Thorny

“ Thorne is our hero—or I should rather say my hero, a privilege of selecting for themselves in this respect being left to all my readers—and as Miss Mary Thorne is to be our heroine, a point on which no choice whatsoever is left to any one, it is necessary that they shall be introduced and explained and described in a proper, formal manner. ”

“ Mary's child, my own Mary's child, and I'm not to see her! But, Thorne, I tell you what; I will see her. I'll go over to her, I'll go to Greshamsbury, and tell her who I am, and what I can do for her. I tell you fairly I will. You shall not keep her away from those who belong to her, and can do her a good turn. Mary's daughter; another Mary Scatcherd! I almost wish she were called Mary Scatcherd. Is she like her, Thorne? ”

“ You will not desert him?'
'I will not desert him; but I doubt whether I can do much for him—what can I do, Scatcherd?'
'Use the power that a strong man has over a weak one. Use the power that my will will give you. Do for him as you would for a son of your own if you saw him going in bad courses. Do as a friend should do for a friend that is dead and gone. I would do so for you, doctor, if our places were changed.'
'What I can do, that I will do,' said Thorne, solemnly, taking as he spoke the contractor's hand in his own with a tight grasp. ”

“ But Lady Scatcherd was now too much interested in the general tenor of the news which she had heard to care much about the house which she was to inhabit in future. Mary Thorne, the heiress of Boxall Hill! Mary Thorne, the still living child of that poor creature who had so nearly died when they were all afflicted with their early grief! Well; there was consolation, there was comfort in this. There were but three people left in the world that she could love: her foster-child, Frank Gresham—Mary Thorne, and the doctor. ”

“ She was here, and in due time he would know all about that.
“The Easterlings are angered, lad. They will not endure you mere.”
“Why are they angry?”
“You shot a shaft at one; besides, you hold the Wardhouse and they would have it for my comfort. What seek you here?”
Thorne rose to his feet, and she stepped back as if to ward him off. ”

“ More men enrolled in Thorn’s class that afternoon than he thought would be attracted by the subject he was announced to lecture in on that day of the week. Among all the students who straggled, during the hour, into the bare recitation-room at the top of Sever, the only ones whose individualities were distinct enough to impress themselves on Thorn’s unpractised memory, were a negro, a stained ivory statuette of a creature from Japan, a middle-aged gentleman with a misplaced trust in the efficacy of a flowing sandy beard for concealing an absence of collar and necktie, Prescott, and Haydock. ”

“ Her eyes had fallen upon the broad figure of the serving-man in his leather coat, his short sword hanging from his belt, his hand upon his dagger.
She might well look in alarm, this ancient, evil woman, for the keen brown face of the servant was gashed and lined with a terrible and quiet fury, the lips curled away from the teeth, the fore part of the body was bent forward a little as if to spring.
Johnnie took two steps up to the woman. ”

“ Thorne, and don't know much about the ways of the world. I have always been down in the country, and maybe I have prejudices. You won't refuse to humour one of them, I hope?"
"You're beginning to frighten me, Mr. Dale; what is it?"
"About Lily's horse."
"Lily's horse! What about her horse? I hope he's not vicious?"
"She is riding every day with your niece," said the squire, thinking it best to stick to his own point.
"It will do her all the good in the world," said Mrs. Thorne. ”

“ Thorne, the little starved yet ardent daughter of the Puritans, who has been condemned to spend her life in the land of the relaxed, and who, before she dies, pours out her accumulations of bitterness—relieves herself in a passionate confession of everything she has suffered and missed, of how she has hated the very skies and fragrances of Florida, even when, as a consistent Christian, thankful for every mercy, she has pretended most to appreciate them. ”

“ Do you know? Now I say Dr. Thorne's not a man of the world.'
'He's about the best man I know, or ever heard of,' said the squire. 'And if any man ever had a good friend, you have got one in him; and so have I:' and the squire silently drank the doctor's health.
'All very true, I dare say; but yet he's not up to trap. Now look here, squire——'
'If you don't mind, sir,' said Frank, 'I've got something very particular—perhaps, however——'
'Stay till Thorne returns, Frank.'
Frank did stay till Thorne returned, and then escaped. ”

“ I will rouse one groom only and say 'tis State business."
"You know then where we must go?"
"I know not the place. But I guess it. We hear much—we Court servants!" He spat upon the floor. "And I saw him looking at her as the Doctor rode to Hadley."
"Wilt risk it?—death, torture, which is worse, John Hull?"
"Duck Lane, master?"
"Duck Lane."
"I thought so. I'm for the horses."
A clatter of descending footsteps, a man standing in a little darkling room, his hand upon his sword hilt. His teeth set, his brain working in ice.
Receding footsteps.... "Faithfullest servant that ever man had!" ”

“ Thorne was hardly prepared. 'Go to?' he repeated. 'Oh, some member of the family, I believe. There are plenty of nephews and nieces.'
'Yes; but will it be divided, or all go to one?'
'Probably to one, I think. Sir Roger had a strong idea of leaving it all in one hand.' If it should happen to be a girl, thought Lady Arabella, what an excellent opportunity would that be for Frank to marry money!
'And now, doctor, I want to say one word to you: considering the very long time that we have known each other, it is better that I should be open with you. ”

“ There was every objection to his son and heir marrying Miss Thorne; but the fact of their having no income whatever between them, did certainly justify him in alleging that first.
'But that difficulty can't be got over, doctor. You know, however, that it would be cause of grief to us all to see Frank marry much beneath his station; that is, I mean in family. You should not press me to say this, for you know that I love Mary dearly.'
'But, my dear friend, it is necessary. Wounds sometimes must be opened in order that they may be healed. ”

“ They sat on each side of the dancing fire, with coffee on a table between them, quietly enjoying the after-dinner pipe, the best and finest of the five cardinal pipes of the day. It was a comfortable scene. The room was lighted only by a single electric reading-lamp with a green shade, and the firelight flickered and played over the dull gold and crimson of the books on the shelves, and threw red lights on the shining ivory of the sculptured Christ.
"I daresay this North-country man will do all right," said the vicar. "He will be more popular than you, Basil"
The young man sighed. ”

“ But even were it so, I do not see why I should object.'
'Not object!'
'As I said before, Frank is, to my thinking, an excellent young man. Why should I object?'
'Dr. Thorne!' said her ladyship, now also rising from her chair in a state of too evident perturbation.
'Why should I object? It is for you, Lady Arabella, to look after your lambs; for me to see that, if possible, no harm shall come to mine. If you think that Mary is an improper acquaintance for your children, it is for you to guide them; for you and for their father. Say what you think fit to your own daughter ”

“ Llwellyn grew utterly white. When he spoke it was with several preliminary moistenings of the lips.
"But what proof can he have?"
"Don't be alarmed, Llwellyn. We are perfectly safe in every way. Only the man is an enemy of mine, and even small enemies are obnoxious. He won't disturb either of us for long." ”

“ And now, as his shadow, cast upon the wall in the firelight, parodied and distorted all his movements, there seemed two obscene and evil creatures in the rich and quiet room. It was as though the man with his huge hairless face were being watched and waited for by an ape-like ambassador from hell.
Guest clutched the mahogany sideboard and, his fingers were so hot that a greyness like that of damp breath on frosted glass glowed out upon the wood—it seemed as if the man's very touch brought mildew and blight. ”

“ Gripping the deck beam overhead, to steady himself against the roll of the ship, Thorne began his tale.
“I am Ralph Thorne, son of him called the Cosmographer, and I fought Master Durforth at Orfordnesse in your presence.”
The master of the Edward showed no surprize at this, but as the youth went on to unfold all that had taken place in London, he fell serious and his eyes never left the speaker's face.
“It is ill doing,” he made response in his slow fashion, “to lay a charge against a man without proof, on hearsay and suspicion.” ”

“ Trifling little things that had occurred, accidents which could not be prevented, had told her this; but not a word had ever passed any one's lips as to her mother. The doctor, when speaking of his youth, had spoken of her father; but no one had spoken of her mother. She had long known that she was a child of a Thorne; now she knew also that she was no cousin of the Thornes of Ullathorne; no cousin, at least, in the world's ordinary language, no niece indeed of her uncle, unless by his special permission that she should be so. ”

“ But, though he had foreseen trouble and delay from models, and the dozens of vexations artists fall heir to, he could not have foreseen that a young girl he never heard of should, at a critical moment, bring out a side of Thorne's character he did not suspect existed in him—the sharp, ugly brutality of wounded arrogance, which vents itself where opportunity offers; the fiercely sullen desire to hurt, to stamp its power upon those who have no defense. ”

“ That is, when I choose to be an old fool and talk of such matters in a sense different from that in which they are spoken of by the world at large, I may say that the Thornes are as good, or perhaps better, than the Greshams ”

“ I only do so to induce you to be more explicit in naming your heir.'
They both remained silent for a while, during which the baronet poured out from his hidden resource a glass of brandy, and swallowed it.
'When a man is taken aback suddenly by such tidings as these, he must take a drop of something, eh, doctor?'
Dr. Thorne did not see the necessity; but the present, he felt, was no time for arguing the point.
'Come, Thorne, where is the girl? You must tell me that. She is my niece, and I have a right to know. She shall come here, and I will do something for her. By the Lord! ”

“ Johnnie answered, "but I like this well enough. Hast got thee to work at once, then."
"I love it, sir. To handle such stuff as yours [Pg 136] is rare for a man like me. Look you here, sir"—he lifted up a small dagger which he withdrew from its sheath of stag's leather, dyed vermilion—"Hear how it ringeth!" ”

“ Arabin, Fellow of Lazarus, Oxford, links that novel to The Last Chronicle of Barset; while the Thornes of Ullathorne open the way to Doctor Thorne, Squire Thorne’s cousin, the social and medical oracle of Greshamsbury Manor, not far from Gatherum Castle, whose owner, the Duke of Omnium, is to be the central figure in the political novels. As to Doctor Thorne, the heroine, Mary Thorne, if not quite such a masterpiece as Miss Dunstable, combines with the Scatcherd portraits to explain the abiding and even growing popularity of this really great novel. ”

“ He took his slow way back toward Thorney, musing as he walked.
"This day mine eyes have looked on life and death, and all that death mourns and life clamors is Love, Love, and again Love. Strange that something all men must love, who cannot live for themselves alone, no matter how they try."
He came down from his dreams at the stepping-stones of the marsh-ford, to find himself all but overrunning a child who stood upon the bank and wept because he feared to cross—a small atom of a man, with little tunic torn and puckered face of woe. ”

“ Thorne, with his generally exalted ideas as to family, should speak in this cold way as to a projected marriage between the heir of Greshamsbury and his brother's bastard child!
'But, doctor,' repeated the squire.
The doctor put one leg over the other, and began to rub his calf. 'Squire,' said he, 'I think I know all that you would say, all that you mean. And you don't like to say it, because you would not wish to pain me by alluding to Mary's birth.'
'But, independently of that, what would they live on?' said the squire, energetically. 'Birth is a great thing, a very great thing. ”

“ Thorn was a Massachusetts volunteer; a man who seemed too early old, too early embittered by some cross, for though grim of countenance, rough of speech, cold of manner, a keen observer would have soon discovered traces of a deeper, warmer nature hidden, behind the repellent front he turned upon the world. ”

“ But it wasn't her fault, Thorne; it was none of her doing. She never asked for any such nonsense.'
'She has been an excellent wife, Scatcherd; and what is more she is an excellent woman. She is, and ever will be, one of my dearest friends.'
'Thank'ee, doctor, thank'ee. Yes; she has been a good wife—better for a poor man than a rich one; but then, that was what she was born to. You won't let her be knocked about by them, will you, Thorne?'
Dr. Thorne again assured him, that as long as he lived Lady Scatcherd should never want one true friend ”

“ The gay lords and ladies who surrounded her and the King—for all alike, young maids and grey-haired dames of sixty must blaze and sparkle too—nodded and whispered to each other, wondering at this high good-humour.
When the Server advanced with his white wand, heading the procession of yeomen-servers with the gilt dishes of the second course—he was a fat pottle-bellied man—the Queen turned to the Duke of Norfolk.
"Dame!" she said in French, "here is a prancing pie! Ma mye! A capon of high grease! Methinks this gentleman hath a very single eye for the larder!" ”