Touchstone

“ ROSALIND. Nay; now thou goest from Fortune's office to
Nature's:
Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments
of
Nature.
Enter TOUCHSTONE
CELIA. No; when Nature hath made a fair creature, may she not
by
Fortune fall into the fire? Though Nature hath given us wit
to
flout at Fortune, hath not Fortune sent in this fool to cut
off
the argument?
ROSALIND. Indeed, there is Fortune too hard for Nature, when
Fortune makes Nature's natural the cutter-off of Nature's
wit. ”

“ O Phoebe, Phoebe, Phoebe!
[Exit Silvius.]
ROSALIND.
Alas, poor shepherd, searching of thy wound,
I have by hard adventure found mine own.
TOUCHSTONE.
And I mine. I remember when I was in love I broke my sword upon a stone and bid him take that for coming a-night to Jane Smile; and I remember the kissing of her batlet, and the cow’s dugs that her pretty chopped hands had milked; and I remember the wooing of a peascod instead of her, from whom I took two cods, and, giving her them again, said with weeping tears, “Wear these for my sake.” We that are true lovers run into strange capers. ”

“ And, as for a bridge, their labour now was lost that sought to build one. It had become a case for a causeway.
As the car slid forward—
"And why," said Lady Touchstone, "are you going away?"
Anthony laughed jerkily.
"Have a heart, Lady Touchstone," he cried. "I've already risked imprisonment to save my secret."
Her ladyship looked about her.
"This," she said, "appears to be the interior of an expensive limousine landaulette. Very different from a court-house. The seats are softer, for one thing. Besides, from his adviser the client should conceal nothing." ”

“ And I shall make Valerie go, and—and I shall pray for you both."
Anthony slid off his hat and put her hand to his lips....
As he did so, the car sped past a red lodge and into a curling drive.
Lady Touchstone sought for a pocket-handkerchief.
"There's a tear on my nose," she explained. "I can feel it. It's a real compliment, Anthony Lyveden. You're the very first man that's ever made Harriet Touchstone cry." ”

“ Valerie started to her feet.
"But, Mr. Bumble," she cried, "of course you're coming. Aunt Harriet, we can't...."
"Of course we can't," said Lady Touchstone. "Mr. Bumble, get in at once."
Humbly their host shook his head.
"Bell 'Ammer is no distance, me lady, an' the car can come back. I shouldden dream o' takin' advantage of an acciden', me lady."
Regretting very much that she had never noticed the ex-grocer before,
Lady Touchstone sought desperately to pull the position round.
"Mr. Bumble," she said, "we cannot use your car without you. That we do not know one another is my fault. ”

“ More than the new racing team! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!"
"You don't know my father," returned Gerald.
"And you, old fellow, don't understand him. From what you tell me I'm pretty sure he's exactly one of those fathers who can't say half what he wants to any son. I've heard of them before."
"I suppose there is that sort," responded Gerald, "but it's not—not the most—satisfactory kind to have, I think."
"You may think differently some day," Touchtone answered. "Why, I once knew a man who just about worshiped his son—a fellow, I believe, not much older than you. ”

“ Yes, and there hasn't been a fire in that stove for hours and hours," exclaimed Philip, examining; "nor have you been fed, Towzer, I begin to suspect, within the same time, have you? That's what's the matter with you. Whoever lives here has gone off on some errand or other away from the island. What sort of errand can it be that has made the family stay so much longer than they must have expected to stay?" Vague, disagreeable feelings crossed Touchtone's mind. It was strange. "I must be certain of things in the place before I go back to Gerald. ”

“ Let's all hurry, to make up for it. Obed, don't you rattle that gate; an' do you take off your boots before you get to the kitchen door. Thanky, Mr. Touchtone, let them things lay just where they be; there's nobody to steal 'em, you know. Come along, quick, both of you."
Leaving Obed to deprive his feet of their squeaky new coverings, Philip and Mrs. Probasco stepped lightly toward the kitchen and on tiptoe drew near the bedroom door.
Sure enough, Gerald's slumber was profound. The kind-hearted woman followed Touchtone to the bedside in curiosity and pity. ”

“ In Lord Bagot's house, at Blithfield, about eight miles from Tixall, there is a portrait of the first Lord Aston painted on board. He has a firm, but pleasing countenance; short, light-coloured hair, and whiskers; his dress is black, laced with gold; and round his neck is a triple gold chain, which is said to have been a present from King Charles I.
P. 94. These lines were composed on the marriage of Walter, second Lord Aston, with the Lady Mary Weston, daughter of Richard Weston, Earl of Portland, which took place in the year 1629. ”

“ She kept a watchful eye on Gerald's convalescence, and generally was like Cæsar in having "to do all things at one time," and, like the mighty Julius, she did not complain of the situation.
The resources of the farm-house, except for Mrs. Obed's lively talk, were modest in such an emergency. One could not put his head out of the door except the wind nearly blew it off. But any thing must needs have been of a wonderfully distracting sort to beguile, for Philip Touchtone, at least, hours that he knew must be costing their friends great suspense or deep grief. ”

“ Touchtone," Mrs. Probasco declared. "We wont give him a chance to get real sick, between us."
"What kind people they are!" Gerald said, softly, to Touchtone, just as he was dropping off into a fresh doze, with the clink of Mrs. Probasco's dishes and the murmur of her conference with Obed making a homely lullaby from the adjoining room.
"Yes, the kindest sort," assented Touchtone. "Go to sleep, old man, and dream about them and every thing else that is pleasant. ”

“ I speak of Charles Townshend, officially the reproducer of this fatal scheme [the taxation of the colonies] , whom I cannot, even now, remember without some degree of sensibility. In truth, Sir, he was the delight and ornament of this House, and the charm of every private society which he honoured with his presence. Perhaps there never arose in this country, nor in any country, a man of a more pointed and finished wit, and (where his passions were not concerned) of a more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment. ”

“ Touchett brings her to England.”
Then young Mr. Touchett explained. “My mother, you know, has been spending the winter in America, and we’re expecting her back. She writes that she has discovered a niece and that she has invited her to come out with her.”
“I see,—very kind of her,” said Lord Warburton. Is the young lady interesting?”
“We hardly know more about her than you; my mother has not gone into details. She chiefly communicates with us by means of telegrams, and her telegrams are rather inscrutable. ”

“ Ludlow, Viscount.—From the Town of that name in Shropshire [231] .
Audley, Baron (Thicknesse-Touchet) . Audley is in Staffordshire. John Touchet married Joan, eldest Daughter of Lord Audley of Heleigh, whose Descendant was found Heir, and had Summons to Parliament, A.D. 1296 [232] . The honour of Peerage in the name of Touchet, who was also Earl of Castlehaven in Ireland, ended in a Daughter (Lady Elizabeth) , who married Philip Thicknesse, Esq. and died in 1762, leaving Issue; the Barony (being a Fee) passed to George Thicknesse, her Son, on the death of the Earl of Castlehaven, 1777 ”

“ Probasco's inmost heart, which one already will have divined was nothing like as unromantic as her features, this friendship between these two lads, this devotion of the elder lad to the younger.
"There never was any thing prettier than the way you an' him have been keeping together," she ventured once to remark, ungrammatically but earnestly. "It's like a book."
"But there never was any body else like Gerald—in or out of a book," Touchtone answered, simply, blushing. For if facts were on his lips his inner sentiments, as a general thing, were not. ”

“ It is in your family that my taste for domestic society and domestic enjoyments has been nurtured and preserved. Such a child as Tuckey I shall never see again in this world. Heaven bless her, and she will be a blessing both to her mother and to you.' After touching upon a volume of poems which Mr Morehead had published—'If I were you, however, I would live more with Tuckey, and be satisfied with my gardening and pruning—with my preaching—a good deal of walking and comfortable talking. What more has life? ”

“ Tucson nodded, and opened his slow mouth to speak, but the nimbler Biron cut in.
“Oh, I been pretty bad some times. Any feller thirty years old or so, if he gits to thinkin’ all the fool things he’s done, he’s likely to kill himself laughin’.”
Tucson nodded gravely. “I reckon——”
“We uster to go down to the border, to them Mexican dances, to have fun with the Mexican girls. They have music an’ everthin’ an’ the greasers sit on one side of the [Pg 140] hall and the girls on the other. ”

“ There was, accordingly, a very palpable stuff of evidence in favor of the man from Australia. I have already said that the public accepted the stranger. It needs to be recorded that every new shred of similarity or circumstance that could be brought out only added to the conviction of the people. This was unquestionably Roger Tichborne and none other. Some elements asserted their opinion with a passion that was not far from violence, and the public generally regarded the hostile attitude of the Tichborne family as based on selfish motives. ”

“ He related that he had occasion to take a country cousin to the Exhibition, and she took with her an old Catalogue.
He paid little attention to her describing King Edward IV as King Henry VIII, and exclaiming that she did not know Queen Mary of Scots dressed like a man. But when she said, “Well, I never! I always thought Gladstone was a man, though my brothers call him an old woman,” then he felt interested, and proceeded to investigate. There it was, sure enough; the model No. 63 was the figure of an old lady, but in the out-of-date Catalogue No. 63 was “William Ewart Gladstone.” ”

“ John A. Belmont, of New York. I—I—am a good deal afraid of him."
Obed and Loreta Probasco stared at Touchtone, and then at each other, in astonishment too deep for more than the shortest of their favorite exclamations.
"I can tell you the whole story presently. You will see. Gerald has known but very little about it; I don't intend he shall know much more. But, as to the main point, if Mr. Jennison should find us here, I don't know what might happen. He must not find us. We are in a queer pickle, without any worse troubles. ”

“ He climbed to a little knoll from which he could glance over them before and behind the ditch-cutters. Yonder, toward Valley City, Truxton's two foremen were directing their men with the same quick-eyed, steady competence which they had manifested under the eye of the older engineer. From them he turned to the men working under Ben and the Lark. There, too, was machine-like regularity; there, too, each man, each straining animal was in its place, putting forth its utmost of capability. ”

“ One sees that this antagonistic temper must be much relieved by finding a particular object, and that its worst moments must be those where the mood is that of vague resistance, there being nothing specific to oppose. Touchwood is never so little engaging as when he comes down to breakfast with a cloud on his brow, after parting from you the night before with an affectionate effusiveness at the end of a confidential conversation which has assured you of mutual understanding. Impossible that you can have committed any offence. If mice have disturbed him, that is not your fault ”

“ Some daring person perhaps introduces another topic, and uses the delicate flattery of appealing to Touchwood for his opinion, the topic being included in his favorite studies. An indistinct muttering, with a look at the carving-knife in reply, teaches that daring person how ill he has chosen a market for his deference. If Touchwood's behavior affects you very closely you had better break your leg in the course of the day: his bad temper will then vanish at once ”

“ Tucker take down his tool box and get out a hammer and some long nails.
“And I am going to nail the door open, Tommy, so you can not close it, as that was what the doctor said. Tommy, and you are to be a man and stay here in the kitchen alone for an hour, and we will leave the lamp a-burning, and then when you find there is naught to be afraid of, you will be well and a real man and not something for a man to be ashamed of being the father of.” ”

“ When Thurston reached the mouth of the adit, he turned and looked down upon the poor climbing meadows under the great shoulder of the Fell. Beyond these, a few weatherbeaten buildings, forming a rude quadrangle pierced by one tall archway, stood beside a tarn that winked like polished steel. He sighed as his glance rested upon them. For many generations they had sheltered the Thurstons of Crosbie; but, unless he could stoop to soil his hands in a fashion revolting to his pride, a strange master would own them before many months had gone. ”

“ In order to evade the unwelcome attentions of detectives, I went down to Upton End for a few days, for I knew that if any stranger were lurking in the vicinity old Tucker would certainly know of it. Not three days had I been there, indeed, before one morning he lingered over watering the plants in the conservatory when I came down to breakfast, to declare that he was much puzzled over the fact that a man—“a decent-looking man” he described him—seemed to be for ever passing and repassing the lodge. ”