Robert Chambers

“ I said, "this is a strange fear that takes you from your pillows there, at dawn."
"Strange things befall a blindly loving heart," she said; "I heard them in my dreams, and knew them, all marching with their yellow moccasins and raccoon-caps and green thrums blowing in the wind."
"Riflemen?"
"Ay, dear love."
"Foolish prophetess!"
"Too wise! Too wise!" she whispered, wearily, nestling within my arms, a second only, then:
"Sir Michael!" roared Mount below my window; "Cresap is on the hills with five hundred men of Maryland!"
Stunned, I stared at Silver Heels; her face was marble, glorified. ”

“ Allez! Good-night. I tell you I have business to attend to, and you stand there rolling your woman’s eyes at me!–––”
“Damn you!” he said between his teeth. “What is the matter with you–––”
He had caught her arm; she wrenched it free, tearing the sleeve to her naked shoulder.
Then she went to her desk and took a pistol from an upper drawer.
“If you don’t go,” she said, “I shall have to shoot you and leave you here kicking on the carpet.”
“In God’s name, Marya!” he cried hoarsely, “who is it you shall kill at the hall?”
“I shall kill Sondheim and Bromberg and Kastner, I hope. ”

“ I breathed in her ear.
"Neah!" she murmured; and touched her cheek against mine.
"Only God knows who shall survive tonight," I insisted.
"Onhteh. Ra-ko-wan-enh," [17] she murmured. "But I have seen you, niare, [18] through a mist, coming from this place, O-ne-kwen-da-ri-en. [19] And dead bodies lay about. Do you believe me?"
I made no reply but lay motionless, watching the tamaracks, ghostly in their cerements of silver fog. And I heard, through the low rhythm of her song, owls howling far away amid those spectral wastes, and saw the Oneida Dancers, [20] very small and pale above the void. ”

“ Even the horrible parody on wedded loyalty left her silent, unmoved, dark eyes brooding; and he began to grow a little restless and anxious as his jocularity increased without a movement in either response or aversion from his wife.
“You needn't be scared, if I'm not,” he said reproachfully. “The house is worth two hundred and fifty thousand, and there's only fifty on it now. If that fat, Dutch skinflint, Plank, shows his tusks, we can clap on another fifty.” ”

“ Then, mischievously tender, she stooped and touched her childish mouth to his—her cheek, her throat, her hair, her lids, her hands, in turn all brushed his lips with fragrance—the very ghost of contact, the exquisite mockery of caress.
"If you don't go at once," she murmured, "I'll never let you go at all. Wait—let me see if anybody is in the corridor——"
She opened the door and looked out.
"Not a soul," she whispered, "our reputations are still intact. Good-bye—I'll put on a fresh gown and meet you in ten minutes!... Where? Oh, anywhere—anywhere, Duane. The Lake. Oh, that is too far away! ”

“ Good night."
"Good night, Valerie."
"Louis!"
"What?"
"You say the golden-cloud machinery isn't working?"
"It seems to have slipped a cog."
"Oh! I thought you might have mended it and that—perhaps—I had better not leave my window open."
"That cloud is warranted to float through solid masonry."
"You alarm me, Kelly."
"I'm sorry, but the gods never announce their visits."
"I know it.... And I suppose I must sleep in a dinner gown. When one receives a god it's a full-dress affair, isn't it?"
He laughed, not mistaking her innocent audacity.
"Unexpected Olympians must take their chances," he said. ”

“ According to Dr. Robert Chambers “a story was told of his once making a serious objection to a law-paper, and in consequence to the whole suit, on account of the word justice being thus spelt.” [820] Lord Braxfield, one of the ruffian judges, but a man of strong mind, “hearing him praised as a good judge, said, in his vulgar way, ‘Him! he knows nothing but the nooks of a cause.’ He was not without his crotchets. One day when he sat as President, he reprimanded a lawyer very sharply for making a ludicrous application of some text in the Gospels or Epistles. ”

“ The wintry landscape of the Park discouraged him profoundly.
"A man's an ass to linger anywhere north of the equator," he grumbled. "Dickybirds have more sense." And again he thought of the wood fire in the club and the partly empty but steaming glass, and the aroma it had wafted toward him; and the temperature it must have imparted to "Bill."
He was immersed in arctic gloom when at length the car stopped. A butler admitted him to a brown-stone house, the steps of which had been thoughtfully strewn with furnace cinders.
"Miss Erith?"
"Yes, sir."
"Announce Mr. Vaux, partly frozen." ”

“ Seldom, if ever, have two members of a publishing firm been so admirably fitted for their business.
From the very outset the brothers were thrown entirely on their own resources; they had no literary jealousy, and eagerly enlisted on their staff most of the young aspirants in Scotland, who have since achieved a world-wide reputation. It was, however, to Mr. Robert Chambers’ contributions that the Journal was primarily indebted for success, his delightful essays, æsthetic and humorous, permanently fixing the work in public esteem. ”

“ He dipped his nose into his mug, pulled at his long pipe, and eyed me askance.
"What the devil's this between you and Dorothy?" he growled.
"Nothing, I trust now, sir," I answered, in a low voice.
"Oh! 'nothing, you trust now, sir!'" he mimicked, striving to turn a sour face. "Dammy, d' ye know that I meant her for Sir George Covert?" His broad face softened; he attempted to scowl, and failed utterly. "Thank God, the land's clear of these bandits of St. Leger, anyhow!" he snorted. "I'll work my mills and I'll scrape enough to pay my debts. ”

“ Où va l'homme? Où son cœur l'appelle!
L'hirondelle suit le zéphyr,
Et moins légère est l'hirondelle
Que l'homme qui suit son désir.
YSONDE swung her racquet. Her laughter was very sweet. A robin on the tip of a balsam-tree cocked his head to listen; a shy snow-bird peered at her through the meadow grass.
"What are you laughing at?" I asked uneasily. I spoke sharply—I had not intended to. The porcupine on the porch lifted his head, his rising quills grating on the piazza; a drab-coloured cow, knee-deep in the sedge, stared at me in stupid disapproval. ”

“ Free way for'ard!" he cried. "Now, Carus! Madam, your most obedient!"
The steady thud of galloping horses sounded nearer behind us. I turned, expecting to see the horsemen, but they were still screened by the hill.
"Luck to you!" muttered Enderly, as we swung into a canter, our horses' hoofs drumming thunder on the quivering planks that jumped beneath us as we spurred to a gallop. Ah! They were shouting now, behind us! They, too, had heard the echoing tattoo we beat across the bridge.
"Pray God that young man holds them!" she whispered, pale face turned. "There they are! They spy us now! ”

“ There it is, Mose!" he cried, excitedly, scrambling from his saddle. "Here—take the bridle! And the very minute you hear the general dashing into the drive, let me know!"
He ran jingling up the resounding veranda—he wore his father's spurs—and mounted the stairs, two at a jump, calling: "Celia! Celia! You'll be glad to know that a general who is a friend of mine—"
"Hush, Billy," said his sister, checking him on the landing and leading him out to the gallery from which the flag hung,—"can't you remember that grandfather is asleep by sundown? ”

“ There is much work to do." A ghost of the ironical smile touched his feverish lips again. "And much work to be done after this business in Europe is settled.... I mean in America. She must pay her reckoning. She must settle with us Germans.... I wish it might come soon—-now!—while their present administration remains—while yet this dull President and his imbecile and grotesque cabinet ministers are in power.... I beg your pardon—seeing you in that uniform made me forget that you are also Mr. Guild."
But the irony in his wearied eyes made it very plain that he had not forgotten.
"Karen?" ”

“ The first glance gave him a hasty impression of a white lace-covered bed and a dainty toilet table on which stood a pair of tall silver candlesticks; and then, as the soft voice spoke again, “Will Monsieur be seated?” he turned and confronted the girl whom he had helped in the Place de la Concorde. She lay in a cloud of fleecy wrappings on a lounge that was covered with a great white bearskin. Her blue eyes met Gethryn’s, and he smiled faintly. She spoke again:
“Will Monsieur sit a little nearer? It is difficult to speak loudly—I have so little strength.” ”

“ John Lawyer, whatever his political complexion, welcomed me kindly and gave me dinner.
I asked news, and he gave an account that Brick House was now but a barracks full of Tories and Schoharie Indians, led by Sethen and Little David or Ogeyonda, a runner, who now took British money and wore scarlet paint.
"We in this valley know not what to do," said he, "nor dare, indeed, do aught save take protection from the stronger party, as it chances to be at the moment, and thank God we still wear our proper hair." ”

“ Why do you cry, mademoiselle?”
“Cry, m’sieu? They are taking the men of Paradise to the war. France must know how cruel she is to take our men from us.”
We had reached the green crest of the plateau; the girl tethered her diminutive cow, sat down on a half-imbedded stone, and continued her knitting, crying softly all the while.
I asked her to direct me to the house where Robert, the Lizard, lived; she pointed with her needles to a large stone house looming up in the gray light, built on the rocks just under the beacon. ”

“ Everything! They got me upstairs at Burbank's. The game's crooked! Every box, every case, every wheel, every pack is crooked! crooked! crooked, by God!” he burst out in a fever, struggling to sit upright, his hands always tightening on the arms of the chair. “It's nothing but a creeping joint, run by a bunch of hand-shakers! I—I'll—”
Stuttering, choking, stammering imprecations, his hoarse clamour died away after a while. She sat there, head bent, silent, impassive, acquiescent under the physical and mental strain to which she had never become thoroughly hardened. ”

“ If I were going to surrender at once, I might as well go off to church with you now.”
“Wenniston church!” he said promptly. “I'll order the Mercedes.”
She laughed, lazily settling herself more snugly by the fire. “Suppose it were our fire?” she smiled. “There would be a dog lying across that rug, and a comfortable Angora tabby dozing by the fender, and—you, cross-legged, at my feet, with that fascinating head of yours tipped back against my knees.”
The laughter in her voice died out, and he had risen, saying unsteadily: “Don't! I—I can't stand that sort of thing, you know.” ”

“ You tell-a me queeck or I blow-a your damn head off!"
"Quintana will blow-a your head off unless you take me to Sard," drawled Smith.
A movement might have meant death, but he calmly rummaged for a cigarette, lighted it, blew a cloud insolently toward the white glare ahead. Then he took another chance:
"I guess you're Nick Salzar, aren't you?"
"Si! I am Salzar. Who the dev' are you?"
"I'm Eddie Abrams, Sard's lawyer. My business is to find my client. If you stop me you'll go to prison—the whole gang of you—Sard, Quintana, Picquet, Sanchez, Georgiades and Harry Beck,—and you !" ”

“ He unlocked the door and I picked up my hat and stick and stepped into the corridor. The stairs were dark. Groping about, I set my foot on something soft, which snarled and spit, and I aimed a murderous blow at the cat, but my cane shivered to splinters against the balustrade, and the beast scurried back into Mr. Wilde's room.
Passing Hawberk's door again I saw him still at work on the armour, but I did not stop, and stepping out into Bleecker Street, I followed it to Wooster, skirted the grounds of the Lethal Chamber, and crossing Washington Park went straight to my rooms in the Benedick. ”

“ Kin you splain dat, Mars Will'm?"
"Don't you think I know a general?" exclaimed the boy, scornfully. "He had yellow and gilt on his sleeves, and he carried a sabre, and he rode first of all. And—oh, Mose! He's coming here to pay me a visit! Perhaps he'll come to-night; he said he would if he could."
"Dat gin'ral 'low he gwine come here?" muttered the darky. "Spec' you better see Miss Celia 'fo' you ax dis here gin'ral."
"I'm going to ask her now," said the boy. "She certainly will be glad to see one of our own men. Who cares if all the niggers have run off? ”

“ The Countess did not move.
Speed touched her arm; she looked up quietly, smiled, and stepped across the threshold. Speed followed; Jacqueline slipped in beside him, and then I turned on Buckhurst, who had just ordered his soldiers to surround the house outside.
“As a matter of fact,” I said, when the last armed ruffian had departed, “I am the only person in this house who has interfered with your affairs. The others have done nothing to harm you.”
“The court will decide that,” he replied, balancing his revolver in his palm. ”

“ Jim and Byron, you get twenty minutes to go 'round to the eastward and drive by the Slide. And you, Hal Smith," — he looked around — "where 'n hell be you, Hal?——"
Smith came up from the bog's edge.
"Send 'em out," he said in a low voice. "I've got Jake's tracks in the bog."
Clinch motioned his beaters to their duty. "Twenty minutes," he reminded Hone, Chase, and Blommers, "before you start drivin'." And, o the Hastings boys: "If you shoot, aim low for their bellies. Don't leave on blood around. Scrape it up. We bury what we get." ”