Imp

“ By the time we reached the Shrubbery gate the Imp was in an ecstasy, and Mr. Selwyn once more reduced to speechless indignation and astonishment. Here our ways diverged, Mr. Selwyn turning toward the house, while the Imp and I made our way to the orchard at the rear.
"Uncle Dick," he said, halting suddenly, "do you think he will tell--really?"
"My dear Imp," I answered, "a man who wears 'points on his moustache' is capable of anything." ”

“ We three have talked of it incessantly,—Carol, the Imp, and I. Somehow the wonder of it never grows any less. That such a thing could happen here, here on little Paradise Green! And yet the Imp says it is no new thing in history for an exiled king to hide himself away in a strange country amid the humblest surroundings. ”

“ If the bad imp hadn't gone through that sorrowful time when she despised herself for being so utterly horrid she would never be able to tell them "Yes, I know how you feel—Isn’t it dreadful? Never mind, get up and begin again. I've been there too, so now you know you're not the only one because I understand. There is a use for me—I'll be the bad imp."
Just as in those days I found a use for the bad fairy so now I found the comforting thought that I could be of vital help to others. ”

“ On dropping down into the trap the Imp had become, according to his own statement, an animal, and consequently belonged to the man. The Imp, to save himself, had to give up all claim to the woman, and thus the child by his smartness saved his mother’s life. ”

“ He had asked me if I was a deceiving imp, and he had said I should be a fierce young hound if I joined the hunt against him. Would he believe that I was both imp and hound in treacherous earnest, and had betrayed him? ”

“ The Imp says he ought not to be so proud just because he has a fine voice. And certainly, if you watch the way he swings into the air, with little leaps of flying, higher and higher and higher, you cannot help thinking that perhaps he does think a little too much of himself. He likes to climb higher than all the other birds, just as if he were a little choir boy perched up in the organ loft. ”

“ Very gravely the Imp drew his "trusty sword," which she, following his instructions, obediently kissed.
"And now," cried he, "we are all happy again, aren't we?"
"More happy than I ever hoped or dreamed to be," answered Lisbeth, still upon her knees; "and oh, Imp--dear little Imp, come and kiss me."
CHAPTER VIII
THE LAND OF HEART'S DELIGHT
Surely there never was and never could be such another morning as this? Ever since the first peep of dawn a blackbird had been singing to me from the fragrant syringa-bush that blossomed just beneath my window. ”

“ It is an elaborate irony that the occasional virtues of certain men turn and mock them. That is the penalty of being inconsistent. Be saint or imp; it is the only way. But this imp that mocks me relieves you of reply. ”

“ Of course I don't suppose he realizes for a moment what he said that day he was taken so ill, and certainly he does not dream that the Imp was keen enough to unearth what she did. He is polite and courteous and stilted—and very French—in his manner toward us, and I suppose he no more dreams that we know what we do than he supposes that the sky will fall on him. ”

“ Their hosts were jolly, freckled fellows, barelegged and with somewhat ragged garments, but the best of playmates; and when the little girl confided to the Imp that there were potatoes buried in the ashes he felt that his cup was full.
This was the kind of thing one dreamed of: to come, wet and draggled, upon a sudden brilliant bonfire; to dance barelegged and happy in the fascinating glow; to poke it with sticks and feed it as occasion required ”

“ The register duly signed, and all formalities over and done, we go out into the sunshine; and once more the aged woman, richer now by half a crown, is reduced to mute astonishment, so that speech is beyond her, when the Imp, lifting his feathered cap, politely wishes her "good morning." ”

“ It was his first meeting with the little demon that rebels in a man after he thinks his character and his reactions thoroughly established, and he shuddered as he realized how close the strange imp had pulled him to the precipice. ”

“ For some reason this speech struck the Imp as humorous and he laughed, chewing the edge of his cap in his embarrassment.
"Good heavens! You doubt that, too?" cried the man. "What a generation is growing up under our nose! Allow me to show you this watch, by which you may judge, without trusting me to any degree whatever, that it is high time we started back for the North Beach if you want to dine there."
He laid an open watch ostentatiously in the Imp's lap. In the cover was a face the Imp knew well. ”

“ You are too self-confident for an imp, you attach too much importance to your social position to be a god, so you are probably, as Mr. Warp suggested, some inferior demon in search of cheap distraction. ”

“ The Villain seemed very much moved and very grateful. He seized the fussy gentleman's hand and pressed it and said he'd never forget his kindness, and other things the Imp didn't understand at all. Why so grateful at being told to get to work? Still he was glad if the Villain was, for he liked the Villain. ”

“ There are men thus imp-haunted. Men who, setting their minds upon an object, must have it, breed imps. They are noted for their singularities, as their converse with the invisible and amazing distractions are called. Willoughby became aware of them that night. ”

“ And his mother—was she thinking of her little boy?—but again came that strange noise, and the Imp sat very straight and turned his attention to the men around him. They were reading papers. Men always did that, it seemed. A paper-boy came through the train, and the Imp touched his arm softly. ”

“ They had rounded the old wreck before a word was spoken. Boys do not need to make conversation when they are too happy for words; that is reserved for the unfortunate grown-up ones. So they trotted on in silence, and because the Angel's shoes and stockings were at the bottom of the hole the Imp did not stop to put on his, though they were safely stuffed in his trousers pockets. ”

“ As from their path those hideous imps they chase.
For darkness cannot live where there is light,
And so these imps detested take their flight,
Before the glories of this angel band,
They could not for a single moment stand.
And the sweet balm these love-winged sprites convey,
Strengthens and cheers recipients on their way ”

“ Yet for all these bonds and obligations, those wretched Impes live in those parts as though they had never vowed unto the Lord, shewing in their lives that they have vowed what they are not able to performe. ”

“ But we have helped you, Uncle Bond, and I, and the Imps, haven't we! It has been good for you to come here, to us, in Paradise, for rest, and quiet, and peace, hasn't it? There is an old fairy story about a man who was haunted by his shadow, that the Imps are very fond of, that I have always connected with you, in my own mind. You are haunted by your shadow, aren't you? You are haunted by the shadow of your rank, of your position, of your responsibility. ”

“ The Grand Inquisitor Before setting you at liberty, the Holy Office must be sure that the means you employ are natural—
Fontanares Father, if I had made a compact with the Evil One, would he have let me languish here?
The Grand Inquisitor Your words are impious; the devil has a master whose existence is proved by our burning of heretics. ”

“ To some he gives certain spirits or imps to correspond with, and serve them as their familiars, known by them by some odd names, to which they answer when called. These imps are said to be kept in pots or other vessels that stink detestably. This league is made verbally if the party cannot write; and such as can write sign a written covenant with their blood. On the meaner proselytes the devil fixes, in some secret part of their bodies, a mark, as his seal to know his own by, which is like a flea-bite or blue spot, and sometimes resembles a little teat ”

“ For I observe that no one appears to notice you—not even this Meletus; but his sharp eyes have found me out at once, and he has indicted me for impiety. And therefore, I adjure you to tell me the nature of piety and impiety, which you said that you knew so well, and of murder, and of other offences against the gods. What are they? Is not piety in every action always the same? and impiety, again—is it not always the opposite of piety, and also the same with itself, having, as impiety, one notion which includes whatever is impious? ”

“ Where Virtue reigns, enrich’d with full arrears;
While Pomp imperial begs an alms of peace.
In empire high, or in proud science deep,
Ye born of earth! on what can you confer,
With half the dignity, with half the gain,
The gust, the glow of rational delight, 150
As on this theme, which angels praise and share?
Man’s fates and favours are a theme in heaven. ”

“ His imperium is that of the spirit, and those who boast a soul above the clod must swear fealty to this most delicate expression of the creative Infinite, this thought of God made luminous and vocal, and own him king by right divine. ”

“ A little hole is likewise made in the door for the imps to come in at; and lest they should come in some less discernible shape, they that watch are taught to be ever and anon sweeping the room, and if they see any spiders or flies, to kill them; and if they cannot kill them, they may be sure they are their imps. ”

“ Now, can any one think that this wicked and impudent man, with all his malice against his country, would not have hated and dreaded the Inquisition as much as any other man, but that he was determined to be of the same side? ”

“ It is not permitted, highly honoured Emperor, that in my sermon I say anything displeasing to your Imperial self. I must not remind you that you are a man like other men, a man liable to weakness and error, swayed by temper, capable, since your position gives you power, of trampling on the on the rights of others in a moment of passion, of confounding justice with your own desires and for an inspiration from Heaven itself. ”

“ Or they can go without eating longer than any human beings I ever saw. In fact I don't believe they are human. They're imps, that's what they are—plain imps! If I had my way I'd—"
Rolling Stone gave a sudden jump, and a grunt, the reason for this action being that Snake Purdee had urged his steed to a place next to that of the speaker and had given him a jolting punch in the ribs. ”

“ Rulers are the looking-glasses according to which most men dress themselves. Their sins do much hurt, as by imputation (2 Sam. xxiv.) —the prince sinned, the people suffered—so by imitation; for man is a creature apt to imitate, and is more led by his eyes than his ears. ”

“ So close together were these spikes that if a man succeeded in freeing himself from one, he was immediately impaled upon another. Moreover, in the struggling and confusion each thrust his fellow down, and thus unknowingly impaled him. ”

“ They believe that these imps are the spirits of wicked men who have been refused entrance into the place of the blessed, and have no option but to haunt their former places of abode ; or they may be the spirits of good people who have died by violence, or under other painful circumstances, and cannot go to paradise because of the desire of revenge which burns in them. Sometimes they take the shape of a man with the lower half of his body gone, sometimes that of a flying man or child. At other times they appear in the shape of fire or lightning, or a crash as of thunder. ”

“ I consider myself a standard of common sense, and were I a Prince Consort, I might be called The Imperial Standard I have always dealt in a plain, unostentatious way, and nobody can say that I ever cheated even to the extent of a lucifer match, or a corset lace. ”

“ But when they insist on an alternative to their respective theories, I suggest Puck as at least equally credible with Satan, Shakespeare, or the parrotery of imposture. It is the very extravagance of illogical temper to call on me to furnish an explanation because I say 'we know far too little of the thing itself to guess at its causes;' but of the current guesses, imposture seems inconsistent with the evidence, and 'spiritual agency' with the character of the phenomena. ”

“ Each one is ready to blame the other for the common discomfort, and all, the [142] high priest, who so far fails to kindle the altar fire. He is an impostor, who should be smothered in the reek of his own failure. ”

“ Letty would have been flippant as an empress, and her cousins would have made atrocious princes of the imperial family, though, for the matter of that—Hullo! Here have I been smoking without knowing it! Can any one tell us whether the sins we do inadvertently count as sins, or do we square them off by our inadvertent good actions? ”

“ Some held that bad spirits had perpetrated these things out of sheer wickedness, wilfully profaning the holy objects and suppressing out of contempt, or some other evil design, the words so essential to the mystery; others held that mere imps had been at work, actuated more by mischief than sinfulness, and wishing only to give amusement to themselves and others by the quaintness of their pranks. ”

“ Eaton an equal right to call your Lordship an Infidel, as you have to imprison him for promulgating a different doctrine from that which you profess?—What do I say!—Has he not even a stronger plea?—The word Infidel can only mean any thing when applied to a person who professes that which he disbelieves. ”

“ Surely, the idea runs, if the Almighty, who cannot do wrong, has punished with fire and everlasting torment the ministers who stood in His presence and around His throne, simply because they kept not their position, or did not watch over their principality—for both meanings may be assigned to the original words—surely man must treat his heretic fellow on a similar plan. ”