Theorbo

“ Tor had related the story of the sick man’s fancy, and the odd relations that now existed between him and Roma; and Miss Marjory had scolded him for being so foolish and good-natured, always running into awkward situations for the sake of other people’s hearts or purses, or what not!
‘As if the matter were not complicated enough without your going and getting into an entanglement like this! You’re just like [Pg 248] your father—very big and strong to look at, but just as weak really—as weak as—as—well, as a man. ”

“ Theodore's soul is free from guilt, nor will wear the appearance of it. Give me a sword, Lady, and thy father shall learn that Theodore scorns an ignominious flight. Rash youth! said Matilda, thou wouldst not dare to lift thy presumptuous arm against the Prince of Otranto? Not against thy father; indeed I dare not: said Theodore: Excuse me, Lady; I had forgotten,—but could I gaze on thee, and remember thou art sprung from the tyrant Manfred?—but he is thy father, and from this moment my injuries are buried in oblivion. ”

“ Madden,” murmured Theron, confusedly.
“Oh, don't you make any mistake! A hell of a lot of questions arise between us, Mr. Ware,” cried Theodore, with a sudden accession of vigor in tone and mien. “And one of 'em is—go away from me, Michael!—one of 'em is, I say, why don't you leave our girls alone? They've got their own priests to make fools of themselves over, without any sneak of a Protestant parson coming meddling round them. You're a married man into the bargain; and you've got in your house this minute a piano that my sister bought and paid for. ”

“ Even the short silence which followed his speech seemed to cause some slight uneasiness to the sick man.
‘You do not speak—you do not answer!’ he said, with a certain sharpness, and a catch in his breath which showed how easily he was agitated.
Tor signed to Roma to give him brandy, and answered gently enough:
‘If I do not speak, it is not because I do not feel. I am deeply conscious of the honour you do me; Roma and I both understand all that your words mean to us. But whilst you are so ill, we would rather postpone further discussion. ”

“ Finally a secret passage was discovered, leading underground, and the king entered it, the others following. They emerged in a forest where they found Torborg and all her men and where a sharp battle began. No warrior could have fought more bravely than the man-like princess, and her men stood up for her boldly, but they gradually gave way before the onset of Rolf and his tried warriors.
Rolf now bade Kettil to take Torborg prisoner, but not to wound her, saying that it would be shameful to use arms against a woman. ”

“ Lorraine nervously. ‘It certainly was not found, and you may be sure your uncle would [Pg 150] have his suspicions and leave no papers unexamined. If it was there, he must have found it; but nothing was ever heard of it.’
‘The old scoundrel!’ muttered Tor between his teeth.
‘I believe he is an old scoundrel,’ said Mrs. Lorraine, with more spirit than usual; ‘but what can be done? We do not even know that a second will existed at all. If we were able to prove that one was drawn up, we could not prove that your father had not destroyed it himself. ”

“ For this is the truth that I tell thee: when it was learnt that thou wert coming north to Halogaland with no more force than three hundred men, the counsel of people here was that an army should assemble and take thy life, O king, and the lives of all thy force. And Thorolf was head of these counsels, and it was offered him that he should be king over the Halogalanders and Naumdalesmen. Then he went in and out of each firth and round all the islands, and got together every man he could find and every weapon, and it was no secret that this army was to muster for battle against king Harold. ”

“ Seeing the king among them Thorolf rushed furiously towards him, cut down his banner-bearer with a sword blow, and was almost within touch of the king when he fell from his many wounds, crying: "By three steps only I failed."
It is said that Harold himself gave the death blow, yet he looked sadly on the warrior as he lay dead at his feet, saying, as he saw a man bandaging a slight wound: "That wound Thorolf did not give. Differently did weapons bite in his hand. It is a pity that such men must die." ”

“ Days are as years, and years as days. We have known each other for years. You have said it yourself.’
‘Not quite,’ she answered gently. ‘We were talking then of dreams and sweet fancies. Life, Signor, is not made up of these.’
‘Signor!’ he repeated reproachfully. ‘How can you be so cold? Call me Filippo.’
‘Filippo!’ she repeated wonderingly.
‘I mean Marco,’ he answered, with a confusion which was not noticed in the darkness. ‘I was thinking of my friend whom I saw this afternoon. Will you not call me Marco sometimes?’
‘I—I do not know,’ faltered Roma. ”

“ Philip, by the grace of God king of France. Be it known to all men, present and future, that we have received our beloved nephew, Theobald, count of Troyes, as our liege man, against every creature, living or dead, for all the lands which his father, count Henry, our uncle, held from our father, and which count Henry, the brother of Theobald, held from us. Count Theobald has sworn to us on the most holy body of the Lord and on the holy gospel that he will aid us in good faith, as his liege lord, against every creature, living or dead ”

“ Thorbeorg would not be left behind by Eindride, though he warned her that she would hear nothing pleasant at the meeting. The crowd became silent as she entered, and she spoke immediately to some of the chief men.... Here, Philip got up out of bed looking very grim while he uttered the words of Thorbeorg: “I know what you want [246] to do. Very good. I cannot stop you by myself. But this I can do, and will—I will be the death of the man who kills Haurd....” Philip stood entranced and still as a statue at the window, as if he could see her so long as he remained still. ”

“ Now this is my counsel, O king, that thou keep Thorolf near thee, and let him be in thy guard, and bear thy standard, and be in the forecastle of thy ship; for this duty no man is fitter. Or if thou wilt have him to be a baron, then give him a grant southwards in the Firths, where are all his family: thou mayest then keep an eye on him, that he make not himself too great for thee. But the business here in Halogaland put thou into the hands of men who are moderate and will serve thee faithfully, and have kinsfolk here, men whose relatives have had the same work here before. ”

“ Theron stared at them with the erratic, rippling jangle of the waltz in his ears, and felt that he possessed a new and disturbing conception of what female emancipation meant in these later days. Roving along the wall, his glance rested again upon the largest of the Virgin pictures—a full-length figure in sweeping draperies, its radiant, aureoled head upturned in rapt adoration, its feet resting on a crescent moon which shone forth in bluish silver through festooned clouds of cherubs. ”

“ Though he carried this with the natural grace of a proud and beautiful belle, there was no hint of the feminine in his bearing, or in the contour of his pale, firm-set, handsome face. As he moved through the hall-way, the five people whom Theron had seen waiting rose from their bench, and two of the women began in humble murmurs, “If you please, Father,” and “Good-evening to your Riverence;” but the priest merely nodded and passed on up the staircase, followed by his guests. The people sat down on their bench again. ”

“ Ware,” remarked Father Forbes, with a gesture of his plump white hand which embraced the dishes in the centre of the table. “May I send you a bit of this boiled mutton? I have very homely tastes when I am by myself.”
“I was saying,” Theron observed, after some moments had passed in silence, “that I date such a tremendous revolution in my thoughts, my beliefs, my whole mind and character, from my first meeting with you, my first coming here. ”

“ Tor did not even observe his friend’s silence in his own gladness of heart.
‘Phil, you rascal, tell me how you came here? How did you escape from your vessel without my knowledge? I can’t conceive how you came, but it’s such an immense relief to have you back that I don’t care for anything else. Did that Italian fellow smuggle you in? By-the-bye, where is he?’
Tor looked round him with a comical air of perplexity; and then, seeing the coat and wig lying on the bed, and the shaving apparatus upon the washstand, the true meaning of the situation dawned upon him. ”

“ Presently they came to the Madden place, and Celia, without waiting for the gravelled walk, struck obliquely across the lawn. Theron, who had been lagging behind with a certain circumspection, stepped briskly to her side now. Their progress over the soft, close-cropped turf in the dark together, with the scent of lilies and perfumed shrubs heavy on the night air, and the majestic bulk of the big silent house rising among the trees before them, gave him a thrilling sense of the glory of individual freedom.
“I feel a new man already,” he declared, as they swung along on the grass. ”

“ The large dark rings around her eyes grew deeper still in their shadows when she told about this, and her ordinarily sharp voice took on a mellow cadence, with a soft, drawling accent, turning U's into O's, and having no R's to speak of. Theron had imbibed somewhere in early days the conviction that the South was the land of romance, of cavaliers and gallants and black eyes flashing behind mantillas and outspread fans, and somehow when Sister Soulsby used this intonation she suggested all these things. ”

“ Theodore, though firmly grounded in all our holy faith enjoins to be believed, had no apprehension that good men were abandoned without cause to the malice of the powers of darkness. He thought the place more likely to be infested by robbers than by those infernal agents who are reported to molest and bewilder travellers. He had long burned with impatience to approve his valour. Drawing his sabre, he marched sedately onwards, still directing his steps as the imperfect rustling sound before him led the way. The armour he wore was a like indication to the person who avoided him. ”

“ Theodore bent his head, and the monarch turned to the hermit, who pronounced in his favour a singular prayer, one indeed which Theodore imagined might give no light offence to the stern chieftain of the Huns. "May God enlighten thine eyes," he said, "and purify thy spirit, and soften thy hard heart, and make thee leave the abomination of thine idols, so that thou mayst become a servant of the true God, and not merely an instrument of his vengeance!" ”

“ I saw the old boy expected to be included in a family gathering. He accepted at once, but now his doctor has forbidden him to come, and Roma remains with him; but that Italian fellow holds to his engagement. Odd, isn’t it?—sticking himself into a party where he must know he is not wanted.’
‘Odd and significant,’ answered Miss Marjory [Pg 264] thoughtfully. ‘I know that man means mischief.’
‘I half think so, too,’ assented Tor. ‘I have been wondering how I could win him over. He can’t have any very powerful motive for making himself disagreeable to me. ”

“ They spread the table for the feast, and Gudrid served the guests with the other girls of the house. Thorberg sat by Heriolf, and said very little, which was all to the good, since it made men treasure what she did say, and find more in it than may have been there. Then, when the tables had been cleared, Heriolf stood up and asked her if she had been well-treated. Thorberg said, "You have given me your best, Franklin. No one can look for more." ”

“ Thoreau recited Cato's soliloquy with perfect composure and contentment. Well might a gifted woman exclaim, 'She looks like a queen,' when death at last had claimed the resolute spirit, and she lay silently receiving her friends for the last time. ”

“ In truth, this essay on Carlyle ranks to-day as one of the most just, sympathetic and comprehensive analyses of the great prophet-author. It is interesting to read, by way of comparison, the study by Lowell. Both Thoreau and Lowell, as young men, had been thrilled by this new voice of the age. Lowell, with characteristic apprehension, analyzes Carlyle's literary qualities,—his humor, his vehemence, his imagery,—while Thoreau is stirred by the moral earnestness and deep sincerity of the man and seer. ”

“ You are the most beautiful of heavenly creatures, as she is of the angels on earth. I am speechless with reverence for you both.”
It was not until the camp-meeting broke up, four days later, and Theron with the rest returned to town, that the material aspects of what had happened, and might be expected to happen, forced themselves upon his mind. The kiss was a child of the forest. So long as Theron remained in the camp, the image of the kiss, which was enshrined in his heart and ministered to by all his thoughts, continued enveloped in a haze of sylvan mystery, like a dryad. ”

“ I can have Father Forbes to myself today, too. That bear of a doctor has got the rheumatism, and can't come out of his cave, thank Heaven!”
And then she was receding from view, up the sunlit, busy sidewalk, and Theron, standing on the doorstep, ruefully rubbed his chin. She had said he was going the other way, and, after a little pause, he made her words good, though each step he took seemed all in despite of his personal inclinations. Some of the passers-by bowed to him, and one or two paused as if to shake hands and exchange greetings. ”