A KNIGHT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY - Edward Payson Roe (best color ebook reader TXT) 📗
- Author: Edward Payson Roe
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Might Result In an Explosion Of Wrath; And Yet He Made A Desperate
Effort At Self-Control, For He Saw That His Wife Was In one Of Those
Moods Which He Had Learned to Regard With A Wholesome Respect.
"You Have Sent Haldane To Prison," She Said Calmly. Though Her Tone Was
So Quiet, There Was In it A Certain Depth And Tremble Which Her Husband
Well Understood, But He Only Answered briefly:
"Yes; He Must Go There If He Finds No Bail."
"May I Ask Why?"
"He Robbed me Of A Thousand Dollars."
"Were There No Extenuating Circumstances?" Mrs. Arnot Asked, After A
Slight Start.
"No, But Many Aggravating Ones."
"Did He Not Come Here Of His Own Accord?"
"He Could Not Have Done Otherwise. I Had Detectives Watching Him."
"He Could Have Tried to Do Otherwise. Did He Not Offer Some
Explanation?"
"What He Said Amounted to A Confession Of The Crime."
"What Did He Say?"
"I Have Not Charged my Mind With All The Rash, Foolish Words Of The
Young Scapegrace. It Is Sufficient For Me That He And All In my Employ
Received a Lesson Which They Will Not Soon Forget. I Wish You Would
Excuse Me From Further Consideration Of The Subject At Present. It Has
Cost Me Too Much Time Already."
"You Are Correct," Said Mrs. Arnot Very Quietly. "It Is Likely To Prove
A Very Costly Affair. I Tremble To Think What Your Lesson May Cost This
Young Man, Whom You Have Rendered reckless And Desperate By This Public
Disgrace; I Tremble To Think What This Event May Cost My Friend, His
Mother. Of The Pain It Has Cost Me I Will Not Speak--"
"Madam," Interrupted mr. Arnot Harshly, "Permit Me To Say That This Is
An Affair Concerning Which A Sentimental Woman Can Have No Correct
Understanding. I Propose To Carry On My Business In the Way Which
Experience Has Taught Me Is Wise, And, With All Respect To Yourself, I
Would Suggest That In these Matters Of Business I Am In my Own
Province."
The Ashen Hue Deepened upon Mrs. Arnot'S Face, But She Answered quietly:
"I Do Not Wish To Overstep The Bounds Which Should Justly Limit My
Action And My Interest In this Matter. You Will Also Do Me The Justice
To Remember That I Have Never Interfered in your Business, And Have
Rarely Asked you About It, Though In the World'S Estimation I Would Have
Some Right To Do So. But If Such Harshness, If Such Disastrous Cruelty,
Is Necessary To Your Business, I Must Withdraw My Means From It, For I
Could Not Receive Money Stained, As It Were, With Blood. But Of This
Hereafter. I Will Now Telegraph Mrs. Haldane To Come Directly To Our
House--"
"To Our House!" Cried mr. Arnot, Perfectly Aghast.
"Certainly. Can You Suppose That, Burdened with This Intolerable
Disgrace, She Could Endure The Publicity Of A Hotel? I Shall Next Visit
Haldane, For As I Saw Him In the Street, With The Rabble Following, He
Looked desperate Enough To Destroy Himself."
"Now, I Protest Against All This Weak Sentimentality," Said Mr. Arnot,
Rising. "You Take Sides With A Robber Against Your Husband."
"I Do Not Make Light Of Haldane'S Offence To You, And Certainly Shall
Not To Him. But It Is His First Offence, As Far As We Know, And, Though
You Have Not Seen Fit To Inform Me Of The Circumstances, I Cannot
Believe That He Committed a Cool, Deliberate Theft. He Could Have Been
Made To Feel His Guilt Without Being Crushed. The Very Gravity Of His
Wrong Action Might Have Awakened him To His Danger, And Have Been The
Turning-Point Of His Life. He Should Have Had At Least One Chance--God
Gives Us Many."
"Well, Well," Said Mr. Arnot Impatiently, "Let His Mother Return The
Money, And I Will Not Prosecute. But Why Need mrs. Haldane Come To
Hillaton? All Can Be Arranged by Her Lawyer."
"You Know Little Of A Mother'S Feelings If You Can Suppose She Will Not
Come Instantly."
"Well, Then, When The Money Is Paid She Can Take Him Home, That Is,
After The Forms Of Law Are Complied with."
"But He Must Remain In prison Till The Money Is Paid?"
"Certainly."
"You Intimated that If Any One Went Bail For Him He Need not Go To
Prison. I Will Become His Security."
"O Nonsense! I Might As Well Give Bail Myself."
"Has He Reached the Prison Yet?"
"I Suppose He Has," Replied mr. Arnot, Taking Care To Give No Hint Of
The Preliminary Examination, For It Would Have Annoyed him Excessively
To Have His Wife Appear At A Police Court Almost In the Light Of An
Antagonist To Himself. And Yet His Stubborn Pride Would Not Permit Him
To Yield, And Carry Out With Considerate Delicacy The Merciful Policy
Upon Which He Saw She Was Bent.
"Good-Morning," Said His Wife Very Quietly, And She At Once Left Her
Husband'S Private Room. Laura Rose From Her Chair In the Outer Office
And Welcomed her Gladly, For, In her Nervous Trepidation, The Minutes
Had Seemed like Hours. Mrs. Arnot Went To A Telegraph Office, And Sent
The Following Despatch To Mrs. Haldane:
"Come To My House At Once. Your Son Is Well, But Has Met With
Misfortune."
She Then, With Laura, Returned immediately Home And Ordered her Carriage
For A Visit To The Prison. She Also Remembered with Provident Care That
The Young Man Could Not Have Tasted food That Morning.
Chapter XIII (Our Knight In jail)As Haldane Emerged from The Office Into The Open Glare Of The Street, He
Was Oppressed with Such An Intolerable Sense Of Shame That He Became
Sick And Faint, And Tottered against The Policeman, Who Took No Other
Notice Of His Condition Than The Utterance Of A Jocular Remark:
"You Haven'T Got Over Your Drunk Yet, I'M Athinking."
Haldane Made No Reply, And The Physical Weakness Gradually Passed away.
As His Stunned and Bewildered mind Regained the Power To Act, He Became
Conscious Of A Morbid Curiosity To See How He Was Regarded by Those Whom
He Met. He Knew That Their Manner Would Pierce Like Sword-Thrusts, And
Yet Every Scornful Or Averted face Had A Cruel Fascination.
With A Bitterness Of Which His Young Heart Had Never Before Had Even A
Faint Conception, He Remembered that This Cold And Contemptuous, This
Scoffing and Jeering World Was The Same In which Only Yesterday He
Proposed to Tower In such Lofty Grandeur That The Maiden Who Had
Slighted him Should Be Consumed with Vain Regret In memory Of Her Lost
Opportunity. He Had, Indeed, Gained eminence Speedily. All The Town Was
Hearing Of Him; But The Pedestal Which Lifted him So High Was Composed
Equally Of Crime And Folly, And He Felt As If He Might Stand As A
Monument Of Shame.
But His Grim And Legal Guardians Tramped along In the Most Stolid And
Indifferent Manner. The Gathering Rabble At Their Heels Had No Terror
For Them. Indeed, They Rather Enjoyed parading Before Respectable
Citizens This Dangerous Substratum Of Society. It Was A Delicate Way Of
Saying, "Behold In these Your Peril, And In us Your Defence. We Are
Necessary To Your Peace And Security. Respect Us And Pay Us Well."
They Represented the Majesty Of The Law, Which Could Lay Its Strong Hand
On High And Low Alike, And The Publicity Which Was Like A Scorching Fire
To Haldane Brought Honor To Them.
Although The Journey Seemed interminable To The Culprit, They Were Not
Long In reaching The Police Court, Where The Magistrate Presiding Had
Already Entered on His Duties. All Night Long, And Throughout The Entire
City, The Scavengers Of The Law Had Been At Work, And Now, As A Result,
Every Miserable Atom Of Humanity That Had Made Itself A Pestilential
Offence To Society Was Gathered here To Be Disposed of According To
Sanatory Moral Rules.
Hillaton Was A Comparatively Well-Behaved and Decorous City; But In
Every Large Community There Is Always A Certain Amount Of Human
Sediment, And Haldane Felt That He Had Fallen Low Indeed, When He Found
Himself Classed and Huddled with Miserable Objects Whose Existence He
Had Never Before Realized. Near Him Stood Men Who Apparently Had Barely
Enough Humanity Left To Make Their Dominating animal Natures More
Dangerous And Difficult To Control. To The Instincts Of A Beast Was
Added something Of A Man'S Intelligence, But So Developed that It Was
Often Little More Than Cunning. If, When Throwing away His Manhood, Man
Becomes A Creature More To Be Dreaded than A Beast Or Venomous Reptile,
Whichever He Happens Most To Resemble, Woman, Parting With Her
Womanhood, Scarcely Finds Her Counterpart Even In the Most Noxious Forms
Of Earthly Existence. She Becomes, In her Perversion, Something That Is
Unnatural And Monstrous; Something, So Opposite To The Creator'S Design,
As To Suggest It Only In caricature, Or, More Often, In fiendish
Mockery. The Gorgons, Sirens, And Harpies Of The Ancients Are Scarcely
Myths, For Their Fabled forms Only Too Accurately Portray, Not The
Superficial And Transient Outward Appearance, But The Enduring Character
Within.
Side By Side With Haldane Stood A Creature Whose Dishevelled, Rusty
Hair, Blotched and Bloated features, Wanton, Cunning, Restless Eyes,
Combined perfectly To Form The Head Of The Mythological Harpy. It
Required little Effort Of The Imagination To Believe That Her Foul,
Bedraggled dress Concealed the "Wings And Talons Of The Vulture." Being
Still Unsteady From Her Night'S Debauch, She Leaned against The Young
Man, And When He Shrank In loathing away, She, To Annoy Him, Clasped him
In Her Arms, To The Uproarious Merriment Of The Miscellaneous Crowd That
Is Ever Present At A Police Court. Haldane Broke Away From Her Grasp
With Such Force As To Make Quite A Commotion, And At The Same Time Said
Loudly And Fiercely To The Officer Who Had Arrested him:
"You May Have Power To Take Me To Jail, But You Have Not, And Shall Not
Have, The Right Nor The Power To Subject Me To Such Indignities."
"Silence There! Keep Order In the Court!" Commanded the Judge.
The Officer Removed his Prisoner A Little Further Apart From The Others,
Growling as He Did So:
"If You Don'T Like Your Company, You Should Have Kept Out Of It."
Even In his Overwhelming anxiety And Distress Haldane Could Not Forbear
Giving a Few Curious Glances At His Companions. He Had Dropped out Of
His Old World Into A New One, And These Were Its Inhabitants. In their
Degradation And Misery He Seemed to See Himself And His Future
Reflected. What Had The Policeman Said?--"Your Company," And With A
Keener Pang Than He Had Yet Experienced he Realized that This Was His
Company, That He Now Belonged to The Criminal Classes. He Who Yesterday
Had The Right To Speak To Laura Romeyn, Was Now Herded with Drunkards,
Thieves, And Prostitutes; He Who Yesterday Could Enter Mrs. Arnot'S
Parlor, Might Now As Easily Enter Heaven. As The Truth Of His Situation
Gradually Dawned upon Him, He Felt As If An Icy Hand Were Closing Upon
His Heart.
But Little Time, However, Was Given Him For Observation Or Bitter
Revery. With The Rapid And Routine-Like Manner Of One Made Both Callous
And Expert By Long Experience, The Magistrate Was Sorting and Disposing
Of The Miserable Waifs. Now He Has Before Him The Inmates Of A
"Disorderly House," Upon Which A "Raid" Had Been Made The Previous
Night. What Is That Fair Young Girl With Blue Eyes Doing among Those
Coarse-Featured human Dregs, Her Companions? She Looks Like A White Lily
That Has Been Dropped into A Puddle. Perhaps That Delicate And
Attractive Form Is But A Disguise For The Harpy'S Wings And Claws.
Perhaps A Gross, Bestial Spirit Is Masked by Her Oval Madonna-Like Face.
Perhaps She Is The Victim Of One Upon Whom God Will Wreak His Vengeance
Forever, Though Society Has For Him Scarcely A Frown.
The Puddle Is Suddenly Drained off Into Some Law-Ordained receptacle,
And The White Lily Is Swept Away With It. She Will Not Long Suggest A
Flower That Has Been Dropped into The Gutter. The Stains Upon Her Soul
Will Creep Up Into Her Face, And Make Her Hideous Like The Rest.
The Case Of Egbert Haldane Was Next Called. As The Policeman
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