Whitney

“ Lockwood and Whitney came together. I was interested to see the greeting of Inez and her lover. Was it pure fancy, or did I detect a trace of coldness as though there had sprung up something between them? As far as Lockwood was concerned, I felt sure that he was eager to break down any barrier that kept them from being as they had been.
Whitney took her hand and held it, in a playful sort of way. "I wish I were a young buck," he smiled. "No one would dare look at you—much less try to carry you off. Yes, we must be more careful of our little beauty, or we shall lose her." ”

“ Whitney laughed. "Can't, my dear. I have important work ahead of me tonight."
"It must wait until tomorrow," coaxingly, stroking his cheek softly. "I don't like these lines, Dad. Your health is more to be considered than your work."
Whitney's air of tolerance turned to one of determination. "You are wrong; my work is of primary importance. It's only a matter of hours now, Kathleen; then I can loaf for the rest of my days."
She shook her head. "Unless you take rest you cannot stand the strain. ”

“ Whether they menaced still, she thought not; a voice she knew and trusted was in her ear; a grasp of loving strength sustained her; she was utterly secure.
So vividly she felt the presence—so warm and sure seemed that love and strength about her—that waking out of such pause of peace, before her senses recognized anything that was real without, she stretched her hands, as if to find it at her side, and her lips breathed a name—the name of Roger Armstrong.
Then she started to her feet. The kind, protecting presence faded back into her dream.
The horrible smoke, the scorching smell, were true. ”

“ And indubitably first in importance no less than in natural order is the great fact of his heredity. William Dwight Whitney was born, in 1827, at Northampton, Massachusetts, and in his veins flowed the best blood of a typical New England community, of the Dwights and the Hawleys,—heroes of the heroic age of Hampshire. His stock was remarkable for sturdy vigor, both of body and of intellect, and was in fact that genuine aristocracy which, if it be true to its traditions, will remain —as for generations it has been—one of the prime guarantees of the permanence of democracy in America. ”

“ I have some pride of blood, my boy, and I want to see our name perpetuated. You have frivolled enough, Whitney. You are twenty-four. I can honestly thank God that you’ve been nothing more than a fool. You are not vicious.”
“Thanks, awfully, pater. Being nothing more than a fool I suppose it is up to me to get married. Very well, then, I will. Give me your hand, dad; it’s a bargain.”
Whitney Barnes tossed away his cigarette and grasped his father’s hand in both of his. He had become intensely serious. ”

“ Glancing curiously about the large attractive hall, Spencer entered the daintily furnished boudoir, and was examining the many water colors and photographs which hung on the walls, when Whitney came in carrying a cigar box and a tray containing Scotch and vichy.
"That's some of Kathleen's work," he explained, observing that the lawyer had picked up a miniature of Mrs. Whitney. "She is clever with her brush."
"Very clever," agreed Spencer enthusiastically. "There is no one,
Whitney, whom I admire as I do your daughter," drawing a lounging
chair near the table on which his host put the tray. ”

“ On one other point in Professor Whitney's character I wish briefly to speak; I mean his transparent simplicity. Naturalness may be treated as a negative quality, the absence of show and pretence; but it is a positive quality, nevertheless, just as the whiteness of light is something more than the absence of color. I suppose that simplicity, unconsciousness, is the mark of a great scholar anywhere, and that every great college can boast of men as simple as they have been great. ”

“ From what others have already said, it is clear that Professor Whitney, whose lineage and environment were of the best, was born with rare endowments, and that he grew to manhood in the school of Duty, "Stern Daughter of the Voice of God." But this is not all. In the training of his head, his heart, his hands,—his Will was not neglected. It was strengthened by precept and habit. As life advanced, in face of labors, difficulties, interruptions, and discouragements,—in face of honors and applause, that Will grew stronger and more victorious. ”

“ The controversy being now open, Claude was, for the moment, forgotten.
"Madam, I crave pardon, but Mr. Whitney has just this to do with the matter. It appears, from all I have heard, that Lucy herself does not care for Mr. Rockwell as she should care for the man she marries. Also—I believe—she does so care for Mr. Whitney."
"Let me ask, Mr. Whitney, what means you have at your disposal for this young lady's support? How many slaves have you? How—
"I have no slaves at all, Mr. Rockwell, being a Christian!" retorted Whitney, forgetting himself for an instant. ”

“ Whitney stared at her in blank astonishment. "With whom?" and sudden, sharp anxiety lay behind the abrupt question.
"I suspect—Captain Miller."
"Miller? That silent—" Whitney checked his impetuous words. "Miller?
Good Lord!"
"What can you tell me about Captain Miller?" Her feminine curiosity was instantly aroused at his quick change of expression.
"Just what I have seen of him and nothing more. He never talks of himself."
"Such a relief," sighed Mrs. Whitney. "There is Randall Foster—talks always of his own achievements. Wait until Kiametia Grey marries him. I sometimes wonder...." ”

“ Whitney felt that the higher a scholar’s position, the greater his authority, the more careful he should be in all matters. He was heartily vexed by attempts to overlook and avoid the real point at issue. His vigorous spirit may have felt a certain enjoyment in a conflict; as an intellectual athlete he could appreciate the beauty of a keen thrust or the weight of a heavy blow ”

“ Mrs. Whitney appeared in the doorway, tears streaming down her white cheeks. "Kathleen is completely unnerved; come and help me quiet her."
At that moment Henry arrived, tray in hand. "I couldn't find the whiskey, sir," he explained, breathless with hurry. "But here's some cognac, sir. Let me pour it out," and he handed a filled liqueur glass to Whitney, who swallowed the stimulant at a gulp.
"Shouldn't mind having some of that myself," announced Miss Kiametia. "Bring the tray here, Henry," walking over to a table. "And, Winslow, take a glass to Kathleen; it will do her good. ”

“ The Captain's gray eyes, their devil-may-care sparkle dampened by anxiety for Kathleen, broad forehead, and firm mouth inspired confidence. He looked a man whose word could be relied on. Whitney, harassed by conflicting doubts, and agonizing apprehensions, acted on impulse. "Come with us, Captain. We'll be right back, Kiametia; you and Foster wait for us here."
By common consent the three men avoided the elevator and walked up stairs. On reaching the attic, Whitney made at once for his studio and inserting keys in the double lock turned the wards, and opened the door. ”

“ Whitney was no recluse, nor a typical professor in manner. He attracted men to him and enjoyed being with them. He was not at all emotional, however, and cared little for general society. He gave a rather extreme view of himself in a letter written in 1869: “I am of a more than usually reserved and unsocial nature. I avoid society as much as I can, and am never quite comfortable in the company of any excepting those with whom I am most nearly bound. ”

“ She was always glad—poor Glory—when the springtime came. She took Bubby and Baby down to the Common, of a May Day, to see the processions and the paper-crowned queens; and stood there in her stained and drabbled dress, with the big year-and-a-half-old baby in her arms, and so quite at the mercy of Master Herbert Clarence, who defiantly skipped oft down the avenues, and almost out of her sight—she looking after him in helpless dismay, lest he should get a splash or a tumble, or be altogether lost; and then what would the mistress say? ”

“ Whitney, handing her wraps to the breathless Vincent, who had hurried to answer the chauffeur's imperious ring.
"No, ma'am."
"When she does return, tell her that I wish to see her."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Is Mr. Whitney in his studio?"
"Yes, ma'am. Shall I send Julie to you?"
"Tell her to go to my room and wait for me." As she spoke Mrs. Whitney crossed the broad hall and, passing the Colonial staircase, entered the elevator. The automatic car carried her to the first bedroom floor but, changing her mind, she did not open the door; instead she pressed the electric button marked "Attic." ”

“ Whitney goes about rubbing his hands when he thinks no one is looking. He’s as proud as a peacock with ten tails because he operated on Russell’s head and lifted up something, and now the poor fellow’s going on jolly. I like Russell. ”

“ Once as her associate teacher left the room where we were sitting in the observatory, Miss Mitchell looked after her lovingly,—"Mary Whitney is perfection, but she has one fault. She doesn't always shut the door behind her." ”

“ Love of nature, a vigorous and disciplined will, simplicity, industry, self-forgetfulness, loving-kindness, integrity, reverence,—these are the characteristics which, in spite of the reserve of a recluse, are now recognized as his by a generation of scholars, who delight to say "we were friends and pupils of William Dwight Whitney." ”

“ Whitney always affected to appear generous and noble. Meeting one day with a gentleman named Long, on Newmarket Heath, and having robbed him of a hundred pounds in silver, which he found in the traveller's portmanteau, tied up in a great bag, the gentleman told him he had a great way yet to go, and, as he was unknown upon the road, was likely to suffer great inconvenience and hardship, if he had not at least some small sum. ”

“ The descendants of John Whitney, who came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635. By Frederick Clifton Pierce. Published by the author at Chicago, Illinois, 1895. Royal 8°. Pages 692.
3. The ancestry of John Whitney, who, with his wife Elinor, and sons John, Richard, Nathaniel, Thomas, and Jonathan, emigrated from London, England, in the year 1635, and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts; the first of the name in America, and the one from whom a great majority of the Whitneys now living in the United States are descended. ”

“ Faith removed cups, glasses, forks, and spoons from the table to the sideboard, while the maid, returning with a tray, carried off to the lower regions the larger dishes.
"I haven't told you yet, Elizabeth, what I came to town for," said Aunt Faith, when Mrs. Gartney came back into the breakfast room. "I'm going to hunt up a girl."
"A girl, aunt! Why, what has become of Prudence?"
"Mrs. Pelatiah Trowe. That's what's become of her. More fool she."
"But why in the world do you come to the city for a servant? It's the worst possible place. Nineteen out of twenty are utterly good for nothing." ”

“ Also he arrived back at the house way in advance of Whitney Barnes. There was a reason.
Wearing a frock coat and a silk hat and carrying a cane (of course he called it stick) one is hardly equipped for marathoning. And if you must know more, Whitney’s small clothes were too fashionably tight to permit of more than a swift heel and toe action. At this he was doing admirably in his passionate haste to return and warn his friend Gladwin when another woman came into his life and appealed for succor.
Three in one evening, when he was perfectly satisfied to stop at one––the bewitching Sadie. ”

“ Whitney in open disappointment. "Senator Foster is splendid—and I had hoped—why do you discourage his attentions?"
"Can't stand the way he wears his hair," announced Miss Kiametia with an air of finality which warned against further discussion.
"Marry him and make him change his barber," advised Whitney rising. "I have to go out, Minna; you and Kathleen must not wait up for me. Good night, Kiametia; Henry is downstairs, he can take you home in the car, if you wish. See you tomorrow," and he moved toward the door. After a brief hesitation Kathleen followed him into the hall. ”

“ Whitney’s character would be complete which did not mention his musical tastes. Music was always a source of pleasure and recreation to him. He had a fine tenor voice, and when a young man he was an acceptable and admired leader of the choir of Jonathan Edwards’s old church in Northampton. ”

“ Roger Armstrong, with his great, chastened soul, yearned over the child as she spoke; so gladly he would have taken her, at that moment, to his heart, and bid her lean on him for all that man might give of help—of love—of leading!
If she had told him, in that moment, all her doubt, as for the instant of his pause she caught her breath with swelling impulse to do!
"'And they shall all be led of God';" said the minister. "It is only to be willing to take His way rather than one's own. All this that seems to depend painfully upon oneself, depends, then, upon Him. ”

“ Sylvie sat marking the towels, and Desire passed to and fro, gathering things which were to go to Neighbor Street in the afternoon.
"Do you see," she said, stopping behind Sylvie a while after, and putting her fingers upon her hair with a caressing little touch,—"the sun has got round from the east to the south. It shines into this window now. And you have been keeping quiet, just doing your own little work of the moment. The world is all alive, and changing. Things are working—away up in the heavens—for us all. ”