Wroxeter

“ It is very humiliating to find the Marquis of Worcester stripped, not only of his great wealth, but of even empty titles; and this latter act not by professed enemies, but through his peers conjointly with his very sovereign! There is something so utterly contemptible in the whole proceedings, which deprive without substitution, and sap the wealth of any man without an adequate effort at remedial measures, that we feel perplexed how to account for treatment so heartless and discreditable ”

“ Wrexler said he would prefer to be close at hand, and together we followed de Lacy up the marble stairway into a new world.
Wrexler was at ease immediately in his doublet and hose. The rich, embroidered garments seemed to suit him as modern clothes never did. He looked handsomer than ever. He also told me that the costume of the Medici was becoming to me, and truly when I caught a glimpse of myself mirrored in the pond—for the château did not possess a large mirror—I was not ill pleased with the result. ”

“ The good people of Worcester bought and sold in the market. Men whose day's work was over, hastened to reach the rest and comfort of wife and home. Crowds jostled gaily through the streets, little dreaming that beneath their hurrying, busy feet, the Knight and the Prioress paced slowly, side by side, through the darkness.
Had the Knight spoken, her mind would have been up in arms to resist him. But, because he walked in silence, her heart had leisure to remember; and, remembering, it grew sorely tender.
At length they reached the doorway leading into the Cathedral crypt. ”

“ Noah Worcester, born at Hollis, New Hampshire, November 25th, 1758, was the son of a farmer, and until the age of twenty-one worked on the farm. His father’s means were limited, and the education of the family was stinted in consequence. When hostilities commenced between the American Colonies and Great Britain, young Worcester, then only about eighteen years of age, became a soldier and fought at the battle of Bunker’s Hill. ”

“ Worcester is quite as far from Washington as the John Grier Home. And I will add, for your further comfort, that whereas there is no man in the neighborhood of this asylum who admires red hair, in Worcester there are several. Therefore, most difficult of men, please be appeased. I didn't come entirely to spite you. I wanted an adventure in life, and, oh dear! ”

“ How it happens that the Marquis of Worcester should have been wholly unnoticed for his inventions by contemporaries it is difficult to offer anything like a sufficiently reasonable or satisfactory conjecture. But surprise might seem to vanish when such diarists as John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys, with all their curiosity and all their apparent pleasure in recording scientific novelties, although they name the Marquis, notice Worcester House, and mention Vauxhall, never so much as hint at one invention by the Marquis of Worcester. ”

“ The life of the Marquis of Worcester affords a tissue of the most violent contrasts, romantic in many incidents, exceeding any that have ever been experienced by any other descendant of our ancient nobility. He was a man of rigid honour and probity, remarkable too for his modesty, virtue, and genius, in an age distinguished for few excellencies, and notorious for many vices. He was the favourite of his Sovereign, although in but little favour at Court, and the very esteem which raises most men was his certain ruin ”

“ Worcester is described by his biographer as having been a learned, thoughtful, studious, and good man—a Romanist without prejudice or bigotry, a loyal subject, free from partisan intolerance; as a public man, upright, honorable, and humane; as a scholar, learned without being pedantic; as a mechanic, patient, skillful, persevering, and of wonderful ingenuity, and of clear, almost intuitive, apprehension. ”

“ Braxfield, with suspicious calmness. “All right!—and you’ll be more than sorry for it, as you’ll see! Very well—I suppose I can go upstairs and make ready?”
“No!” said the Chief Constable. “Not out of my sight, now! You’ve a woman in the house—you can ring for her, and tell her to get all you want. Then—we’ve a cab outside.”
“Ah!” remarked Mrs. Braxfield maliciously. “You’re only doing what you meant to do! All right, Mr. Chief Constable, and the other two of you—you’ll be sorry for this!”
But the Chief Constable silently motioned to Blick to ring the bell for the charwoman. ”

“ Jeannie said to me to-day how much she enjoyed Wroxton.”
“And does Mr. Avesham enjoy it?” asked Miss Clara.
“I have not had an opportunity of talking to him about it,” said the Colonel, cautiously, “but he must be hard to please—he must be hard to please if he does not. What a charming life for a young man! For a few hours a day he has his work, but when that is over, what a choice! A game of whist at the club, the pleasures of the home circle—and Miss Fortescue is such a shrewd, delightful woman—or, or, if his tastes are literary, a call at Villa Montrose.” ”

“ Guy—your father?” said the old butler. “He can’t last long, sir. And—the title—and the estates, Mr. Guy!”
“I can’t help succeeding to the baronetcy, Braxfield, though I don’t care twopence about it,” answered Guy; “and as for the estates, they can be managed well enough without my help or presence. As a matter of fact, I don’t want ’em! I’m a well-to-do man—I’ve been on the Stock Exchange, Braxfield, for over six years, and made a pot of money. But now look here,” he continued, interrupting the old butler’s congratulations, “you say that Harry is acting as a sort of steward; does he do well?” ”

“ It would be doing deep injustice to the Marquis of Worcester, to judge him in all respects rigidly by modern fashions, customs, and habits of thought. The modern critic, in simple ignorance of the age, might exclaim with just indignation against the promulgating an invention to cheat at dice. We have many examples to prove, that the Marquis was not singular in proposing so questionable an invention, and we can only consider such schemes put forth as marvels in themselves and warnings to the unwary. ”

“ Symon of Worcester rose.
"My daughter," he said, "the sun is high in the heavens. We must not linger here. Hugh will be seeking his bride, and Mistress Deborah be waxing anxious over the escape of her charge. The morning meal will be ready in the banqueting hall; after which we must to the chapel, for the marriage. Then, without delay, I ride to Worcester to make all right at the Nunnery. Let us go."
As Mora walked beside him across the sunny lawn, "Father," she said, "think you the heart of a nun can ever become again as the heart of other women?" ”

“ He swung the lantern high. She saw the lovelight and the triumph, in his eyes. "I shall take thee home!" he said.
She stepped back a pace, lifting both hands toward him, palms outward, and stood thus gazing, with eyes full of sorrow.
"My poor Hugh," she whispered; "it is useless to wait. I shall not come."
"Yet five days," said the Knight, "I shall tarry in Worcester. Each day, after Vespers, I shall be here."
"Go to-day, dear Hugh. Ride to Warwick and tell thy priest, that which indeed he should know without the telling: that a nun does not break her vows. This is our final farewell, Hugh. ”

“ Harry, sir, and Miss Valencia," replied Braxfield, "have taken the matter in the best way possible. The little gentleman—Sir Guy, of course—has been welcomed in the warmest fashion; he is already made as much of by his uncle and aunt as if they'd known him from his cradle. Family feeling, sir, is strong in such houses as ours!"
"I suppose Mr. Harry was fond of his father, Sir Anthony?" asked the Chief Constable, with an almost imperceptible side-glance at Blick. ”

“ One evening, Holck promised Milady a box at the theatre, and Reverdil saw her sitting above the maids of honour, who were facing the queen. Being at the time close to Holck, the virtuous Swiss could not refrain from speaking out. "Sir," he said, "though you may turn into ridicule a hundred times an expression which I have frequent occasion to repeat, I say again, that a man can be neither a good subject, nor a good servant, [Pg 105] who does not weep to see such a creature thus defy the queen, and the king make himself, to the great peril of the state, the greluchon of a foreign minister." ”

“ Pauline had been a little nervous at first—worried, for instance, as to what might happen if Dexter and Lita should walk in while Arthur was in that queer excited state, stamping up and down the library floor, and muttering, half to himself and half to her: "Damn it, am I in my own house or another man's? Can anybody answer me that?"
But they had not walked in, and the phase of excitability had soon been over. Pauline had only had to answer: "You're in my house, Arthur, where, as Jim's father, you're always welcome. . ." ”

“ Pauline's face lit up with a blissful incredulity. "Oh, Dexter—would you really come to Cedarledge for Easter? How splendid! Of course I'll give up my rest-cure. As you say, there's no place like the country."
She was already raising an inward hymn to Alvah Loft. An Easter holiday in the country, all together—how long it was since that had happened! She had always thought it her duty to urge Dexter to get away from the family when he had the chance; to travel or shoot or fish, and not feel himself chained to her side. ”

“ Wraxall received a letter from Baron von Seckendorf, which I shall transcribe here, as it contains a singular and material fact, that George III. had given, through Baron von Lichtenstein, an answer to the request made him by the Danish nobility; but that, as the king's letter arrived at Hanover when Caroline Matilda was either dying or dead, the packet was returned to him unopened:—
MON TRES CHER AMI,
La mort également douleureuse et rapide de mon incomparable maîtresse, renverse tout d'un coup l'édifice de notre prospérité. ”

“ When had she ever before heard Dexter say on such a full note of satisfaction: "Jove, but it's good to be back! What have you done to make the place look so jolly?", or seen his smiling glance travel so observantly about the big hall with its lamps and flowers and blazing hearth? "Well, Lita, this is better than town, eh? You didn't know what a good place Cedarledge could be! Don't rush off upstairs—they're bringing the baby down. Come over to the fire and warm up; it's nipping here in the hills. Hullo, Nona, you quiet mouse—didn't even see you, curled up there in your corner. ”

“ Rossiter would," I argued, "if she was left free."
"She might; and, of course, there's Mildred. She'd do anything for Hugh, though she thinks . . . but neither Jack nor Pauline would give in; and as for Mr. Brokenshire—I believe it would break his heart."
"Why should he feel toward me like that?" I demanded, bitterly. "How am I inferior to Pauline Gray, except that I have no money?"
"Well, I suppose in a way that's it. It's what Mr. Brokenshire calls the solidarity of aristocracies. They have to hold together."
"But aristocracy and money aren't one." ”

“ Wraxall might give him. Mr. Wraxall, in consequence, delivered to Monsieur de Hinüber two packets: one from the Queen of Denmark, and another from the Danish nobility. To these he added a letter addressed by himself to his Majesty. In the last, he thought it his duty to request the king, in the name of all the adherents of his sister, to admit him to an audience, as the only person who could, from his perfect knowledge of the plan and the persons, satisfy any inquiries, or explain any secret matters relative to the enterprise itself. ”

“ Braxfield’s reward were printed. He drew his heavy brows together as he laboriously read through the offer.
“How does that strike you?” asked Blick presently. “There’s a hundred pounds to be picked up by anybody who can tell a bit. If you know anything—mind, Roper, I’m not implying that you do!—but—if you do—eh?”
Roper began to fold up the reward bill; his eyes were fixed thoughtfully on the trees in front of him as he handed the paper back to the detective.
“Keep it!” said Blick. “It’s posted all over the place. If you do chance to know anything at all, Roper, cut in first!” ”

“ We now approach the great event of the Marquis of Worcester’s life, that for which alone, through all time, he will be distinguished, as pre-eminent among the luminaries who have advanced those branches of science which have most contributed to promote and extend the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of mankind, thereby giving a decided impulse to civilization. ”

“ Devil that he was, Black Ferguson began to test her nerve, prancing on the rounds upward, ever upward, showing his waist, his hips, knees, even ankles, while Father Brochet trembled for the sake of the girl. He expected every instant to hear the thunderous reverberation that would carry destruction and death. Once the Nor'west leader rose on the last rung till his boot-tops levelled the floor, balanced thus, grinning to see how little he had to spare.
The priest noted Desirée's hand whitening on the pistol butt, noted the weapon's muzzle thrusting deeper into the powder. ”

“ The white man's hand was on his rifle. All white men were good shots, and Wrenshaw had a reputation for being better than most. If he chose the wrong path now he would be the first to suffer. It would not be wise to run risks.
"It is only a foolish man who seeks trouble."
"Exactly," said Wrenshaw, "that is why all men are paying willingly and in full. I see you have your purse on your arm and have come to pay your tax." And again his hand caressed the butt of his rifle.
Nanzela unbuckled an armlet which held his money. ”

“ Nowadays, whenever there was anything serious to be talked over, Dexter found some excuse for avoiding her. She lay back, her lids dropped over her tired eyes, and waited for the answer: "Mr. Manford isn't in yet."
Something had come over Dexter lately: no closing of her eyes would shut that out! She supposed it was over-work—the usual reason. Rich men's doctors always said they were over-worked when became cross and trying at home.
"Dinner at the Toys' at 8.30." Miss Bruss continued her recital; and Pauline drew in her lips on a faintly bitter smile. ”