Imposter

“ This woman is a rank imposter, employed by others to ruin the reputation of a prominent and successful business man, in order to extort money from him. Oh, I have heard a lot that she has been saying! ”

“ Will you suffer them to insult your understanding, and to stamp you as incorrigible fools, with impunity? This, indeed, is one of the cases in which we do not know what to admire most—the towering impudence of the imposters, or the unfathomable stupidity of the victims. ”

“ Imagine an impostor arriving for the first time in a place where all the inhabitants are unknown to him, and attempting to personate a man who had dwelt there, who would have connections of all kinds, who would have played his part in a thousand different scenes, who would have confided his secrets, his opinions, to relations, friends, acquaintances, to all sorts of people; who had also a wife—that is to say, a person under whose eyes nearly his whole life would be passed, a person would study him perpetually, with whom he would be continually conversing on every sort of subject. ”

“ It is not a pleasant task to expose an impostor; much less is it agreeable to expose four impostors; but to one who from the earliest times--and when I say earliest times I speak advisedly, as you will see as you read on--to one, I say, who from earliest times has been actuated by no other motive than the promulgation of truth, the task of exposing fraud becomes a duty which cannot be ignored. ”

“ I will [Pg 121] look out for myself, and my friends, if need be, the rest may protect themselves, as best they can."
"Are the Marburys your friends?" she asked.
"Have the Marburys needed my protection, yet?"
"There is an impostor a guest in their house."
"My dear girl, you assume he is an impostor for personal gain—I, that he is an impostor for purposes of State. I would receive him as a guest at Rose Hill."
"You are warned—we were not."
"Whom his Excellency sponsors, a citizen may entertain without discredit." ”

“ They were asked so suddenly and pointedly that the pretender was thrown off his guard; he looked confused, and stammered in his replies. Their eyes met; he felt that he was detected, and she saw that he perceived her now confirmed suspicions. A look such as is peculiar to an impostor—a glance that deformed his beauty, and filled his usually noble countenance with the hideous lines of cunning and cruel triumph—completed her faith in her own discernment. “How,” she thought, “could I have mistaken this man for my own gentle Eboli?” ”

“ And, as I said just now, you seem to be rather a mystery to most people. I spotted you right enough last night, but I wanted to find out all I could about you from your amiable flock before I tackled you in person. Well, I think I have very good grounds for believing you to be an impostor. ”

“ The impostor, the gambler, all who live loose upon the skirts of society, or, like vermin, thrive by its corruptions, are to be found at such retreats, when they easily, and as a matter of course, mingle with those dupes, who might otherwise have escaped their snares. ”

“ If this man be an impostor, you may be too much agitated by your feelings to detect his villainy. If, which I cannot believe, there be any truth in what he pretends, you shall not be exposed alone to a communication of so extraordinary a nature. ”

“ He is the thinnest kind of an impostor—has come here with a lot of empty names and facts which he picked up somewheres, and you take them for proofs, and are helped to fool yourselves by these foolish friends here, who ought to know better. ”

“ These questions of fraud and imposture are naturally the first that suggest themselves when we begin to study these phenomena. But the slightest acquaintance with the life, habits and proceedings of the three or four great mediums of whom we are going to speak is enough to remove even the faintest shadow of suspicion. Of all the explanations conceivable, that one which attributes everything to imposture and trickery is unquestionably the most extraordinary and the least probable. ”

“ If once you fall, call as loud as you will, no man on earth shall hear your cries: prepare a tale however plausible or however true, the whole world shall execrate you for an impostor. Your innocence shall be of no service to you. I laugh at so feeble a defence. ”

“ So puff’d impostors (our muse-vapours) strive,
With their self-blown additions, to deprive
Men solid of their full, though infinite short
They come in their compare, and false report
Of levelling or touching at their light,
That still retain their radiance, and clear right,
And shall shine ever, when, alas! one blast
Of least disgrace tears down th’ impostor’s mast,
His tops and tacklings, his whole freight, and he
Confiscate to the fishy monarchy,
His trash, by foolish Fame brought now, from hence
Given to serve mackarel forth, and frankincense. ”

“ And if in that time the errand is not done, I shall hold you to be an impostor, an impudent thief from some scoundrel tribe of this world of mine, and will make of you an example which shall keep men's ears tingling for a century or two. ”

“ You had not your little wits sharpened by their intriguing against you, suppressed and defenceless, under the mask of sympathy and pity and what not that is soft and soothing.—I had. You did not gradually open your round childish eyes wider and wider to the discovery of that impostor of a woman who calculates her stores of peace of mind for when she wakes up in the night.—I did. ”

“ I came here to-night all eager, and expecting to be received with open arms, and you all look like ice, and treat me as if I were an impostor. No, sir, I have no proofs; and, for the moment, I don’t know how to establish my identity. Of course it will be all right. ”

“ Some people use harsh language toward our old friend; they call him an impostor, and even accuse him of being, under false colors, an enemy of the little folk; they say he misleads them. Not he, indeed ”

“ The remarkable blunder of the impostor proves how correct is the well-known proverb, ‘A liar should have a good memory;’ and the facts here narrated may perhaps serve to put others on their guard against the wiles of London street swindlers. ”

“ The notorious impostor and biped animal already alluded to, actuated by an overweening desire of notoriety, and in order to catch the applause of some one, grovelling in the morasses of insignificance and vice, like himself, leaves his native obscurity, and indulges in falsehood, calumny, and defamation. ”

“ In this short sketch, in a word, I purpose to tell the truth about the arch impostor whose clumsy juggling makes one feel ashamed of one’s ancestors for letting themselves be deluded by such transparent frauds. ”

“ How then can the multitude be deceived into subservience?—By the pretence of indifference to them. An impostor is always supposed to be in earnest. The commonplace impostor is so: he has staked everything on the appearance of being sincere. He, on the other hand, who is reckless in mendacity, who cheats with a laughing eye; who, while silently strenuous in a given cause, appears to take seriously neither it, himself, nor those on whom both depend, irresistibly strikes the vulgar as moved by something greater than himself or they. ”

“ The most preposterous fabrication of falsehood that could be devised! The 'will,' as it is called, is nothing but a rank forgery, and the man who dares assert any claim to the estate is a damned impostor, and I'll tell him so to his face! ”

“ I cannot bear this of my friend; if you go on, [Pg 153] sir, at this rate, Tunis or Aleppo are the properest places for you to show your gallantry in; 'twill never be received by any here—I hope she believes me. [Aside.
Pen. The lady's in the right on't; who can confide in a known common impostor?
Y. Book. [69] Ah, madam! how can you use a man that loves you so unjustly? But call me what you will, liar, cheat, impostor—do but add, your servant, and I am satisfied. ”

“ The newspapers announced to the world that an impostor had arisen that an impostor had been palmed upon them, a false religion had been proclaimed, and that an ignorant, stupid, lazy, good-for-nothing set of fellows were pretending to preach a new religion. ”

“ Still, if I am an impostor, civility can do no harm, while if it should turn out that I am not an impostor, then your present tone may make after arrangements all the harder upon you. Now will you oblige me by sitting down? I dislike, while sitting myself, talking to a standing man. ”

“ Indeed, it was just these qualities, or rather the strictness with which he enforced his own punctuality and carefulness from others, and the blame he bestowed (especially upon his inferiors) , for the slightest irregularity in business, which had made him many enemies, but no one had ever dared to withhold the highest respect towards him, and now, all at once, this man was declared to be a cheat, an impostor!
There could be no doubt about it, his own confession and suicide had declared his guilt, but what had become of the enormous sum embezzled? ”

“ So I took this little house, and set up my useless—because mainly ornamental—little library, and endeavoured to win the respect of my new neighbours by dispensing an erudition which was in reality second-hand. Second-hand, sir!" He looked up wistfully. "Am I an impostor?"
"All learning is second-hand," I said. "You are not an impostor." ”

“ Douglas Romilly, well, the matter is one for your investigation. You will forgive me if I remind you that my guests will be here in a matter of a few minutes, and permit me to ask you one more question. Why do you come here to me in this very unofficial manner? If I am really an impostor, you are giving me every opportunity of clearing out. ”

“ The foreman publicly declared that there was no doubt in the mind of any juryman that the man who has for eight years assumed the name and title of the gentleman whose unhappy story is recorded in these pages is an impostor who has added slander of the wickedest kind to his many other crimes. ”

“ He has chosen to live here an impostor rather than to live in hiding as an outcast, and is trading on his likeness to his cousin to bear him out. I had hoped that it was all a detective’s lie, got up for the purpose of getting hold of the reward money, but now I see it is true––the most astounding thing a man ever tried. ”

“ This new position was his right, but there were times when it seemed to him that he was an impostor; others, when he felt himself master of it all, when he even had a sense of superiority—why he could not tell; but life in this old land of tradition and history had not its due picturesqueness. ”

“ Such credit all impostors and pretenders to revelation claim for themselves, and such an object they declare to be the end of their mission, although at the same time, and in the same breath, they don't forget to doom all those who reject their authority to perdition. ”

“ He should be obliged to play the impostor everywhere and with every one. He would mingle with men, shake their hands, share their friendships, eat their bread, and accept their favors—and deceive them under their very noses. Life would become one long trick, one daily feat of skill. ”

“ Then came one of those wild suggestions of a vain hope. "Perhaps this man is the impostor, and not the other!" it said. "And what do I owe you for all you have done for me to-day?" he inquired.
"Why, nothing, my good friend. I have done nothing for you; and my advice has certainly been disinterested. ”

“ I may be nothing but an impostor after all, if there is no proof of my being what I always thought I was. Since this business has come up about the hub factory and I have heard so much talk about the importance of proof, I feel worse and worse that there is no proof about me. ”

“ Impostors were to be found, appearing every day under new names and with fresh miracles, imposing on the credulity of the public, and amassing wealth by defrauding the pious multitude. Some of these impostors, too insolent in their practices, were discovered and punished, whilst others derived from them their whole fortune and subsistence. ”

“ There is a certain kind of impostor—a bragging, vaunting, puffing young gentleman—against whom we are desirous to warn that fairer part of the creation, to whom we more peculiarly devote these our labours. And we are particularly induced to lay especial stress upon this division of our subject, by a little dialogue we held some short time ago, with an esteemed young lady of our acquaintance, touching a most gross specimen of this class of men. ”

“ Matters are so timed in the march, that when they come to that part of the song which says, "Caution them to beware of the right hand," it comes the turn of the candidate to put his hand through the aperture of the door and receive his penny, but not being able to give the token, he is detected as an impostor, and the Senior Grand Warden, instead of giving him his penny, seizes him by the hand and draws his arm full length through the door and holds him securely, exclaiming at the same time, "An impostor! an impostor!" ”

“ The lucid impostor, at any rate, is less likely to be abashed by unforeseen difficulties and by the awkwardness of failure, less likely to be mobbed and murdered and pegged down in his grave with aspen stakes. ”

“ for though ambiguities are the first excellence of an impostor, they are the last of a wit. ”

“ Léry, it is you who are the impostor! You are afraid of those who can tell the truth about you, but I did not conceive that you would carry our colonial jealousies so far as this. Do you persist or do you retract? ”

“ It is true that you may find a treasure. The chances are, however, a hundred to one that you do not, and in that event what will be your situation? You will be looked upon as an impostor, and the consequences may be horrible to you. ”

“ Aye, tails and quirks are dear to us, and we fear not to send forth our t without his bar, our i without her dot, lest we should seem reconciled to thine atrocious ritual. We shake our enfranchised hand in thy face, thou stereotyped impostor! ”