Wadsworth

“ Wadsworth gently.
“He’ll never have the honor,” said Dine. “Mr. Lewis Gesner is the gentleman; I have always admired him. Haven’t you, Tessa?”
“Yes; I like to shake hands with him; he has a trustworthy face.”
“So much for the mothers of Dunellen, Tessa; how about the fathers? Would the girls like to have Miss Jewett for a father, too?”
“Oh, the fathers have the bread-winning to do. ”

“ As my old readers know, Crumville was rather a small town; the only industry of importance being Mr. Wadsworth's jewelry works. The Wadsworth mansion stood on the outskirts, a large and well-constructed building, set among a number of trees and bushes. When Dave, Phil, and Ben alighted at the railroad depot, they found the Wadsworth touring-car awaiting them. Dunston Porter, Dave's uncle, was driving the car, and he had with him Dave's sister Laura, and Jessie Wadsworth. ”

“ A serious voice arrested the willow switch: “I didn’t like to be scolded when I was a little girl, it used to make me cry.”
The willow switch dropped; the various recitations came to a sudden pause. “But she is such a dreadful bad girl,” urged the teacher.
Tessa Wadsworth lingered with her reticule, three parcels, a parasol, and Sartor Resartus in her hands. ”

“ Mr. Wadsworth arose and stood behind his chair, “to judge people by themselves and not by myself.”
“Oh, the heartaches that would save,” thought Tessa. At the hour when she was walking slowly towards Felix, her black dress brushing the grass, her eyes upon the harvested fields lying warm in the mellow sunlight, and on her lips the sorrowful wonder, he was sitting alone in the summer-house, his head dropped within his hands. He was wondering, too, as all his being leaped forward at the thought of her coming, and battling with the strong love that was too strong for his feeble strength. ”

“ Oliver Wadsworth, a rich manufacturer. He had a young daughter named Jessie, and one day, when this miss was waiting for an automobile ride, the gasoline tank of the machine took fire, and Jessie was in danger of being burned to death when Dave rushed in and rescued her.
"A boy who will do such a brave deed deserves to be assisted," said Mr. Wadsworth, and he talked to the boy, and learned that Caspar Potts had once been one of his own college professors. ”

“ Their adventures, a manuscript account of which, differing from Wadsworth's own, is at Burton Manor, Somerset (Hist. MSS. Comm. 1st Rep. App. p. 61) , were made by the jesuits into a ‘tragicall comedy, whereby they got much money and honour’ (English Spanish Pilgrim, 1630, p. 47) . Upon his release Wadsworth joined his parents at Madrid in time to serve as interpreter to James Hay, earl of Carlisle, who had just arrived (1623) with Prince Charles. Wadsworth's hope of permanent employment in the infanta's suite failed with the breaking of the match ”

“ Wadsworth had said that it might disturb Mr. Basswood too much to have the miniatures examined in our house. The art critic did not want to become snowbound in Crumville, so he was only going to stay until the four o’clock afternoon train. The young man said Mr. Wadsworth wanted to know if we would allow him to take the miniatures over to the Wadsworth house, and that he would bring them back safely, either that evening or the next morning.”
“Oh, Mother! didn’t you suspect it might be a trick?” questioned Ben, anxiously. “You knew how this Ward Porton has been impersonating Dave.” ”

“ Wadsworth discovered that Caspar Potts was one of his former college teachers, he insisted that both the old man and Dave come to live at his mansion. He took a great interest in Dave, more especially as he had had a son about Dave's age who had died.
"The lad must go to some boarding school," said Oliver Wadsworth, and at his own expense he sent Dave to Oak Hall. With Dave went Ben Basswood, a friend of several years' standing. ”

“ It looked as if one or two of the shots inflicted damage, but not to the extent of disabling any pony or his rider.
Standing at the rear of one of the waggons, where he could see everything that was going on, Captain Wadsworth watched the exciting incidents. At his elbow was Brinton Kingsland, who did not think it worth while to try his hand with his Winchester, though the others were continually cracking around him.
"What is to be feared," said the captain, "is that the hostiles will soon increase to such an extent that they will overwhelm us." ”

“ The flight of the militia had left Morris' rear and flank exposed, and he saw that it would be impossible to defend himself against such a force as was about to attack him. He therefore ordered Wadsworth to spike his guns and retreat with his men across the bridge over the Soadabscook, while it was yet open, for the stream was fordable only at low water, and the tide was rising. ”

“ Reinforced by such an unexpected ally, it was well understood before the day of the convention that in spite of the appeals of Weed and Raymond, and of the wishes of Seward and the President, the choice of the Radicals would be nominated. Wadsworth was not averse. He had an itching for public life. In 1856 his stubborn play for governor and his later contest for a seat in the United States Senate had characterised him as an office-seeker. But whether running for office himself,iii. 44 or helping some one else, he was a fighter whom an opponent had reason to fear. ”

“ Wadsworth excitedly.
“Nineteen out of her twenty-three girls tell her their troubles when they would not tell their own mothers,” said Dinah. “She has twenty-three secret drawers to keep their secrets in.”
“She has time to listen to fol-de-rol. She advises them all to marry for some silly notion and let a good home slip, I’ve no doubt.” 117
“I expect that twenty-one of her girls have refused John Gesner,” laughed Mr. Wadsworth. “He will have to bribe Miss Jewett to let them alone.”
“Only twenty, father,” said Dine. “Tessa and Sue and I are waiting to do it.” ”

“ Tessa liked to watch the motion of his fingers; his hands were small, shapely, and every movement of them struck her as an apt quotation. She was learning as much of himself from his hands as from his face.
“Now I must go and scold Felix Harrison,” he said rising. “A teaspoonful in a wineglass of water three times a day, Mrs. Wadsworth! He had an attack last night and cheated me out of my dreams. Do you know him, Mystic? If he do not leave off brain work he will make a fool of himself. A gold spoon would not have hurt him.” ”

“ He had known her in childhood, under the roof of Madam Lathrop, and had there seen some of her early effusions, both in prose and verse. At his earnest solicitation, she made a collection of her fugitive pieces, and under his patronage, and with his influence and liberality cast around her as a shield, she first ventured to appear before the public as an author. Mr. Wadsworth’s regard for her suffered no diminution till his death, which took place in 1848. Few authors have found a friend so kind and so true. Of her affection for him and his amiable wife, her writings contain many proofs. ”

“ Wadsworth did not compare to her own advantage with her womanly daughter. Mrs. Towne looked at Tessa and thought of the picture that she had seen; it was certainly excellent only that the picture was rather too intellectual; in the picture she might have written “Mechanism of the Heavens” but sitting there in the crimson velvet chair with a pale blue bow among her braids and her soft gray veil shading her cheek she was more like the daughter that she had ever dreamed of—simple, sweet, and thoroughly lovable Mrs. Towne was a trifle afraid of a woman who looked too intellectual. ”

“ Nora had, to a certain extent, startled Garth. Her barely audible words still breathed disquietingly in his ears. They had been like a bow drawn across a string too tightly stretched.
She kept her face hidden now while George worked. The only sound was the muffled clicking of the balls in the combination; the only light, the shaft from the lamp which she held unsteadily. The thought of the steel walls added to the oppression of the air. Garth breathed with difficulty. He fancied once that something moved behind the divan. George caught his start and demanded an explanation. ”

“ Among the things provided by thoughtful Mr. Wadsworth for Dave was a money belt, and in this was placed a fair amount of bankbills, and also a letter of credit.
"Mr. Wadsworth, you are more than kind!" cried the country boy, and something like tears stood in his honest eyes. "How can I ever repay you?"
"In one way only, Dave. By making a real man of yourself." [145]
"I shall do my best, sir."
"Then that is all I ask."
Billy Dill had been communicated with, and Caspar Potts went after the tar and brought him to Crumville, where Oliver Wadsworth procured the sailor a new outfit. ”

“ Wadsworth.
"He's so slick I'd be afraid to risk that," answered Dave. "I'll not mind staying up watching him."
"Let us all take a hand at it," broke in Ben. "Every fellow can go on guard-duty for two hours, and call the next fellow." And so, after a little discussion, the matter was arranged.
"I suppose I'm not to have anything to eat?" grumbled Link Merwell, a little later, when they were arranging to place him in the woodshed, which was a small lean-to of the Wadsworth bungalow. ”

“ Towne had brought her home, and witnessed their parting at the gate, how could she divine that “definitely learned that she does not think of me,” had referred to her?
Mr. Wadsworth had listened in utter bewilderment, recalling Tessa’s repeated declaration that it was Dinah. “I am in my dotage,” he thought; “for I certainly understood that he said Tessa.”
“My wish was with your wish,” he said.
“She will be better satisfied,” Mr. Hammerton answered in his most abrupt tone. “He is a fine man; I can understand his attraction for her.” ”

“ Brother Nathaniel is only twelve, and young for so hard a journey. There have been storms, and there are Indians—” a sob caught the little girl’s voice.
It was Mistress Wadsworth’s turn to look out now with saddened eyes through the window and into the falling twilight of the New England winter.
“Your father said that he would be home for Christmas Day,” she said, “and he will keep his word unless some ill befalls them. In the meantime, we will make the candles. Then the house will be brighter to welcome them than when we burn only pine knots. ”

“ It soon became noised around Crumville that Oliver Wadsworth had taken in old Caspar Potts to live with him, and that the rich manufacturer was going to send Dave to a boarding school.
"I must congratulate you on your luck," said Ben Basswood to Dave, when they met. "Going to a first-class school will be fine, and you ought to have lots of fun." ”

“ Probably Jeremiah Wadsworth, who was her friend and adviser, knew the secret, but if so it perished with him.
Her brother William, who was eight years younger than she, long survived her, dying in Hartford on Christmas Day, 1846, at the age of eighty-six. In the old man, who was one of the last in his city to wear the knee breeches of the preceding century, it would have been difficult to recognize Elizabeth's "little rogue of a brother" whom she frequently commended [67] to Joel Barlow's care while at Yale. ”

“ How can brothers who live together be so different?”
“John is well enough,” said her father, “there’s nothing wrong about him.”
“He makes me creep,” said Tessa, vehemently, thinking of a pair of bracelets that Sue had brought to show her that day.
Mr. Wadsworth lay silent for awhile, then opening his eyes gazed long at the figures and faces that were all his world; Mrs. Wadsworth’s chair was at the foot of the lounge, the light from the lamp on the table fell on her busy hands, leaving her face in shadow; Dinah was reading at the table, with one hand pushed in among her curls ”

“ Only at two service-places had she lived during a life which extended to more than fourscore, save the one where her childhood was nurtured until she reached the age of eighteen. For more than forty years after the breaking up of the family at Norwich, she resided in the household of Daniel Wadsworth, Esq., at Hartford, first as an active housekeeper, then as a superintendent of other servants ”

“ Wadsworth, scarcely any profit has accrued to my literary labors in this vicinity, or indeed in the whole of my own New England. On the contrary, some severe losses have occurred. To the States of New York and Pennsylvania I am mainly indebted for the remuneration of intellectual toil, and gratefully acknowledge them as benefactors.
Fame, as a ruling motive, has not stimulated me to literary effort. It has ever seemed to have too flimsy a wing for sustained and satisfactory flight. Candid criticism, and the voice of friendship, have been coveted correctives and tonics. ”

“ Garth hurried to the curb, stooped, and found fresh tire marks. He was aware of his helplessness unless Nora's ingenuity had hit upon some trick for his guidance. He searched with a greedy hope. While his eyes roved about the frozen dust of the gutter he acknowledged that the inspector had appraised his men justly. Slim and George wouldn't even try to leave the city until the hue and cry had somewhat abated. Into the windings of the underworld they had carried Nora, and Garth knew how devious those windings were—what silent and invisible machinery would nourish and secrete and protect. ”

“ Marks we have the same bishop as at Groton, and two other representatives of the firm; also a cotton goods merchant interlocked with Boston Edison and Massachusetts Gas, the invisible government of Harvard; also a president of several manufacturing companies, who is vice-president of a railroad; one of the Choates, who directs railroads, banks and life insurance in New York; and finally “Jim” Wadsworth, senator and Republican boss of New York state, whose father I had the pleasure of putting out of politics some eighteen years ago. ”