Thomas Lockhart

“ LOCKHART, Sir GEORGE (1630?–1689) , of Carnwath, lord president of the court of session, born about 1630, was younger brother of Sir William Lockhart [q. v.] , and was second son of Sir James Lockhart of Lee [q. v.] , by his second wife, Martha, daughter of Sir George Douglas of Mordington, Berwickshire. He was admitted advocate 5 June 1656, and on 14 May 1658 was named advocate to the Protector during life, ‘or so long as he demeaned himself well therein.’ In 1658–9 he was sheriff of Lanark, and represented Lanarkshire in the English parliament of 1658–1659. ”

“ He continued to toil at the ‘Annals’; he wrote papers for the Philosophical Magazine, he translated foreign correspondence for the Star, and, in brief, gave himself up almost entirely to the ‘inglorious employment’ of anonymous writing [88] and compilation. He wrote on every imaginable subject, including even agriculture, on the knowledge of which he says he was more than once complimented by farmers, though Lockhart cruelly remarks that he probably could not tell barley from lavender. Politics, too, he tried, but therein was found wanting. ”

“ From about 1718 to 1727 Lockhart acted the part of the Chevalier's confidential agent and adviser in Scotland. He tried in vain to carry out Mar's project for obtaining six thousand bolls of oatmeal to be sent to Charles XII of Sweden (ib. ii. 8) . Shortly afterwards, at the instance of Mar, he made an attempt to win over Argyll to the Jacobites, and barely escaped detection in connection with the unfortunate expedition to the highlands in 1718. ”

“ A man who puts his knife in the salt-cellar—as, according to Lady Morgan, Campbell once did at an aristocratic table—is not made for associating with the ‘high gentry.’ The ‘upper world’ may indeed be, as Lockhart says it is, ‘the best of theatres, the acting incomparably the first, the actresses the prettiest.’ But Campbell seems always to have felt as much out of place there as a country cousin would feel in a greenroom. ”

“ In February 1674 he was the occasion of one of the most notable occurrences connected with the Scottish bar. When the court was about to decide a case against his client Lord Almond, he advised an appeal from the court to parliament. The judges regarded the action as illegal and disrespectful, and their view was adopted by the government. Lockhart and others with him in the case were debarred from pursuing their profession at the pleasure of the king, whereupon fifty other advocates in token of their esteem of Lockhart voluntarily withdrew from practice. ”

“ Lockhart’s apology for him is that, chained so fast to the dreary tasks of compilation, he could not be expected to have a stock of pleasantry for a copious correspondence. But none of the brilliant letter-writers can be suspected of having kept a choice vintage of epistolary [149] Falernian in carefully sealed bottles. A man’s individuality expresses itself in his letters as naturally as a fountain flows. The truth is that Campbell was too reserved, or too artificial, or both, to make a good letter-writer. ”

“ Lockhart subsequently became procurator-general of the order. For the last few years of his life he was rector of St. Etheldreda's, Ely Place, Holborn, London, which he had brought out of chancery, and restored to the worship of his church. He generally wintered in Rome, and was frequently consulted on English affairs by the pope, but his diffidence and that lack of initiative which rendered him so greatly dependent on others, first on Newman, then on Rosmini, prevented him from obtaining high preferment in his church. He died at St. ”

“ The drifts is ten feet high and gittin’ higher.” Laconically: “The horses have quit us; we’re afoot.”
“Is that so? Well, we’ve got to get out of here—I refuse to put in another such night. Lie still!” he commanded ferociously. “You’re letting in a lot of cold air. Quit rampin’ round!” From which it may be gathered that Mr. Sprudell, for purposes of warmth and protection, was sleeping with the Chinese cook.
“Three in a bed is crowded,” Uncle Bill admitted, with a grin. “To-night you might try settin’ up.” ”

“ He raised his head from under a mound of blankets and frowned into the darkness as he wondered if, as Prouty’s newly elected mayor, he would be criticized should he fail to go out and investigate. He was so warm and comfortable!
“Guess I’d better get up, Mamma.”
His wife gripped him as if he was struggling violently, although his Honor was lying motionless as an alligator.
“You shan’t—you’ll get pneumonia and leave me and the children without any insurance! You’ve no right to take chances. Let somebody else go that hasn’t any future.” ”

“ Murray, through whom the invitation was given, accompanied me there. As it was late when we arrived at Regent's Park, we found them waiting, and sat down immediately to breakfast.
I was much pleased with Lockhart's appearance and manners. He has a noble, manly countenance—in fact, the handsomest English face I ever saw—a quick, dark eye and an ample forehead, shaded by locks which show, as yet, but few threads of gray. There is a peculiar charm in his rich, soft voice; especially when reciting poetry, it has a clear, organ-like vibration, which thrills deliciously on the ear. ”

“ Her swaggering stride of assurance was a shamble, and, as she came down the street now with her head down, her Stetson pulled low over her eyes, her hand thrust deep in one pocket of her square cut coat, her skirt flapping petticoatless about her, she looked even to the wife of the baker, who liked her, and to the clairvoyant milliner, who imitated her, a caricature upon womankind.
There was a look of evil upon her face at the moment not easy to describe. She and Augusta had quarrelled—for the first time—and when she could least afford to quarrel. ”

“ Sprudell demanded furiously.
“You’ll have to take your chances along with us. It may let up in a day or two, and then again it mayn’t. Anyway, the game goes; we stop eatin’ altogether before to-morry night.”
“You got me into this fix! And what am I paying you five dollars a day for, except to get me out and do as you are told?”
“I got you into this fix? I did?” The stove lids danced with the vigor with which Uncle Bill banged down the frying pan. The mild old man was stirred at last. “I sure like your nerve! ”

“ To a man, the boarders cast furtive glances at Nan and grinned sheepishly.
"That cyanide what you passes over the bar makes a man sleep as if he was dead," came the retort finally from a rash youth at whom every one stared for daring to raise his voice above a whisper.
"Ling," shouted the landlord, "quit your millin' around and git here with this lady's grub." He spoke to a panic-stricken Chinaman. Then, clearing his throat and inhaling a breath which placed a strain upon his shirt-studs, he inquired:
"What might I call your name. Miss? My name is Poth—Fritz Poth." ”

“ Two doors below, still another shop was vacant. “To Let” signs were not synonymous with prosperity. Hiram Butefish supported his back against the door jamb in an attitude which did not suggest any pressing business. Mrs. Sudds, who formerly had passed Kate with a face that was ostentatiously blank, now stared at her with a certain inquisitive amiability. Major Prouty sitting in front of the post office waved a hand at her that was comparatively friendly. ”

“ The grease spots on the unbleached muslin where Ore City rested its head were a shade darker and the monuments of “spec’mins” were higher. The Jersey organ had lost two stops and a wooden stalagmite was broken. “Old Man” Hinds in a praiseworthy attempt to clean his solitaire deck had washed off the spots or at least faded them so that no one but himself could tell what they were. The office was darker, too, because of the box-covers nailed across the windows where a few more panes had gone out. ”

“ Behind the surrey was the riding party, even more startling than when they had first burst upon Wallie in their bead-work and curio-store trappings. Mr. Stott was wearing a pair of "chaps" spotted like a pinto, while Mr. Budlong in flame-coloured angora at a little distance looked as if his legs were afire.
Their ponies peered out shamefacedly through brilliant, penitentiary-made, horse-hair bridles, and old Mr. Penrose was the envy of everybody in a greasy, limp-brimmed Stetson he had bought from a freighter. Also he had acquired a pair of 22-inch, "eagle's bill" tapaderas. ”

“ Pantin looked up in surprise at her caller’s entrance.
“How perfectly sweet of you to come out a day like this!” she chirped. “You’ll excuse me if I go on getting dinner? We only have two meals a day when we don’t exercise. This wind—isn’t it dreadful? I haven’t been out of the house for a week.”
She placed two rolls in the warming oven and broke three eggs into a bowl.
“Abram and I are so fond of omelette,” she said, as the egg-beater whirred. “Tell me,” she beamed brightly upon Mrs. Toomey, “what have you been doing with yourself?”
“Priscilla—Prissy—” Mrs. ”

“ It was a fresh hide with the brand cut out!
Ralston nodded his head in mingled satisfaction and regret. So the thief was working from the MacDonald ranch! Did the Indian woman know, he wondered. Was it possible that Susie was in ignorance? With all his heart, he hoped she was. He walked leisurely to the house and leaned against the jamb of the kitchen door.
“Have the makings, Ling?” He passed his tobacco-sack and paper to the cook.
“Sure!” said Ling jauntily. “I like ’em cigilette.” ”

“ Uncle Bill commented as he eyed him critically. “Don’t hardly look as though you’d winter.”
The shadow of a smile crossed Bruce’s dark face.
“Toy and I proved just about the length of time a man can go without eating, and live.”
“You made it then? You got to Toy—he’s all right?”
“Yes,” briefly, “but none too soon. The snow had broken the tent down, so we made it over the ridge to an old tunnel . . . I killed a porcupine but we ran out of matches and there was no dry wood or sticks to make a fire.”
“I et raw wolf onct in Alasky,” Yankee Sam interjected reminiscently. ”

“ He went on with a tinge of bitterness, thinking of Sprudell: “Since muscle is my only asset I’ll have to realize on it.” Then his dark face lighted with one of the slow, whimsical smiles that transformed it—“Unchain the ‘Spanish Bull-dog,’ feller!”
Harrah rang for the office boy and reached for his hat.
“William,” he said sternly when the quaking youth stood before him, “tell those people outside not to wait. I’m called away on business—urgent, important business and I can’t say when I’ll be back.”
169 XV
Millions! ”

“ She sat down in her office chair and rested her heels on the window sill while her cigarette burned to ashes between her listless fingers. For a time she watched the white light of the June moon grow on the line of dimpled foothills, the myriad odors of spring were in the air and the balmy west wind lifted the hair at her temples as it came through the open window. She felt lonely—inexpressibly lonely. She thought of Alice Freoff and restlessness grew. Downstairs she heard Essie Tisdale's merry laughter and it changed the current of her thoughts. ”

“ Pinkey said, ruefully, when Mr. Hicks returned to the kitchen in the manner of offended royalty.
"Cooks are sometimes very peculiar," observed Mr. Stott, buttering his pancakes lavishly. "I remember that my mother—my mother, by the way, Mr. Penrose, was a Sproat——"
"Shoat?" Old Mr. Penrose, who complained of a pounding in his ears, was not hearing so well in the high altitude.
Mr. Appel and Pinkey tittered, which nettled Mr. Stott and he shouted:
"Sproat! An old Philadelphia family."
"Oh, yes," Mr. Penrose recollected. "I recall Amanda Sproat—she married a stevedore. Your sister?" ”

“ By ten-thirty food was the chief topic of conversation, and everyone was keeping an eye out for Hicks and the "grub-wagon." At eleven the hilarity had simmered to monosyllables, and old Mr. Penrose, who always became incredibly cross when he was hungry, rode along with his face screwed up like a bad youngster that is being carried out of church for a spanking in the vestibule.
"I'm so weak I can scarcely sit in the saddle!" Mrs. J. Harry Stott snapped at Wallie as if she held him responsible.
"I'm simply ravenous—starving!" declared Mrs. Budlong. ”

“ He did not wait for an answer, but went on persuasively, yet stating the bald and hopeless facts that seemed so crushing to her youth and inexperience. "You have no parent—no home, Mees Teesdale; you have no money and not so many friend in Crowheart. You marry me and all is change. You have good home and many friends, because," he chuckled shrewdly, "when I die you have thirty thousand sheep. Plenty sheep, plenty friends, my girl. How you like be the richest woman in this big county, mam'selle?" ”

“ Really?"
"You are. I like women anyhow; men bore me mostly. I had a desperate 'crush' at boarding-school, but she quit me cold when she married. I've taken a great shine to you, Gus; and there's one thing you mustn't forget."
"What's that?" Mrs. Symes asked, smiling.
"I'm jealous—of your Phidias."
"How absurd!" Mrs. Symes laughed aloud.
"I mean it." Dr. Harpe spoke lightly and there was a smile upon her straight lips, but earnestness, a kind of warning, was in her eyes.
A clatter of tinware at the kitchen window attracted Symes's attention as he came from the bedroom. ”

“ Nan made a curtsy in appreciation of his compliment.
"You think," she asked archly, "that the Señorita Perfecta Torres will be only a dingy moth beside me?"
"She'll look like a horse-fly," Ben returned heartily, "alongside a butterfly."
Edith was silent. Her small moment of triumph was already a thing of the past. Ben never had told her that she looked like a flaming cactus flower in spring, or likened her to a butterfly.
All Las Rubertas was assembled in the rear of the Señor Apedaca's long dobe store building when Nan, Edith, Ben and Mrs. Gallagher arrived. ”