Steenie

“ Sir Stephen yawned, helped himself to another glass of punch from the bowl at his elbow, and continued to bewail his lot.
Where was Denningham? Wet blanket or no, even he would be better than no one in this old barn.
It was beginning to grow dusk, and Steenie was not fond of moping in the twilight.
Memory and he were ill friends.
Yet memory, unbidden, came and perched herself beside him.
A small fire of logs crackled on the hearth. Autumn winds were cold, and he was not so young as he used to be.
It is wonderful how old a fit of loneliness can make one. ”

“ My dear, suppose you let our friend Sutro, here, ride home and tell your people that I am going to keep you for dinner? Then they will not be anxious, and we will have leisure to consider this matter thoroughly. What do you say?” The Judge’s tone, addressing Steenie, was as grave and considerate as if she had been Madam Calthorp herself, and it restored her wounded pride at once.
Nobody likes being laughed at, least of all a child, about whose earnestness there is never any pretence. ”

“ Your father was a kind [Pg 233] man to friends and followers; muckle grace to you, Sir John, to fill his shoon—his boots, I suld say, for he seldom wore shoon, unless it were muils when he had the gout."
"Ay, Steenie," quoth the Laird, sighing deeply and putting his napkin to his een, "his was a sudden call, and he will be missed in the country; no time to set his house in order—weel prepared Godward, no doubt, which is the root of the matter—but left us behind a tangled hesp to wind, Steenie.—Hem! hem! We maun go to business, Steenie; much to do, and little time to do it in." ”

“ But it's like the stranger was ane that doesna lightly yield his point; for, ride as Steenie liked, he was aye beside him at the salfsame pace. At last my gudesire, Steenie Steenson, grew half angry and, to say the truth, half feared.
"What is it that ye want with me, freend?" he said. "If ye be a robber, I have nae money; if ye be a leal man, wanting company, I have nae heart to mirth or speaking; and if ye want to ken the road, I scarce ken it mysell." ”

“ Why, what can a little girl like me do for a big man like you?” asked Steenie, in eager wonder.
“Show me how Kentucky Bob tackles an unbroken colt.”
An instant’s critical scrutiny of the genial face before her convinced Steenie that the words were “earnest,” not “fun;” still—she could hardly believe her own vision. “Do you really, truly mean it?”
“I really, truly do. If you are not afraid.”
“Afraid? My! I couldn’t be afraid of a horse, could I? I love them so; and my father says that they know it, ’stinctively.”
“Instinctively. Well—the old caballero’s stories seem almost incredible ”

“ They hurried towards him, instinctively knowing that there was no more danger to be apprehended from the place, and he turned smilingly to meet them with an air of triumph.
"Steenie not 'fraid," he said. "Naughty people run 'way! All gone!"
SIMPLE STEENIE AND THE GRAY MAN ON THE KNOLL—P. 344
But to all their questions about his late companion he could only answer by a vacant smile and incoherent words, which left them as ignorant as before. ”

“ It was better for Michael to be brought up at Berrington.
And, meantime, Steenie was finding that when one has a handsome face and jolly humour, it is easy to live by one's wits, even though honour be in the mire. ”

“ Here—Steenie didn’t like such difficult questions, but she answered, simply enough: “I s’pose somebody will. I’m Steenie Calthorp; and Tito can’t go home barefoot, over these rough roads, can he? You must see that for yourself, Mr. Smith, don’t you?”
“I see that, plain enough; and if you are one of the Calthorps down at Knollsboro—here goes! They’re honest folks, and always have been. Never a poor man lost a cent by them, and that’s the truth. They’re the right kind of aristocrats, they are. Pay for what they have, and what they can’t pay for go without, and no complaining. ”

“ He’s clear grit, an’ so I say. That’s where Miss Steenie gets her’n. See! she’s spied her father comin’ back from the valley! He rid away to call the boys together, ’cause his lordship wants to see ’em, I suppose. Well, he’s right peart-lookin’ yet; but man’s born to troubles, an’ he’ll hev to take his share.”
The women watched Steenie run with outstretched arms to meet Mr. Calthorp; saw him check his horse suddenly, when he had almost ridden her down, and bend low to lift her to his saddle. ”

“ One of the first-fruits of this outpouring of his soul was "Steenie Ellison," who, from his childhood, was subject to periodical and violent affections of the body—contortions that gave him, in the eyes of many, an appearance of one possessed. Stephen had a considerable share of cunning, a sort of knavish sagacity and ready impertinence, peculiar to most of his kind. ”

“ Say, has Beatrice Courtenay been to see you?”
“Yes. Once.”
“You thought you did something smart, didn’t you? Ma said it was disgraceful for a girl to get talked about like you have been.”
Steenie stared in amazement, then bethought herself of her grandmother’s parting advice: “Be pleasant to all, as is natural to you; but do not have much to say to any girl until you have learned her name. I wish you to make only the right friends, and I can tell you about all the families—if not all the children—in town. It is wise to select your playmates from households of gentlewomen. ”

“ Calthorp, earnestly. The power of Steenie’s love he believed to be irresistible.
“But isn’t Mr. Tubbs funny? He makes me think of raisin grapes that haven’t dried right. And he wears his spectacles up on the bald part of his head; and he looks lots older ’n Sutro. How old is he, Papa?”
“Maybe seventy; I don’t know exactly. Now, can you make yourself tidy alone? There are no young women servants in this old house, and you must do everything you can for yourself. ”

“ Sir John paused, composed himsell, and desired to hear the full history; and my gudesire told it him from point to point, as I have told it you—word for word, neither more nor less.
Sir John was silent again for a long time, and at last he said, very composedly, "Steenie, this story of yours concerns the honour of many a noble family besides mine; and if it be a leasing-making, to keep yourself out of my danger, the least you can expect is to have a red-hot iron driven through your tongue, and that will be as bad as scaulding your fingers with a redhot chanter. But yet it may be true, Steenie ”

“ But Steenie was not to be cajoled or threatened into any more transactions with the ghostly crew than he could help, so he spoke up like a man, and said he came neither to eat or drink or make minstrelsy, but simply for his receipt, which in a rage ‘the appearance’ gave him. ”

“ Calthorp. “Those fellows idolize that child, and they won’t half try to beat her.”
“Beg pardon, but it will be a ‘fair, square’ trial,” corrected the manager, turning toward the speaker. “Steenie would not ride if they had not promised her that. She is determined to win, and I think she will, but she will do so honestly. She is quicker of motion than the others, and has a judgment about distances which seems like instinct. Besides, she and Tito have grown up together, and he understands her like a second self.” ”

“ There dwelt my gudesire, Steenie Steenson, a rambling, rattling chiel’ he had been in his young days, and could play weel on the pipes; he was famous at ‘Hoopers and Girders’—a’ Cumberland couldna, touch him at ‘Jockie Lattin’—and he had the finest finger for the back-lilt between Berwick and Carlisle. The like o’ Steenie wasna the sort that they made Whigs o’. And so he became a Tory, as they ca’ it, which we now ca’ Jacobites, just out of a kind of needcessity, that he might belang to some side or other. ”

“ An hour later, Steenie, very fresh and dainty in her white frock, and with her rebellious curls brushed into a semblance of order by her father’s untrained hand, bounded gayly through the long, cold halls, and in at the library door, just in time to overhear the old servant explaining to Madam: “She’ll be a cruel lot o’ trouble, an’ mebbe the death on us with her noise; but—she’s clean! Why, ma’am, she says she takes a hull body-wash, ever’ day on her life, an’ sometimes twicet! An’ if it’s the truth, she’s one youngun out of a million! ”

“ Judge Courtenay was not the man to resist its influence; nor did he ever thereafter doubt one assertion of Sutro Vives where Steenie was concerned. The love that is rooted in superstition is love that lasts. ”

“ My-soul-I-declare, you’re the beatenest youngun I ever see! Why on airth couldn’t ye stay back thar in Californy stidder comin’ ter torment them ’at don’t want ye?” But as, in his eagerness to quiet this unprecedented disturbance of that orderly house, the deluded servant continued to advance menacingly, Steenie continued to scream; until, in the midst of the uproar, a white-haired figure appeared in the doorway, when she darted instantly forward and buried her face in her grandmother’s skirt. ”

“ Calthorp was too busy answering his lordship’s questions, and Steenie too curiously regarding his lordship’s appearance.
Suddenly that gentleman looked up. “Well, Sissy! What d’ye think? Seem to be staring sharp. Children read folks. Hope you’ll like me. Fond of children. If they don’t talk. You don’t talk. Look as if you wished to. Out with it! Don’t be afraid.”
“Oh, no! I’m not afraid, now. Ought I to be? But, will you please tell me where you keep it? And why don’t you wear it?”
“Eh? How? Keep it? Wear it? What?”
“Your cor’net. Suzan ́ says you can’t be a real lord, ’n’ess you have one.” ”

“ Lord Denningham was neither smiling nor sneering now, but his blue eyes had an ugly expression in them.
"Brittany has evidently had a depressing effect on you," he observed drily. "Come, don't be a fool, Morry. Let's to the house. Steenie is brewing a bowl of punch which will clear your addle-pate. We haven't come here to listen to any demned heroics, but to do business as members of the Corresponding Society." ”

“ Now Steenie was a kind of favorite with his master, and kenn'd a' the folks about the castle, and was often sent for to play the pipes when they were at their merriment. Auld Dougal MacCallum, the butler, that had followed Sir Robert through gude and ill, thick and thin, pool and stream, was specially fond of the pipes, and aye gae my gudesire his gude word wi' the laird; for Dougal could turn his master round his finger.
Weel, round came the Revolution, and it had like to have broken the hearts baith of Dougal and his master. ”

“ It wasna a'thegether for sake of the money, Dougal thought; but because he didna like to part wi' my gudesire aff the grund. Dougal was glad to see Steenie, and brought him into the great oak parlour, and there sat the Laird his leesome lane, excepting that he had beside him a great, ill-favoured jackanape, that was a special pet of his; a cankered beast it was, and mony an ill-natured trick it played—ill to please it was, and easily angered—ran about the haill castle, chattering and yowling, and pinching, and biting folk, especially before ill-weather, or disturbances in the state. ”

“ Truth compels me to state that the division was honourably made, and little Stenne did not feel his crime weigh so heavily on his mind when he heard the coins jingling in his pocket, and thought of the prospective games of galoche!
But—unhappy child!—when he was left alone! When, after they had passed the gate, and his companion had left him—oh, then his pocket weighed heavily, and the hand which pressed upon his heart was hard indeed! Paris was no longer the same. The people passing looked at him severely, as if they were aware of his mission. ”

“ The picture is excellent, and hung in my bed-room at Leyden.
Now that I have seen so many of Jan Steen's pictures in Holland, I seem to know the whole life of the man. I know all his relations, his wife, his children, his mother, all his cousins, his enemies, his various connections—yes, I know them all by sight. These faces greet us out of all his pictures, and a collection of them would be a biography of the painter. He has often with a single stroke revealed the deepest secrets of his soul. As I think, his wife reproached him far too often about drinking too much. ”

“ Nor know my name; so great is Setne's power!'
[Pg 34]
Then Ta-Buvuë laughed: 'I think he spake
This word to thee for Ta-Buvuë's sake.—
Go, speak to Setne, saying: "Who am I
That thou shouldst send my bondmaid gifts to take?
I am no common woman; I am one
Born of great kings, who walk my ways alone,
Priestess of Bast, the Queen of the Two Worlds,
And seeking no man's gift and fearing none.
If me thou seekest, I will speak within
Mine own house: knock and thou shalt enter in:
In Per-Bast, by the Houses of the Dead,
Past Kemi, where the desert doth begin. ”

“ At The Hague one may also see, whenever the family is not in residence, the collection of Baron Steengracht in one of the ample white mansions on the Vyverberg. Most interesting of the pictures to me are Jan Steen’s family group, which, however, for all its wonderful drawing, is not in his most interesting manner; a very deft Metsu, “The Sick Child”; a horse by Albert Cuyp; a characteristic group of convivial artists by Adrian Brouwer, including Hals, Ostade, Jan Steen and the painter himself; and—best of all—Terburg’s wholly charming “Toilette,” an old woman combing the head of a child. ”

“ IN WHICH LORD STEYNE SHOWS HIMSELF IN A MOST AMIABLE LIGHT.
HEN Lord Steyne was benevolently disposed, he did nothing by halves, and his kindness towards the Crawley family did the greatest honour to his benevolent discrimination. His lordship extended his good-will to little Rawdon: he pointed out to the boy's parents the necessity of sending him to a public school; that he was of an age now when emulation, the first principles of the Latin language, pugilistic exercises, and the society of his fellow-boys would be of the greatest benefit to the boy. ”