Talbot family

“ When, two years earlier, Martin Talbot brought his wife to the old family homestead of Talbot's Angles, Linda determined to make the best of the situation. If it was for Martin's happiness to marry the pretty, rather underbred, wholly self-centered Grace Johnson, his sister would not be the one to offer disillusionment. Grace was from the city, dressed well, had dependent little ways which appealed to just such a manly person as Martin. ”

“ The poor Earl could only point to his Queen’s testimonial and console himself by thinking on his family doggerel:—
The Talbot true that is,
And still hath so remaynde,
Lost never noblenesse
By princke of spot distaynde:
On such a fixed fayth
This trustie Talbot stayth. For there is no real honour left to a house divided against itself. The quarrel of man and wife had become the property of the world. Matters must be patched up somehow with the aid of friends and Court officials. Everything, to the eye, was now put on a highly respectable basis. ”

“ The aforesaid house, which four times sheltered both Mary of Scotland and once at least Lord Leicester, is 180now gone; in place of it is a hotel, and there is no trace of the “pleasant warm bowling-green planted about with large sycamore trees.” This, according to another authority, was part of its garden, and it was Gilbert Talbot’s duty to entertain his father’s dazzling guest and the Queen’s favourite in this pleasant spot. During the week of this memorable visit the young man never lost an opportunity of furthering his family’s cause and of sounding influential persons at all seasons. ”

“ Socially it is a bit of a come-down from Mabel Talbot, but I don't want to found a family or go in for a swagger connection. The girl loves me, and that's quite good enough for me."
"Who is she, grandpapa?"
"Nobody; at least I don't know anything about her family. She doesn't ever mention them, and I make no enquiries. I don't want to be within the radius of another mother-in-law again at my time of life--I know them. We're going to be married privately, and then run out to America. Susan keeps a stall at the Crystal Palace. She's a model girl, and sells chocolate and sweetstuff generally. ”

“ He had been introduced to Charles and James when they were exiles in Flanders, as a man fit and ready for the infamous service of assassinating the Protector. Soon after the Restoration, Talbot attempted to obtain the favour of the royal family by a service more infamous still. A plea was wanted which might justify the Duke of York in breaking that promise of marriage by which he had obtained from Anne Hyde the last proof of female affection. Such a plea Talbot, in concert with some of his dissolute companions, undertook to furnish. ”

“ Then they procured another loom in Johnston, the town from which the first one came, and set that up beside the one Mr. Talbot had bought as a curiosity. Now they have hired a Swede woman to come to work at the loom during the day. In Sweden all the girls are still taught in the country districts to operate a hand loom, and this woman has not been in this country long enough to forget what she was taught as a girl.
Mr. Talbot believes in old things. It is said by friends that there [Pg 279] is nothing modern in his house except the present members of the family. ”

“ In the autumn of ninety-seven, and when death had spent his shafts in my own family, I went to see how a family fared, the father and husband of which kept a shop in Front Street, where every thing a lady wanted was sold, and where I had always been served with great despatch and affability. ”

“ Supernumerary digits to the extent of six fingers and six toes are exceedingly common in the families of degenerates. The influence of heredity in this particular has been well demonstrated. The Kelleia family of Malta was one of the earliest reported. The condition may last for five generations, [224] but often disappears on marriage with normal persons outside the community or family. A family of the Arabian Hyabites, named Boldi, confined marriages to their own tribe. They all have twenty-four digits. Children born with a normal number are killed as being the offspring of adultery. ”

“ But this fact, while going to prove that it is not the mere blood relationship of the parents which induces the degeneration so often found in the children of consanguineous marriages, can but rarely be advanced as an argument in support of the marriage of blood relations. The stock-raiser only permits the more perfect members of his flocks and herds to continue their kind, and for this reason the “in-and-in” breeding is innocuous, just as it would be in the human family under like conditions. But where shall we find the perfect human family? Such families are certainly rare. ”

“ This done, she sat down in the old family pew, her thoughts travelling back to the days when it had been scarce large enough for them all, father, mother, grandmother, two brothers, three sisters, and now all resting in the quiet churchyard, herself the youngest of them all, the only one left. ”

“ His feuds with his second brother Edward, with his youngest brother Henry, with his elder brother's widow Lady Talbot, with his mother's relatives the family of Manners, with his neighbours the Wortleys and Stanhopes, were all so violent as to render it wellnigh impossible for the gentry of the district to preserve neutrality (Lodge, Illustrations, Introd.) . Edward Talbot was alleged by Gilbert's partisans to have conspired with Wood, the earl's physician, against the life of his elder brother. ”

“ Their food depends on their scouting, you see, and their family’s food. They learn ‘stalking’ because they would die if they did not understand how to stalk. In our country, too, keepers and others look for ‘sign’ from morning till night. In the war, you’ll remember, scouting played a tremendous part.”
“I say, Sybil, gipsies leave ‘sign’ behind,” put in Mona, as they all squatted on the grass.
“Yes, they do. Patrin, they call it. And the gipsies can follow each other just because of it. It helps them more than we’d understand, I expect, since they are roaming all the time. ”

“ She lived with Miss Jessup and her mother before Talbot's marriage with my friend, after the marriage, and during his absence on the voyage which occasioned his death.
The proofs of Miss Jessup's passion were continually occurring in her own family, where she suffered the ill-humour occasioned by her disappointment to display itself without control. Hannah's curiosity was not chastened by much reflection, and some things were overheard which verified the old maxim that "walls have ears." In short, it appears that this poor lady doted on Talbot ”

“ Some old receipts which seem to establish the fact that Cyrus Talbot really did have the right to rent the place to a certain John Briggs. I don't know how these receipts came into the possession of our branch of the family, but probably Briggs gave them to our great-grandfather to keep safely. At [242] all events, Berkley Matthews and Mr. Jeffreys have worked it all out."
"I don't see how Berkley could have the conscience. It is outrageous for him to be party to a scheme for defrauding an orphan girl."
"Oh, Aunt Ri, you mustn't say it is defrauding; it is just legal rights. ”

“ The Dawsons and the Westertons, and the parson and Squire Talbot and his wife and daughter. Then we'll invite a big clerical pot or two from Salisbury, and certain men I know. The affair will distract me. You must write the invitations and so on. If you don't know how to, I'll buy you an etiquette book, with all the rotten rules and regulations."
"One point only, grandpapa. Please, for my sake, don't ask the Talbots. It isn't right; it isn't fair to the girl. You're a man to make any pretty child's heart ache now. I know you ride with her, and spend half your time at Talbot Priory. ”

“ Said Lord Arthur Talbot. “I have never borne arms against the nation. I have belonged to no camp. I have arrived in England but this evening, and came hither from the vessel.”
The puritans forgot themselves, for they gave a shout of joy.
And even the bitter Captain Richard Forth was heartily glad to find that Arthur Talbot’s blood had not been shed.
So the young bridegroom did not die, and the bride did not therefore destroy him, and his marriage at last took place, sanctified by the glorious truth that he, the bridegroom, had saved a human life. ”

“ An’ there’s three times this blessed day as I’ve bin down to doctor’s. An’ now he’s on his way up, an’ he ses that sure as fate it’s the scarling fever. What with the ’orspital for the baby; and the men ’aving lorsted Rowsley Fair with it all——”
The woman began to weep.
“What!” yelled Stella.
It was the last word that she uttered within the gipsy tent. The next was addressed to Margot, whom she met returning speedily over the moor in the direction of the camp.
“The men have got the horses back all right,” she shouted. “I say—What! d’you mean to say you haven’t got the baby?” ”

“ Emerson had in regard to her attractive friend she received from Mrs. Talbot. According to her statement, she was a widow whose married life had not been a happy one. The husband, like most husbands, was an overbearing tyrant, and the wife, having a spirit of her own, resisted his authority. Trouble was the consequence, and Mrs. Talbot thought, though she was not certain, that a separation took place before Mr. Lloyd's death. She had a moderate income, which came from her husband's estate, on which she lived in a kind of idle independence. ”

“ It is not without very considerable difficulty, not without some sacrifice of truth, some vague promises, that Talbot at length succeeds in making his escape without having tied himself down to any special day for making his appearance at that house from whose doors the wife has warned him off with as great an eagerness as—it cannot be greater than—the husband now shows to force him into them. ”

“ How will she regard these new-born scruples, this drawing back when the door spontaneously opens and solicits my entrance?
"Is it in my power to make Jane Talbot mine? my wife? And shall I hesitate? Ah! would to Heaven it were a destiny as fortunate for her as for me!--that no tears, no repinings, no compunctions, would follow! Should I not curse the hour of our union when I heard her sighs? and, instead of affording consolation under the distress produced by her mother's displeasure, should I not need that consolation as much as she?" ”

“ His eyes, much the color of his hair, were turned quickly upon Linda as her face appeared above the fence. "Good-evening, Miss Talbot," he said.
"Good-evening, Mr. Jeffreys," she returned. "How is it you are taking Miss Parthy's tasks upon yourself?"
"Oh, I begged leave to do it. I like it. Don't you think chickens are very amusing? They are as different in character as people, and give me as much amusement as a crowd of human beings. Look at that ridiculous little hen; she reminds me of a girl scared by a mouse the way she jumps every time I throw down a handful of food." ”

“ But he had recognized that the girl herself was still heart free, and therefore, though there might be a chance for him he must keep away, must make excuses not to see her. He must assume a great air of one too absorbed in business to spare time for visiting his friends. He could manage all that. But first he must pave the way. He would go and tell them all that to Jeffreys would probably fall the old homestead, and he would say: "Better into the hands of an honest and honorable man, the descendant of the old stock, than to Grace Talbot." ”

“ As it was not long before he perceived he was in love, neither was it long before he made a declaration of it: as his passion was likely enough to be real, Miss Jennings thought she might believe him, without exposing herself to the imputation of vanity. Talbot was possessed of a fine and brilliant exterior, his manners were noble and majestic: besides this, he was particularly distinguished by the favour and friendship of the duke; but his most essential merit, with her, was his forty thousand pounds a-year, landed property, besides his employments. ”

“ Gilbert Talbot's wife, a thin, yellow-haired, young creature, promising to be like her mother, the Countess, had a tongue which loved to run, and with the precocity and importance of wifehood at sixteen, she dilated to her companions on her mother's constant attendance on the Queen, and the perpetual plots for that lady's escape. "She is as shifty and active as any cat-a-mount; and at Chatsworth she had a scheme for being off out of her bedchamber window to meet a traitor fellow named Boll ”

“ It’s not even sensible. One girl against two great gipsies! Even if you did go inside, what would you do?”
“I’d not be—one girl, if you came too,” Margot informed her. “Here, you’re right in one thing; we’d better get the men out of the tent, first, and then go in! Only, how....”
“There’s no way. How could there be? I’m going home,” said Stella.
“Of all the cowards! That’s what you are! I’d rather be—Australian, as you call it, than a coward and leave a baby crying!” Stella’s guest of the afternoon turned upon her hostess with flashing eyes. “And after talking of winning the bravery shield!” ”

“ Talbot understood perfectly the kind of flattery which would succeed with the youth, and by allusion to his ancient lineage, his more than noble blood, the rights to which he was entitled, and to which he would unquestionably be restored, not only stimulated his ardour in the cause, but bound him in a debt of gratitude to all who encouraged him to engage in it. ”