Dolman

“ It was as if Dolman had really spoken; as I used to think he did when I was a little girl." She grasped his arm. "Godpapa, do you believe it could really be?"
The old man merely smiled and put his arm around her. Daphne knit her brows for a moment, then went on.
"The partner I meant is Kenneth. He has enough money from his mother's estate; and he wants to put it in the ranch, but he is afraid you might misunderstand." ”

“ The ranch had a personality of its own: it was a single thing, to be loved and remembered. Daphne used to believe in Dolman implicitly. Through the haze gathering across her childhood memories she thought still to discern his face, to hear his voice. At times even yet it seemed to her that she felt a great beneficent presence that wished her well. She joked with herself about it, and told of it to Kenneth in a playful fashion that he considered charmingly fanciful. It would be, of course, absurd to believe such a thing literally: the imagination is a powerful agent in proper circumstances. ”

“ Dolman, whether Mr. Ogledon will be here to-day or not. By the way, Mrs. Dolman”—this, as a brilliant idea struck him—“I think I shall change my room—my bedroom, I mean.”
The good woman raised her hands in astonishment. “Change your room, Master Dandy! Why—I never heard the like! What’s the matter with the room, sir?”
“Oh—nothing the matter with it; only I want a change; one gets tired of anything. Just come upstairs with me, and I’ll show you what I mean.”
Mrs. Dolman would have stepped aside, in the doorway, to allow him to precede her ”

“ Allis said; “and I believe that Shandy's punishment was the visitation of Providence, if there was any.”
The Reverend Dolman's face took on an austere look. It was an insult to the divine powers to assert that they had taken the part of a race horse. But he turned the point to his own ends. “It's quite wrong to abuse the noble animal; and that's one reason why I hold that racing is contrary to the Creator's intentions, quite apart from the evil effect it has on morals.”
“Are all men immoral who race, Mr. Dolman?” John Porter asked. ”

“ Dolman found him rather a difficult man to tackle. He had this irritating way of brushing aside generalization and forcing the speaker to get back to first principles.
The reverend gentleman proceeded cautiously. “I should hardly care to go so far as that—to make the rule absolute; a very strong man might escape contamination, perhaps.”
Mrs. Porter sighed audibly. The minister was weakening most lamentably, giving her husband a loophole to escape.
“I hardly think racing quite so bad as it is generally supposed to be,” interposed Crane, feeling that Porter was being pilloried somewhat. ”

“ Dolman.
"Bad!" repeated Fortune. "It's a first-rate idea; it's an American idea. In America we never let the [252] grass grow under our feet. I'm off to Madersley this minute to see after those posters. Why, we post up everything in America, every single thing that is lost, let alone children, and we do it in big type, as big as they make it, and we put the posters on the walls, and wherever there's a scrap of available space. By your leave, sir, I'm off to Madersley now." ”

“ There’s a rift between Dollmann and the others, but it’s a ticklish matter to drive our wedge in; as to to-night, hopeless; they’re on the watch, and won’t give us a chance. And after all, do we know enough? We don’t know why he fled from England and turned German. It may have been an extraditable crime, but it may not. Supposing he defies us? There’s the girl, you see—she ties our hands, and if he once gets wind of that, and trades on our weakness, the game’s up. ”

“ Rhadamanthus seemed very uncomfortable.
“Don’t do that,” he said, quite sharply, fidgeting with the blotting paper.
Dolly began to move slowly round the table. Rhadamanthus sat still. When she was standing close by him, she put her hand lightly on his arm and said:
“Please do, Mr. Rhadamanthus.”
“It’s as much as my place is worth,” he grumbled.
Dolly’s eyes shone still, but the faintest little smile began to play about her mouth. ”

“ You are tired of disappointment, and I don't blame you. I should be a selfish dolt if I did. If Gowan had been in my place he could have married you, and have given you a home of your own. I never shall be able to do that. But,” with great weakness and evidence of tribulation at the thought, “I didn't think you would be so cool about it, Dolly.”
“Cool!” cried Dolly, waxing wroth and penitent both at once, as usual. “Who is cool? Not I, that is certain. I shall miss you every hour of my life, Griffith.” ”

“ But they soon became very serious when they considered that not only Dollan was at stake, but Ulrica von Dahlitz, whom her father would joyfully give in marriage to the owner of Dollan. It was strange to see the two cousins, who had hitherto been inseparable, now begin to take separate paths, and, when they could not avoid each other, measure each other with grave, questioning, almost hostile looks, which seemed to say: I am the better man. ”

“ Care for Ralph Gowan! I love you, Griffith, I love you!”
“And you don't regret?” he said, piteously. “Oh, Dolly, just think of what he could give you; and then think of our hopeless dreams about miserable six-roomed houses and cheap furniture.”
“You will make me hate him,” cried Dolly, her gust of love and pity making her fierce. “I don't want anything anybody could give me. I only want you, dear old fellow,—darling old fellow,” holding him fast, as if she would never let him go, and shedding a shower of impassioned, tender tears. ”

“ The brilliant sunlight bathed the tops of the beeches, over which his eyes wandered to emerald meadows and golden cornfields--the meadows and fields of Dollan, which lay like a quiet sunny Eden among the shaded, wood-covered hills that enclosed it on all sides. Amid the meadows and fields, relieved against the darker foliage of the trees in the garden, appeared the straw thatched roofs of the farm buildings, and the tiled roof of the long, low mansion-house, in whose red gable he could distinctly perceive the tiny window of the little room he had occupied with Curt whenever he went to Dollan. ”

“ Dolly kissed the kitten and went on, "About you and Dulcie Mildmay."
"That's very ancient history," said I, rather disgusted.
"You admit it is history, though?"
"History is what women have agreed to repeat, Lady Mickleham."
"Oh, if you're going to take it like that! I thought we were friends—and——"
"There is no greater mark of friendship," I observed, "than a complete absence of interest in one's doings."
"An absence of interest?" smiled Dolly, re-tying the kitten's bow in a meditative way.
"It makes the heart grow fonder (not, of course, that that's always desirable) . ”

“ Dolly murmured.
"Oh, but I'm sure mamma meant——"
"Mamma meant that you'd been flirting with the curate, Jane."
"Dorothea dear!" gasped Lady Jane.
"The secret of love lies, I suppose, in unselfishness" (I threw out the suggestion in a tentative way) .
"That's what makes Archie such a good husband," said Dolly.
"It must, of course, exist on both sides, Lady Mickleham."
"Oh, no, that's tiresome. It's like getting through the door—nobody'll go first."
"True. You spend all your time trying to be allowed to do what you don't want to do; and the other party does the same." ”

“ Dolly leant over to my cousin, and whispered, 'Tell me her name.' And he whispered something back to Dolly.
'It's awfully kind of you. Lady Mickleham,' he said.
'I am a kind old thing,' said Dolly, all over dimples. 'I can easily get to know them.'
'Oh, you really are awfully kind, Lady Mickleham.'
Dolly smiled upon him, waved her hand to me, and drove off, crying,—
'Do try to make Mr. Carter understand!'
We were left alone. George wore a meditative smile. Presently he roused himself to say,—
'She's really a very kind woman. She's so sympathetic. She's not like you. ”

“ A butler always had been Dolly's secret dream.
Charles-Norton, also, though unconsciously perhaps, gets a good deal of pleasure out of the house (and the butler) , for Dolly, with innate genius, has given it an air of quiet elegance and culture which he secretly enjoys. There is, also, a certain contentment in living life along a definite routine. He flies every night but Sunday, and two afternoons a week. And then, if Dolly has her house, he has his automobile.
A big, high-powered, red automobile. He goes out in it with Dolly every Sunday. ”

“ Carter?'
'Certainly I do, Lady Mickleham. You are thinking that you would like to meet me for the first time.'
'Not at all. I was thinking that it would be amusing if you met me for the first time.'
I said nothing. Dolly rose and walked to the window. She swung the tassel of the blind and it bumped against the window. The failing sun caught her ruddy brown hair. There were curls on her forehead, too.
'It's a grand world,' said I. 'And, after all, one can grow old very gradually.'
'You're not really old,' said Dolly, with the fleetest glance at me. A glance should not be over-long. ”

“ Now, Herr Dollmann is chairman of the company.”
“And I,” said Dollmann, with a noisy laugh, “must fall back on the shareholders, whose interests I have to guard. One can’t be too careful in these confidential matters.”
“Here’s one who gives his consent,” I said. “Can’t he represent the rest?”
“Extorted by torture,” said von Brüning. “I retract.”
“Don’t mind them, Herr Carruthers,” cried Frau Dollmann, “they are making fun of you; but I will give you a hint; no woman can keep a secret——”
“Ah!” I cried, triumphantly, “you have been there?”
“I? Not I; I detest the sea! But Clara has.” ”

“ Dolly put the kitten down on the floor with quite a bump. I took my hat.
"Your story," said I, as I brushed my hat, "hasn't come to much, Lady Mickleham."
Dolly was not put out; nay, she picked up the kitten again and started rubbing its fur the wrong way.
"When yon were a child, Mr. Carter——" she began.
"Dear, dear!" I murmured, stroking the crown of my head.
"Did you use to tell the truth?"
I put my hat back on the table. The conversation began to interest me.
"You may have noticed," said I, "that I am a man of method!"
"You do call regularly," Dolly agreed. ”

“ I walked towards the door. Dolly stood by the table fingering the album. I had almost reached the door; then I happened to look round.
'Mr. Carter!' said Dolly, as though a new idea had struck her.
'What is it, Lady Mickleham?'
'Well, you know, Mr. Carter, I—I shall try to forget that mistake of yours.'
'You're very kind, Lady Mickleham.'
'But,' said Dolly, with a troubled smile, 'I—I'm quite afraid I shan't succeed, Mr. Carter.'
After all, the smoking-room is meant for smoking. ”

“ Dolly at Griffith, with her small head thrown back in sudden defiance.
“I am making you angry and rousing you, Dolly,” he said; “but I cannot help it. There is scarcely a week passes in which I do not hear that he—that fellow—has managed to see you in one way or another. He can always see you,” savagely. “I don't see you once a month.”
“Ah!” said Dolly, with cruel deliberation, “this is what Aimée meant when she told me to be careful, and think twice before I did things. I see now.”
I have never yet painted Dolly Crewe as being a young person of angelic temperament. ”

“ Watch was indeed a forerunner, for Dolly and her husband could scarcely be induced by his solid presence and caresses to come out and see for themselves that the tall knight and lady were no ghostly shades, nor bewildered travellers, but that this was their own nursling Hal, whom Simon Bunce had reported to be lying dead under a gorse-bush at Barnet, and further that the lovely brunette lady was the little lost child whom Dolly had mothered for a night. ”

“ Men had concealed themselves from their friends, in the world of London, often before, and this, he felt sure, Griffith Donne was doing; and since this poor little impassioned, much-tried Dolly was dying in spite of herself for Griffith Donne's sake, and seemed only to be saved by his presence, he must even set himself the task of bringing him to light and clearing up this miserable misunderstanding. Having been Dolly Crewe's lover, he was still generous enough to wish to prove himself her friend; yes, and even her luckier lover's friend, though he winced a trifle at the thought. ”

“ He didn't have to go to Dolly and be clipped. He didn't have to go to the glass cage, and he didn't have to go to Dolly. The scissors of Dolly.
Charles-Norton, very pale, his long, strong legs trembling beneath him, sank upon the nearest bench, and tried to catch hold of the world again, of the reality of the world. His hands, unconsciously expressing his mental attitude, held the bench's rim tight with white knuckles.
Eight hundred dollars was not so much. Besides, it was only seven hundred and eighty now. And Dolly was a good little wife. A good, faithful, loving little wife. ”

“ Dolly was the sweetest and merriest and funniest being alive. She played such jolly tunes, she sang like a bird, and whistled like a bobolink, could play checkers and chess and fox and geese, and she brought Jim a backgammon board.
They talked a good deal about building a house way up-town. Mr. Beekman had offered Dolly a lot. John said it was going to be the finest part of the city. Stephen couldn't really afford to build, but they would like to begin in their own home. Property was getting so high down-town that young people like them, just beginning life, must look around and consider. ”

“ No "set-to" that I have seen in all my life ever pleased me half as much; and what with crying and laughing by turns, and singing out "Bravo, Dolly!" and dancing round the pair of them, the sweat ran off me like rain, and I, and not little Dolly Venn, might have been doing for the Dutchman in the shadows of that corridor.
In the end, believe me, this foreign bully turned tail and ran like a whipped cur. It was all I could do to keep the lad from his heels.
"Next time, Dolly," cried I, holding him back roughly, "next time, lad; we have better work to do, much better work to do. ”