ”

“ Seeing that Regan was about to treat him worse, if anything, than Goneril, King Lear said he would return to his eldest daughter with the fifty knights to which she had reduced him. But now Goneril began to draw back. Why did he need five-and-twenty, ten, or even five followers, in a house where twice as many had orders to attend on him?
“What need of one?” added Regan.
“O, reason not the need,” exclaimed Lear, justly indignant at this sordid argument from those to whom he had given his entire possessions. “Our basest beggars are in the poorest thing superfluous. ”

“ Regan countered, with fine simulation of ignorance of the very thing of moment he was responsible for precipitating. “Tampico Petroleum?”
Francis nodded, dropped into a chair, and lighted a cigarette, while Regan consulted the ticker.
“Tampico Petroleum is up—two points—you should worry,” he opined.
“That’s what I say,” Francis concurred. “I should worry. But just the same, do you think some bunch, onto the inside value of it—and it’s big—I speak under the rose, you know, I mean in absolute confidence?” Regan nodded. “It is big. It is right. It is the real thing. It is legitimate. ”

“ But the boy still gazes after the spangle in the dust. "Divil a bit will Regan care whether he be godspeeded or not," he says, so boldly that Craney considers him with respect.
"I see that yourself has ambition along of the rags," he says with meditation. "Then I know a job where you may use the ambition freely and never a chance to part with the rags," he says. "A job which is the equal of Regan's in every way, only on a smaller scale, you understand; where you will be general manager of a railroad and all the other officials to boot, including your own pay-master. ”

“ She’s the grand niece of General John Regan.”
“Are you really?” said Mrs. Gregg.
“It’s what the doctor has put out about me,” said Mary Ellen.
“It isn’t a matter of what I’ve put out or haven’t put out,” said Dr. O’Grady. “Mr. Billing has publicly acknowledged her as the grand niece of the General. Didn’t he, Mary Ellen?”
“He did,” said Mary Ellen.
“And Mr. Billing is the greatest living authority on everything connected with the General. So that settles it. Under those circumstances she must, of course, be presented to the Lord-Lieutenant when he comes down to unveil the statue.” ”

“ But sure, if no one in the place has anything to say against the American gentleman it’s likely he’ll turn out to be all right. But what about the fellow they want to put up the statue to?”
“General John Regan,” said the Major.
“What about him? I never heard tell of him before.”
“For the matter of that, nor did I.”
“Who was he at all?”
“You’ll have to ask Dr. O’Grady that. He’s the only man who professes to know anything about him.”
“As I was saying to you this minute,” said Father McCormack, “I wouldn’t mind if he was a Protestant.” ”

“ Others rose and agreed with her. One read the words of Regan:
"O, sir, you are old;
Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine: you should be ruled and led
By some discretion that discerns your state
Better than you yourself."
These, was the comment, were the really sane words regarding Lear.
"Oh, well!" said Judge Thornton as John broke his fast and the abstinence of a lifetime in the parlor, upon the cakes and wine served by Nellie. "It didn't surprise me a bit. Mrs. Brunson thinks she'd do as Goneril and Regan did with their father—and she would. ”

“ The Earl of Gloucester came in much concern to tell Goneril and Regan that the King was leaving the castle, but they bade him with cold brutality not to persuade him to stay, but to shut his doors. Regan remarked that to wilful men the injuries they brought on themselves must be their own schoolmasters ”

“ He's more," said Mr. Flanagan, "and if you haven't heard of him, which is what I can hardly believe of you, Michael O'Clery, you ought to have heard of him. Anyway, by next Monday night there won't be a man within five miles of Ballyguthrie but will be proud to call himself the fellow countryman of General John Regan."
The printing-press of the Connaught Democrat turned out a number of imposing green placards, which Carey, the town bill-sticker, posted on all the walls likely to catch the eye of any one coming into the town to attend the fair. ”

“ O’Grady was extremely indignant.
“I don’t see what on earth use there is,” he blurted out, “in our keeping Members of Parliament at all. Here we are paying these fellows £400 a year each, and when we ask for a perfectly simple speech—— Oh, I beg your pardon, Father McCormack, I didn’t see you were here. But I daresay you quite agree with me. Every one must.”
“Father McCormack came here,” said the Major, “to ask about General John Regan.”
“Who is he at all?” said the priest.
“A general,” said Dr. O’Grady, “Irish extraction. Born in Ballymoy. Rose to great eminence in Bolivia. ”

“ O’Grady. “You needn’t feel any anxiety about that. The other man is an American and a thorough-paced swindler. Nothing will happen to him that he doesn’t deserve. But we mustn’t waste time. We’ve still got to unveil the statue. You go on with what you were saying. You were just going to tell me what the Lord-Lieutenant’s difficulty is.”
“You invited His Excellency down here,” said Lord Alfred, “to unveil a statue——”
“Quite right. And we have the statue ready. There it is.” He pointed out the statue as he spoke.
“The statue,” said Lord Alfred, “purports to represent General John Regan.” ”

“ It took a breathing spell before the master mechanic could explode adequately.
"You call yourself a railroad man!" he flung out furiously. "What are you whining about? Every man's got his shoulder to the wheel and pushing without talk. We haven't got any room here for quitters. I guess that blood of yours you're so pinhead-brained proud——"
Regan did not finish. With a bellow of rage the red-haired engineer went at the other like a charging bull, and the master mechanic promptly measured his length on the roundhouse floor from a wallop on the head that made him see stars. ”

“ When the governor, looking up, saw Reginald and his father, he said shortly:
"When I heard your name, I wondered what Newbolt it was. How happens it that your father has let himself fall into this strait? I thought he was a cleverer man."
"There must be a traitor somewhere," said Reginald. "My father has taken the oath of allegiance; he went with General Monk to meet the king on his return. I, who have never drawn sword in any other cause, hold a commission from the king in his own Guards. But some traitor has informed his majesty of what, alas! ”

“ See the palaces, the domes—all gold and azure. See the white columns and terraces. What a lovely place!” She paused a moment; and then, suddenly, almost screamed, catching her mother’s arm: “Oh! look—look at that brave officer, on a grey horse—see his white plumes dance. He draws his sword; he fears nothing. Oh! it is—it is Reginald. Reginald, do not go there—there is blood—blood! Mama, take me away! They fight—they are wicked. I will not see this horrible blood!”
Ella covered her eyes, and fell back on the sofa. ”

“ If my father hath made me mighty, thine heart shall I fulfill With the wisdom and gold thou wouldest, before I wend on my ways; For now hast thou failed me nought, and the sword is the wonder of days." No word for a while spake Regin; but he hung his head adown As a man that pondereth sorely, and his voice once more was grown As the voice of the smithying-master as he spake: "This Wrath of thine Hath cleft the hard and the heavy; it shall shear the soft and the fine: Come forth to the night and prove it." ”

“ What, the first comer, a fool, a vulgar fanatic, can with a kitchen knife lay low the greatest hero, the most illustrious warrior, the mightiest king! At Regensberg, when he was wounded for the first time since he had begun his military career, the hero of so many battles perceived, and not without a pang, that he was not invulnerable. ”

“ To Reginald, the men of even his own class seemed travesties and parodies of a noble original, in that they were content to lead the dreadful lives they did—killing tame birds, knocking little balls about the place, watching other people ride races, rushing around in motors, sailing sunny seas in luxury and safety, seeing foreign lands only from their best hotels, poodle-faking and philandering, doing everything but anything—pampered, soft, useless; each a most exact and careful copy of his neighbour. ”

“ But the lesson has to be learnt, the road has to be trodden, and the pricks hurt their feet. The nobler the girl or the youth, the harder it is for them to lose their ideals.
Reginald was passing through this phase. He had built so much on this home-coming of his king, he had thought of him almost as a god, from his youth upwards; the son of that blessed saint and martyr, how should he be less than a hero! The disillusion was great, the sorrow was greater. ”

“ Like an old war horse, Reginald gazed through the palings and snorted as the cry of battle rose in the air.
“Hack it through, sir!” “Well run!” “Collar him there!”
As he heard those old familiar cries it seemed to him as if the old life had come back to him with a sudden rush. He was no longer a poor baited secretary, but a joyous school-boy, head of his form, lord and master of half a dozen fags, and a caution and example to the whole junior school. He had chums by the score; his study was always crowded with fellows wanting him to do this or help them in that. How jolly to be popular! ”

“ The ranee, no longer looked upon as a chief personage, sat concealed in a howdah on the back of an elephant towards the rear of the procession. The vast crowd assembled filled the air with their acclamations; and had not Reginald been well acquainted with the state of affairs, he might have supposed himself the popular ruler of a happy and loyal people. He very well knew, however, that any one of the nobles and guards surrounding him would be ready, at a convenient opportunity, to send a bullet through his head, or give him a cup of poison ”

“ Since he was seventeen years old Reginald had bought all the high-priced things that our fast civilization has to offer in exchange for “soul,” and now the ashes of that past were beginning to grit between his teeth; for he had a sweet memory of peace, purity and of an harmonious-purpose which glinted across his mind angelically as the remains of what had been his baby guesses at real manhood. But this dream, and the sainted mother who had inspired it, had both been devastated by the ignorant animalism of the elder Grove. ”