Purslane

“ In May, 1688, Purcell had a daughter born; she was baptized in Westminster Abbey, receiving the name of Frances. This child attained to years of maturity, surviving both her father and her mother.
This year was a troublous one; the political horizon was black, and the national fortunes were in great jeopardy, people had small time or inclination for public amusements, but Purcell contributed music for at least one play, The Fool's Preferment, or the Three Dukes of Dunstable, a comedy by D'Urfey. ”

“ Purdie and Clara had come up.
The book had changed hands, together, evidently, with several explanations, and Mrs. Purdie, with her foot on the carriage step, was ready to make one of these over again.
"The major'll be so sorry. He's gone in town. It's so unusual for him to get off at this hour, but he said he had to catch a man. As Mrs. Britton and I were saying, he's likely to be very busy until this dreadful affair is straightened out. If you can only wait a little longer, Mr. Cressy," she went on, "I am expecting him every moment." ”

“ For an instant a little girl had looked into the eyes of the Rev. Mr. Pursen, prepared to do and be whatever Mr. Pursen, out of the fulness of brotherly love, should counsel and guide her to do and be; but Mr. Pursen saw only a woman of the town, and to such were his words addressed with an argument which he imagined would appeal strongly to her kind. ”

“ Miss Allen was a young woman of twenty-six, with clear kind eyes and a strong sweet mouth. She had about her that charm of manner which can only be described as winsome womanliness. Prudence gazed at her with open and honest admiration. Such a young woman to be the principal of a high school in a city the size of Mount Mark! She must be tremendously clever. But Prudence did not sigh. We can't all be clever, you know. There must be some of us to admire the rest of us! ”

“ Suddenly he tried to take her in his arms, but she repulsed him with a gesture almost of horror. "You forget, Sir Geoffrey," she said, "that I am the wife of another man."
He laughed ironically. "Is it possible that you are taking this farce seriously? I feared I had had the misfortune to offend you, and am relieved to find that nothing worse has come between us than Robin Freemantle."
"That is enough for the present," she said. "While one man can call me wife, all other men must keep their distance."
"Even your betrothed lover, Prudence?" ”

“ Then they sat in silence until Fairy announced that supper was ready. "But I won't promise it is eatable," she assured them, laughing.
"I wish I could go to the table, too," said Prudence, looking at her father wistfully, "I could lie on the old lounge out there."
"And have your supper on a tray, of course. Can you carry her, father?"
"I can!" volunteered Jerrold promptly. "I have done it."
"I think between us we can manage. We'll try it." And Prudence heroically endured the pain of being moved, for the sake of seeing Jerrold at the table with her parsonage family. ”

“ About this time the Prudhan died, leaving a widow and one daughter; and every day, every day, when the seven Princesses were preparing their father's dinner, the Prudhan's widow and daughter would come and beg for a little fire from the hearth. Then Balna used to say to her sisters, "Send that woman away; send her away. Let her get the fire at her own house. What does she want with ours? If we allow her to come here, we shall suffer for it some day."
But the other sisters would answer, "Be quiet, Balna; why must you always be quarrelling with this poor woman? ”

“ The only being that had ever really loved me, my nearest and dearest friend, ever ready to sympathise, to counsel, and to assist—the gayest, the gentlest, the warmest heart—the only creature on earth that cared for me—HER life had been the price of my deliverance; and I then uttered the wish, which no event of my long and sorrowful life has taught me to recall, that she had been spared, and that, in her stead, I were mouldering in the grave, forgotten and at rest.
THE BRIDAL OF CARRIGVARAH.
Being a Sixth Extract from the Legacy of the late Francis Purcell, P. P. of Drumcoolagh. ”

“ I cannot think of him now without more solemn feelings than if he were with me. There is something holy in our thoughts of the dead; I feel it so.' After a pause, she continued—'Mr. Purcell, do you remember his features well? ”

“ By that time Prudy had got rid of the toad, and could speak.
"O, dear, dear, dear," cried she, "I didn't know it was a toad till it hopped right up!"
"A toad here in the house!" cried Miss Parker.
"No, ma'am," said Prudy, trembling and sobbing. "It wasn't in the house,—it was in my mouth,—right here on my tongue." [33]
Prudy showed Miss Parker her tongue. Miss Parker laughed, thinking her a very funny child.
"I've heard, before now, of little folks having frogs in their throats," said she. "Is that what you mean?"
"I guess so," sobbed Prudy. "And it was alive—just as alive as could be! ”

“ Surprised at the sharp sound of her own voice, dismayed at sight of the wet sugar, and completely discouraged by the aspect of things in general, Prudy burst out into a sort of frenzy. She was ashamed of herself, but she couldn't stop.
"You think I can bear everything—you and Dotty both! People are careful what they say to Dotty, for her temper's just like live coals; but they talk to me, and say anything; anything they've a mind to."
"Why, Prue," exclaimed Horace, as astonished as if Mother Hubbard's dog had spoken; "why, Prue!" ”

“ Prudy said she had to sing to herself for all the things she saw looked as happy as if they were alive. As Prudy talked, she flew from flower to flower, like a honey-bee.
"I can't wait for Prudy to walk so zigzag," said Susy.
Mrs. Parlin suggested that Susy should keep on, and tell her aunt Eastman they were coming. Then she allowed Prudy to walk as "zigzag" as she pleased; for Mrs. Parlin had long patience with her children.
"O, mamma," said Prudy, suddenly stopping short, and standing on one foot; "if there isn't a cow!" ”

“ Later in the year Purcell wrote his anthem 'Blessed are they that fear the Lord,' for the thanksgiving for the queen's pregnancy, in January 1687–8. In 1688 he composed the songs for D'Urfey's comedy, 'A Fool's Preferment.' With one exception they all belong to the character of Lionel, a young man mad for love, and they express in the most admirable manner the varied emotions which agitate his mind—disdain, despondency, tender affection and wild fantastic delusion. ”

“ Prudy dropped upon the sofa and covered her face with her handkerchief, while Dotty, strange to relate, actually slid the rings off her fingers and thumbs, and began to put away the crackers.
"O, dear," thought Prudy, blushing under the cap-border, spectacles, and handkerchief; "what did possess me to talk so? I had been holding in all day; why did I let go? If I ever do let go, I can't stop; and O, how shameful it is!"
It seemed as easy for Prudy to be good as for a bird to sing; but it was not so. She had a great deal of human nature, after all. ”

“ But in Purcell, despite his sheer strength, we never fail to get the characteristic Purcellian touch, the little unexpected inflexion, or bit of coloured harmony that reminds that this is the music of the open air, not of the study, that does more than this, that actually floods you in a moment with a sense of the spacious blue heavens with light clouds flying. For instance, one gets it in the great "Te Deum" in the first section; again at "To thee, cherubin," where the first and second trebles run down in liquid thirds with magical effect ”

“ One morning after breakfast, Lord Glenfallen had been for some time walking silently up and down the room, buried in his moody reflections, when pausing suddenly, and turning towards me, he exclaimed:
'I have it—I have it! We must go abroad, and stay there too; and if that does not answer, why—why, we must try some more effectual expedient. Lady Glenfallen, I have become involved in heavy embarrassments. A wife, you know, must share the fortunes of her husband, for better for worse; but I will waive my right if you prefer remaining here—here at Cahergillagh. ”

“ We always thank God for men like Purvis: we never thank them. They are without honor in their own time, but how they brighten the pages of memory! How they stimulated the cheerfulness of the old countryside and broke up its natural reticence!
Mr. Franklin Purvis was our hired man—an undersized bachelor. He had a Roman nose, a face so slim that it would command interest and attention in any company, and a serious look enhanced by a bristling mustache and a retreating chin. At first and on account of his size I had no very high opinion of Mr. Purvis. ”

“ Along with some of the old-fashioned genuine devotional music, Purcell must have heard from childhood a good deal of the stamp he was destined to write; he must often have taken his part in Church music that might, with perfect propriety, have been given in a theatre. All things were ripe for a secular composer; the mood that found utterance in the old devotional music was a dead thing, and in England Humphries had pointed the new way. Purcell was that secular composer. ”

“ He makes great use of fugue, more or less free, and of imitation, and, of course, he employs ground-basses. The masculine strength and energy, the harsh clashing discords, are not less remarkable than the constant sweetness; and if there is rollicking spring jollity, there are also moments of deepest pathos. There is scarcely such a thing as a dry page. It is true that Purcell avowed that he copied the best Italian masters, but the most the copying amounts to is taking suggestions for the external scheme of his sonatas and for the manner of writing for strings. ”

“ Jerrold hesitated. "Mr. Starr, I have been young, and headstrong, and impulsive. I have done some things I wish now I hadn't. But I believe there is nothing that I could not explain to Prudence so she would understand. If I had thought beforehand of a girl like her, there are things I would not have done. But there is nothing, I think, that would really hurt, after I had a chance to talk it over with her."
"All right. If you are the man, God bless you. I don't suppose you are worthy of Prudence, for she is a good, pure-hearted, unselfish girl,—there could be none better. ”

“ In this eventful year, or the succeeding one, 1681, Purcell took unto himself a wife, and in the latter year he again composed an ode or "Welcome Song" which must have brought him favourably under the notice of the King. It commences, "Swifter Isis, swifter flow."
In July, 1682, his abilities were publicly recognised by giving him the appointment of Organist of the Chapel Royal in place of Edward Lowe, deceased. The honour [Pg 34] and the additional income would be welcomed by the young couple just starting on the voyage of life as a favourable augury for their future comfort and prosperity. ”

“ Flora almost grinned as she recognized the large linen umbrella that Mrs. Purdie invariably carried when abroad in the reservation, and presently the trim and bounding figure of Mrs. Purdie herself, under it. The Purdies were coming down to parade—at least Mrs. Purdie was. But the tall figure beside her—that was not the major. She took up her lorgnon. It was—no it could not be—yet surely [Pg 68] it was Harry! Lazy Harry, up and out, and squiring Mrs. Purdie to the review at half-past ten in the morning! "Are we all mad?" Flora thought. ”

“ A few months afterwards, July 31st, 1682, the old man died, and on the 2nd of August his mortal remains were laid to rest in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. We can easily imagine the grief of Purcell who had to mourn the loss of one who had been more than a father to him. ”

“ These staid Puritan planters were mounted on sturdy farmhorses, and a pillion was strapped on behind each saddle, and on it was seated wife, daughter, or perhaps a young child--I should like to have seen the church-going dames perched up proudly in all their Sunday finery, masked in black velvet, a sober Puritan travesty of a gay carnival fashion. Riding-habits were hardly known until a century ago, and even after their introduction were never worn a-pillion-riding, so the Puritan women rode in their best attire. ”

“ The sinister light in them was not in accordance with the bland, congratulatory smile that played over his lips, as he turned to Robin.
"The Lady Prudence has proved irresistible, as usual, Captain Freemantle. You are free. Take my advice and use your freedom to put as many leagues as possible between yourself and London. I shall not pursue you, but there are others who seek your life, on whom the charms of Lady Prue might be exercised in vain. ”

“ The thought is that as the seabird opening his wings with a whiff of wind in your face means the whirr of the motion, but also unaware gives you a whiff of knowledge about his plumage, the marking of which stamps his species, that he does not mean, so Purcell, seemingly intent only on the thought or feeling he is to express or call out, incidentally lets you remark the individualising marks of his own genius. ”

“ I have resolved not to fire at Fitzgerald—that is, to fire in such a direction as to assure myself against hitting him. Do not say a word of this to the O'Gradys. Your doing so would only produce fruitless altercation; they could not understand my motives. I feel convinced that I shall not leave the field alive. If I must die to-day, I shall avoid an awful aggravation of wretchedness. Purcell,' he continued, after a little space, 'I was so weak as to feel almost ashamed of the manner in which I was occupied as you entered the room. ”