Sylvester

“ Sylvester. And struck by an appeal which in spite of his abhorrence of the man at his side, woke every instinct of fatherhood within him, he searched with his glance the long row of windows before them. But before his eye had travelled half way across the building, he felt the man at his side quiver with sudden agony, and following the direction of his glance, saw a wan, little countenance looking down upon them from a window almost opposite to where they stood.
“It is my boy!” shrieked the man, and in his madness would have leaped from the casement, if Mr. Sylvester had not prevented him. ”

“ The Voice.— (From without) :
⁠Sylvester
The hour has come!
Sylvester:
⁠Hour of my victory!
Over th' inveterate adversary age.
Is the door bolted fast? Who trys the bolt?
Lenore:— (Looking thro' the key-hole)
Only I see a slim and dusky hand
That fingers at the latch!
Sylvester:
⁠Pile up the fire!
Only an hour to the dawning, God,
To die a dog's death in a dumb despair
With the Elixir brimming at my lips,
Never! I set my will against the Fiend's!
The Voice:
The hour has come Sylvester.
Sylvester.— (Stooping over the fire) :
⁠I prevail! ”

“ Sylvester? If any one had seen the abandon with which he yielded to her caresses and returned them, he would have understood why this child should have loved him with such extraordinary affection. He kissed her forehead, he kissed her cheek, and seemed never weary of smoothing down her bright and silky curls. She reminded him of Geraldine. She had the same blue eyes and caressing ways. ”

“ By every wild throb of her heart at the sound of his voice in her ear, by every out-reaching of her soul to enter into his every mood, by the deep sensation of rest she felt in his presence, and the uneasy longing that absorbed her in his absence, she knew that she loved Mr. Sylvester as she never could his younger, blither, and perhaps nobler rival. Each word spoken by him lay treasured in her heart of hearts. When she thought of manly beauty, his face and figure started upon her from the surrounding shadows, making all romance possible and poetry the truest expression of the human soul. ”

“ Mr. Sylvester watched him with growing pallor. “You are right,” murmured his nephew at last; “there is something more, and it is only justice that you should hear it. I have had two adventures to-night; one quite apart from my conversation with Mr. Stuyvesant. Heaven that watches above us, has seen fit to accumulate difficulties in my path, and this last, perhaps, is the least explainable and the hardest to encounter.”
“What do you allude to?” cried his uncle, imperatively; “I have had an evening of too much agitation to endure suspense with equanimity. Explain yourself.” ”

“ Lenore:
When all is done, Sylvester? Nay, alas!
All is not done, our term of living sped,
There is a Judgment still to be endured,
And endless dolour or gladness yet to be.
Sylvester:
Your God may rule His heaven, but here on earth
I know two Gods, two dull unheeding Gods,
Invidious Time and cruel Circumstance,
Who ride the poor man with a double spur
Desire and Hunger, and the rich man drive
With pointed goad of dull Satiety,
Or longing for things unattainable.
To rule those Gods one must be young and strong. ”

“ Is it Miss Sylvester?"
"Yes; it is Eve Sylvester," said Lightmark. "Do you know them? I see a good deal of them now."
"I have known them a good many years," said Rainham.
"They have never spoken of you to me," said Lightmark.
"No? I dare say not. Why should they?" He was silent for a moment, looking thoughtfully at his ring. Then he said abruptly: "I think I know now who your friend the barrister is, Dick. I recognise the style. It is Charles Sylvester, is it not?"
"You are a wizard," answered the other, laughing. "Yes, it is." Then he asked: "Don't you think she is awfully pretty?" ”

“ Sylvester regarded her, suddenly faltered; he turned with quickness towards the fire. “A moment’s joy is, then, excuse for a murder,” exclaimed he. “God and the angels would not agree with you, Paula.”
There was a quivering in his tone, made all the more apparent by its studied self-possession of a moment before. She trembled where she sat, and opened her lips to speak, but closed them again, awed by his steady and abstracted gaze, now fixed before him in gloomy reverie. A moment passed. The clock ticking away on the mantel-piece seemed to echo the inevitable “Forever! never!” ”

“ Sylvester, who was too much pre-occupied to observe this suspicious action, remained for a moment contemplating the sky; then with an aimless glance down the avenue, during which his eye undoubtedly fell upon Bertram and the creeping shadow of a man behind him, closed the door and returned to the library.
The sight of another’s joy has the tendency to either unduly depress the spirits or greatly to elate them. When Paula came into the room a few minutes later, it was to find Mr. Sylvester awaiting her with an expression that was almost radiant. ”

“ Rouse," said Sylvester; "we shall catch them: and when we do, they ought to be punished severely."
"But have you," said Aunt Eleanor, "have you, my dear, sufficient strength to sit up?"
"Oh, quite," replied Sylvester: "sitting up is nothing."
"But it will not be well for you to do so," said the reverend gentleman. "The primary object is to make every thing appear as if no preparation for a discovery had been made." ”

“ Ensign was approaching.
“Mr. Sylvester! you are worse than the old woman of the tale, who declaring she would not, that nothing could ever induce her to—did.”
“You utter a deeper truth than you realize,” returned that gentleman, with a grave emphasis meant rather for her ears than his. “It is the curse of mortals to overrate their strength in the face of great temptations. I am no exception to the rule.” And with a second bow that included this apparently triumphant lover within its dignified sweep, he calmly proceeded upon his way, and in a few moments had left the house. ”

“ He himself was on the verge of ruin. He might spit upon Usher's gaberdine, but Usher's demands must be met. How to meet them and preserve an inheritance for Sylvester? And Roderick? He felt crushed by this evening's revelations. He had struggled as few men have struggled to make atonement. It had been in vain. He had no longer the strength to make fresh effort. A word to Sylvester, and peace would possess his soul.
Sylvester glanced round and saw his father's eyes fixed upon him with a strange yearning. He rose, went up to his chair, and laid a hand upon his shoulder. ”

“ Tho' yellow ruffs with Mistress Turner died,
I wager we shall see them spring again.
Avis:
I go to lay the supper against to-night
Who knows what guests may gather round the board?
⁠ (She retires laughing, right.)
⁠ (Sylvester enters from Garden.)
Madam Pomeroy:
Give you good morrow Master Sylvester!
How goes the great work? Still the furnace burns.
You, if a man may, should th' elixir find,
And yet the years go by, it 'scapes you still,
But Age comes on you, and the fire burns low!
Sylvester:
Aye, 'Vita Ignis, Corpus Lignum Est.'
Life is the fire and the fuel are we! ”

“ Mr. Sylvester’s stern brow contracted painfully. The look with which his eye sought the sky without, would have made Paula’s young heart ache. Taking the child from her father’s clasp, he laid her on the bed. When he again confronted the janitor his face was like a mask.
“Hopgood,” said he, “you are an honest man and a faithful one; I appreciate your worth and have had confidence in your judgment. Whom have you told of this occurrence beside myself?”
“No one, sir.” ”

“ You would think that Sylvester reigned in sylvan shades, among the trees, not at Rome nor among men, and that he was driven out by winter rains and cold, not by men!
Who that is at all widely read, does not know what Roman kings, what consuls, what dictators, what tribunes of the people, what censors, what aediles were chosen? Of such a large number of men in times so long past, none escapes us. ”

“ Whatever the reason, it was clear that when they were seated at the table, partaking of the meal, it was Captain Saltonstall that had the best attention from every member of the household, (and the best of the dish,) from all save old Sylvester, who held himself erect, as usual, and impartial in the matter.
"The ways of Providence are strange," said old Sylvester. "Out of darkness he brings marvellous light, and from the frivolous acorn he spreads the branches wide in the air, which are a shelter, and a solace, and a shadowy play-ground to our youth and old age. ”

“ Mr. Sylvester at once raised his voice. “Don’t jump, little boy Holt. If there is no one there to drop you down, wait for your father. He is going on the bridge and will catch you.”
The little fellow seemed to hear, for he immediately held out his arms, but if he spoke, his voice was drowned in the frightful hubbub. Meanwhile the smoke thickened around him, and a dull ominous glare broke out from the midst of the building, against which his weazen little face looked pallid as death. ”

“ Sylvester’s ears were yet thrilling to the deep ringing tones with which Paula uttered the words, “I do not see how any man can hesitate an instant when the voice of his conscience says no. I should think the very sunlight would daunt him at the first step of his foot across the forbidden line,” when Miss Belinda suddenly spoke up and sending Paula out of the room on some trivial pretext, addressed Mr. Sylvester without reserve. ”

“ Sylvester as much as every one else loves him. And he is not alone in this. Almost every day I hear some remark made of a nature complimentary to my benefactor’s character or ability. Even Mr. Stuyvesant who so seldom appears to notice us girls, once interrupted a conversation between Cicely and myself to inquire if Mr. Sylvester was quite well. ”

“ Sylvester is in the parlor.” And almost instantly a tall middle aged lady entered, whose plain but powerful countenance and dignified demeanor, stamped her at once as belonging to a very different type of woman from her sister.
“I am very glad to see you sir,” she exclaimed in a slow determined voice as dissimilar as possible from the piping tones of Miss Abby. “Is not Mrs. Sylvester with you?”
“No,” returned he, “I have come alone; my wife is not fond of travelling in winter.” ”

“ Sylvester began by giving his protégé a commission to paint his mother's portrait, and before this work was finished a very appreciable degree of intimacy had sprung up between the Sylvester family and the young painter, who found no difficulty in gratifying a woman-of-the-world's passion for small-talk and fashionable intelligence—judiciously culled from the columns of the daily newspapers with the art of a practised wielder of the scissors and paste-brush. ”

“ Sylvester sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes, and then looked at the reverend gentleman, precisely as if lie wished to know who he was and what he wanted.
"Lie down, dear, again," said Aunt Eleanor, soothingly. "You must be fatigued, dear: you look very weary still."
The reverend gentleman shook his head, and that, too, with so much significance, that any close observer might at once have perceived that Sylvester was, in his view, very artful. Aunt Eleanor, however, did not observe this ”

“ Sylvester will say, and Charles Sylvester?"
"You think they won't have anything to do with a poor devil of an artist, I suppose? Right you are, sir; but when the poor devil has a rich and gouty uncle, who is disposed to be friendly.... See? I think that alters the complexion of the case. You know, the Sylvesters are awfully well connected, and so on, but they haven't got much money. Mrs. Sylvester has a life annuity, and Charles—whom I always want to call 'Chawles,' because he's so pompous—has got his professional income. And Eve has got a little, enough to dress her, I should think. ”

“ The fact is, Sylvester is a remarkable man.”
“Hum, ha, so I should judge.”
“And so fortunate! He has never been known to run foul in a great operation. Put your money in his hand and whew!—your fortune is as good as made.”
The other, a rich man, connected heavily with the mining business in Colorado, smiled with that bland overflow of the whole countenance which is sometimes seen in large men of great self-importance. ”

“ Sylvester, observing that the poor child’s head had fallen forward in maidenly shame at her aunts’ elogiums as well as at the length of the speech into which she had been betrayed. “It shows that her eyes can see what is at hand as well as what is beyond our reach.” Then with a touch of his usual formal manner intended to restore her to herself, “Do you like study, Paula?”
In an instant her eyes flashed. “I more than like it; it feeds me. Knowledge has its vistas too,” she added with an arch look, the first he had seen on her hitherto serious countenance. ”

“ Sylvester dropped her hand and turned towards the mantle-piece. It was April as I have said, and there was no fire in the grate, but he posed his foot on the fender and looked sadly down at the empty hearthstone.
“Paula,” said he after a space of pregnant silence, “it had to come. The veil of the temple must be rent in every life. Evil is too near us all for us to tread long upon the flowers without starting up the adders that hide beneath them. You had to have your first look into the cells of darkness, and perhaps it is best you had it here and now. ”

“ Sylvester has urgent business on hand to-day,” quoth her aunt. “I met him going out just as I came down.”
Her look lingered on Paula as she said this, and if it had not been for the servants, she would doubtless have given utterance to some further expression on the matter, for she had been greatly struck by Mr. Sylvester’s appearance and the sad, firm, almost lofty expression of his eye, as it met hers in their hurried conversation.
“He is a very busy man,” returned Paula simply, and was silent, struck by some secret dread she could not have explained. Suddenly she rose ”