Classic Audiobook Collection - A Man of Honor by George Eggleston ~ Full Audiobook [drama]

Starting point is 00:00:00 A Man of Honor by George Carey Eggleston. Chapter 1 Mr. Pagebrook gets up and calls an ancient lawgiver. Mr. Robert Pagebrook was blue. There was no denying the fact, and for the first time in his life, he admitted it as he lay a bed one September morning with his hands locked over the top of his head, while his shapely and muscular body was stretched at lazy,

Starting point is 00:00:30 length under a scanty covering of sheet. He was snappish, too, as his faithful serving-man had discovered upon knocking half an hour ago for entrance, and receiving a rather pointed and wholly unreasonable injunction to go about his business, his sole business lying just then within the precincts of Mr. Robert Pageburg's room, to which he was thus denied admittance. The old servant had obeyed to the best. best of his ability, going not about his business, but away from it, wondering, meanwhile, what had come over the young gentleman, whom he had never found Moody before.

Starting point is 00:01:12 It was clear that Mr. Robert Pagebrook's reflections were anything but pleasant as he lay there thinking, thinking, thinking, resolving not to think, and straightway thinking again harder than ever. His disturbance was due to a combination of causes. His muddy boots were in full view for one thing, and he was painfully conscious that they were not likely to get themselves blacked now that he had driven old Moses away. This reminded him that he had showed temper when Moses' meek knock had disturbed him, and to show temper without proper cause, he deemed a weakness.

Starting point is 00:01:54 Weaknesses were his pet aversion. Weakness found little toleration with him. him, particularly when the weakness showed itself in his own person, out of which he had been all his life chastising such infirmities. His petulance with Moses, therefore, contributed to his annoyance, becoming an additional cause of that from which it came as an effect. Our young gentleman acknowledged, as I have already said, that he was out of spirits, in the very act of acknowledging it, he contend himself because of it.

Starting point is 00:02:32 His sturdy manhood rebelled against its own weakness and mocked at it, which certainly was not a very good way to cure it. He denied that there was any good excuse for his depression and scourged himself mentally for giving way to it, a process which, naturally enough, made him give way to it all the more. It depressed him to know that he was weak enough to be depressed. to my thinking he did himself a very great injustice he was in fact very unreasonable with himself and deserved to suffer the consequences i say this frankly being the chronicler of this young man's doings and not his apologist by any means he certainly had good reason to be gloomy inasmuch as he had two rather troublesome things on his hands namely a young man without a situation and a disappointment in love or fancy, which is often mistaken for love. A circumstance which made the matter worse was that the young man without a situation for whose future Mr. Robert Pageburg had to provide was Mr. Robert Pagebrook himself.

Starting point is 00:03:50 This alone would not have troubled him greatly if it had not been for his other trouble. for the great hulking fellow who lay there with his hands clasped over his head, cogitating, as he would have phrased it, had too much physical force, too much of good health and consequent animal spirits to distrust either the future or his own ability to cope with whatever difficulties it might bring with it. To men with broad chests and great brawny legs and arms like his, the future has a very promising way of presenting itself.

Starting point is 00:04:29 Besides, our young man knew himself well furnished for a fight with the world. He knew very well how to take care of himself. He had done farm labor as a boy during the long summer vacations, a task set him by his Virginian father, who had carried a brilliant intellect in a frail body to a western state where he had married and died, leaving his widow this one son, for whom in his own weakness, he desired nothing so much as physical strength and bodily health.

Starting point is 00:05:03 The boy had grown into a sturdy youth when the mother died, leaving him with little in the way of earthly possessions, except well-knit limbs, a clear, strong, active mind, and an independent, self-reliant spirit. With these he had managed to work his way through college, turning his hand to anything which would help to provide him with the necessary means keeping books coaching other students canvassing for various things and doing work of other sorts caring little whether it was dignified or undignified provided it was honest and promised the desired pecuniary return after graduation he had accepted a tutorship in the college wherein he had studied a position which he had resigned about a year before the time at which we find him in a fit of the blues to take upon himself the duties of professor of english language in literature and adjunct professor of mathematics in a little collegiate institute with big pretensions in one of the suburbs of philadelphia

Starting point is 00:06:15 in short he had been knocked about in the world until he had acquired considerable confidence in his ability to earn a living at almost anything he might undertake under the circumstances therefore it is not probable that this energetic and self-confident young gentleman would have suffered the loss of his professorship to annoy him very seriously if it had not been accompanied by the other trouble mentioned indeed the two had come so closely together and were so intimately connected in other ways that mr robert pagebrook was inclined to wonder as he lay there in bed whether there might not exist between them somewhere the relation of cause and effect whether there really was any other than an accidental blending of the two events i am sure i do not know and the reader is at liberty after hearing the brief story of their happening to take either side he prefers of the question raised in mr robb's mind for myself i find it impossible to determine the point but here is the story as young pagebrook turned it over and over in his mind in spite of himself president courier of the collegiate institute had a daughter miss nelly who wanted to study lab more than anything else in the world. President Currier particularly disliked conjugations and parsings and everything else pertaining to the study of language,

Starting point is 00:07:56 and so it happened that, as Miss Nellie was quite a good-looking and agreeable damsel, our young friend Pagebrook volunteered to give her the coveted instruction in her favorite study in the shape of afternoon lessons. The tutor soon discovered that his piece, pupil's earnest wish to learn latin had been based as such desires frequently are in the case of young women upon an entire misapprehension of the nature and difficulty of the study in fact miss nelly's clearest idea upon the subject of latin before beginning it was that it must be so nice her progress therefore after the first week or two was certainly not remarkable for its rapidity. But the tutor persisted. After a while, the young lady said, Latin wasn't nice at all, a remark which she made haste to qualify by assuring her teacher that,

Starting point is 00:08:59 It's nice to take lessons in it, though. Finally, Miss Nellie ceased to make any pretense of learning the lessons, but somehow the afternoon seances over the grammar were continued, though it must be confessed that the talk was not largely of verbs. By the time commencement day came, the occasional presence of Miss Nellie had become a sort of necessity in the young professor's daily existence, and the desire to be with her led him to spend the summer at Cape May, whither her father annually took her for the season.

Starting point is 00:09:37 Now Cape May is an expensive place, as watering places usually are. And so Mr. Robert Pagebrook's stay, of a little over two months there, made a serious reduction in his reserve fund, which was at best a very limited one. Before going to Cape May, he had concluded that he was in love with Miss Nellie and had informed her of the fact. She had expressed, by manner rather than by spoken word,

Starting point is 00:10:08 a reasonable degree of pleasure in the knowledge of this fact, but when pressed for a reply to the young gentleman's impetuous questionings, she had prettily avoided committing herself beyond recall. She told him she might possibly come to love him a little, after a while, in a pretty little maidenly way, which satisfied him that she loved him a good deal already. She said she didn't know with a tone and a manner which convinced him that she did know. And so the Cape May season passed off very pleasantly,

Starting point is 00:10:48 with just enough of uncertainty about the position of affairs to keep up an interest in them. As the season drew near its close, however, Miss Nellie suddenly informed her lover one evening that her dear father had plans for her, and that, of course, they had both been amusing themselves merely. And she said this, in so innocent and so sincere a way, that for the moment her stunned admirer believed it, as he retired to his room with an unusual ache in his heart. When the young man sat down alone, however,

Starting point is 00:11:27 and began meditating upon the events of the past summer, he was unreasonable enough to accuse the innocent little maiden of very naughty trifling, and even to think her wanting in honesty and sincerity. As he sat there brooding over the matter, and half hoping that Miss Nellie was only trying him for the purpose of testing the depth of his affection, a servant brought him a note, which he opened and read. It was a very formal affair, as the reader will see upon running his eye over the following copy. Cape May, September 10th, 18-something

Starting point is 00:12:08 Dear Sir, it becomes my duty to inform you that the authorities controlling the Collegiate Institute's affairs, having found it necessary to retrench its expenses somewhat, have determined to dispense altogether with the adjunct professorship of mathematics, and to distribute the duties appertaining to the chair of English law. language and literature among the other members of the faculty. In consequence of these changes, we shall hereafter be deprived of your valuable assistance in the Collegiate Institute. There is yet do you $300 upon your salary for the late Collegiate year, and I greatly regret

Starting point is 00:12:54 that the Treasurer informs me of a present lack of funds with which to discharge this obligation. I personally promise you, however, that the amount shall be remitted to whatever address you may give me, on or before the 15th day of November next. I send this by a messenger, just as I am upon the point of leaving Cape May for a brief trip to other parts of the country. I remain, sir, with the utmost respect, your obedient servant, David Currier, etc to professor robert pagebrook this letter had come to mr robert very unexpectedly and its immediate consequence had been to send him hastily back to his city lodgings he had arrived late at night and finding no matches in his room which was situated in a business building where his neighbors were unknown to him he had been compelled to go to bed in the dark without the possibility of ascertaining whether or not there were any letters awaiting him on his table.

Starting point is 00:14:07 Our young gentleman was not, ordinarily, of an irritable disposition, and trifling things rarely ever disturbed his equanimity, but he was forced to admit, as he lay there in bed, that he had been a very unreasonable young gentleman on several recent occasions, and, naturally enough, he began to catalog his sins of this sort. among other things he remembered that he had worked himself into a temper over the emptiness of the match-safe and this reminded him that he had not even yet looked to see if there were any letters on the table at his elbow much as he had the night previously bewailed the impossibility of doing so at once somehow this matter of his correspondence did not seem half so imperative in its demands upon his attention now that he could read his letters at once,

Starting point is 00:15:04 as it had seemed the night before when he could not read them at all. He stretched out his hand rather languidly, therefore, and taking up the half-dozen letters which lay on the table, began to turn them over, examining the superscriptions with small show of interest. Breaking one open, he muttered, "'There's another forty dollars worth of folly.' i did not need that coat but ordered it expressly for cape may the bill must be paid of course and here i am out of work with no prospects and about five hundred dollars less money in the bank than i ought to have

Starting point is 00:15:49 i am really afraid he closed that sentence with an ejaculation i have set down an exclamation point to cover the possibility of such a thing he went on with his letters presently he opened the last but one and immediately proceeded to open his eyes rather wider than usual jumping out of bed he thrust his head out of the door and called moses moses moses moses moses end of chapter one chapter two of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this libervox recording is in the public domain chapter two mr pagebrook is invited to breakfast after he had waked up whatever echoes there were in the building by his crescendo calling for moses besides spoiling the temper of the night editor who was just then in the midst of the middle his first slumber in the room opposite, Mr. Robb remembered that the old-coloured janitor, who owned the biblical name, and who, for a trifling consideration, ministered in the capacity of servant to the personal comfort of the occupants of the rooms

Starting point is 00:17:19 under his charge, was never known to answer a call. He was sure to be within hearing, but would maintain a profound silence, until he had disposed of whatever matter he might happen to have in hand at the moment, after which he would come to the caller in the sedate and dignified way proper to a person of his importance. Remembering this and hearing some ominous mutterings from the night editor's room, our young gentleman withdrew his head from the corridor, put on his dressing gown and slippers, and sat down to await the leisurely coming of the serving man.

Starting point is 00:17:59 Taking up the note again, he re-read it, although he knew perfectly well everything in it, and began speculating upon what it could possibly mean, knowing all the while that no amount of speculation could throw the slightest ray of light on the subject in the absence of further information. He read it aloud, just as you or I would have done, when there was nobody by to listen. It was as brief as a telegram and merely said, "'Will you please inform me at once "'whether we may count upon your acceptance

Starting point is 00:18:37 "'of the position offered you?' "'It was signed with an unfamiliar name, "'to which was appended the abbreviated word, "'President.' "'I shall certainly be very happy to inform the gentleman, "'thought the perplexed young man, "'whether he may or may not, by the way he very improperly omits the alternative or not after his whether whether he may or may not count upon i must look up that expression and see if there is good authority for its use

Starting point is 00:19:14 whether he may or may not count upon my acceptance of the position offered me just as soon as i can inform myself upon the matter as i have not at present the slightest idea of what the position is it is somewhat difficult for me to make up my mind concerning it however as i am without employment and uncomfortably short of money there seems to be every probability that my unknown correspondent's proposition whatever it is will be favorably considered moses will come after a while i suppose and he probably has the other letter caged as a valuable let me see what we have here from william with this our young gentleman opened his only remaining letter which he had already discovered by a glance at the postmark was from a virginian cousin it was a mere note in which his cousin wrote a little matter of business takes me to philadelphia next week shall be at gerard hotel thursday morning meet me there at breakfast but don't come too early train won't get in till three so i'll sleep a little late should you wake me too early i'll be as cross as a twenty-dollar bank-note and make a bad impression on you an amused smile played over mr robert's face as he read this note over and over what he was thinking i do not know aloud he said

Starting point is 00:20:57 what a passion my cousin has for abbreviations one would think he had a grudge against words from the way in which he cuts them up and what a figure of speech that is as cross as a twenty-dollar bank-note Let me see. I may safely assume that the letter's Thursday, with an elevated D, mean Thursday. And as this is Thursday, and as the letter was written last week, and as my watch tells me, it is now ten o'clock, and as my boots are still unblacked, and as Moses has not yet made his appearance, it seems altogether probable that my cousin's breakfast will be postponed until the middle of the day if he waits for me to help him eat it. I am afraid he will be as cross as half a dozen bank notes of the largest denomination issued when we meet. Did you call, sir? asked Moses, coming very deliberately into the room. I am under the impression that I did,

Starting point is 00:22:09 though it requires an extraordinary exercise of the memory to recall an event which happened so long ago have you any valuables for me moses thought he had this was as near an approach to anything like a positive statement as moses ever made he would go to his roman ascertain among many other evidences of unusual wisdom on the part of the old negro was this that he believed himself fully capable of recognizing a valuable letter whenever he saw it and it was one of his self-imposed duties whenever the post brought letters for any absent member of his constituency to look them over and sequestrate all the valuables until the return of the owner so that they might be delivered with his own hand returning now he brought two valuables for mr pagebrook one of them was a printed circular but the other proved to be the desired letter which was a formal tender of a professorship in a new england college with an entirely satisfactory salary attached accompanying the official notice of election was a note informing him that his duties in the event of acceptance would not begin until the first of january the engagement of the engagement of the election was a note informing him that his duties in the event of acceptance would not begin until the first of january the engagement of the retiring professor terminating at that time. Under the influence of this news,

Starting point is 00:23:46 our young friend's face brightened quite as perceptibly as his boots did in the hands of the old servitor. He wrote his letter of acceptance at once, and then proceeded to dress for breakfast at the Gerard house, whither he walked with as light a step and as cheerful a bearing, as if he had not been a sadly disappointed lover at all. End of Chapter 2. Chapter 3 of A Man of Honor by George Carey Eggleston.

Starting point is 00:24:24 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 3. Mr. Page Burke eats his breakfast. Robert Page Burke had never seen his cousin, and yet they were not altogether strangers to each other. Robert's father and William Barksdale's mother were brother and sister, and surely, the old Virginian homestead, which had been in the family for nearly two centuries, had passed to young Barksdale's mother by the voluntary act of Robert's father when, upon coming of age, he had gone west to try his fortune in a busier world than that of the old dominion. The two boys, William and Robert, had corresponded quite regularly in boyhood

Starting point is 00:25:14 and quite irregularly after they grew up, and so they knew each other pretty well, though, as I have said, they had never met. I am glad, very glad to see you, William, said Robert as he grasped his cousin's hand. Now don't, I beg of you. Call me Billy or Will, or anything else you choose, old fellow, but don't call me William, whatever you do.

Starting point is 00:25:43 Nobody ever did. but father, and he never did, except of mornings when I wouldn't get up. Then he'd sing out, William, with a sort of a horsewhip snap at the end of it. William always reminds me of disturbed slumbers. Call me Billy, and I'll call you Bob. I'll do that anyhow, so you might as well fall into familiar ways. But come, tell me how you are, and all about yourself.

Starting point is 00:26:14 You haven't written to me since the flood. Forgot to receive my last letter, I suppose. Probably I did. I have been forgetting a good many things, but I hope I have not kept you too long from your breakfast, and especially that I have not made you as cross as a $20 banknote. Pray tell me what you meant by that figure of speech, will you not? I am curious to know where you can.

Starting point is 00:26:44 got it, and why? Ha, ha, laughed Billy. You'll have a lively time of it if you mean to unravel all my metaphors. Let me see. I must have referred to the big X's they print on the bank bills, or something of that sort. But let's go to breakfast at once. I'm as hungry as a village editor. We can talk over a beefsteak, or you can at least.

Starting point is 00:27:14 i mean to be as still as a mill-pond of a cloudy night while you tell me all about yourself and over their breakfast they talk but in telling his story while he remembered to mention all the details of his situation losing and his situation getting mr robert somehow forgot to say anything about his other disappointment he soon learned to know and to like his cousin and which was more to the purpose he began to enjoy him right-heartedly in his own way bantering him on his queer uses of english half in sport half in earnest until the Virginian declared that they had grown as familiar with each other as a pair of Irishmen at a wake. "'I suppose you're off at once for your new place, ain't you?' "'This is September,' said Billy, after his cousin had finished so much of his story as he cared to reveal. "'No,' said Robert. "'My duties will not begin until January, and meantime I must go off on a tramp.

Starting point is 00:28:24 somewhere to get my muscles physical and financial up again to tell the truth I have been dawdling at Cape May this summer instead of going off to the mountains or the prairies as I usually do for a healthful economical foot journey and the result is that my legs and arms are sadly run down I have been spending too much money too and so cannot afford to stay around Philadelphia you until January. I think I must go off to some of the mountain countries, where the people think five dollars of fortune, and call anything less than a precipice rising ground. Well, I reckon you won't, said the Virginian. I've been inviting you to the home of your fathers

Starting point is 00:29:16 ever since I was born, and this is the very first time I ever got you to own up to a scrap of leisure as big as your thumbnail. I've got you now with nothing to do and nowhere to go, and I mean to take you with me this very evening to Virginia. We'll leave on the 11 o'clock train tonight, get to Richmond tomorrow at two, and go up home next morning in time for snack. But my dear Billy—but my dear Bob, I won't hear a word, and I won't take no for an answer. That's Paws-Raws and the King's English. I'm managing this little job. You can give up your rooms today, sell out your plunder, and stop expenses.

Starting point is 00:30:07 Then you needn't open to your pocketbook again for so long that you'll forget how it looks inside. Put a few ninepences into your breeches pocket to throw at darkies when they hold your horse and the thing's done. And won't we wake up old surely? i tell you it's the delightfulst two hundred year old establishment you ever saw or didn't see as the irish attorney said of his ancestral home there isn't a table in the house that hasn't had jigs danced upon it and there's not a chair that you can't throw at a friend's head without the slightest fear of breaking it when we get there we'll have as much fun as a pack of hounds on a fresh trail upon my word billy said the professor cousin your metaphors have the merits of freshness and originality at the least though now and then as in the present instance they are certainly not very complimentary however it just occurs to me that i have been wanting to go to shirley ever since i was born if you will allow me to borrow one of your forcible phrases and this really does seem to be a peculiarly good opportunity to do so i am a good deal interested in dialects and provincialisms so it would be worth my while to visit you if for no other reason

Starting point is 00:31:36 because my stay at shirley will give me an excellent opportunity to study some of your own expressions pause ross now is entirely new to me and i might make something out of it in a philological way. Upon my word, said Mr. Billy. That's a polite speech. If you'll only say you'll go, though, I don't care the value of a herring's left forefoot what use you make of me. I'm yours to command, and ready for any sport that suits you, unless you take a notion to throw rocks at me. Pray, tell me, Billy, do Virginians ever throw rocks? I am interested in muscle and should greatly like to see someone able to throw rocks. I have paid half a dollar many a time to see a man lift extraordinary weights, but the best of the showmen never dream of handling anything heavier than cannonballs.

Starting point is 00:32:39 It would be decidedly entertaining to see a man throwing rocks and things of that sort about, even if he were to use both hands in doing it. nonsense said billy i'm not one of your students getting a dictionary lesson waiter what will you have sir asked the waiter some hot biscuit please they ain't no hot biscuit sir well some hot rolls then or hot bread of some sort cold bread for breakfast is an abomination they ain't no hot bread in the house sir we never keep none hot bread ain't healthy sir you impertinent my dear billy said mr bob pray keep your temper impertinent is not the word you wish to use the man cannot well be impertinent he is a trifle impudent i admit but we can afford to overlook the impudence of his remark for the sake of the philological interest it has. Waiter, you ought to know, in as much as you have been brought up in a land of free schools,

Starting point is 00:34:00 that two negatives in English destroy each other and are equivalent to an affirmative. But the matter in which I am most interested just now is your remark that hot bread is not healthy. Your statement is perfectly true, and it would have been equally true. equally true if you had omitted the qualifying adjective hot no bread can be healthy because health and disease are not attributes or conditions of inanimate things you probably meant however that hot bread is not wholesome a point on which my friend here who eats hot bread every day of his life would naturally take issue with you please bring us some buttered toast the waiter went away bewildered questioning the sanity of mr bob in all probability a questioning in which billy was half inclined to join him what on earth do you mean bob by talking in that way to a waiter who don't know the meaning of one word in five that you use well i meant for one thing to keep you from losing your temper and so spoiling your digestion. Human motives are complicated affairs, and hence I am by no mean sure that I can

Starting point is 00:35:25 further unravel my purpose in this case. Return we to our mutton's then, said Billy. I'll finish the business that brought me here, which is only to be present at the taking of a short deposition, by two or three o'clock. While I'm at it, you can get your traffic. You can get your traffic. together send your trunk to the depot and get back here to dinner by four then we must get through the rest of the time the best way we can and at eleven we'll be off i'm crazy to see you with phil once phil who is he oh phil is a character a colored one i want to see how his dialect will affect you i am half a friend you'll go crazy though under it tell me no i won't describe phil because i can't and no more can anybody else phil must be seen to be appreciated but come i'm off for the notaries and you must get you gone too for you mustn't be late for dinner that's pause with this the two the two young men separated the virginia lawyer to attend to the taking of some depositions and his cousin to surrender his lodgings pack his trunk and make such other arrangements as were necessary for his journey

Starting point is 00:36:58 this opportunity to visit the old homestead where his father had passed his boyhood was peculiarly welcome to mr robert just now there had always been to him a sort of glamour about the names virginia and shirley his father's stories about his own childhood had made a deep impression on the mind of the boy and to him surely was a palace and virginia a fairyland whenever in childhood he was allowed to call a calf or a pig his own he straightway bestowed upon it one or the other of the charmed names and fancied that the animal grew stronger and more beautiful as a consequence he had always intended to go to shirley but had never done so just as you and i reader have always meant to do several scores of things that we have never done though we can hardly say just why just now however mr billy's plan for his cousin was more than ever agreeable to mr robert for various present and unusual reasons he knew next to nobody in or about philadelphia outside the precincts of the collegiate institute and to hunt up acquaintances inside that institution was naturally enough not exactly to his taste he had several months of time to dispose of in some way and until billy suggested the visit to virginia the best he had been able to do in the way of devising a time killer was to plan a solitary wandering among the mountainous districts of Pennsylvania.

Starting point is 00:38:47 Ordinarily, he would have enjoyed such a journey very much, but just now he knew that Mr. Robert Pagebrook could hardly find a less agreeable companion than Mr. Robert Pagebrook himself. That little affair with Miss Nellie Currier kept coming up in his memory, and if the reader be a man, it is altogether probable that he knows precisely, how the memory of that story affected our young gentleman he wanted company and he wanted change and he wanted outdoor exercise and where could he find all these quite so abundant as at an old virginian country house his love for miss nelly he was sure was a very genuine one but he was equally sure that it was hopeless indeed now that he was he knew the selfish insincerity of the damsel he did not even wish that his suit had prospered this at any rate is what he thought as you did my dear sir when you first learned what the word another means when printed with a big a

Starting point is 00:40:00 and thinking this he felt that the first thing to be done in the matter was to forget miss nelly and his love for her as speedily as possible how far he succeeded in doing this we shall probably see in the sequel at present we have to do with the attempt only new scenes and new people mr pagework thought would greatly aid him in his purpose and so the trip to virginia seemed peculiarly fitting it thus comes about that the scene of this young man's story suddenly shifts from philadelphia to a virginian country house in spite of all i can do to preserve the dramatic unity of place ah if i were making this story now i could confine it to a single room compress its action into a single day and do other dramatic and highly proper things but as mr robert pagebrook and his friends were not stage people and moreover as they were not aware that their goings and comings would ever weave themselves into the woof of a story at all they utterly failed to regulate their actions in accordance with critical rules and went roving about over the country quite in a natural way and without the slightest regard for my convenience end of chapter three chapter four of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this libervox recording is in the public domain chapter four mr pagebrook learned something about the customs of the country

Starting point is 00:41:56 when our two young men reached the station at which they were to leave the cars they found awaiting them there the lumbering old carriage which had been part of the shirley of the establishment ever since Mr. Billy could remember. This vehicle was known to everybody in the neighborhood as the Shirley carriage, not because it was older or clumsier or uglier than its fellows, for indeed it was not, but merely because every carriage in a Virginia neighborhood is known to everybody quite as well as its owner is. To Mr. Robert Pageburg, however, the vehicle presented itself as an antique, and a curiosity. Its body was suspended by leathern straps, which came out of some high

Starting point is 00:42:45 semicircular springs at the back, and it was thus raised so far above the axles that one could enter it only by mounting quite a stairway of steps, which unfolded themselves from its interior. Swinging thus by its leathern straps, the great heavy carriage body really seemed to have no support at all, and Mr. Robert found it necessary to exercise all the faith there was in him in order to believe that to get inside of the vehicle was not a sure and speedy way of securing two or three broken bones. He got in, however, at his cousin's invitation, and soon discovered that although the motion of the suspended carriage body closely resembled that of a fore and aft schooner in a gale, it was by no means unpleasant, as the worst that the roughest road could do was to make

Starting point is 00:43:43 the vibratory motion a trifle more decided than usual in its nature. A jolt was simply impossible. As soon as he got his sea-legs on sufficiently to keep himself tolerably steady on his seat, Mr. Rob began to look at the country, or, more properly, to study the roadside. there being little else visible so thickly grew the trees and underbrush on each side how far must we drive before reaching surely he asked after a while as the carriage stopped for the opening of a gate about four miles now said his cousin it's five miles or nearly that from the courthouse the courthouse where is that oh the village where we left the train that's the courthouse ah you virginians call a village a courthouse do you certainly when it's the county seat and ain't much else now and then court-houses put on airs and call themselves names but they don't often make much of it there's poet in court-house now i believe it tried to get itself called scotsville or something of that sort but nobody knows it as anything but poet in court-house our county seat has always been modest and if it has any name i never heard of it

Starting point is 00:45:18 that's one interesting custom of the country at any rate pray tell me is it another of your customs to dispense wholly with public roads i ask for information merely and the question is suggested by the fact that we seem to have driven away from the courthouse by the private road which we are still following why this isn't a private road it's one of the principal public roads of the county how about these gates then asked robert as the negro boy who rode behind the carriage jumped down to open another well what about them why i never saw a gate across a public thoroughfare before. Do you really permit such things in Virginia? Oh, yes, certainly. It saves a great deal of fencing, and the court never refuses permission to put up a gate in any reasonable place, only the owner is bound to make it easy to open on horseback, or, as you would put it, by a person riding on horseback. You see, I'm growing circumspect in my choice of words, since I've been with you. Maybe you'll reform us all and make us talk tolerably good English before you go back. If you do, I'll give you some testimonials to your worth as a professor. But about those gates, Billy? I am all the more interested in them now that I know them as another custom of the country. How do their owners keep them shut? Don't people leave them open pretty often?

Starting point is 00:47:05 never a virginian is always on honor so far as his neighbors are concerned and the man who would leave a neighbor's gate open might as well take to stealing at once for all the difference it would make in his social standing it was not only the gates but the general appearance of the road as well that astonished young pagebrook a public road consisting of a single carriage track with a grass platte on each side fringed with thick undergrowth and overhung by the branches of great trees was to him a novelty and a very pleasant novelty too in which he was greatly interested who lives there asked robert as a large house came into view that's the oaks cousin edwin's place and who is your cousin edwin my cousin edwin he's yours too i reckon cousin edwin pagebrook he is our second cousin or as the old ladies put it first cousin once removed pray tell me what a first cousin once removed is will you not billy i am wholly ignorant on the subject of cousinhood in its higher branches and as i understand that a good deal of stress is laid upon relationships of this sort in virginia i should like to inform myself in advance if possible i really don't know whether i can or not any of the old ladies will lay it all out to you illustrating it with their keys arranged like a genealogical tree i don't know much about it but i reckon i can make you understand this much as i have cousin edwin's case to go by

Starting point is 00:49:03 it's a case in point as we lawyers say let's see cousin edwin's grandfather was our great-grandfather then his father was our grandfather's brother and that makes him first cousin to my mother and your father now i would call mother's first cousin my second cousin but the old ladies who pay a good deal of attention to these matters say not they say that my mother's or my father's first cousin is my first cousin once removed and his children are my second cousins and they prove it all too with their keys well then asked robert if that is so what is the exact relationship between cousin edwin's children and my father or your mother oh don't you bewilder me i told you i didn't know anything about it you must get some old lady to explain it with her keys and when she gets through you won't know who you are to save you that is encouraging certainly said mr robert oh it's no matter you're safe enough in calling everybody round here cousin if you're sure they ain't any closer kin the fact is all the best families here have intermarried so often that the relationships are all mixed up and we always claim kin when there is any ghost of a chance for it besides the page brooks are the biggest tadpoles in the puddle and so if they don't cousin all their kinfolks people think they're stuck up thank you billy but tell me am i being a pagebrook under any consequent obligation to consider myself a tadpole during my stay in virginia billy's only answer was a laugh

Starting point is 00:51:13 now billy robert resumed tell me about the people of shirley i am sadly ignorant you understand and i do not wish to make mistakes begin at top and tell me how i shall call them all well there's father you will call him uncle carter of course he is colonel carter barksdale you know i knew his name was carter of course he is colonel carter barksdale you know i knew his name was carter of course but i did not know he had ever been a military man a military man no he never was what made you think that why you called him colonel oh that's nothing you'll find every gentleman past middle age wearing some sort of title or other they call father colonel barksdale and cousin edwin major page brook though neither of them ever saw a tent that i know of ah another interesting custom of the country but pray go on well mother is aunt mary you know and then there's aunt catherine indeed who is she is she my aunt i really don't know let me see no i reckon not nor mine either for that man I think she's father's fourth or fifth cousin, with a remover to added, possibly, but you must call her aunt anyhow. We all do, and she'd never forgive you if you didn't. You see, she knew your father, and I reckon he called her aunt. It's a way we have here. She is a maiden lady, you understand, and surely is her home.

Starting point is 00:53:12 You'll find somebody of that sort in nearly every house, and they're a delightful sort of somebody, too, to have around. She'll post you up on relationships. She can use up a whole key basket full of keys and run them over by name backwards or forwards, just as you please. You needn't follow her, though, if you object to a headache. All you've got to do is let her tell you about it and you say yes now and then she puts me through every week or so then there's cousin

Starting point is 00:53:51 sudy my father's niece and ward she's been an orphan almost all her life and so she's always lived with us father is her guardian and he always calls her daughter you'll call her cousin sue of course kin to me too is she of course she's father's own brother's child but billy your father is only my uncle by marriage and i do not understand how oh bother if you're going to count it up i reckon there ain't any real relationship but she's your cousin anyhow and you'll offend her if you refuse to own it call her cousin and be done with it being one of the large pagebrook tadpoles i suppose i must however in the case of a young lady i shall not find it difficult i dare say end of chapter four chapter five of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librovoc's recording is in the public domain chapter five mr pagebrook make some acquaintances. Mr. Robert had often heard of an old Virginian welcome, but precisely what constituted it, he never knew until the carriage in which he rode drove around the circle

Starting point is 00:55:36 and stopped in front of the Shirley Mansion. The first thing which struck him as peculiar about the preparations made for his reception was the large number of small negroes who thought their presence necessary to the occasion. Little black faces grinned at him from behind every tree, and about a dozen of them peered out from a safe position behind Old Master and Old Mrs. Mr. Billy had telegraphed from Richmond announcing the coming of his guest,

Starting point is 00:56:09 and so every darky on the plantation knew that Mass Joe's son was a-comin' with Mass Billy from the north, and everyone that could find a safe hiding place in the yard was there to see him. him come. Colonel Barksdale met him at the carriage while the ladies were in waiting on the porch, as anybody but a Virginian would put it, in the porch, as they themselves would have phrased it. The welcome was of the right hardy order which nobody ever saw outside of Virginia, a welcome which made the guest feel himself at once a very part of the establishment. Inside the house, our young friend found himself sorely puzzled.

Starting point is 00:56:56 The furniture was old in style, but very elegant, a thing for which he was fully prepared, but it stood upon absolutely bare white floors. There were both damask and lace curtains at the windows, but not a vestige of carpet was anywhere to be seen. Mr. Robert said nothing, but wondered silently whether it was possible that he had arrived in the midst of house-cleaning conversation luncheon and finally dinner at four occupied his attention however and after dinner the whole family gathered in the porch for really i believe the virginians are right about that preposition i will ask mr robert himself some day

Starting point is 00:57:46 he soon found himself thoroughly at home in the old family mansion among relatives who had never been strangers to him in any proper sense of the term not only was mrs barksdale his father's sister but colonel barksdale himself had been that father's nearest friend the two had gone west together to seek their fortunes there but the colonel had returned after a few years to practise his friend the two had gone west together to seek their fortunes there but the colonel had returned after a few years to practice his profession in his native state, and ultimately to marry his friend's sister. Mr. Robert soon felt himself literally at home, therefore, and the feeling was intensely enjoyable, too, to a young man who for ten years had not known any home other than that of a bachelor's quarters in a college community. His reception at Shirley had not been the greeting of a guest, but rather the welcoming of a long-wandering son of the house. To his relatives there he seemed precisely that,

Starting point is 00:58:54 and their feeling in the case soon became his own. This clannishness, as it is called, may not be peculiar to Virginia of all the states, but I have never seen it half so strongly manifested anywhere else as there. Toward evening Major Pagebrook and his son Ewing, rode over to call upon their cousin robert and after the introductions were over cousin edwin went on to talk of robert's father for whom he had felt an unusual degree of affection as all the relatives had for that matter robert's father having been a special favorite in the family then the conversation became more general when are you going to cut that field of tobacco by the prize barn cousin and Edwin, asked Billy.

Starting point is 00:59:48 I see it's ripening pretty rapidly. Yes, it is getting pretty ripe in spots, and I wanted to put the hands into it yesterday, replied Major Pagebrook, but Sarah Ann thought we'd better keep them plowing

Starting point is 01:00:06 for wheat a day or two longer. And now, I'm afraid, it's going to rain before I can get a first cutting done. How much did you get for the tobacco you sent to Richmond the other day, asked the colonel only five dollars and three cents a hundred average you'd have done a good deal better if you'd sold in the spring wouldn't you yes a good deal i wanted to sell then but sarah ann insisted on holding it till fall by the way i'm going to put all my lots except the one by the creek in corn next year and rink and raised

Starting point is 01:00:49 hardly any tobacco. All but the creek lot? Why, that's the only good corn land you have, Edwin, and it isn't safe to put tobacco in it either, for it overflows a little. Yes, I know it, but Sarah Ann is discouraged by the price we got for tobacco this year, and doesn't want me to plant the lots next season at all. Why didn't you bring Cousin Sarah Ann over and come to dinner today, Cousin Edwin? asked Miss Barksdale, coming out of the dining-room, key-basket in hand, to speak to the guests. Oh, we've only one carriage horse now, you know. I sold the black last week and haven't been able to find another yet. Sold the black? Why, what was that for, Cousin Ed? I thought you specially liked him, said Billy.

Starting point is 01:01:53 So I did. but Sarah Ann didn't like a black and gray together, and she wouldn't let me sell the gray on any terms, though I could have matched the black at once. Winger has a colt well-broken that's a perfect match for him. Come, Ewing, we must be going. Sarah Ann said we must be home to tea without fail. You'll come to the Oaks Robert, of course?

Starting point is 01:02:22 Sarah Ann will expect you very soon. soon and you mustn't stand on ceremony you know but come as often as you can while you stay at shirley what do you think of cousin edwin bob asked billy when the guests had gone that he is a very excellent person and-and what speak out let's hear what you think well that he is a very dutiful husband bob i'd give a pretty for your knack at saying thing your tongues as soft as a feather bed. But wait till you know them, madam. You'll say, My son, you shouldn't prejudice Robert against people he doesn't know. Sarah Ann has many good qualities, I suppose.

Starting point is 01:03:18 Well, then, I don't suppose anything of the sort, else she would have found out how good a man cousin Edwin is long ago and would have behaved herself better every way. William, you are uncharitable. Not a bit of it, mother. Your charity is like a microscope when it is hunting for something good to say of people. Did you ever hear of the dead Dutchman?

Starting point is 01:03:48 Do pray, Billy, don't tell me any of your anecdotes now. Just this one, mother. There was a dead Dutchman who had been the worst Dutchman in the business. When the people came to sit up with his corpse, Don't run, mother, I'm nearly through. They couldn't find anything good to say about him, and as they didn't want to say anything bad, there was a profound silence in the room.

Starting point is 01:04:18 Finally, one old Dutchman, heaving a sigh, remarked, Well, Hans was von good smoker, anyhow. Let me see. Cousin Sarah Ann gives good dinners, anyhow, only she piles too much on the table. See how charitable I am, mother? I have actually found and designated the madam's one good point. Come, come, my son, said the colonel. You shouldn't talk so.

Starting point is 01:04:52 Shortly after tea, the two young men pleaded the weariness of travelers, in excuse for an early bed-going. Mr. Bob was offered his choice between occupying alone the blue room, which is the state guest chamber in most Virginia houses, and taking a bed in Billy's room. He promptly chose the latter, and when they were alone,

Starting point is 01:05:18 he turned to his cousin and asked, "'Billy, have you such a thing as a dictionary about?' nothing but a law dictionary i believe will that do really i do not know perhaps it might what do you want to find asked billy i only wish to ascertain whether or not we arrived here in time for snack you said we would i believe well we did didn't we that is precisely what i wish to find out having never heard of snack until you mentioned it as one of the things we should find it surely i have been curious to know what it is like and so i have been watching for it ever since we got here pray tell me what it is well that's a good one i must tell sooty that and get her to introduce you formally to-morrow it is another interesting custom of the country i suppose indeed it is and it isn't one of those customs that are more honoured in the breach than the observance either end of chapter five chapter six of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librovoc's recording is in the public domain chapter six mr pagebrook makes a good impression

Starting point is 01:07:05 young pagebrook was an early riser not that he was afflicted with one of those unfortunate consciences which make of early rising a penance by any means he was not prejudiced against lying a bed nor bigoted about getting up he quoted no adages on the subject and was not illogical enough to believe that getting up early and yawning for an hour or two every morning would bring health wisdom or wealth to anybody in short he was an early riser not on principle but of necessity somehow his eyelids had a way of popping themselves open about sunrise or earlier and his great brawny limbs could not be kept in bed long after this happened. He got up for precisely the same reason that most people lie a bed, namely, because there was nothing else to do. On the morning after his arrival at Shirley, he awoke early and heard two things which attracted his attention. The first was a sound which puzzled him more than a little. It was a steady, monotonous, scraping of a most unaccountable kind, somewhat like the sound of a carpenter's plane and somewhat like that of a saw had it been out of doors he would have thought nothing of it but clearly it was in the house and not only so but in every part of the house except the bedrooms

Starting point is 01:08:43 scrape scrape scrape scrape scrape what it meant he could not guess as he lay there wondering about it he heard another sound greatly more musical at which he jumped out of bed and began dressing wondering at this sound too quite as much as at the other though he knew perfectly well that this was nothing more than a human voice miss sootis to wit he wondered if there was ever such a voice before or ever would be again not that the young woman was singing for she was doing nothing of the sort she was merely giving some directions to the servants about household matters but her voice was music nevertheless and mr bob made up his mind to hear it to better advantage by going downstairs at once now i happened to know that this young woman's voice was in no way peculiar to herself every well-bred girl in virginia has the same rich full soft tone and they all say as she did gross gloss basket carpet cart garden and girl but it so happened that mr bob had never heard a virginian girl talk before he met miss barksdale and to him her rich german aes and the musical tones of her voice were peculiarly her own perhaps all these things would have impressed him differently if cousin sudy had been an ugly girl i have no means of determining the point inasmuch as cousin sudy was certainly anything else than ugly mr robert made a hasty toilet and descended to the great hall or passage as that

Starting point is 01:10:40 they call it in virginia as he did so he discovered the origin of the scraping sound which had puzzled him as it puzzles everybody else who hears it for the first time dry pine tags which is virginian for the needles of the pine were scattered all over the floors and several negro women were busy polishing the hard white planks by rubbing them with an indescribable implement made of a section of lords and several negro women were busy polishing the hard white planks by rubbing them with an indescribable implement made of a section of log, a dozen of corn husks. Shucks, the Virginians called them, a corn husk in Virginia, signifying a cob always, and a pole for handle. Good morning, cousin Robert, you're up soon, said the little woman, coming out of the dining room and putting a soft, warm little hand in his great palm. Now to young Pagebrook, this was a totally new use of the word soon. and i dare say he would have been greatly interested in it but for the fact that the trim little woman who stood there key-basket in hand interested him more you've caught me in the midst of my housekeeping but never mind only be careful or you'll slip on the pine tags they're as slippery as glass and is that the reason they are scattered on the floor

Starting point is 01:12:08 yes we polish with them up north you wax your floors instead don't you yes for balls and the like i believe but commonly we have carpets what in summer time too oh yes certainly why not why they're so warm we take ours up soon in the spring and never put them down again until fall. This time Mr. Robert observed the queer use of the word soon, but said nothing about it. He said instead, What a lovely morning it is! How we should like to ride horseback in this air? Would you let me ride with you? asked the little maiden. Such a question, cousin Sudy. Now, I am free to confess that this last re-reviewed.

Starting point is 01:13:08 mark was unworthy, Mr. Pagebrook. If not ungrammatical, it is at least of questionable construction, and so not at all like Mr. Pagebrook's usage. But the demoralizing effect of Miss Souty Barksdale Society did not stop here by any means, as we shall see in due time. If you'd really like to ride, I'll have the horses brought, said the little lady. And you with me? Yes, if I may. I shall be more than happy. Dick, run up to the barn and tell Uncle Polidore to saddle patty for me and graybeard for your Master Robert.

Starting point is 01:13:56 Do you hear? Excuse me, Cousin Robert, and I'll put on my habit. Ten minutes later, the pair reigned in their horses on the top of a leaf. little hill to look at the sunrise. The morning was just cool enough to be thoroughly pleasant, and the exhilaration which comes of nothing else so surely as of rapid riding began to tell upon the spirits of both. Cousin Sudy was a good rider and a graceful one, and she knew it. Robert's riding hitherto had been done for the most part in cities and on smooth roads. But he held his horse with a firm hand, and controlled him perforce of a strong will,

Starting point is 01:14:42 which, with great personal fearlessness, and a habit of doing well whatever he undertook to do at all, and undertaking whatever was expected of him, abundantly supplied the lack he had of experience in the rougher riding of Virginia on the less perfectly trained horses in use there. he was a stalwart fellow with shapely limbs and perfect ease of movement so that on horseback he was a very agreeable young gentleman to look at a fact of which miss sooty speedily became conscious her rides were chiefly without a cavalier as they were usually taken early in the morning before her cousin billy thought of getting up and naturally enough she enjoyed the presence of so agreeable a young gentleman as mr robb certainly was and her enjoyment of his company she being a woman was not diminished in the least by the discovery that to his intellectual and social accomplishments which were very genuine there were added a handsome face a comely person and a manly enthusiasm for outdoor exercise when he pulled some wild flowers which grew by the roadside without dismounting a trick he had picked up somewhere she wondered at the ease and grace with which it was done

Starting point is 01:16:13 when he added to the flowers a little cluster of purple berries from a wild vine of which i do not know the name and a sprig of sumac still wet with dew she admired his taste and when he gallantly asked leave to twine the hole into her hair for her hat had come off as good-looking young women's hats always do on such occasions she thought him just nice it is really astonishing how rapidly acquaintanceships form under favourable circumstances these two young people were shy both of them and on the preceding day had hardly spoken to each other at all when they mounted their horses that morning they were almost strangers and they might have remained only half acquaintances for a week or a fortnight but for that morning's ride they were gone an hour perhaps in all and when they sat down to breakfast they were on terms of easy familiarity and genuine friendship end of chapter six chapter seven of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter seven mr pagebrook learned several things after breakfast robert walked out with billy to see the negroes at work cutting tobacco an interesting operation always and especially so when one sees it for the first time gilbert said billy to his head man did you find any ripe enough to cut in the lot there by the prize barn no sir that's the greenest lot of tobacco on the plantation for all twas planted first i dunno what to make of it

Starting point is 01:18:24 why billy i thought cousin edwin owned the prize barn said robert so he does his are there two of them then two of them what do you mean every plantation has its prize barn of course indeed who gives the prizes ha ha bob that's good only you'd better ask me all when you want to know about things here, else you'll get yourself laughed at. A prize barn is simply the barn in which we prize tobacco. And what is prizing tobacco? Possibly prize ain't good English, Bob, but it's the standard Ethiopian for pressing, and everybody here uses it. We press the tobacco in hogsheads, you know, and we call it.

Starting point is 01:19:24 surprising. It never struck me as a peculiarly southern use of the word, but perhaps it is for all that. You're as sharp set as a circular saw after dialect, ain't you? I really do not know precisely how sharp set a circular saw is, but I am greatly interested in your peculiar uses of English, certainly. Upon returning to the house, Billy said, Bob, I must let you take care of yourself for two or three hours now, as I have some papers to draw up, and they won't wait. Next week is court week, and I've got a great deal to do between now and then. But you're at home, you know, old fellow.

Starting point is 01:20:12 So saying, Mr. Billy went to his office, which was situated in the yard, while Robert strolled into the house. Looking into the dining room, he saw their cousin Sudy. Possibly the young gentleman was looking for her. I am sure I do not know. But whether he had expected to find her there or not, he certainly felt some little surprise as he looked at her. Why, cousin Sudy, is it possible that you are washing the dishes?

Starting point is 01:20:45 Oh, certainly, and the plates and cups, too. in fact I wash up all the things once a day pray tell me cousin precisely what you understand by dishes if i'm not intruding said robert oh not at all come in and sit down you'll find it pleasanter there by the window dishes why that is a dish and that and that pointing to them i see the word dishes is not a generic term in virginia but applies only to platters and vegetable dishes what do you call them in the aggregate cousin sudy i mean plates platters cups saucers and everything why things i suppose we speak of breakfast things tea things dinner things but why were you astonished to see me washing them cousin robert perhaps i ought to have known better but the fact is i had an impression that southern ladies were wholly exempt from all work except perhaps a little embroidery or some such thing oh my i wish you could see me during circuit court week one uncle carter and cousin billy bring the judge and the lawyers home with them at all sorts of odd hours and they always bring the hungriest ones there are too i fall at once into a chronic state of washing up things and don't recover until court is over but really cousin pardon me if i am inquisitive for i am greatly interested in my very in this life here in virginia it is so new to me how is it that you must wash up things at all why i carry the keys you know i'm housekeeper

Starting point is 01:22:47 well but you have servants enough certainly and to spare oh yes but every lady washes up the things at least once a day it would never do to trust it altogether to the servants you know None of them are sufficiently careful and trustworthy, do you mean? Well, not exactly that, but it's our way here, and if a lady were to neglect it, people would think her a poor housekeeper. Are there any other duties devolving upon Virginian housekeepers besides washing up things? You see, I am trying to learn all I can of a life, which is as charming strange to me as that of Turkey or China would be if I were to go to either country. Any other duties? Indeed there are, and you shall learn what they are, if you won't find it stupid

Starting point is 01:23:48 to go my rounds with me. I'm going now. I should find dullness itself interesting with you as my fellow observer of it. Right, gallantly said, kind sir. said miss sooty with an exaggerated curtsy but if you're going to make pretty speeches i'll get impudent directly i'm dreadfully given to it anyhow and i've a notion to say one impudent thing right now pray do i pardon you in advance well then what makes you say virginian housekeepers what else should i say why virginia housekeepers of course like anybody else but virginia is not an adjective cousin you would not say england housekeepers or france housekeepers would you asked robert no but i would say new york housekeepers massachusetts housekeepers or new jersey housekeepers and so i say virginia housekeepers too i reckon you would find it a little troublesome to carry out your rule wouldn't you cousin robert i am fairly beaten i own and in consideration of my frank acknowledgment of defeat perhaps you will permit me to be a trifle impudent after that gallant speech you made just now i can hardly believe such a thing possible but let me hear you try please

Starting point is 01:25:34 oh it's very possible i assure you said robert see if it is not what i want to ask is why you virginian so often use the word reckon in the sense of think or presume as you did a moment since because it's right said sudy no cousin it is not good english replied robert perhaps not but it's good virginian and that's better for my purposes besides it must be good english st paul used it twice did he i was not aware that the apostle to the gentile spoke english at all come cousin robert i must give out dinner now do you want to carry my key-basket end of chapter seven chapter eight of A Man of Honor by George Carey Eggleston. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 8 Miss Sudy makes an apt quotation.

Starting point is 01:26:56 My friend who writes novels tells me that there is no other kind of exercise which so perfectly rests an over-tasked brain as riding on horseback does. His theory is that when the mind is overworked, it will not quit working at command but goes on with the labor after the tools have been laid aside if the worker goes to bed either he finds it impossible to go to sleep or sleeping he dreams his mind thus working harder in sleep than if he were awake walking this novelist friend says affords no relief on the contrary one thinks better when walking than at any other time but on horseback he finds it impossible to confine his thoughts to any subject for two minutes together he may begin as many trains of thought as he chooses but he never gets past their beginning the motion of the animal jolts it all up into a jumble and rest is the inevitable result the man's animal spirits rise in sympathy perhaps with those of his horse and as the animal in him begins to assert itself his intellect yields to its master and suffers itself to become quiescent

Starting point is 01:28:24 now it is possible that mr robert pagebrook had found out this fact about horseback exercised and determined to profit by it to the extent of securing all the intellectual rest he could during his stay at shirley at any rate his early morning ride with cousin sudy was repeated not once but every day when decided rain did not interfere he became greatly interested too in the virginian system of housekeeping and made daily study of it in company with miss sooty whose key-basket he carried as she went her rounds from dining-room to smokehouse from smokehouse to store-room from store-room to garden and from garden to the shady gable of the house where miss sooty set the churn every morning a process which consisted of scalding it out putting in the cream and wrapping wet cloths all over the head of it and far up the dasher handle as a precaution against the possible results of carelessness on the part of the half-dozen little darkies whose d'allie who's daily duty it was to churn. Mr. Robert soon became well-versed in all the mysteries of giving out dinner and other things pertaining to the office of housekeeper, an office in which every Virginian woman takes pride, and one in the duties of which every well-bred

Starting point is 01:29:55 virginian girl is thoroughly skilled. Corollary, good dinners and general comfort. Old Auntie, cooks are always extremely slow of motion, and so the young ladies who carry the keys have a good deal of necessary leisure during their morning rounds. Miss Sudy had a pretty little habit, as a good many other young women there have, of carrying a book in her key basket so that she might read while Aunt Kizzy, I really do not know of what proper noun this very common one is an abbreviation, made up her tray. Picking up a volume he found there one morning, Robert continued a desultory conversation by saying,

Starting point is 01:30:44 You don't read Montaigne, do you, Cousin, Sudy? Oh, yes, I read everything, or anything, rather. I never saw a book I couldn't get something out of, except Longfellow. Except Longfellow? exclaimed Robert, in surprise. "'Is it possible you don't enjoy Longfellow? Why, that is heresy of the rankest kind.' "'I know it is, but I'm a heretic in a good many things.

Starting point is 01:31:18 I hate Longfellow's hexameters. I don't like Tennyson, and I can't understand Browning any better than he understands himself. I know I ought to like them all, as you all up North do, but I don't. Mr. Robert was shocked. Here was a young girl, fresh and healthy, who could read prosy old Montaines chatter with interest,

Starting point is 01:31:46 who knew Pope by heart, and Dryden almost as well, who read the prose and poetry of the 18th century constantly, as he knew, and who, on a former occasion, had pleaded guilty to a liking for sonnets. but who could find nothing to like in tennyson longfellow or browning somehow the discovery was not an agreeable one to him though he could hardly say why and so he chose not to pursue the subject further just then he said instead that is the queerest virginianism i've heard yet you all it's a very convenient one you'll admit and a virginian don't care to go far out of his way in such things you will think me critical this morning cousin sudy but i often wonder at the carelessness not of virginians only but of everybody else in the use of contractions don't for instance is well enough as a contraction for do not but nearly everybody uses it as you did just now for does not do do don't lecture me cousin robert i'm a heretic i tell you in grammar do don't is the richest provincialism i've heard yet cousin sudy i really must make a note of that

Starting point is 01:33:20 cousin robert do you read montaigne sometimes why do you remember what he says about custom and grammar no what is it he says it remember and not i he says they that fight custom with grammar are fools what a rude old fellow he was wasn't he mr pagebrook suddenly remembered that he was to dine that day at his cousin edwin's house and that it was time for him to go as he intended to walk graybeard having fallen lame during that morning's gallop with missoudy end of chapter eight chapter nine of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter nine mr pagebrook meets an acquaintance mr robert left the house on his way to the oaks in an excellent humor with himself and with everybody else his cousin billy and his uncle colonel barksdale were both absent in attendance upon a court in another county and so mr robert had recently been left almost alone with miss soody and now that they had become the very best of friends our young man enjoyed his state of affairs right heartily in truth miss sudy was a young lady very much to mr robert's taste in saying which i pay that young gentleman as handsome a compliment as any well-regulated man could wish mr robert walked briskly out of the front gate and down the road enjoying the bright sun and the rich color

Starting point is 01:35:20 of the october woodlands and making merry in his heart by running over in his memory the chats he had been having of late with the little woman who carried the keys at shirley if he had been forced to tell precisely what had been said in those conversations it must be confessed that a stranger would have found very little of interest in the repetition but somehow the recollection brought a frequent smile to our young friend's face and put an additional springness into his step his intercourse with this cousin by brevet may not have been especially brilliant or of a nature calculated to be particularly interesting to other people but to him it had been extremely agreeable without doubt morning mass robert said phil as robert passed the place at which the old negro was working how is you this morning good morning phil i am very well i thank you how are you phil poorly thank god ha ha ha that's the way brother joe and all the folks always says it they never will own up to be in rare well but i tell you now mass robert phil's a well nigger always i keeps up my end a row all the time i can knock the spots out of work all day dance jigs till two o'clock and go possum hunting till morning comes is ye ever been possum hunting mass robert no i believe i never hunted possums but i should greatly like to try it phil would you give me your hand massa robert you just set the time now and if phil don't show you the sights a possum hunting you can call me a poor white folks nigger that's a fact

Starting point is 01:37:24 robert promised to make the necessary appointment in due time and was just starting off again on his tramp when phil asked where are you bound this morning mass robert i'm going over to dine at the oaks phil you're just out the house in time there comes masth charles harrison i do not understand you phil why do you say i am out of the house just in time mass robert is you got two good eyes mas charles is a doctor you know but they ain't nobody sick at shirley maybe he's afraid miss sooty's goin to get sick hi get up roley this ain't ploughin mass's feel go long i tell you as phil turned away dr harrison rode up good morning mr pagebrook on your way to the oaks i was but if you are going to shirley i will walk back with you oh no no i am only going to stop there a moment i am on my way to see some patients at exonholm and as i am on my way to see some patients at exonholm and as i am i am going to see some patients at exonholm and as i had to go past surely, I brought the mail, that's all. I'll not be there ten minutes, and I know they're expecting you at the Oaks. I brought Ewing along with me from the courthouse. Foggy had been too much for him again. Why, the boy promised me he would not gamble again. Oh, it's hardly

Starting point is 01:39:08 gambling, only a little game of loo. Every gentleman plays a little. i take a hand myself now and then but foggy is a pretty old bird you know and he's too much for your cousin you ain't oughtn't to play with him of course and that's why i brought him away with me by the way we're going to get a fox up in a day or two and show you some sport the tobacco's all cut now and the dogs are in capital order as thin as a laugh you must be with us of course we'll get up one in pine quarter and he's sure to run towards the river so you can come in as the hounds pass surely i should like to see a fox hunt certainly but i have no proper horse said robert why where's graybeard billy told me he had turned him over to you to use and abuse so he did and he is riding his bay at present but graybeard is quite lame just now ride the bay then billy will be back from court to-night won't he yes but he will want to join in the chase i suppose i reckon he will but he can ride something else he don't often care to take the tail and he can see as much as he likes on one of his conestoga's i'll tell you what you can do winger's got a splendid colt pretty well broken and you can get him for a dollar or two if you ain't afraid to ride him you must manage it somehow you must manage it somehow

Starting point is 01:40:58 so as to be in at the death i want you to see some riding mr robert promised to see what he could do he greatly wanted a ride after the hounds for once at least though it must be confessed he would have been better pleased had the hounds to be ridden after belonged to somebody else besides the gentleman familiarly known as foggy a personage for whom mr robert had certainly not conceived very great liking. That the reader may know whether his prejudice was a well-founded one or not, it will be necessary for me to go back a little and gather up some of the loose threads of my story, while our young man is on his way to the Oaks. I have been so deeply interested in the ripening acquaintanceship between Mr. Rob and Miss Sudy that I have neglected to introduce some other personages. Less agreeable, perhaps. but not less important to the proper understanding of this history.

Starting point is 01:42:05 Leaving young Pagebrook on the road, therefore, let me tell the reader, in a new chapter, something about the people he had met outside the hospitable Shirley Mansion. End of Chapter 9. Chapter 10 of A Man of Honor by George Carey Eggleston. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. 10, chiefly concerning foggy. Dr. Charles Harrison was a young man of 25 or six, a distant relative of the Barksdale's,

Starting point is 01:42:49 so distant indeed that he would never have known himself as a relative at all if he and they had not been Virginians. He was a young man of good parts, fond of field sports, reasonably well behaved in all external matters, but without any very few. fixed moral principles. He was a gentleman in the strict Virginia sense of the term. That is to say, he was of a good family, was well educated, and had never done anything to disgrace himself, wherefore he was received in all gentleman's houses as an equal. He drank a little too freely on occasion, and played Bluff and Lou a trifle too often, the elderly people thought. These things, it was commonly supposed, were only youthful follies.

Starting point is 01:43:42 He would grow out of them, marry, and settle down after a while. He was, on the whole, a very agreeable person to be with, and very much of a gentleman in his manner. Foggy Raves was an anomaly. His precise position in the social scale was a very difficult thing to discover, and is still more difficult to define. his father had been an overseer and so foggy was certainly not a gentleman other men of parentage similar to his knew their places and when business made it necessary for them to visit the house of a gentleman they expected to be received in the porch if the weather was tolerable and in the dining-room if it were not they never dreamed of being taken into the parlor introduced to the family or invited to dinner all these things were well-recognized customs the line of demarcation between gentlemen and common people was very sharply drawn indeed the two classes lived on excellent terms with each other but they never mixed the gentleman was always courteous to the common people out of respect for himself while the common people were very deferential to every gentleman as a matter of duty

Starting point is 01:45:07 now this man raves was not a gentleman that much was clear and yet for some inscrutable reason his position among the people who knew him was not exactly that of a common man he was never invited into gentlemen's houses precisely as a gentleman would have been it is true and yet into gentlemen's houses he very often went and that upon invitation too When young men happened to be keeping bachelor's establishments, either temporarily or permanently, Foggy was sure to be invited pretty frequently to see them. As long as there were no ladies at home, Foggy knew himself welcome, and he had played Wist and Lou and Bluff in many genteel parlors, into which he never thought of going when there were ladies on the plantation. He kept a fine pack of hounds, too, and was screaming.

Starting point is 01:46:07 clearly at the head of the fox-hunting interest of the county, and this was an anomaly also, as fox-hunting is an eminently aristocratic sport, in which gentlemen engage only in company with gentlemen, except in Foggy's case. Precisely what Foggy's business was, it is difficult to say. He was constable, for one thing, and ex-officio county jailer. one half the jail building was fitted up as his residence and there he lived a bachelor some fifty years old he hired out horses and buggies in a small way now and then but his earnings were principally made at bluff and loo once or twice colonel barksdale and some other gentlemen had tried to oust foggy from the jail believing that his establishment there was ruining a good many of the young men as it certainly was failing in this they had him indicted for gambling in a public place but the prosecution failed the court holding that the jailer's private rooms in the jail could not be called a public place though all rooms in a hotel

Starting point is 01:47:25 have been held public within the meaning of the statute. This man's Christian name was not Foggy, of course, though hardly anybody knew what it really was. He had won his sober K. in early life by paying the professional gambler, Daniel K. Foggy, to teach him how to beat roulette, and then winning his money back by putting his purchased knowledge to the proof at Daniel's own roulette table.

Starting point is 01:47:55 Everybody agreed that Foggy was a good fellow. He would go far out of his way to oblige anybody, and, as was pretty generally agreed, had a good many of the instincts of a gentleman. He was not a professional gambler at all. He never kept a ferro bank. He played cards merely for amusement, he said, and there was a popular tendency to believe his statement.

Starting point is 01:48:23 The betting was simply to, make it interesting and sometimes the play did grow very interesting indeed interesting to the extent of several hundred dollars frequently now only about a week before the morning on which mr robert met dr harrison he had gone to the court-house for the purpose of calling upon the doctor while there young harrison had proposed that they go up to foggys explaining that foggy was quite a character whom you ought to know. Not a gentleman, of course, but a good fellow has ever lived. Upon going to Foggies, Robert had found his cousin Ewing Pagebrook there playing cards. The boy, for he was not yet of age, was flushed and excited, and Robert saw at a glance that he had been losing heavily. On Robert's entrance he threw down his cards and declared himself tired of his. play.

Starting point is 01:49:27 I'll arrange that, Foggy, said the boy with a nod. Oh, any time we'll do, replied the other. How'd you do, Charlie? Come in. Dr. Charlie introduced Robert, and the latter, barely recognizing

Starting point is 01:49:45 Foggy's greeting, turned to Ewing and asked, What have you been doing, Ewing? Not gambling, I hope. Oh, no. Oh, certainly not, said Foggy. Only a little game of draw poker, ten cents, ante. Well, but how much have you lost Ewing? asked Robert.

Starting point is 01:50:07 How much more than you can pay in cash, I mean. I see you haven't settled the score. Ewing was inclined to resent his cousin's questioning, but his rather weak head was by no means a match for his cousin's strong one. This great hulking Robert Pagebrook was big all over, Billy Barksdale had said. His will was law to most men when he chose to assert it strongly. He now took his cousin in hand and made him confess to a debt of fifty dollars to the gambler. Then, turning to Foggy, he said,

Starting point is 01:50:49 Mr. Raves, you have won all of this young man's money and fifty dollars more, it appears. Now, as I understand the matter, this $50 is a debt of honor in gambling parlance, and so it must be paid. But you must acknowledge that you are more than a match for a mere boy, and you ought to give him odds. I believe that is the correct phrase, is it not? Yes, that's right. But how can you give odds and draw poker? I am going to show you. though I am certainly not acquainted with the mysteries of that game.

Starting point is 01:51:29 You and he think he owes you fifty dollars. Now, my opinion is that he owes you nothing, while you owe him the precise amount of cash you have won from him. And I proposed to effect a compromise. The law of Virginia is pretty stringent, I believe, on the subject of gambling with people underage, and if I were disposed I could give you some trouble on that score but I propose instead to pay you ten dollars just enough to make a receipt worth while and to take your receipt in full for the amount due I shall then take my cousin home and he can pay me at his leisure is that satisfactory sir mr. Robert was in a towering rage though his man

Starting point is 01:52:22 was as quiet as it is possible to conceive and his voice was as soft and smooth as a woman's had foggy been disposed to presume upon his antagonist's apparent calmness and to play the bully he would unquestionably have got himself into trouble of a physical sort there and then to speak plainly robert pagebrook was quite prepared to punish the gambler with his fists and would undoubtedly have made short work of it, had Foggy provoked him with a word. But Foggy never quarreled. He knew his business too well for that. He never gave himself airs with gentlemen. He knew his place too well. He never got himself involved in any kind of disturbance which would attract attention to

Starting point is 01:53:14 himself. He knew the consequences too well. He was always quiet, always deferring. He was contentious satisfied. And so, while he had no reason to anticipate the thrashing which Robert Pagebrook was aching to give him, he nevertheless was as complacent as possible in his reply to that gentleman. Why, certainly, Mr. Pagebrook, I never meant to take the money at all. I only wanted to frighten our young friend here and teach him a lesson.

Starting point is 01:53:49 He thinks he can play cards when he can't. and i wanted to break him of sucking eggs that's all i meant to let him think he had to pay me so as to scare him for i feel an interest in ewing upon my word i do now let me tell you ywing we'll call this square and you mustn't play no more you play honest now but if you keep on you'll cheat a little after a while and when a man cheats at cards ewing he'll steal mind i speak from experience for i've seen a good deal of this thing come charlie you and mr pagebrook let's take something i've got some splendid shields whisky mr pagebrook summoned sufficient courtesy to decline the alcoholic hospitality without rudeness and with his cousin took his leave Uing entreated Robert to keep the secret he had thus stumbled upon, and Robert promised to do so upon the express condition that Ewing would wholly refrain from playing cards for money in future.

Starting point is 01:55:06 This the youth promised to do, and our friend Robert congratulated himself upon his success in saving his well-meaning but rather weak-headed cousin from certain ruin. End of Chapter 10 Chapter 11 of A Man of Honor by George Carey Eggleston This Libravox recording is in the public domain Chapter 11

Starting point is 01:55:40 Mr. Pagebrook rides In view of the circumstances detailed in the preceding chapter, it was quite natural that Robert Pagebrook should feel some annoyance when he learned from young Harrison that his cousin had again fallen into the hands of foggy raves. And he did feel annoyance, and a good deal of it, as he resumed his walk toward the oaks. Aside from his interest in his cousin,

Starting point is 01:56:11 Robert disliked to be beaten at anything, and to find that the gambler had fairly beaten him in his fight for the salvation of Ewing was anything but agreeable to him. Then again, his cousin had shown himself miserably. weak of moral purpose and weaknesses were always unpleasant things for robert pagebrook to contemplate he had no sympathy with irresolution of any sort and no patience with unstable moral knees he was half angry and wholly grieved therefore when he heard of ewing's violation of his promise his first impulse was to go before the next grand jury and secure boggy's indictment for gambling with a minor but a mature reflection convinced him that while this would be an agreeable thing to do under the circumstances it would be an unwise one as well

Starting point is 01:57:10 to expose ewing was to ruin him hopelessly robert felt knowing as he did that reformation in the face of public disgrace requires a good deal more of moral stamina than ewing pagebrook ever had precisely what to do robert did not know he would talk with cousin sooty about the matter and see what she thought was best her judgment he had discovered was particularly good and it might help him to a determination this thinking of cousin sudy brought back to his mind phil's hint as to the purpose of dr harrison's visit and his face burned as the conviction came to him that this man might be cousin sudy's accepted or acceptable lover he knew well enough that harrison called frequently at shirley but surely cousin sudy would have mentioned the man often in conversation if he had been largely in her mind would she though this was a second thought was not her silence on the contrary rather an indication that she did think of the man? If she recognized him as a lover, would she not certainly avoid all unnecessary mention of his name? Was not Phil likely to be pretty well informed in the case? All these things ran rapidly through his perturbed mind. But why should he worry himself over a matter that in no

Starting point is 01:58:49 way concerned him? He was not interested in cousin Sudy, except as a friend. Of course, course not was not his heart still sore from its suffering at the hands of miss nelly courier no upon the whole he was forced to confess that it was not in truth he had not thought of that young lady for at least a fortnight and now that he did think of her he could not possibly understand how or why he had ever cared for her at all but he was not in love with cousin sudy of that he was certain and yet he could not avoid a feeling of very decided annoyance at the thought suggested by phil's remark he knew young harrison very slightly but he was accustomed to take men's measures pretty promptly and he was not at all satisfied with this one as a suitor for cousin sudy he knew that foggy was the young physician's pretty constant associate he knew that harrison drank at times to excess and he felt that he was not over-scrupulous upon nice points of morality in short our young man was in a fair way to work himself into a very pretty indignation when he met major pagebrook's overseer winger a negotiation immediately ensued a negotiation immediately ensued ending in an agreement that robert should ride the black colt so long as graybeard's lameness should continue paying winger a moderate hire for the animal the bargain concluded winger dismounted and robert took his place on the colt's back borrowing winger's saddle until his return to shirley in the evening

Starting point is 02:00:44 horseback exercise is a curious thing certainly in some of its effects when robert was afoot that morning several things had combined as we have seen to make him gloomy despondent and generally out of sorts ewing's backsliding had annoyed him and the possibility or probability of phil's accuracy of information and judgment in the matter of cousin sudy and dr harrison had depressed him sorely when he found himself on the back of this magnificent colt whose delight it was to carry a strong fearless rider he fell immediately into hearty sympathy with the high spirits and bounding pulses of the animal he struck out into a gallop and in an instant felt himself in a far brighter world than that which he had been traversing ten minutes since his spirits his spirits rose his hopefulness returned the world became better and the future more promising mr robert pagebrook felt the unreasonable but thoroughly delightful exhilaration to which billy barksdale referred when he said bob is the happiest fellow in the world he gets glad sometimes just because he is alive that was precisely the state of affairs mr robert on this high-melled horse was superlatively alive and was glad because of it there is more of joy than many people know in the mere act of living but it is only they who have clear consciences springy muscle and perfect health of both mind and body who fully share this joy.

Starting point is 02:02:38 Robert Pagebrook had all of these, and was astride a perfect horse to boot, and that, as all horsemen know, is an important element in the matter. He galloped on toward the oaks, leaving his troubles just where he mounted his horse. He forgot Ewing's apostasy, he forgot Dr. Harrison, but he remembered cousin Sudy, and that right pleasantly too. Naturally enough, being on horseback, he projected himself into the future,

Starting point is 02:03:13 which is always a bright world when one is galloping toward it. He would heartily enjoy the coming fox chase, particularly on such an animal as that now under him. Then his thoughts pushed themselves still further, forward, and he dreamed dreams. His full professorship would pay him a salary sufficient to justify him and setting up a little establishment of his own, and he should then know what it was to have a home in which there should be love and purity and peace and domestic comfort. The woman who was to form the center of all this bliss was vaguely undefined as to identity and other details. she existed only an outline in the picture but that outline strikingly resembled the young woman who carried the key-basket at shirley an accidental resemblance of course for mr robert pagebrook was positive that he was not in love with cousin

Starting point is 02:04:19 end of chapter eleven chapter twelve of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter twelve mr pagework dines with his cousin sarah ann how largely mr roberts high spirits were the result of rapid riding on a good horse and how far other causes aided in producing them i am wholly unprepared to say whatever their cause was they were not destined to last long after he dismounted at the oaks indeed his day at that country seat was not at all an agreeable one his cousin sarah ann was a rather depressing person to be with at any time and there were circumstances which made her especially so on this particular occasion cousin sarah ann had a chronic habit of being ostentatious sorry for herself, which was very disagreeable to a healthy young man like Robert. She nursed and cherished her griefs as if they had been her children, and like children they grew under the process. She had several times told Robert how lonely she was,

Starting point is 02:05:48 since the death of her mother three years before, and with tears in her eyes she had complained that there was nobody to love her now that poor mother was gone, a statement which, right-thinking and logical Robert, felt himself almost guilty in hearing from a woman with a husband and a house full of children. She complained a good deal of her poverty, too, a complaining which shocked this truthful young man, knowing as he did, that his cousin Edwin was one of the wealthiest men in the country round about, with a good plantation at home, a very large and profitable one in Mississippi, twenty or thirty business buildings, well leased, in Richmond,

Starting point is 02:06:34 a surplus of money and bank, and no debts whatever, which last circumstance served to make him almost a curiosity in a state in which it was hardly respectable to owe no money. She complained, too, that her boys were dull, and her girls not pretty, both of which complaints were very well-founded indeed. When Robert, on his first visit, said something in praise of her comfortable and really pretty house, she replied, Oh, I can't pretend to live in an aristocratic house like your aunt Mary's.

Starting point is 02:07:14 I didn't inherit a family mansion, you know, and so we had to build this house. It hasn't a bit of wainscoting, you see, and no old pitchers. I reckon I ain't as good as you, Paige Brooks, and somehow my husband ain't as aristocratic as the rest of you. I reckon he's only a half-blood, Pagebrook, and that's why he condescended to marry, poor me. This was cousin Sarah Ann's favorite way of speaking of herself, and she said, poor me,

Starting point is 02:07:50 with a degree of pathos in her tone which always brought tears to her eyes on the present occasion as i have said there were circumstances which enabled this estimable lady to make herself unusually disagreeable she had a fresh affliction and so she revelled in an ecstasy of woe it was her ambition in life to be exceptionally miserable and accordingly she welcomed sorrow with a keenness of relish which few people can possibly know. She wouldn't be happy in heaven, Billy Barksdale said, unless she could convince people there that she was snubbed by the saints and put upon by the angels. When Robert arrived at the Oaks that morning, Major Pagebrook met him at the gate, according to custom, but without his customary cheerfulness of countenance.

Starting point is 02:08:48 He offered no explanation. however and Robert asked no questions the two went into the parlor Robert catching sight of viewing in the orchard back of the house but having no opportunity to speak to the young man Robert had not been in the parlor many minutes before Major Pagebrook went out and cousin Sarah Ann entered and greeted him with her handkerchief to her eyes she made one or two ostentatious efforts to control herself and then ostentatiously burst into tears oh cousin robert i didn't mean to betray myself this way but i'm so miserable ewing has been led away again by that man foggy raves i am heartily sorry to know it cousin sarah ann replied robert did he lose much oh ewing never gambles i don't mean that thank heaven my boy never plays cards except with small stakes for amusement but he went over to the court-house last night to stay with charlie harrison and they went up to foggys and they drank a little too much and now cousin edwin mrs pagebrook always called her husband cousin edwin is terribly angry about it and has scolded the poor boy cruelly. He even threatened to cut him off with nothing at all in his will,

Starting point is 02:10:24 and leave the poor boy to starve. Man are so hard-hearted. The idea that I should live to hear my boy talk to in that way, and by his own father too, almost kills me. Poor me! There's nobody to love me now. Tell me, Cousin Sarah Ann, said Robert, for I am deeply concerned in Ewing's behalf, and I mean to reform him if I can. Does he often get drunk? Get drunk! My boy never gets drunk. You talk just like Cousin Edwin. He only drinks a little, as all young gentlemen do, and if he drinks too much now and then, I'm sure it isn't so dreadful as you all make it out. I don't see why the poor boy must be kept down all the time, and scolded and scolded and talked about, just because he does like other people,

Starting point is 02:11:26 and that's what distresses me. Cousin Edwin scolds Ewing, and then scolds me for taking the poor boy's part, and it's more than I can bear. And now you talk about reforming him. Robert explained that he had misunderstood the cause of cousin Sarah Ann's grief, but he thought it would be something worse than useless to tell her that she was ruining the boy, as he saw clearly enough that she was. He turned the conversation, therefore, and cousin Sarah Ann speedily dried her eyes. "'You're riding Mr. Winger's horse, I see. What's become of gray beard?' she asked. asked after a little time.

Starting point is 02:12:13 He's a little lame just now. Nothing serious, but I thought I would hire Winger's Colt until he gets well. Ah, I understand. The rides soon in the morning must not be given up on any terms. But you'd better look out, Cousin Robert. I'm sorry for you if you lose your heart there. Why, Cousin Sarah Ann, what do you mean?

Starting point is 02:12:40 mean. I really am not sure that I understand you. Oh, I say nothing, but those rides every morning and all that housekeeping that I've heard about are dangerous things, cousin. I was a bell once myself. It was one of Cousin Sarah Ann's favorite theories that she knew all about bellhood, having been a bell herself, though nobody else ever knew anything about that particular part of her career. Well, cousin Sarah, Anne, I do not think I have lost my heart, as you phrase it, but pray, tell me why you should be sorry for me if I had. Mr. Robert was at first about to declare positively that he had not fallen in love with

Starting point is 02:13:31 Cousin Suuie, but just at that moment it occurred to him that he might possibly be mistaken about the matter, and being thoroughly truthfully. he chose the less positive form of denial, supplementing it, as we have seen, with the question. "'Well, for several reasons,' replied Cousin Sarah Ann. "'They do say that Charlie Harrison is before you there, and, anyhow, it would never do. "'Sudie hasn't got much, you know. "'Her father didn't leave her anything but a few hundred dollars, and that's all spent long ago on her clothes and schooling.

Starting point is 02:14:13 Mr. Robert Pagebrook certainly did not wish ill to Cousin Sudy, and yet he was heartily, though illogically, glad when he learned that the young lady was poor. The feeling surprised him, but he had no time in which to analyze it just then. Why, Cousin Sarah Ann, you certainly do not think me so mercenary as you're remembered, mark would seem to indicate. Oh, it's well enough to talk about not being mercenary, but I can tell you that some money on one side or the other is very convenient. I know by experience what it is to be poor. I might have married rich if I'd wanted to, but I had lofty notions like you. The reader will please remember that I am no more responsible for Mrs. Pagebrook's

Starting point is 02:15:06 syntax than for her sins. But Cousin Sarah Ann, said Robert, you would not wish one to marry a young woman's money or lands, would you? That's only your romantic way of putting it. I don't see why you can't love a rich girl as well as a poor one, for my part. If you had plenty of money yourself, it wouldn't matter. But as it is, you ought to marry so as to hang up your hat. I confess I do not exactly understand your figure of speech, cousin Sarah Ann.

Starting point is 02:15:43 What do you mean by hanging up my hat? Didn't you ever hear that before? It's a common saying here when a man marries a girl with a good plantation and a dead daddy, so there can't be any doubt about the land being hers. They say he's got nothing to do but walk in and hang up his hat. this explanation was lucid enough without doubt but it and indeed the entire conversation was extremely disagreeable to robert who was sufficiently old-fashioned to think that marriage was a holy thing and he being a man of good taste disliked to hear holy things lightly spoken of he was relieved therefore by major pagework's entrance and not long afterward he was invited to go up to the blue room, the way to which he knew perfectly well, to rest a while before dinner.

Starting point is 02:16:45 In the blue room he found Ewing, with a headache, lying on a lounge. The youth had purposely gone thither probably in order that his meeting with Robert might be a private one. For meet him he must, as he very well knew, at dinner, if not before. robert sat down by him and held his head as tenderly as a woman could have done and speaking gently said i am very sorry to find you suffering ewing you must ride with me after dinner and the air will relieve your head i hope the boy actually burst into tears and presently recovering from the paroxysm said i didn't expect that cousin robert those are the first first kind words i've heard to-day mother has called me hard names all the morning your mother exclaimed robert thrown off his guard by surprise for he would never have thought of questioning the boy on such a subject oh yes she always does if she'd ever give me any credit when i do try to do right i reckon i would try harder but she calls me a drunkard and gambler whenever there is the least excuse for it and if i don't do anything wrong she says i am pokey and ain't got any spirit she told me this morning she didn't mean to leave me anything in her will because i'd squander it

Starting point is 02:18:22 you know all pa's property is in her name now i got mad at last and told her i knew she couldn't keep me from getting my share because nearly half of everything here belonged to grandfather taylor and as will to us children when we come of age she didn't know i knew that and when i told her come ewing don't talk about that you have no right to tell me such things bathe your head now and hold it up as a man should you are responsible to yourself for yourself and it is your duty to make a man of yourself such a man as you need not be ashamed of if you think you do not receive the recognition you ought for your efforts to do well you should remember that things are not perfectly adjusted in this world so far at least as we can understand them the reward of manliness is the manliness itself and it is well worth living for too even though nobody recognizes its existence but yourself of that however there need be no fear people will know you sooner or later precisely as you are robert had other encouraging things to say to the youth and finally said now ewing i shall ask you to make no promises which you may not be strong enough to keep, but if you will promise me to make an earnest effort to let whiskey and cards alone, and to make a man of yourself, refusing to be led by

Starting point is 02:20:03 other people, I will talk with your father and get him to agree never to mention the past again, but to aid you with every encouragement in his power for the future. Why, cousin Robert, Pa, never says anything to me. when ma scolds he just goes out of the house and he don't come in again till he's obliged to it ain't pa at all it's ma and it ain't any use to talk to her i'll be of age pretty soon and then i mean to take my share of grandpa's estate and put it into money and go clear away from here robert saw that it would be idle to remonstrate with the young man at present and equally idle to interfere with the domestic governmental system practiced by cousin sarah ann he devoted himself therefore to the task of getting ewing to bathe his head and after a little time the two went down to dinner ewing thinking robert the only real friend he could claim his head aching worse after dinner than before he declined robert's invitation to go to Shirley and our friend rode back alone.

Starting point is 02:21:26 End of Chapter 12. Chapter 13 of A Man of Honor by George Carey Eggleston. This Libra Vox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 13. Concerning the rivulets of Blue Blood. Mr. Robert was heartily glad to get away from the uncomfortable presence of Cousin Sarah Anne, and yet a little. cannot be said that our young gentleman was buoyant of spirit as he rode from the oaks to shirley ewing's case had depressed him and cousin sarah ann had depressed him still further his confidence in woman nature was shaken

Starting point is 02:22:15 his ideas on the subject of women had been for the most part evolved wrought out a priori from his mother as a premise he had known all the time that not every woman was his mother's equal if indeed any woman was he had observed that sometimes vanity and weakness and in one case as we know faithlessness entered into the composition of women but he had never conceived of such a compound of envy hatred and malice and all uncharitableness as his cousin sarah ann certainly was and as he applied the quotation mentally he was constrained also to utter the petition which accompanies it in the litany good lord deliver us this woman was a mystery to him she not only shocked but she puzzled him how anybody could consent to be just such a person as she was was wholly incomprehensible her departures from the right line of true womanhood were so entirely purposeless that he could trace them to no logical starting-point he could conceive of no possible training or experience which ought to result in such a character as hers after puzzling himself over this human problem for half an hour he gave it up and straightway began to work at another he asked himself how it could be possible that cousin sudy should be attracted by dr charley harrison possibly the reader has had occasion to work at a similar problem in his time and if so i need not tell him how incapable it proved of solution

Starting point is 02:24:06 of the fact robert was now convinced and the fact annoyed him it annoyed him too that he could not account for the fact and then it annoyed him still more to know that he could be annoyed at all in the case for he was perfectly sure or nearly so that he was not himself in love with his little friend at shirley and yet he felt a strange yearning to battle in some way with young harrison and to conquer him he wanted to beat the man at something it mattered little what and to triumph over him but he did not allow himself even mentally to formulate this feeling if he had he would have discussed its injustice and cast it from him as unworthy his instinct warned him of this and so he refused to put his wish into form lest he should thereby lose the opportunity of entertaining it with thoughts like these the young man rode homewards and naturally enough he was not in the best of humours when he sat down in the parlor at shirley the conversation in some inscrutable way, turned upon cousin Sarah Ann, and Robert so far forgot himself as to express pleasure in the thought that that lady was in no way akin to himself. "'But she is kin to you, Robert,' said Aunt Catherine.

Starting point is 02:25:42 "'How can that be, Aunt Catherine?' asked the young gentleman. "'Show him with the keys, Aunt Catherine, show them with the keys,' said Billy. who had returned from cork that day come sooty where's your basket i want to see if aunt katherine can't muddle bob's head as badly as she does mine sometimes here are the keys explain it to him aunt katherine and if he knows when you get through whether he is his great-grandfather's nephew or his uncle's son once removed i'll buy his skull for tissue paper at once a skull that can let key basket genealogy through it ain't thick enough to grow hair on the task was one that the old lady loved and so without paying the slightest attention to billy's bantering she began at once to arrange the keys from sooty's basket upon the floor in the shape of a complicated genealogical table now my child said she pointing to the great key at top the smokehouse key is your great-great-grandmother who was a pembroke the pembrokes were always considered always considered smokehouse keys remember bob will you keep still william the pembrokes were always considered an excellent family now your great-great-grandmother matilda

Starting point is 02:27:16 pembroke married john pemberton and had two sons and one daughter as you see the oldest son charles had six daughters and his third daughter married your grandfather pagebrook so she was your grandmother the storeroom key you see see bob what it is to be well connected said billy your own dear grandmother was a storeroom key hush billy you confuse robert ah do i i only wanted him to remember who his grandmother was well said the old lady matilda pemberton's daughter your great-grand-aunt married a man of no family a carpenter or something the corn-house key there there it is bob aren't you glad you descended from a respectable smokehouse key through an aristocratic store-room key instead of having a plebeian corn-house key in the way there's nothing like blue blood i tell you and ours is as blue as an indigo bag ain't it aunt katherine will you never learn billy not to make fun of your ancestors i have explained to you a hundred times how much there is in family now don't interrupt me again let me see where was i oh yes your great-grand-aunt married a carpenter and his daughter sarah was your second cousin if you count removes fourth cousin if you don't

Starting point is 02:29:02 now sarah was your cousin sarah ann's grandmother as you see so sarah ann is your third cousin if you count removes and your sixth cousin if you don't do you understand it now of course he does said billy but i must break up the family now as i see polydores waiting for the madam's great-grandfather to wit the corn-house key come bob let's go let's go go up to the stable and see the horse is fed. End of Chapter 13. Chapter 14 of A Man of Honor by George Carey Eggleston. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 14. Mr. Pagebrook manages to be in at the death.

Starting point is 02:30:02 Not many days after Robert's uncomfortable dinner at the Oaks, a servant came over with a message from Major Pagebrook to the effect that a grand fox chase was arranged for the next morning. Foggy and Dr. Harrison had originated it, but Major Page Brooks and several other gentleman's hounds would run, and Ewing invited his cousins, Robert and Billy, to take part in the sport. Accordingly, our two young gentlemen ate in early breakfast and rode over to that part of the Oaks plantation known as Pine Quarter,

Starting point is 02:30:37 where the first fox hunt of the season was always begun. They arrived not a moment too soon and found the hounds just breaking away and the riders galloping after them. The first five miles of country was comparatively open, a fact which gave the fox a good start and promised to make the chase a long and a rapid one. Robert Pagebrook had never seen a fox chase

Starting point is 02:31:06 and his only knowledge of the sport was that which he had gleaned from descriptions. But he was on a perfect horse as inexperienced as himself. He was naturally very fearless, he was intensely excited, and it was his habit to do whatever he believed to be the proper thing on any occasion. From books he had got the impression that the proper thing to do in fox hunting was to ride as hard as he could straight after the hounds, and this he did with very little regard for consequences. He galloped straight through clumps of pine,

Starting point is 02:31:46 as thick, Billy said, as the hare in Absalom's head, while others rode around them. He plunged through creek low grounds, without a thought of possible mires or quicksands. He knew that foxhunter, made their horses jump fences, but he knew nothing of their practice in the matter of knocking off top rails first,

Starting point is 02:32:11 and accordingly he rode straight at every fence which happened to stand in his way and forced his horse to take them all at a flying leap. On and on, he went, straight after the hounds, his pulse beating high and his brain whirling with excitement. The more judicious hunters of the party would have been left far behind, but for the advantage they possessed in their knowledge of the country and their consequent ability to anticipate the fox's turnings,

Starting point is 02:32:44 and to save distance and avoid difficulties by following shortcuts. Robert rode right after the hounds, always. "'That cousin of yours is crazy,' said one gentleman to Billy. "'But what a magnificent rider he is!' why don't you stop your cousin asked another he'll kill himself to a certainty if you don't oh i will replied billy and i'll remonstrate with all the streaks of lightning i happen to overtake too i'm sure to catch a good many of them before i come up with him the fox doubled very little now and it became evident that he was making for the appomattox river but whether he would cross it or double and run back was uncertain billy earnestly hoped he would double as that might enable him to see robert and check his mad riding if indeed that gentleman should manage to reach the river with an unbroken neck on and on they went fox running for dear life hounds in perfect trim and full cry and riders each bent upon taking the tail if possible

Starting point is 02:34:02 robert remained in advance of all the rest jumping every fence over which he could force his horse and making the animal knock down those which he could not leap his horse blundered at a ditch once and fell but recovered himself with his rider still erect in the saddle before anybody had time to wonder whether his neck was broken or not billy now saw a new danger ahead of his cousin they were nearing the river and the fox an old red one who knew his business was evidently running for a crossing place where mire and quicksands abounded of this robert knew nothing and after his performances thus far there was no reason to hope that any late-coming caution would save him now a thicket of young oaks lay just ahead and the hounds going through it robert followed quite as a matter of course billy saw here his chance and putting spurs to his horse he rode at full speed around the end of the thicket hoping to reach the other side in time to intercept his cousin in whose behalf he was now really alarmed. As he swept by the end of the thicket, however, he passed two gentlemen whom he could not see through the bushes, but whose voices he knew very well. They were none other than Mr. Foggy Raves and Dr. Charles Harrison, and Billy heard what they were saying.

Starting point is 02:35:39 "'You must take the tail, Charlie, and not let that city snob get it. The fool rides like death on a pale horse, and don't seem to know there ever was a fence too high to jump. He'd try to take the Blue Ridge at a flying leap if it got in his way. I'd rather kill a dozen horses than let him beat us. He put his finger into our little game with that sap-head ewing and— But my horse is thumped now, Foggy? Well, take mine then. He's fresh. I sent him over last night to me.

Starting point is 02:36:16 me here and i just now changed i've hurt my knee and can't ride take my horse and ride him to death but what you beat that this was all that billy had time to hear but it was enough to change his entire purpose he no longer thought of robert's neck but hurried on for the sole purpose of spurring his cousin up to new exertion he reached at the edge of the thicket just as robert came out bareheaded having lost his hat in the brush his face was bleeding too from scratches and bruises received in the struggle through the oak thicket the river was just ahead but the fox doubled to the right instead of crossing come bob said billy you've got to take the tail to-day or die foggy and charlie harrison have been setting up a game on you, and Charlie has a fresh horse, borrowed from Foggy on purpose to beat you. But this double gives you a quarter start of him.

Starting point is 02:37:24 Don't run your horse up hills, or you'll blow him out, and shy off from such thickets as that. You can ride round quicker than you can go through. Don't break your neck, but take the tail anyhow. He fairly yelled the last, words at Robert, who was already a hundred yards ahead of him and getting further off every second. The effect of his words on his cousin was not precisely what might have been expected.

Starting point is 02:37:56 Before this, Robert had been intensely excited and had enjoyed being so, but his excitement had been the result of his high spirits and his keen zest for the sport in which he was engaged. He had astonished everybody by the upper, a recklessness of his riding, but had not shared at all on their astonishment or known that his riding was reckless. He had ridden hard simply because he thought that the proper thing to do, and because he enjoyed doing it. He rode now for victory. His features lost the look of wild enjoyment which they had worn, and settled themselves into a firm, hard expression of dogged determination. Here was his opportunity to do battle with young Harrison, and from Billy's

Starting point is 02:38:49 manner, rather than from his words, he knew that the contest was not one of generous rivalry on Harrison's part. He felt that there was a contemptuous sneer somewhere back of Billy's words, and the thought nettled him sorely. But he did not lose his head in the excitement. On the contrary, he felt the necessity now for care and coolness, and accordingly he immediately took pains to become both cool and careful. He knew that Harrison had an advantage in knowing the country,

Starting point is 02:39:26 and he resolved to share that advantage. To this end, he brought his horse down to an easy canter and waited for Harrison to come up. He then kept his eye constantly on his rival, and used him as a guide. When Harrison avoided a thicket, he avoided it also. If Harrison left the track of the hounds for the sake of cutting off an angle,

Starting point is 02:39:54 Robert kept by his side. This angered Harrison, who had counted confidently upon having an advantage in these matters, and under the influence of his anger, he spurred his horse unnecessarily, and soon took a good deal of his own freshness out of him. The two rode on almost side by side for miles. The fox was beginning to show his fatigue, and it was evident that the chase would soon end. Both the

Starting point is 02:40:26 foremost riders discovered this, and both put forth every possible exertion to win. Just ahead of them lay a very dense thicket, through which ran a narrow bridle path, barely wide enough for one horse, as Robert knew, for the thicket lay on Shirley Plantation, the fox having run back almost immediately over his own track. It was evident now that the catch would occur in the field just beyond this thicket, and it was equally evident that, as the two could not possibly ride abreast along the bridle path, the one who could first put his horse into it would almost certainly be first in at the death. They rode like madmen, but Robert's horse was greatly fatigued, and Harrison shot ahead of him

Starting point is 02:41:20 by a single length into the path. There was hardly a chance for Robert now, as it was impossible in any case for him to pass his rival in the thicket, and he could see that the dogs had already caught the fox in the field, less than a rod beyond its edge. "'I've got you now, I reckon,' shouted Harrison, looking back. But at the moment his horse stumbled and fell. Robert could no more stop his own horse than he could have stopped a hurricane, and the animal fell heavily over Harrison,

Starting point is 02:41:58 throwing Robert about ten feet beyond, and almost among the dogs. getting up he ran in among the bellowing hounds and catching the fox in his hand he held him up in full view of the other gentleman now riding into the field from different directions and cheering as lustily as possible end of chapter fourteen chapter fifteen of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librovoc's recording is in the public domain chapter fifteen some very unreasonable conduct quite naturally robert was elated as he stood there bareheaded and received the congratulations of his companions who had now come up and gathered around him loudest among them was foggy who leaping from his horse cried out by jove mr pagebrook i must shake your hand i never saw a prettier riding in my life and i've seen some good riding too in my time but where's your horse did you turn him loose when you jumped off this served to remind robert of the animal and of harrison too and going hastily into the thicket he found the doctor repairing his girth which had been broken in the fall the doctor was not hurt nor was his horse injured in any way but the black colt which had carried robert so gallantly lay dead upon the ground an examination showed that in falling he had broken his neck

Starting point is 02:43:49 it was not far that our young friend had to walk to reach surely but a weariness which he had not felt before crept over him as he walked his head ached sorely and as the excitement died away it was succeeded by a numbness of despondency the like of which he had never known before. He had declined to ride and tie with Billy, thinking the task a small one to walk through by a woods path to the house, while Billy followed the main road. With his first feeling of despondency came bitter mortification at the thought that he had allowed so small a thing as a fox chase to so excite him. The exertion had been well enough,

Starting point is 02:44:36 but he felt that the object in view during the latter half of the chase namely the defeat of young harrison was one wholly unworthy of him and the color came to his cheek as he thought of the energy he had wasted on so small an undertaking then he remembered the gallant animal sacrificed in the blind struggle for mere victory and he could hardly force the tears back as the thought came to him in full force that the nostrils which had quivered with excitement so short a time since would snuff the air no more forever he felt guilty almost of murder and savagely rejoiced to know that the death of the horse would entail a pecuniary loss upon his himself, which would in some sense avenge the wrong done to the noble brute. The numbness and weariness oppressed him so that he sat down at the root of a tree, and remained there in a state of half-unconsciousness, until Billy came from the house to look for him. Arrived at the house, he went immediately to bed,

Starting point is 02:45:45 and into a fever which prostrated him for nearly a week, during which time he was not allowed to talk much. in point of fact he was not inclined to talk at all except to cousin sudy who moved quietly in and out of the room as occasion required and came to sit by his bedside frequently after billy and colonel barksdale quitted home again to attend court in another of the adjoining counties as they did as soon as robert's physician pronounced him out of danger at first cousin sudy was disposed to enforce the doctor orders in regard to silence, but she soon discovered, quick-witted girl that she was, that her talking soothed and quieted the patient. And so she talked to him in a soft, quiet voice, securing, by violating the doctor's injunction, precisely the result which the injunction was intended to secure. As soon as the fever quitted him, Robert began to recover very rapidly,

Starting point is 02:46:51 but he was greatly troubled about the still unpaid for horse. Now he knew perfectly well that cousin sued he had no money at command, and he ought to have known that it was a very unreasonable proceeding upon his part to consult her in the matter. But love laughs at logic as well as at locksmiths, and so our logical young man very illogically concluded that the best thing to do in the premises was to consider, I am in trouble, Cousin Suity, said he, as he sat with her in the parlor one evening. About that horse! I know Mr. Winger is a poor man, and I ought to pay him at once, but the truth is,

Starting point is 02:47:38 I have hardly any money with me, and there is no bank nearer than Richmond at which to get a draft cashed. You have money enough then somewhere? asked Cousin Suity. Oh, yes, I have money in bank in Philadelphia. But Winger has already sent me a note asking immediate payment and telling me he is sorely pressed for money,

Starting point is 02:48:05 and I dislike exceedingly to ask his forbearance even for a week under the circumstances. Why can't you get Cousin Edwin to cash a check for you? asked the business-like little woman. he always has money and will do it gladly, I know. That had not occurred to me, but it is a good suggestion. If you will lend me your writing-desk, I will write, and— Ah, there comes Cousin Edwin now, and Ewing, too, to see you, said Miss Soudy, hearing their voices in the porch.

Starting point is 02:48:42 The visitors came into the parlor, and after a little while, Souty withdrew, intent upon some household matter. Ewing followed her. Robert spoke frankly of his wish to pay Winger promptly, and asked, Can you cash my check on Philadelphia for me, Cousin Edwin, for $300? Don't think of doing it, pray, if it is not perfectly convenient. Oh, it isn't inconvenient at all, said Major Pagebrook. I have more money at home than I have.

Starting point is 02:49:17 like to keep there and i can let you have the amount and send your check to the bank in richmond and have it credited to me quite as well as not in fact i'd rather do it than not as it'll save expressage on money accordingly robert drew a check for three hundred dollars on his bankers in philadelphia making it payable to major page book and that gentleman undertook to pay the amount that evening to winger shortly after this business matter had been settled ewing and miss sooty returned to the parlor and the callers took their departure robert and sooty sat silent for some time watching the flicker of the fire for the days were cool now and fires were necessary to indoor comfort how long their silence might have continued but for an interruption i do not know but an interruption came in the breaking of the forestick which had burned in two a broken reverie may sometimes be resumed but a pair of broken reveries never are had mr robert been alone he would have rearranged the fire and then sat down to his thoughts again as it was he rearranged the fire and then began to talk with miss sudy i am glad to get that business off my hands it worried me he said so am i said his companion very glad indeed there must have been something in her tone as there was certainly nothing in her words which led mr pagebrook to think that this young lady's remark had an unexpressed meaning back of it he therefore questioned her why cousin sooty had it been troubling you too no but it would have done so i reckon

Starting point is 02:51:18 i do not understand you surely you never doubted that i would pay for the horse did you no indeed but-what is it cousin sudy tell me what there is in your mind i shall feel hurt if you do not i ought not to tell you but i must now or you will imagine uncomfortable things i know why mr winger wrote you that note you know why there was some reason then besides his need of money he was not pressed for the money at all that wasn't the reason you surprise me cousin sudy pray tell me what you know and how well promise me first that you won't get yourself into any trouble about it no i have no right to exact a blind promise but do don't get into it trouble. That detestable man, Foggy Raves, made Mr. Winger uneasy about the money. He told him you were hard up and couldn't pay if you wanted to, and I'm glad you have paid him, and I'm glad you beat Charlie Harrison in the Fox Chase, too. With this utterly inconsequent conclusion, Cousin Suity commenced rocking violently in her chair.

Starting point is 02:52:46 How do you know all this, Cousin Suity? asked Robert. Ewing told me this evening. I'd rather you'd have killed a dozen horses than to have had Charlie Harrison beat you. Why, Cousin, Sudy? Oh, he's at the bottom of all this. He always is.

Starting point is 02:53:07 Foggy is his mouthpiece. And then he told Aunt Catherine, the day you went to the Oaks, that he meant to have some fun when he got you into a fox hunt on Winkley. singer's colt. He said you'd find out how much your handsome city riding school style was worth, when you got on a horse you were afraid of. I'm so glad you beat him. Now it would seem that Cousin's rejoicing must have been of a singular sort, as she very

Starting point is 02:53:38 unreasonably burst into tears, while on the very act of declaring herself glad. Mr. Robert Pagebrook was wholly unused to the task of soothing a woman in tears. It was his habit, under all circumstances, to do the thing proper to be done, but of what the proper thing was for a man to do or say to a woman in tears without apparent cause, Mr. Robert Pagebrook had not the faintest conception. And so he very unreasonably proceeded to take her hand in his, and to tell her that he loved her, a fact which he himself just then discovered for the first time. Before he could add a word to the blunt declaration, Dick thrust his black head into

Starting point is 02:54:28 the doorway with the announcement, "'Suppers ready, Miss Souty!' End of Chapter 15. Chapter 16 of A Man of Honor by George Cary Eggleston. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. chapter sixteen what occurred next morning the reader thinks doubtless that master dick's entrance at the precise time indicated in the last chapter was an unfortunate occurrence and i presume mr pagebrook was of a like opinion at the moment but mature a reflection convinced him that the interruption was a peculiarly opportune one he was a conscientious young man and was a particularly opportune one he was a conscientious young man and was particularly punctilious in matters of honor wherefore had he been allowed to complete the conversation thus unpremeditatedly begun without an opportunity to deliberate upon the things to be said he would almost certainly have suffered at the hands of his conscience in consequence there were circumstances which made some explanations on his part necessary and he would almost certainly have suffered at the hands of his conscience in consequence there were circumstances which made some explanations on his part necessary and he knew perfectly well that these explanations would not have been properly made if master dick's interruption had not come to give him time for reflection all this he thought as he drank his tea for when supper was announced

Starting point is 02:56:05 both he and miss sooty went into the dining-room precisely as if their talk in the parlor had been of no unusual character they did this because they were creatures of habit as you and i and i and all the rest of mankind are. They were in the habit of going to supper when it was ready, and it never entered the thought of either to act differently on this particular occasion. Miss Sudy, it is true, ran up to a room for a moment, to brush her hair, I presume, before she entered the dining room, but otherwise they both acted very much as they always did, except that robert addressed almost the whole of his conversation during the meal to his aunt mary and aunt catherine while miss sooty sitting there behind the tea-tray said nothing at all after tea the older lady sat with robert and sudy in the parlor until the early bedtime prescribed for the convalescent young gentleman arrived it thus happened that there was no opportunity for the resumption of the interesting conversation interrupted by dick until the middle of the forenoon the next day

Starting point is 02:57:22 miss sooty it seems found it necessary to go into the garden to inspect some late horticultural operations and mr robert quite accidentally followed her they discussed matters with uncle joe the gardener for a time and then wandered off toward a summer house where it was pleasant to sit in the soft november sunlight the conversation which followed was an interesting one of course let us listen to it the vines are all killed by the frost said cousin sooty yes you have frosts here earlier than i thought said robert oh we always expect frost about the tenth of october at least the gentleman never feels safe if their tobacco isn't cut by that time this year frost was late for us but the nights are getting very cool now ain't they yes i found blankets very comfortable even before the tenth of october it's lucky then that you weren't staying with aunt polly barksdale why and who is your aunt polly aunt polly why she is uncle charles's widow she is the model for the whole connection and i've had her held up to me as a pattern ever since i can remember but i never saw her till about a year ago when she came and stayed a week or two with us and between ourselves i think she is the most disagreeably good person i ever saw she is good but somehow she makes me wicked and i don't think i'm naturally so

Starting point is 02:59:16 i didn't read my bible once while she stayed and i do love to read it i suppose i shall like to have her with me in heaven if i get there because there i won't have anything for her to help me about but here i'm better without her i quite understand your feeling but you haven't told me why i'm lucky not to have her for my hostess these cold nights oh you'd be comfortable enough now that tobacco was cut but when cousin billy stayed with her a good many years ago he used to complain of being cold he was only a boy and ask her for blankets and she would hold up her hands and exclaim why child, your uncle's tobacco isn't cut yet. It will never do to say it's cold enough for blankets when your poor uncle hasn't got his tobacco cut. Think of your uncle, child. He can't afford to have his tobacco all killed. But come, cousin Robert, you mustn't sit here. Besides, I want to show you an experiment I am trying with winter cabbage. This, I believe, is a faithful report of what passed between Robert and Soudi in the summer house?

Starting point is 03:00:39 I am very well aware that they ought to have talked of other things, but they did not, and, as a faithful chronicler, I can only state the facts as they occurred, begging the reader to remember that I am in no way responsible for the conduct of these young people. The cabbage experiment duly explained and admired Mr. Robert and Miss Souty walked out of the garden and into the house. There they found themselves alone again, and Robert plunged at once into the matter of which both had been thinking all the time.

Starting point is 03:01:16 "'Cousin Suity,' he said, "'have you thought about what I said to you last night?' "'Yes, a little.' "'I will not ask you just yet what you have thought,' said Robert, taking her unresisting hand into his. because there are some explanations which i am in honor bound to make to you before asking you to give me an answer one way or the other when i told you i loved you of course i meant to ask you to be my wife but that i must not ask you until you know exactly what i am i want you to know precisely what it is that i ask you to do i am a poor man as you know i have a good position however with a salary of two thousand dollars a year and that is more than sufficient for the support of a family particularly in an inexpensive college town so that there is room for a little constant accumulation if i marry i shall insure my life for ten thousand dollars

Starting point is 03:02:25 so that my death shall not leave my wife destitute. I have a very small reserve fund in bank, too, $1,300 now, since I paid for that horse. And there is still $300 do me for last year's work. These are my means and my prospects. And now I tell you again, Sui, that I love you, and I ask you bluntly, will you marry me? The young lady said,

Starting point is 03:02:56 nothing. If you wish for time to think about it, Sudy. I suppose that would be the proper way, according to custom, but, raising her eyes fearlessly to his, I have already made up my mind, and I do not want to act a falsehood. There is nothing to be ashamed of, I suppose, in frankly loving such a man as you, Robert. I will be your wife. the little woman felt wonderfully brave just then and accordingly without further ado she commenced to cry

Starting point is 03:03:36 the reader would be very ill-mannered indeed should he listen further to a conversation which was wholly private and confidential in its character wherefore let us close our ears and the chapter at once end of chapter sixteen chapter seventeen of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter seventeen in which mr pagebrook bids his friends good-bye the next two or three days passed away very quickly with mr robert and miss sudy robert made to his aunt a statement of the results without entering into the detail of his conferences with miss sooty and was assured of colonel barksdale's approval when that gentleman and billy should return from the court they were attending the two young people however were in no hurry for the day appointed for that return to come they were very happy as it was they discussed their future and laid many little plans to be carried out after a while it was it was arranged that robert should be carried out after a while it was arranged that robert should return to virginia at the beginning of the next long vacation that the wedding should take place immediately upon his coming and that the two should make a little trip through the mountains and returning to shirley remain there until the autumn should bring robert's professional duties around again they were in the very act of talking these matters over for the twentieth time one afternoon when major page broke up he seemed absent and nervous in manner and after a few moments of general conversation asked to see robert alone upon business

Starting point is 03:05:40 when the two were closeted together major pagebrook opened his pocket-book and taking out a paper he slowly unfolded it saying i have just received this robert and i suppose there is a duplicate of it awaiting you in the post-office robert looked at the paper in blank astonishment what does this mean he cried my draft protested why i have sixteen hundred dollars in that bank and my draft was for only three hundred it appears that the bank has failed said major pagebrook at least i reckon that's what the richmond people mean they say in a note to me that it went to pot a week ago it seems there are good many banks failing this fall i hope you won't lose everything though robert the blow was a terrible one to the young man in a moment he took in the entire situation in a moment he took in the entire situation to lose the money he had in bank was to be forced to begin the world over again with absolutely nothing but at any rate he could pay the debt he owed to his cousin very shortly and to be free from debt is in itself a luxury to a man of his temperament he thought but a moment and then said cousin edwin i shall have to ask you to carry that protested draft for me a few days if you will there is some money due me on the fifteenth of this month and it is now the ninth i ask that it should be sent to me here but i shall go to philadelphia at once and i'll collect it when i get there and send you the amount i promise you faithfully that it shall be remitted by the fifteenth at the very furthest

Starting point is 03:07:38 oh don't trouble yourself to be so exact robert replied major paid brook send it when you can i'm in no very great hurry sarah ann says we must invest all our spare money in the new railroad stock but i needn't pay anything on that till the twenty-third so there'll be time enough but for that i wouldn't care how long i waited paid after the fifteenth at furthest, said Robert. I do not like to let it lie even that long. Major Pagebrook took his departure, and Robert told Sudy of the bad news, telling her also that he must leave next morning for Philadelphia to see if it were possible to save something from the wreck of the bank.

Starting point is 03:08:34 Besides, said he, I must get to work. There are nearly two months of time, between now and the first of January, and I cannot afford to lose it now that I have lost this money. What will you do, Robert? You can't do anything teaching in that time. No, but I can do a good many things. I write a little now and then for the papers and magazines, for one thing. I can pick up something, I think, which will at least pay expenses. He then told her of his arrangement with Major Pagebrook, about the protested draft, and finished by repeating what the gentleman had said about the investment in railroad stock.

Starting point is 03:09:20 This troubled, Miss Sudy, more than all the rest, and Robert, seeing it, pressed her for a reason. But no reason would she give, and Robert was forced to content himself with the thought that his trouble naturally brought trouble to her. to her aunt however she expressed her conviction that cousin sarah ann had suggested the railroad investment merely for the sake of compelling her husband to press robert for payment she was troubled to know that the payment must be deferred even for a few days but rejoiced in the knowledge of robert's ability to discharge his indebtedness speedily it galled her to think of the unpleasant things which the amiable mistress of the oaks would manage to say about robert pending the payment there was no help for it however and so the brave little woman persuaded herself that it was her duty to appear cheerful in order that robert might be so and whatever miss sooty believed to be her duty in any case miss sudy did however difficult the doing might be she accordingly wore the pleasantest possible smile and the most cheerful of countenances whenever robert was present doing every particle of her necessary crying in her own room and carefully washing away all traces of the process process before opening the door.

Starting point is 03:10:54 Robert made all his preparations for departure that afternoon, and on the following morning was driven to the courthouse in the family carriage. When he arrived there, he got what letters there were for him in the post office, read them, and talked a few moments with Ewing Pagebrook, who had spent the preceding night with Foggy and Dr. Harrison, and was now deepened. contripe and rather anxious than otherwise that robert should scold him there was no time however even for the giving of advice as the train had now come and robert must go at once a hasty handshaking closed the interview and robert was gone end of chapter seventeen chapter eighteen of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this is a man of honor by george carey eggleston this is a this libervox recording is in the public domain chapter eighteen mr pagebrook goes to work

Starting point is 03:12:07 when robert arrived in philadelphia his first care was to make inquiries with regard to the bank in which his money was deposited he learned that it had suspended payment about one week before and that its affairs were in the hands of an assignee this was all he could find out on the afternoon of his arrival and with this he was forced to content himself until the next day when he succeeded with some little difficulty in securing an interview with the assignee to him he said my only purpose is to ascertain the exact state of the bank's affairs in order that i may know what to do that i cannot tell you sir the books are still in confusion and until they can be straightened out it is impossible to say what the result will be tell me then are the assets anything like equal to the liabilities that is exactly what the books must show i can't say till we get a statement you can at least tell me then said robert provoked at the man's reticence whether there are any assets at all or not no i can make no statement until the books are examined then a complete exhibit of affairs will be made pardon me said robert but this question is why we're examined but this question is why we're not one of serious moment to me. You have been examining this bank's affairs for a week, I believe? Yes, about a week. You must have some idea, then, whether or not there is likely to be anything

Starting point is 03:13:53 at all left for depositors, and you will oblige me very much indeed by giving me your personal opinion on the subject. I understand how impossible it is to give exact figures, but you cannot have failed to discover by this time whether or not the assets amount to anything worth considering as compared with the amount of the bank's liabilities i would like the little information you can give me however inexact it may be my dear sir said the assignee i'm afraid you don't understand these things our statement is not ready yet and i cannot possibly tell you what its nature will be until it is when will it be ready sir asked robert that i cannot say as yet but it will be forthcoming in due time sir in due time will it require a week or a month or two or three months you can at least make an approximate estimate of the time necessary for its preparation well no said the man of business i should not like to make any promises i am hard at work and the statement will be ready in due time sir in due time robert left the man's presence thoroughly disgusted thinking the matter over he concluded that the affairs of the bank must be in a very bad way otherwise he argued the man would not be so silent on the subject

Starting point is 03:15:33 now the assignee was perfectly right in saying that robert did not understand these things if he had understood them he would have known that the reticence from which he thus argued the worst meant just nothing at all business men are not apt to commit themselves unnecessarily in any case and especially in such a case as the one concerning which robert had been inquiring the bank might have been utterly bankrupt or entirely solvent, and that assignee would in either case have given precisely the same answers to our young friend's questions. He knew nothing with absolute certainty as yet, and could know nothing certainly, until the last column of figures should be added up and the final balance is struck. Then he could make a statement, but until then he would say nothing at all. He acted after his kind. Business is business, and, as a rule, businessmen know only one way of doing things.

Starting point is 03:16:42 Robert, however, was not a businessman. He knew nothing about these things, and accordingly, making no allowance for a business habit as one of the factors in the problem, he proceeded to argue that if the affairs of the bank were in the least degree hopeful, the man would have said so. As he had carefully and persistently avoided saying anything of the kind, Robert could only conclude that there was no hope at all to be entertained.

Starting point is 03:17:14 He quickly determined, therefore, to waste no more time. Abandoning his sixteen hundred dollars as utterly lost, he packed his valise and went at once to New York to find work of some kind. How he succeeded we shall best see from his letter to cousin Sui, from which I am allowed to quote a passage or two. I am very busy with some topical articles, as the newspaper folk call them. That is to say, I am visiting factories of various kinds and writing detailed accounts of their operations, coupling with the facts gathered thus a gossipy account of the

Starting point is 03:17:58 origin, history, etc., of the industry. I find the work very interesting, and it promises to be quite remunerative, too. I fell into it by accident. About a year ago I spent an evening with the friend, Mr. Dudley, in New York, and while at his house his seven-year-old boy showed me some of his toys, little German contrivances, and I, knowing something about the toy, and the people who make them, you know I made a summer trip through Europe once, fell to telling him about them.

Starting point is 03:18:36 His father was as much interested as he, but the matter soon passed from my mind. When I came over here a week ago to look for something to do, I visited the office of this paper, hoping that I should be allowed to do a little reporting or drudgery of some sort till something better should turn up. Who should I find in the editor's chair, but my friend Dudley? I told him my errand, and his reply was, I haven't a moment now, Pagebrook, but you're the very man I want.

Starting point is 03:19:13 Come up and see me this evening. We dine at half-past six, and over our roast beef I can explain fully what I mean. I went as a matter of course, and at dinner, Dudley said, Our paper, Pagebrook, is meant to be a kind of American Penny magazine. That is to say, we want to fill it full of entertaining information, partly for the sake of the information, but more for the sake of the entertainment. Now, I have tried at least 50 people, in the hope of finding somebody who could tell.

Starting point is 03:19:52 in writing just such things as you told our ben when you were here a year ago i never dreamed of getting you to do it but you're just the man and about the only one too i begin to think now if you've a mind to do it i can keep you busy as long as you like i don't mean to confine you to this particular kind of work but i'd rather have articles of that sort than any others and the publishers won't grumble if i pay you twenty dollars a piece for them they mustn't exceed two of our columns say two thousand words in all but if you can't tell your story in any particular instance within the story within the story in any particular instance within the those limits, you can make two articles out of it. I've already told your toy story, but you can easily hunt up plenty of other things to tell about. Common things are best, things people see every day, but know nothing about. I set to work the next day, and have been busy ever since. I like to visit factories and learn all the petty details of their operations, and I find that that it is the petty details which go to make the description interesting i like the work so well that i almost wish i had no professorship so that i might follow as a business this kind of writing and some other sorts in which i seem to succeed

Starting point is 03:21:26 for i do not confine myself to one class of articles or to one paper either for that matter but i'm trying my hand at a variety of things and I find the work very fascinating. But it is altogether better, I suppose, that I should retain my position in the college, even if I could be sure of always finding as good a market as I do just now for my wares, which is doubtful. I have lost the whole of my little reserve fund, as the bank seems hopelessly broken,

Starting point is 03:22:02 and if I had nothing to depend upon except the problematic sale of articles, I would do you or wrong to ask you to let our wedding-day remain fixed. As it is, my salary from the college is more than sufficient for our support, and as my expenses from now until the time appointed will be very small indeed, I shall have several hundred dollars accumulated by that time, wherefore, if Uncle Carter does not object, pray, let us, our plans remain undisturbed, will you not suede? The rest of this letter, which is a very long one, is not only personal in its character, but is also of a strictly private nature,

Starting point is 03:22:50 and while I am free to copy here so much of this and other letters in my possession, as will aid me in the telling of my story, I do not feel myself at liberty to let the reader into the sacred inner chambers of a correspondence with which we have properly no concern except as it helps us to the understanding of this history end of chapter eighteen chapter nineteen of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter nineteen a short chapter not very interesting perhaps but of some important in the story, as the reader will probably discover after a while. When the letter from which a quotation was made in the preceding chapter came to Miss Sudy, that young lady was not at Shirley, but at the Oaks, where Ewing was lying very ill. He had been prostrated suddenly, a few days before, and from the first had been delirious with fever.

Starting point is 03:24:07 The doctor had appeared unusually anxious, regarding his patient ever since he was first summoned to see him and cousin sarah ann having given way to her alarm at the evident danger in which her son lay to such an extent as to be wholly useless to herself or to anybody else miss sudy had been called in to act as temporary mistress of the mansion the very next male after the one which brought her letter had in it one from robert addressed to ewing himself herself. Miss Sudy, upon discovering it in the bag, carried it to cousin Sarah Ann, and was very decidedly shocked when that estimable lady, without a word, broke the seal and read the letter, putting it carefully away afterwards in Ewing's desk, of which she had the key. Miss Sudy said nothing, however, and the matter was almost forgotten, when in the evening the doctor came and sat down by the sick boy's bed.

Starting point is 03:25:14 I think it my duty to tell you, said he to cousin Sarah Ann, that the crisis of the disease is rapidly approaching, and I must wait here until it passes. Your son is in very great danger, but we shall know within a few hours whether there is hope for him or not. I confess that while I hope the best, I fear the worst. mrs pagebrook was thoroughly overcome by her fright she loved her son in her own queer way and being a very weak woman she gave way entirely when she understood in how very critical a condition the boy was it was necessary to exclude her from the room and the doctor remained with miss sooty and major pageberg about midnight he stood and looked intently at the sick man's features listening also to his hard-coming breath he stood there full half an hour then turning to miss sooty he said it's of no use miss barksdale our young friend is beyond hope he cannot live an hour perhaps you'd better inform his mother but before miss sudy could leave the bedside ewing roused himself for a moment and tried to say something to her

Starting point is 03:26:42 tell robert i got sick the very day twenty-one this was all miss sudy could hear and she thought the patient's mind was wandering still as it had been throughout his his illness. And these incoherent words were the last the young man ever uttered. About a week after Ewing's death, cousin Sarah Ann said to Major Pagework, "'Cousin, are you ever going to collect that money from Robert?' "'He promised to pay you on or before the 15th of November, and now it's nearly the last of the month, and you haven't a line of explanation from him yet.' i told you he wouldn't pay it till we made him you oughtn't to have let him run away in your debt at all and you wouldn't either if you'd listen to me why don't you write to him well i don't like to press the poor fellow he's lost his money you know and i reckon he finds it hard to pull through till january he'll pay when he can i reckon

Starting point is 03:27:56 oh that's always the way with you for my part i don't believe he had any money in the bank and besides he said there was some money coming to him on his salary and he promised faithfully to pay you out of that i told you he wouldn't because i knew him he tried to make out he was so much superior to the rest of us and talked about reforming poor ewing just as if the poor boy was a drunkard and and and if you don't write I will and I'll make him pay that money too or I'll know why the conversation ended as such conversations usually did in Major Pagebrook's family namely by the abrupt departure of that gentleman from the house cousin Sarah Ann evidently meant what she said and her husband was no sooner out of the house than she got out her desk and wrote. Not to Robert, however, but to Mr. Steele, Flint, and Sharp, attorneys and counselors at law in New York City. Her note was not a long one, but it told the whole story of Robert's indebtedness,

Starting point is 03:29:17 from a not very favorable point of view, and closed with a request that the attorneys should push the case by every means the law allows. This note was signed not with Cousin Sarah Ann's own, but with her husband's name, and her first proceeding, after sealing the letter, was to send it by a servant to the post office. She then ordered her carriage and drove over to Shirley. End of Chapter 19.

Starting point is 03:29:58 Chapter 20 of A Man of Honor by George Carrey. Egleston. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 20. Cousin Sarah Ann takes Roberts part. Cousin Sarah Ann talked a good deal. Ill-natured people sometimes said she talked a good deal of nonsense, and possibly she did. But she never talked without a purpose, and she commonly managed to talk pretty successfully, too, so far as the accomplishment of her ends was concerned. In the present case, while I am wholly unprepared to say exactly why she wanted to talk,

Starting point is 03:30:41 I am convinced that this excellent lady's visit to Shirley was undertaken solely for the purpose of securing an opportunity to talk. Arrived there, she greeted her friends with her black-bordered handkerchief over her eyes, and for a time seemed hardly able to speak at all, so overpowering was her emotion. Then she said, I wouldn't think of visiting at such a time as this, of course, but surely seems so much like home,

Starting point is 03:31:12 and I felt like I must have somebody to talk to who could sympathize with me. Dear Suity was so good to me during, during it all. After a time, cousin Sarah Ann composed herself and controlled her emotion sufficiently to converse connectedly without making painful pauses, though her voice continued from first to last to be uncomfortably suggestive of recent weeping.

Starting point is 03:31:41 "'Have you had any news of Robert lately?' she asked. "'I do hope he's doing well.' "'We've had no letters since Souties came while she was at your house,' said Colonel Barksdale. "'He was doing very well then, I believe, though he thought there was no hope of recovering anything from the bank. I'm so sorry, said Cousin Sarah Ann, for I love Robert.

Starting point is 03:32:10 He was so like an older brother to my poor boy. I feel just like a mother to him, and I can't bear to have anybody say anything against him. Nobody ever does say anything to his discredit, I suppose, said Colonel Barksdale. He is really one of the finest young men I ever knew, and the very soul of honor, too. He comes honestly by that, however, for his father was just so before him. That's just what I tell Cousin Edwin, said Cousin Sarah Ann. I tell him, dear Robert means to do right, and will do it just as soon as ever he can.

Starting point is 03:32:53 Poor fellow! He has been so unfortunate. somebody must have made cousin edwin suspicious of him else he wouldn't think so badly of poor robert why sarah ann what do you mean asked colonel barksdale surely edwin has no reason to think ill of robert no that he hasn't and that's what i tell him but he's been prejudiced and won't hear a word he says nothing about it to anybody but me But he really suspects Robert of meaning to cheat him, and— "'Cheat him!' cried all in a breath. "'Why, how can that be?' "'Oh, it can't be, and so I tell Cousin Edwin. But he insists that Robert told him he would pay that $300 on or before the 15th,

Starting point is 03:33:50 and I reckon the poor boy hasn't been able to do it, or he would.' "'Why, Sarah Anne. you don't tell me that Robert has failed to pay Edwin that money, said the Colonel. Why, I thought you knew that, or I wouldn't have told you about it. No, he hasn't sent it yet, but he will, of course, if I can keep Cousin Edwin from writing him violent letters about it. Hasn't he written to explain the delay? asked the Colonel. No, and that's what Cousin Edwin always reminds me of when I try to explain.

Starting point is 03:34:28 to take Robert's part. He says if he meant to be honest, he would have written. I tell him I know how it is. I can fully understand Robert's silence. He has failed to get money when he expected it, I reckon, and is naturally hated to write till he could send the money. Poor boy! I'm afraid he'll overwork himself and half starve himself too, trying to get that money together when we could wait for it just as well as not. There certainly can be no apology for his failure to write, after promising payment on a definite day, said Colonel Barksdale, and I am both surprised and grieved that he should have acted in so unworthy a way.

Starting point is 03:35:18 With this the Colonel arose and paced the room in evident anger. robert's champion cousin sarah ann could not stand this surely you are not going to turn against poor robert without giving him a hearing are you cousin carter i thought you too just for that though i should never have mentioned the subject at all if i hadn't thought you all knew about it and would take robert's part like me i shall give him a hearing said the colonel but in the meantime i must say his conduct has been very singular very singular indeed oh he's only thoughtless said the excellent woman in her anxiety to shield dear robert no he is not thoughtless he never is thoughtless whatever else he may be if you wish to defend him sarah ann you must find some other excuse for his conduct confound the fellow i can't help loving him but if he isn't what i took him for i'll the colonel did not finish his threat perhaps he hardly knew how now cousin carter please don't you fly into a passion like cousin edwin does said cousin sarah ann pleadingly but wait till you find out all the facts write to robert and i'm sure he will explain it all i wish i hadn't said a word about it

Starting point is 03:36:55 you did perfectly right perfectly said colonel barksdale if robert has failed in a point of honor i ought to know it because in that case i have a duty to do a painful one but a duty nevertheless oh you men have no charity at all you're so hard on one another and i'm so sorry i said anything about it good-bye cousin mary good-bye sooty dear come and see me won't you i miss you so much in my trouble come often come and stay some with me do that's a dear and so cousin sarah ann drove away rejoiced in the consciousness that she had vigorously defended the absent Robert, and perhaps rejoicing too in the conviction that that gentleman could not possibly explain his conduct to the satisfaction of Colonel Barksdale. End of Chapter 20. Chapter 21 of A Man of Honor by George Carey Eggleston.

Starting point is 03:38:13 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 21 Miss Barksdale expresses some opinions. Miss Soudy Barksdale was a very brave little woman, and she needed all her courage on the present occasion. She felt the absolute necessity there was that she should sit out, Cousin Sarah Ann's conversation, and she sat it out, in what agony it is not hard to imagine.

Starting point is 03:38:44 When that lady drove away, Miss Souty ran off to her room, where she remained for two or three hours. Upon her privacy, we will not intrude. Colonel Barksdale called Billy from his office, and giving him the newly discovered facts, asked his opinion. Billy was simply thunderstruck.

Starting point is 03:39:08 I can't understand it, said he. Bob certainly had that money coming to him from his last year's salary, for he told me about it the day we first first. met in Philadelphia. If Bob isn't a man of honor in the strictest sense of the term, I never was so deceived in anybody in my life. And yet this business looks as ugly as homemade sin. Bob knew perfectly well that if you or I had been at home when he left, we wouldn't have allowed his protested draft to stand over at all, but would have

Starting point is 03:39:46 paid it on the spot. He knew, too, that if he couldn't pay when he promised, he could have written to me or to you explaining the matter, and we would have lent him the money for twenty years, if necessary. I don't understand it at all. It looks ugly. It looks as if he meant to make that money clear. Well, my son, said Colonel Barksdale. I'll give him one chance to explain at any rate. I'll write to him immediately. Accordingly, the old gentleman went to his library and was engaged for some time in writing. After a while there came a knock at his door, and Missoudie entered. Come in, daughter, said he tenderly. I want to talk with you. I thought you would, said the sad-eyed little maiden, and that's why I came.

Starting point is 03:40:44 i wanted our talk to be private you're a good girl my child then after a pause this is bad news about robert yes and from a bad source said sooty i do not understand you daughter we have the best of authority uncle carter for saying that men do not gather grapes of thorns but my child i suppose there can be no doubt of the facts in this case so far as we have them we know the circumstances of robert's indebtedness to edwin and whatever her motives may have been sarah ann would hardly venture to say that he has neither paid nor written in explanation of his failure to do so if he had done either perhaps not robert ought to have paid at any cost to himself if it were possible and if it were not then he should have written in a frank manly way explaining his inability to fulfil his promise appearances are so strongly against him that i have written with very little hope of eliciting any satisfactory reply will you mind letting me see what you have written uncle carter no you may read the letter here it is missudi read it it ran thus i have just now learned that you have wholly failed to fulfil your solemn and deliberate promise made on the eve of your departure from shirley to the effect that you would without fail take up your protested draft for three hundred dollars held by your cousin major edwin pagebrook on or before the fifteenth day of this current month

Starting point is 03:42:43 it is now the thirtieth and hence your promise is fifteen days overdue i learn also that you have failed to write in explanation of your delinquency or in any way to account or apologize for it permit me to say that as your conduct presents itself to me at this time it is unworthy the gentleman which you profess to be and i now demand of you either that you shall give me immediately a satisfactory explanation of the matter and that i must confess sir seems hardly possible or that you shall at once write to my niece and adopted daughter releasing her from her engagement with you having finished reading the letter sudy handed it back to her uncle without a word of comment not that she was in this or in any other case afraid to express her opinion her uncle knew very well when he gave her the letter that she would say absolutely nothing about it until he should ask her and he knew equally well that upon asking her he would get a perfectly honest expression of her thought whatever it might happen to be but colonel barksdale was for the time afraid to ask her opinion he was a brave man and an honest one he was known for the time afraid to ask her opinion he was a brave man and an honest one he was known throughout the state as a lawyer of great ability and as a gentleman of the most undoubted sort and yet at this moment he found himself afraid of a young girl who stood in the relation of daughter to him a girl who was never violent in word or act a girl who honored him as a father and loved him with all her heart he knew she would unhesitatingly speak the truth and it was never violent in word or act a girl who honored him as a father and loved him with all her heart

Starting point is 03:44:36 he knew she would unhesitatingly speak the truth and it was the truth of which he was afraid he had not been aware when he wrote of any disposition to do robert injustice else being a just man he would have spurned the thought from him but now that he felt bound to ask miss sudy for her opinion of his course he became uncomfortably conscious that there had been other impulses than just one governing him in his choice of language. At last he asked the dreaded question. What do you think, daughter? I think you have not done yourself justice, Uncle Carter, in writing such a letter as that. The letter is not like you at all.

Starting point is 03:45:27 Well? Do you mean why and wherefore? Yes, why and wherefore, Sui. Because it is not like you to do an act of injustice, and when you are betrayed into one, you misrepresent yourself. But wherein is my letter an act of injustice, my child? It assumes unproved guilt, and I believe even criminals are entitled to a more favorable starting point than that

Starting point is 03:46:00 in their efforts to clear themselves. But, Su-Dy, I have not assumed. that Robert is guilty, I have asked him to explain. Yes, and in the very act of asking him to explain to you, his judge, you have assured him from the bench that the court believes an explanation impossible. Have I? Let me see. After looking at the letter again, he resumed, I believe you are right about that. I will rewrite the letter, omitting the objectionable clause. Is that all, Suity? Perhaps when you come to rewrite the

Starting point is 03:46:45 letter, you will see that its tone is as unjust as any words could possibly be. It seems so to me. Let me try my hand again, daughter. Keep your seat, please, while I write a new letter instead of rewriting the old one. There, how will that do? he asked. as he handed the young woman his hastily written note my dear robert we have just been hearing some news of you which i trust you will be able to contradict or explain it is that you have failed to keep your promise in the matter of your indebtedness to major pagebrook and that you have not even offered a word by way of apology or explanation the peculiar relations in which you now stand to my family justify me, I think, in asking you to explain a matter which, unexplained, must reflect upon your character as an honorable man. Please write to me by return mail. That is more like you, Uncle Carter, but I am sorry to find that you're convinced in advance of Robert's guilt. You proposed to sit in

Starting point is 03:48:03 judgment upon his case, and a court should not only appear, but be free from bias. Why, my daughter, I can hardly see how there can be any possible excuse in a case like this. You cannot deny that both facts and appearances are against him. I doubt whether we have the facts yet, Uncle Carter. Aside from my knowledge of Sarah Ann Patron, Brooks general character, I saw her do a dishonorable thing once. I saw her open and read a letter which was not addressed to her, and I have no faith whatever in her or in any statement which comes from her or through her. Colonel Barksdale was probably not sorry that the conversation was interrupted at this point by the entrance of a servant announcing a client.

Starting point is 03:49:02 He felt that it would be idle to argue with Sudy in a matter in which her feelings were strongly enlisted, and he felt that in calling Robert to an account he was doing a simple duty. He was, therefore, rather pleased than otherwise, to have an accident terminate a conversation which did not promise to terminate itself agreeably. Miss Sudy went to her room and wrote to Robert on her own account, I am not at liberty to print her letter here, as I should greatly like to do, but the reader will readily guess its general nature. She told Robert in detail everything that had been said concerning him that day. She told him of her uncle's anger and of the probability that everybody would believe him guilty if he failed to establish his innocence.

Starting point is 03:49:59 But she assured him that she, at least, had no idea of doubting him for a moment for your sake she wrote i hope you will be able to offer a convincing explanation but whether you can do that or not robert i know that you are true and manly and not even facts shall ever make me doubt your truth i may never be able to see how your action has been right but i shall know nevertheless that it has been so my woman love is truer to me at least than logic truer than fact truer than truth itself all this was very illogical very unreasonable but very natural it was just like a woman to set her emotions up in a holy place and compel her reason to do homage to them as to a god and that is the very best thing there is about women, too. You and I, sir, would fare badly if in naming a woman wife, we could not feel assured that her love will ever override her reason in matters concerning us. End of Chapter 21.

Starting point is 03:51:26 Chapter 22 of A Man of Honor by George Carey Eggleston. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 22. Mr. Sharp does his duty. The law firm of Steel, Flint, and Sharp was a thoroughly well-constituted one. Its organization was an admirable example of means perfectly adapted to the accomplishment of ends. It was not an eminent firm, but it was an eminently successful one, particularly in the lines of business to which it gave special attention, and the leading one of these was collecting

Starting point is 03:52:07 doubtful debts, as cousin Sarah Ann had learned from one of the firm's cards which had fallen in her way. Indeed, it was the accidental possession of this card which enabled her to put the matter of Robert's indebtedness into the hands of New York attorneys, and I suspect that she would never have thought of doing so at all, but for the enticing words, fairly printed upon the card, particular attention given to the collection of the collection of the collection of the doubtful debts due to non-residents of new york a profit we know is not without honor save in his own country and so it is not strange that the people who familiarly knew the countenances of the gentlemen composing the firm of steel flint and sharp esteemed these gentlemen less highly than did those other people resident outside of new york who could know these counsellors at law only through their profusely distribution cards and circulars.

Starting point is 03:53:10 Such was the fact, and as a result, it happened that the clients of the firm were chiefly people who, living in other parts of the country, were compelled to entrust their business in New York to the hands of whatever attorneys they believed were the leading ones in the metropolis. And it was to let people know who were the leading lawyers of the city that Mr.'s steel, flint and sharp industriously scattered their cards and circulars throughout the country who mr steel was i do not know and i am strongly inclined to suspect that the rest of the world including his partners were in a state of equal ignorance he was never seen about the firm's offices and never represented anybody in court but he was frequently referred to by his partners especially when clients were disposed to complain of apparently exorbitant charges.

Starting point is 03:54:11 Mr. Steele cannot give his attention to a case, sir, for nothing. His reputation is at stake, sir, in all we undertake. I really do not feel at liberty to ask Mr. Steele to authorize any reduction in this case, sir. He gave his personal attention to the papers, his personal attention, sir. and this would commonly send clients away suppressed if not satisfied mr flint was well enough known he managed the business of the firm it was he who always knew precisely what mr steele's opinion was he alone of all the world was able to speak positively of matters concerning mr steel mr sharp was his junior in the firm though considerably his senior in years for mr sharp mr flint entertained not one particle of respect because that gentleman was not always what his name implied mr sharp left to himself would have been hopelessly honest and straightforward he would have gone to the dogs speedily mr flint said but for his association with himself but you have excellent ability in your way sharp excellent ability he would have gone to the dogs speedily mr flint said but for his association with himself

Starting point is 03:55:32 but you have excellent ability in your way sharp excellent ability he would say when in a good humor you are a capital executive officer a very good lieutenant your ideas of what to do in any given case are not always good but when i tell you what to do you do it sharp i always know you will do what i tell you and do it well too mr sharp usually came to the office an hour earlier than mr flint did in order that he might have everything ready for mr flint's examination when that gentleman should arrive he read the letters drew up papers and was prepared to give his partner in each case the facts upon which his opinion or advice was necessary on the morning of december third mr flint came softly into his office as his office and after hanging up his overcoat and warming his hands at the register went into his inner den saying as he sat down i'm ready for you now sharp mr sharp arose from his desk and entered the private room with his hands full of papers what's the first thing on docket sharp well here's a collection to be made debtor robert pagebrook tempered in the city. Boarding place not known. Rights for the newspapers so I can easily find him. Creditor Edwin Pagebrook of something courthouse, Virginia.

Starting point is 03:57:16 Debtor got creditor to cash draft for $300. Draft protested. Debtor came away and promised to take up paper by 15th November. Hasn't done it. instructions push him any limitations no what have you done nothing yet i'll look him up to-day and done him yes and let him get away from you sharp do you know that julius caesar is dead certainly i'm glad to hear that you do know something then don't you see the point in this case go and make out affidavits on information this fellow robert what's his name is a transient and we'll get an order of arrest already and then you can done him with some sense have your officer with you or convenient and if he don't pay up check him in jail that's the way to do it never waste time dunning transients when there's a man a ghost of a chance to cage them. Well, but there don't seem to be any fraud here.

Starting point is 03:58:37 The man seems to have had funds in the bank, only the bank suspended. Sharp, you'll learn a little law after a while, I hope. Don't you know the courts never looked very sharply after cases where transients are concerned? How do we know he had money in the bank? Is there anything to show it? No, I believe not. Well, then, don't you go making facts in the interest of the other side? Let him make that out if he can.

Starting point is 03:59:12 You just draw your affidavits to suit our purposes, not his. Go on to state that he drew a certain bill of exchange and represented that he had funds and so fraudulently obtained money and all that. and then go on to say that his draft upon presentation was protested and that instead of making it good he absconded be sure to say absconded sharp it's half the battle courts haven't much use for men that abscond and then turn up in new york make your case strong enough though we only swear on information you know so if we do put it a little strong strong it don't matter. There, go and fix it up right away, and then catch your man.

Starting point is 04:00:05 A few hours later, as Robert Pagebrook sat writing in his room, Mr. Sharp and another man were shown in. Mr. Sharp opened the conversation. This is Mr. Pagebrook, I believe? Yes, sir. Mr. Robert Pagebrook? Yes. that is my name thank you my name is sharp of the firm of steel flint and sharp that's our card sir i have called to solicit the payment sir of a small amount due mr edwin pagebrook who has written asking us to collect it for him

Starting point is 04:00:47 the amount is three hundred dollars i think yes here's the draft can you let me have the money today mr pagebrook i have already remitted one-third the amount sir said robert and i hope to send the remainder in installments very soon at present it is simply impossible for me to pay anything more have you a receipt for the amount remitted asked the lawyer no it was sent only yesterday but if you will hold the draft a week or ten days longer i will be able within that time to earn the whole of the amount remaining due and your client will advise you i am sure of the receipt of the hundred dollars already sent we are not authorized to wait sir said mr sharp on the contrary our instructions are positive to push the case but what can i do asked robert i have already sent every dollar i had and until i earn more I can pay no more. The case is a peculiar one, sir. It has the appearance of a fraudulent debt and an attempt to run away from it.

Starting point is 04:02:10 I must do my duty by my client, sir, and so this gentleman, who is a sheriff's officer, has an order for your arrest, which I must ask him to serve if you do not pay the debt today. Let him serve it at once, then, said Robert. I cannot pay now. End of Chapter 22. Chapter 23 of a Man of Honor by George Carey Eggleston. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 23.

Starting point is 04:02:54 Mr. Pagebrook takes a lesson in the law. As Robert was unable to give bail without calling upon his friend Dudley, which he determined not to do in any case, he was taken to the jail and locked up. Upon his arrival there, he employed a messenger to carry a note to a young lawyer, with whom he happened to be slightly acquainted, asking him to come to the jail at once. When he arrived, Robert said to him, Let me tell you in the outset, Mr. Dyker, that I have no money and no friends. wherefore if you will allow me to consult you at all it must be with the understanding that i cannot possibly pay you for your services until i can make the money if you are willing to trust me to that extent we can proceed to business

Starting point is 04:03:50 you are very honorable sir to inform me beforehand of this fact pray go on i will do what i can for you in the first place then said robin i am a little puzzled to know how or why i am locked up you have the papers will you tell me how it is oh it's plain enough you are held under an order of arrest but i don't understand i thought imprisonment for debt was a thing of the past in this country at least and my only offence is indebtedness is it possible that men may still be imprisoned for in America?" "'Well, that is about it,' said the lawyer. "'We have abolished the name but retained the thing in a slightly modified form, in New York at least. Theoretically, you are not imprisoned, but merely held to answer.

Starting point is 04:04:52 The plaintiffs have made out a case of fraud and non-residents, and so they had plain sailing. But I always understood that our Constitution, or our law, or something else, secured every man against imprisonment, except by due process of law, and gave to every accused person the right to be confronted with his accusers, to cross-examine witnesses, and to have his guilt or innocence passed upon by a jury of his countryman. that is the theory but there are some classes of cases which are practically exceptions and yours is one of them then said robert it is true is it that an american may be arrested and sent to jail without trial upon the mere strength of affidavits made by lawyers who know nothing of the facts except what they have heard from distant irresponsible and personally

Starting point is 04:05:55 interested clients. Affidavits upon information, I believe you call them. Well, you put it a little strongly, perhaps, but those are the facts in New York. Respectable lawyers, however, are careful to satisfy themselves of the facts before proceeding at all in such cases. And so the law, which is a very convenient one, rarely ever works injustice, I think. Not once and twenty times, I should say. But, said Robert, the personal liberty of every non-resident

Starting point is 04:06:34 and some resident debtors is, or in some cases may be, dependent solely upon the character of attorneys, as I understand you. In some cases, yes. But pardon me, had we not better come to the matter in hand as we are not a legislature perhaps it would be better said robert he then proceeded to relate the facts of the case beginning with his drawing of the draft in good faith its protest and his consequent perplexity i did not abscond at all he continued

Starting point is 04:07:15 but came away to see if i could save something from the wreck of the bank and to seek work in leaving i promised to pay the debt on or before the fifteenth of last month feeling certain that i could do so i failed to do it through never mind i failed to do it but i have been trying hard ever since to get the money and discharge the obligation i yesterday remitted a hundred dollars and should have sent the rest as fast as I could make it. These are the facts. Now, how am I going to get out of here? You have nobody to go your bail? Nobody. And no money?

Starting point is 04:08:06 None. I sold my watch in order to get money on which to live while I was looking for work. You did have money enough to your credit in that day. bank to have made your draft good if the bank hadn't suspended? Yes. You can swear to that? Certainly. Then I think we can manage this matter without much difficulty. We can admit the facts, but deny the fraudulent intent in affidavits of our own, and get discharged on that ground. I think we can easily overthrow the theory of fraud,

Starting point is 04:08:47 by showing that you actually had the money in bank and swearing that you drew against it in good faith pardon me but in doing that i should be bound should i not in honor if not in law to state all the facts of the case in my affidavit the theory of the proceeding is that i am putting the court in possession of all the facts and withholding nothing is it not well yes i suppose it is then let us abandon that plan forthwith but my dear sir pray don't argue the point my mind is fully made up is there no other motive securing my release yes you might schedule out under article five of the non imprisonment act i think how is that it is a sort of insolvency or bankruptcy proceeding by which you come into court any court of record and offer to give up everything you have to your creditors giving a sworn catalogue of all your debts and all your property and praying release on the ground that you are unable to do more well as i have literally nothing in the way of property just now that mode of procedure seems to fit my case precisely said robert whose courage and good humor and indomitable cheerfulness stood him in good stead in this time of very sore trial the world looked gloomy enough to him then in whatever way he chose to look at it but the instinct of fight was large within him and in the absence of other joys he felt a savage pleasure in knowing that his life henceforth must be a constant struggle against fearful odds

Starting point is 04:10:51 odds of prejudice as well as of poverty for who could now take him by the hand and say to others this is my friend it's too late to accomplish anything to-day mr pagebrook said the lawyer looking at his watch but i will be here by ten o'clock to-morrow morning and we will then go to work for your deliverance which we can effect i think pretty quick good evening sir end of chapter twenty three chapter twenty four of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librivox recording is in the the public domain. Chapter 24. Mr. Pagebrook cuts himself loose from the past and plans a future. When the lawyer had gone, Robert sat down to deliberate upon the situation and to decide what was to be done in matters aside from the question of his release.

Starting point is 04:12:01 He had that morning received Colonel Barksdale's letter and Miss Suities. These must be answered at once, and he was not quite. quite certain how he should answer them. After turning the matter over, he determined upon his course, and, according to his custom, having determined what to do, he at once set about doing it. Having brought a supply of paper and envelopes from his room, he had only to borrow pen and ink from the attendant. His first letter was addressed to the president of the college, from which he had received his appointment as professor, and it consisted of a simple resignation, with no explanation except that contained in the sentence.

Starting point is 04:12:48 I can ill afford to surrender the position or the salary, but there are painful circumstances surrounding me, which compel me to this course. Pray excuse me from a fuller statement of the case. To Colonel Barksdale, he wrote, your letter surprises me only in its kindness and gentleness of tone under the circumstances i could have forgiven a good deal of harshness for your forbearance however you have my hearty thanks and now as to the subject matter of your note i am sorry to say i can offer neither denial nor satisfactory explanation of the facts alleged against me i must not say i must say i can offer neither denial nor satisfactory explanation of the facts alleged against me i must bear the blame that attaches to what i have done and bearing that blame i know my duty to you and your family i shall write by this mail to miss barksdale volunteering a release which otherwise you would have a right to demand of me sealing this and directing it robert came to the hardest task of all the writing of a letter to cousin sudy

Starting point is 04:14:05 i hardly know how to write to you he wrote your generous faith in me in spite of everything is more than i had any right to expect and more i think than you have any right in justice to yourself to give me i thank you for it right heartily but i feel that i must not accept it when you listened to my words of love and gave them a place in your heart i was a gentleman without reproach. Now a stain is upon my name, which I can never remove. The man to whom you promised your hand was not the absconding debtor who writes you this from a jail. I send this letter, therefore, to offer you a release from your engagement with me,

Starting point is 04:14:56 if indeed any release be necessary. You cannot afford to know me, or even to remember me hereafter. forget me then or if you cannot wholly forget remember me only as an adventurer who for a paltry sum sold his good name good-bye i wish you well with all my heart as he sealed these letters robert felt that his hopes for the future were sealed up with them and that the post which should bear them away would carry with it the better part of his life and yet he did not wholly surrender himself to despair as a weaker man might have done the old life was gone from him forever the only people whom he had known as in any sense his own would grasp his hand no more and if they ever thought of him again it would be only to regret that they had known him at all all this he felt keenly but it did not follow that he should abandon himself as a consequence.

Starting point is 04:16:06 He was still a young man, and there was time enough for him to make a new life for himself, to find new friends, and to do some worthy work in the world, and to the planning of this new life he at once addressed himself. He would teach no longer,

Starting point is 04:16:26 and now that he had cut himself loose from that profession, there was opportunity to do something at the business which he had found so agree. of late he would devote himself hereafter wholly to writing and at the first opportunity he would become a regular member of the staff of some paper even if his earnings with his pen should prove small what did that matter he could never think of marrying now and a very little would suffice to supply all his wants his habits of life being simple and regular it stung him when he remembered that there was a stain upon his name which could never be removed but that he knew he must bear and so he resolved to bear it bravely as it becomes a man to bear all his burdens with thoughts like these the stalwart young fellow sank to sleep on the bed assigned him in the jail end of chapter twenty four chapter twenty five of the five of the a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter twenty five in which miss sooty acts very unreasonably

Starting point is 04:17:56 the men who make up mails and handle great bags full of letters every day of their lives grow accustomed to the business i suppose and learn after a while to regard the bags and their contents merely as so many pounds of mail matter. Otherwise, they would soon become unfit for their duties. If they could weigh those bags with other than material scales, if they could know how many human hopes and fears, how much of human purpose and human despair, how many joys and how much of wretchedness those bags contain, if they could hear the moans that utter themselves inside the canvas, if they could know the very purposes with which all those letters have been written and the various effects they are destined to produce if our mail carriers could know and feel all these things or the half of them we should shortly have no mail carriers at all but fortunately there are prosaic souls enough in the world to make all necessary mail agents and postmasters and undertakers and grave-diggers out of in the small mail-bag thrown off at the court-house one december morning there was one little package of new york letters three letters in all but on those three letters hung the happiness of several human lives

Starting point is 04:19:28 of one of them we shall learn nothing for the present the other two from robert pagebrook to his uncle and miss barksdale we have already been permitted to read when these were received at shirley miss sooty took hers to her own room and read it there after which she sat down and answered it colonel barksdale read his with no surprise as he had not been able to imagine any possible explanation of robert's conduct and now that that gentleman frankly confessed that there was none he accepted the confession as a bit of evidence in the case for which he had waited mere as a matter of form. It was his duty now to talk again with his niece, but he was very tender always in his dealings with her and felt in a special tenderness now that she must be suffering sorely.

Starting point is 04:20:28 He quietly inquired where she was, and learning that she was in her own room, he refrained from summoning her himself and gave her made particular instructions to allow no one else to intrude upon her privacy upon any pretense whatsoever. Lucy, he said to the colored woman, your Miss Sudy wishes to be alone for a while. Sit down in the passage near her door, but don't knock,

Starting point is 04:20:58 and don't allow anyone else to knock. When she wishes to see anyone, she will open the door herself, and until then I do not want her disturbed. then going into the dining-room where dick was polishing the mahogany with a large piece of cork he said dick go out to the office and ask your mass billy if he will be good enough to come to me in the library i want to talk with him when billy came in his father showed him robert's letter the thing looks very ugly said the younger gentleman very very very ugly indeed said his father but the confounded rascal holds up his head under it all and acts as honorably in sooty's case as if he had never acted otherwise than as a gentleman should he is a puzzle to me but of course this must end the matter we can have nothing whatever to do with him hereafter but how is it father that they have managed to imprison him i presume they have secured an order of arrest under that new york statute

Starting point is 04:22:16 which seems to have been devised as a means of securing to creditors all the advantages of imprisonment for debt without shocking the better sense of the community which is clearly against such imprisonment the majority of people rarely ever pay any attention to the fact so long as they are spared the name of odious things no debtors prison would be allowed to stand in the united states of course but the common jails answer all purposes when a way for getting debtors locked up in them has been devised but how does it happen father asked mr billy that only new york has such a statute well in new york the commercial interest overrides every other and commercial men naturally attach undue importance to the collection of debts and look with favor upon everything which tends to facilitate it these things always reflect the feeling rather than the opinion of a community in new countries where horses are of more importance than anything else horse stealing is pretty sure to be punished with death, either by law or by the mob, which is only public sentiment embodied. Here in Virginia, you know how impossible it is to get anything like an effective statute for the suppression of dueling, simply because the ultimate public sentiment practically approves of personal warfare.

Starting point is 04:23:54 But I confess, I did not know that the New York statute could be stretched to cover a case like Robert, as I understand it there must be some evidence of fraud in the inception of the transaction they proceed upon affidavits i believe said Billy and when that is done it isn't hard to make out a case if the attorney is unscrupulous enough that's true but isn't it curious that Edwin should have proceeded so promptly to harsh measures he is so mild of temper that the attorney that the attorney is so mild of temper that the this surprises me. Cousin Edwin doesn't always act out his own character, you know, father. His wife is the stronger willed of the two. True, I hadn't thought of that. However, it serves the young rascal right.

Starting point is 04:24:52 At this point of the conversation, Cousin's knock was heard at the inner door, and Colonel Barksdale opening the outer one said, you'd better go out this door, William. It would embarrass Sue to find you here just now. Come in, my daughter, he said, admitting Miss Sudy. Sit down. I am greatly pained on this account, as well as yours,

Starting point is 04:25:19 to find that Robert has no explanation to offer. But, of course, this ends at all, and you must take a little trip somewhere, my dear, until you forget all about it. where shall we go i do not care to go anywhere uncle carter replied the little maiden without the faintest echo of a sob in her voice i am sorry for poor robert but not because i think him guilty of any dishonorable action for indeed i do not but my dear it will never do pray hear me out uncle carter and then i will listen to anything you have to say I love you as a father, as you know perfectly well. Indeed, I have never known you as anything else.

Starting point is 04:26:12 I have always obeyed you unquestioningly, and I shall not begin to disobey you now. I shall do precisely what you tell me to do, so long as I remain in your house. What do you mean by that, daughter? asked her uncle, startled by the singular emphasis, which Miss Sudy gave to the last clause of the sentence. Merely this, Uncle Carter.

Starting point is 04:26:39 I cannot consent to do that which my conscience teaches me as a crime, even at your command. But while I remain at surely as a daughter of the house, I must obey as a daughter. If you command me to do anything which I cannot do without sinning against my conscience, then I must not obey you. and when i can't obey you i must cease to be your daughter i shall conceal nothing from you uncle carter you know that and i beg of you don't command me to do the things which i must not do

Starting point is 04:27:16 i love you and it would kill me no it would not do that but it would pain me more than i can possibly say to leave shirley colonel barksdale leaned his head sorrowfully upon his hand he loved this girl and held her as his own moreover he had solemnly promised his dying brother to care for her always as a father cares for his children and an oath could not have been more sacred in his eyes than this promise was without raising his head he asked you mean sooty that you will not accept robert's release yes uncle that is what i mean this was sorrowfully and gently said but firmly too he has offered to release you has he not yes and in so offering did he express or hint a wish that you should not accept his release no on the contrary he assumed that i would accept it and that i must do so in justice to myself here is his letter read it if you please colonel barksdale read the letter with which the reader is already familiar and handing it back said a very proper and manly letter because it came from a very proper and manly man said miss sudy you don't believe he has been guilty of the dishonorable acts laid to his charge then of the acts yes of the dishonorer no said the girl

Starting point is 04:29:08 on what ground do you base your persistent good opinion of him on my persistent faith in him your faith is very unreasonable my dear perhaps so but it exists nevertheless have you answered his letter yes sir and i have brought my answer for you to read if you care to do so she said taking her letter letter out of her desk, which lay in her lap, and giving it to her uncle, who read as follows. My dear Robert, I am not in the least surprised by your letter. I knew you would offer to release me from my engagement, because I knew you were a man of honor. I have never for a moment doubted that, and I do not doubt it now. Your character weighs more with me than any mere facts can.

Starting point is 04:30:09 I know you are an honorable man, and knowing that I shall not let other people's doubts upon the subject govern my action. When I listen to your words of love and gave them a place in my heart, you were, as you say, a gentleman without reproach. And the reproach which lies upon you now does not make you less a gentleman? It is an unjust reproach, and your man is a man. in bearing it and offering to accept its consequences only serves to mark you still more distinctly as a gentleman shall i be less honorable less fearlessly true than you when i gave you my heart and promised you my hand you had friends in abundance now that you have none i have no idea with drawing either the gift or the promise you say you can never clear your name of the stain which is upon it now for that i am heartily sorry for your sake but as i know that the stain does not rightly belong there it becomes my duty and my pleasure to bear it with you

Starting point is 04:31:26 i shall retain my faith in you and my love for you and i shall profess them too on all proper occasions and when you claim me as your wife i shall hold up mrs robert pagebrook's head as proudly as i now hold susan barksdale's under other circumstances i should have thought it unmaidenly to write in this way but there must be no doubt of my meaning now if you ever ask a release from your promise with or without reason i trust you know me well enough to know that it will be granted but from my promise i shall ask none another reason for the frankness of this letter is that i want you in your trouble to know how implicitly i trust your honor and i should certainly never trust such a letter in any but the cleanest of hands uncle carter will see this before it goes and he will know as it is right that he should that i have not availed myself of your proffered release the omitted sentences with which the letter closed are not for our eyes even colonel barksdale refused to read them feeling that they were sacred and that the permission given him to read the letter extended no further than the end of the sentence last set down in the extract above given. Returning the sheet, he said,

Starting point is 04:33:04 I suppose you have written this after giving the matter full consideration, daughter? I never act without knowing what I am doing, Uncle Carter. Well, my child, I think you are wrong, but I shall not ask you to do anything which your conscience condemns. I shall not ask you to withhold your letter or to alter it but i would prefer that you hold it until to-morrow so that you may be quite sure you want to send it as it is will you mind doing that no uncle carter i will keep it till to-morrow if you wish but i shall not change my mind concerning it you are very good to me thank you and kissing his forehead she left him not to return to a room as a more sentimental one

Starting point is 04:33:58 would have done but to go about her daily duties with a sober face it is true but with all her accustomed regularity and attention to business end of chapter twenty five chapter twenty six of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter twenty six in which missoudi adopts the socratic method when miss sudy left him colonel barksdale again sent for his son and told him of that young woman's unreasonable determination i expected that father and am not at all surprised said the young man why my son had you talked the matter over with her no but i know sudy too well to expect her to give up her faith in bob while he is under a clock and in trouble too. She has a mighty good head in her shoulders. But what's a woman's head worth when her heart pulls the other way? She overrides her own reason as coolly as if it were worth just nothing at all,

Starting point is 04:35:25 and puts everybody else's out of the way with the utmost indifference. I know her of old. She used to take my part that way whenever I got into a boyish scrape, and before she had done with it she always convinced me along with everybody else that i had done nothing to be ashamed of the fact is father i like that in sudy she's the truest little woman i ever saw and she sticks to her friends like mutton gravy to the roof of your mouth said billy unable even at such a time as this to restrain his passion for strange metaphors the trait is a noble one certainly said the old gentleman but for that very reason if for no other we must do what we can to keep her from sacrificing herself to a noble faith in an unworthy man don't you think so without doubt but what can we do you say you do not feel free to control her we can at least do our duty i have talked with her and now i want you to do the same she will not shun the conversation i think for she is a brave girl i will see what i can do father said the young man

Starting point is 04:36:51 possibly i may persuade her to let the matter rest where it is for the present at least and even that will be something gained colonel barksdale was right in thinking that miss sooty would not seek to avoid a conversation with billy on the contrary she wished especially to say something to this young gentleman and for that very purpose she sought him in the office he and she had been brought up as brother and sister and there was no feeling of restraint between them now that they were grown man and woman cousin billy she said sitting down near him i want to talk with you about robert i want to remind you if you will let me of your duty to him what do you conceive my duty to be in the case sudy asked billy to defend him said miss sooty but how can i do that sooty in face of the facts you believe then that robert pagebrook whom you know thoroughly has done the dishonorable thing laid to his charge well said billy feeling himself hardly prepared for this kind of attack i confess i should never have thought him capable of doing such things why would you never have thought him capable of doing them cousin billy oh well because he always seemed to be such an honorable fellow said billy you did believe him honorable then asked this young female socrates "'Certainly, you know that, Sudie.'

Starting point is 04:38:43 "'On what did you base that belief, cousin Billy?' "'Why, on his way of doing things. "'On my knowledge of him, of course,' replied Billy. "'Well, then, is that knowledge of him of no value now?' asked Sudy. "'How do you mean?' "'I mean, does your knowledge of Robert weigh nothing now?' are you ready to believe on imperfect evidence that robert pagebrook who you know was an honorable man is not now an honorable man doesn't his character weigh anything with you do you believe his character has changed or do you think it possible that he simulated that character and did it so perfectly as to deceive us all

Starting point is 04:39:36 doesn't it seem more probable that there is some mistake about this business in short how can you believe robert guilty of a thing which you know very well he wouldn't do for his head if you wouldn't have believed it why do you believe it mr billy was stunned he had been prepared for tears he had expected to find in sooty an unreasoning faith he had looked for an obstinate determination on her part to adhere to her purpose but for this kind of illogical logic he had made no preparation whatever it had never entered his head that miss sooty would seriously undertake to argue the matter the evidence against robert he had accepted as unquestionable and he had not expected miss sooty to question it in this way but cousin sooty you overlook the fact that robert has confessed the very thing which you say is unlikely no he has not confessed anything of the sort indeed he seems to have carefully avoided doing so in his letter to uncle carter he merely says i can offer neither denial nor explanation of the facts alleged against me to me he only says a stain is upon my name he nowhere says i am guilty but sooty said billy if he ain't guilty why can't he offer either denial or explanation that i do not know but i don't find it half as hard to believe that there may be good reasons for that as to believe that an honorable man a man whom we both know to be an honorable one has done a dishonorable thing but sooty why didn't bob borrow the money of father or of me if he honestly couldn't pay he knew we would gladly lend it to him

Starting point is 04:41:49 i'm glad you mentioned that if robert had wanted to swindle anybody how much easier it would have been for him to write to you or uncle carter saying he'd want to swindle anybody how much easier it would have been for him to write to you or uncle carter saying he'd have been to you to you to mr he couldn't pay and asking you to take up his protested draft for him. He knew you would have done it, and he could have then accomplished his purpose without any exposure. Almost any excuse would have satisfied you or Uncle Carter, and so the thing would have gone on for years. Wouldn't he have done exactly that, cousin Billy, if he had wanted to swindle anybody? Men don't often covet a bad name for its own sake. Clearly, Suity, I am getting the worst of this argument. You are a better sophist than I ever gave you credit for being.

Starting point is 04:42:44 But it's hard to believe that black is white. I'll tell you what I'll do, though, Suity. I'll do my very best to believe that there is some sort of faint possibility that facts ain't facts, and hold myself, as nearly as I can, in readiness to believe that something may turn up in Bob's favor. If anything were to turn up, I'd be as glad of it as anybody. But I'm not satisfied with that, Cousin Billy. What more do you ask, Suity? That you shall hold yourself in readiness to help turn something up whenever an opportunity offers.

Starting point is 04:43:26 Keep a sharp lookout for things which may possibly have a bearing upon this matter, and follow up any clue you may get. Won't you do that for my sake, Cousin, Billy? I'd do anything for your sake, Sudy, and I'd give a hundred dollars for your faith. And so ended the conversation. Mr. Billy, it must be confessed, had done little toward the accomplishment of the task he had said,

Starting point is 04:43:57 himself but as he himself put it what on earth was a fellow to do with the faith which made incontestable truths out of impossibilities and scattered facts before it like a flock of partridges mr billy fully appreciated the unreasonableness of miss suity's logic and yet in spite of all he could not help entertaining a sort of half-hope that something would occur to vindicate robert A hope born of nothing more substantial than Miss Souti's enthusiastic belief in her lover. End of Chapter 26 Chapter 27 of A Man of Honor by George Carey Eggleston. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. Chapter 27 Mr. Pagebrook accepts an invitation to lunch and another invitation.

Starting point is 04:45:01 On the morning after Robert's incarceration, his attorney came at the appointed hour for the purpose of preparing the papers on which application was to be made for his discharge. I have the affidavits already, I believe, Mr. Pagebrook, and we have only to make a complete list of your property. That will be easily done, sir, said Robert, with a feeling of grim amusement, as I have literally nothing. except my trunk and its contents you have your claim on that bank for money deposited i suppose that must be included though it is only a chosen action oh put it in by all means said robert i do not wish to misrepresent anything or to withhold anything i only wish the chose in action as you call it were of sufficient value to discharge the debt i should then quit here free from all indebtedness except to you for your fee and should not have this thing to pay your discharge i think will free you in law from but it will not free me in honor sir it will give me time however and the very first use i shall make of that time will be to earn the money with which to pay off this my only debt i should never ask a discharge at all if the asking supposed any purpose on my part to avoid the payment of the debt pardon me this talk must sound odd to you coming from a man in my present position

Starting point is 04:46:46 i forgot that i am an absconding debtor you will think my talk a cheap kind of honesty costing nothing no pagebrook if you will allow me to drop the mister i will allow me to drop the mister i will i will allow me to drop the mister i will think my talk a cheap kind of honesty costing nothing-and-aughting nothing no pagebrook if you will allow me to i should trust you in any transaction though i have not known you a week i don't believe you are an absconding debtor and i'm not going to believe it on the strength of any oaths mr's steel flint and sharp may make as he said this the young lawyer took robert's hand and robert found himself wholly unable to utter a word by way of reply he did not want to shed tears in the presence of his jail attendance, but the lawyer saw them standing in his eyes and prevented any effort at replying by turning at once to the matter in hand. Come, Pagebrook, he said. This isn't business. Let me see. What bank was it that you deposited with? The Essex, said Robert. The Essex, said the lawyer. What was that I saw in the Tribune this morning about

Starting point is 04:48:00 that bank? I think it was the Essex. Let me see, running his eye over the columns of the newspaper, which he had taken from his pocket. Ah, here it is. By George. My dear Pagebrook, I congratulate you. Your bank has resumed. See, here is the item. Philadelphia, December 3rd. The Essex Bank of this city, which, spending payments some weeks since, will resume business tomorrow. Its affairs were found to be in a very favorable condition, and at a meeting of the stockholders held today, the deficit in its assets was covered, and its capital made good by subscription. It is not thought that any run will be made upon it, but ample preparations have been made to meet such a contingency.

Starting point is 04:48:59 Again, I congratulate you, right-heartedly. this means then that my sixteen hundred dollars that was the total amount of my deposit is intact and that i may check against it as soon as i choose does it certainly then let us suspend our preparations for securing my release i will pay out of this instead of begging out i will draw at once for enough to cover this debt and your fees and ask you to put the draft into bank for collection we will have returns by the day after to-morrow doubtless and i shall then go out of here with my head up we'll end this business sooner than that pagebrook said the lawyer draw your draft i'll endorse it take it to the bank where i deposit get it cashed at once and have you out of here in time for a two o'clock lunch you'll lunch with me of course pardon me but you have no means of knowing that i have any money in that bank said robert yes indeed i have what is it your word i told you i would trust you robert looked at the man a moment and then taking his hand said i accept your confidence frankly thank you draw the draft please and i will sign it the draft was soon drawn and at two o'clock that day just twenty-four hours after his arrest robert sat down to lunch with his

Starting point is 04:50:43 his friend in a downtown eating house. While the two gentlemen were engaged with their lunch, Robert's friend Dudley, who had been eating a chop at the farther end of the room, espied his acquaintance, and approaching him, said, "'How are you, Pagebrook? Are you specially engaged for this afternoon?' "'No, I believe not,' said Robert. "'I have nothing to do except to finish an article which I want to offer you tomorrow, and I can do that tonight. Suppose you come up to the office, then, after you finish your lunch.

Starting point is 04:51:21 I want to talk with you. I will be there within half an hour if that will suit you, said Robert. Very well, I'll expect you. Accordingly, Robert bade his friend Adieu after lunch, and went immediately to the editor's room. Mr. Dudley closed the door. first saying to his messenger who sat in the ante-room, "'I shall be busy for some time, Eddie, and can't see anybody. If anyone calls, tell him I am closeted with a gentleman on important business and can see nobody.'

Starting point is 04:52:01 "'Now, Pagebrook,' he resumed, taking his seat, "'you ought to quit teaching.' "'Why?' asked Robert. "'Well, you're a born writer, certainly. and if i am not greatly mistaken a born journalist too you have a knack of knowing just what points people want to hear about i've been struck with that in every article you have written for me and especially in this last one do you know i've rejected no less than a dozen well-written articles on that very subject just because they treated every phase of it except the right one and didn't come within a mile of that now you've hit it exactly as you always do you've got hold of precisely the things that nobody knows anything about and everybody wants to know all about and that's journalism thank you said robert you really think then that i might make myself a successful journalist if i were to try i know you would you have precisely the right sort of ideas you discriminated

Starting point is 04:53:14 between the things that are wanted and the things that are not. I have long since discovered that this thing that men call writing ability and journalistic ability isn't like anything else. It crops out where you would never look for it, and where you think it ought to be, it isn't. You can't coax or nurse it into existence to save your life. If a man has it, he has it, and if he hasn't it he hasn't it and nobody can give it to him it isn't contagious and i honestly believe it isn't acquireable and that's why i'm certain of you you've shown that you have it and one showing is as good as a hundred i am greatly pleased said robert to know that you think so well of me in this respect for i have resigned my professorship and determined my to make my way, to the best of my ability, as a journalist hereafter. You have?

Starting point is 04:54:21 Yes, I sent my letter of resignation yesterday. I'm heartily glad of it, old fellow, and selfishly glad, too, for it was to persuade you to do that that I sat down to talk to you. You see, my health is not very good lately. The fact is I have been using the spur, too much, and am pretty well run down with overwork. The publishers have been urging me to get an assistant, and the trouble is to get one who can really relieve me of a share of the work.

Starting point is 04:54:55 I can get plenty of people to undertake it, but I have to go over their work to be sure of it, and it's easier to do it myself from the first. Now you are just the man I want, if you can stand the salary. The publishers will let me pay, $40 a week. You can make more than that from the outside, I suppose, but it's better to be in a regular situation, I think. How would you like to try the thing? Nothing could be more to my taste. I think I should like this better than daily paperwork, and besides, it gives one a better opportunity for growth.

Starting point is 04:55:38 But before we talk any more about it, I feel myself in honor by to tell you what has happened to me lately if you care then to repeat your offer i shall gladly accept it but if you feel the slightest hesitation about it i shall not blame you for not renewing it and robert told him everything but dudley declined to believe that there had been any just cause for the arrest or that robert had in any way violated the strictest canons of honor this young man seemed indeed to be perfect master of the art of making people believe in him in spite of the most damaging facts miss sooty's faith in him never wavered for an instant even billy had to keep a synopsis of the evidence against his cousin constantly in mind to keep himself from believing that he couldn't see through glass as he phrased it the new york lawyer summoned to get the young man out of jail backed his faith in him as we have seen by endorsing his draft for several hundred dollars and now dudley after hearing a plain statement of the facts from robert's own lips dismissed them as of no consequence and set up his own unreasonable faith as a complete answer to them he renewed his offer and robert accepted it becoming office editor of the weekly paper for which he had recently been writing end of chapter twenty seven chapter twenty eight of a man of honor by george carey eggleston

Starting point is 04:57:27 this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter twenty eight major pageberg asserts himself it now becomes necessary to a proper understanding to a proper understanding of this history that we shall go back a day or two to the day in fact on which robert's letters were received at shirley i said there were three new york letters in the mail-bag thrown off at the court-house that morning the third letter there referred to was from the law firm of steel flint and sharp it was addressed to edwin pagebrook esq esq and quite by accident it fell into that gentleman's hands. I say by accident, because cousin Sarah Ann had taken unusual precautions to prevent precisely this result. After writing to the lawyers, it occurred to that estimable lady that a reply would come in due time, and that as she had taken the liberty of signing her husband's name to her letter, the reply would be addressed to him rather than to her, and she greatly feared that he would have an opportunity to read it.

Starting point is 04:58:45 She particularly wished that this should not happen. She knew her mild-mannered and long-suffering husband thoroughly, and while she felt free to torment him in various ways, she had learned, from one or two bits of experience, that it was not the part of wisdom to tax his endurance too far. Accordingly, she took pains to prevent him from visiting the courthouse while she was expecting the letter. She laid various plans for the purpose of keeping him occupied in the plantation every day,

Starting point is 04:59:22 and took care to secure the first look into the family post bag whenever the servant returned with it. On the morning in question, however, as Major Pagebrook was riding over his plantation, inspecting work, he met a neighbor who was going to the courthouse, and having some small matters to attend to there, he determined to join the neighbor in his ride. Upon his arrival, he called for his letters, and so it came about that the note in which Mr.'s steel, flint, and sharp, begged to inform him of Robert's arrest,

Starting point is 05:00:01 in accordance with his instructions, fell into his hands. At first he was puzzled and thought there must have been some mistake. but after a while a glimmering of the truth dawned upon him and in his smothered way he was exceedingly angry he had condemned robert's misconduct as severely as anybody but had never dreamed of proceeding to harsh measures in the matter besides it was only the day before that robert's remittance of one hundred dollars had come to him and in acknowledging its receipt he had partially satisfied his resentment by telling his cousin what he thought of him and to learn now that the young man was in jail for the fault and apparently at his behest was sorely displeasing to him and worse than all his wife had taken an unwarrantable liberty in the affair and this he determined to resent he mounted his horse therefore and was on the point of starting homeward when dr harrison accosted him good morning major pagebrook may i speak to you a moment good morning charles has there been any administrator appointed for ewing's estate no not yet i reckon i must take out papers next court day as he was of age when he died it's only a matter of form i reckon as there are no debts well my only reason for asking is-i

Starting point is 05:01:44 I hold Ewing's note for $225. I'm in no hurry, only I wanted to act regularly and get it in shape by presenting it. You have Ewing's note? Why, what is it for? asked Major Pagebrook, in astonishment. Borrowed money, answered the doctor. Borrowed money, but how did he come to borrow it? well the fact is ewing got to playing bluff with foggy one day just before he got sick and foggy fleeced him pretty badly and i lent him the money to pay out with he didn't want to owe it to foggy you know have you the note with you asked major pagebrook no it's in my office but i can get it if you'd like to look at it

Starting point is 05:02:42 no it's no matter if you can tell me the date it bears date november nineteenth i think just one day after he came of age said major pagebrook well i'll see about it charles and with this the two gentlemen separated major pagebrook rode homeward meditating upon the occurrences of the morning he had determined to manage his own business hereafter without tolerating improper interference upon the part of his wife and he was in position to do this too except with regard to the home plantation which as ewing had informed robert was held in cousin sarah ann's name major pagebrook was a quiet man and a long-suffering one he liked nothing so much as peace and to keep the peace he had always yielded to the more aggressive nature of his wife but he felt now that the time had come for him to assert his supremacy in business matters and he determined to assert it very quietly but very positively one point was as good as another he thought for the purpose and this newly discovered debt of ewing's gave him an excellent occasion for the self-assertion upon which he had resolved. Several times of late he had mildly suggested to Cousin Sarah Ann

Starting point is 05:04:18 the propriety of putting Ewing's papers into Billy Barksdale's hands for examination, so that the boy's affairs might be properly and legally adjusted. To every such suggestion, Cousin Sarah Ann, who carried the key of Ewing's portable desk, had turned a deaf ear, saying that there were no debts one way or the other, and that she wouldn't have anybody overhauling the poor boy's private papers. Now, however, Major Pade Burke had made up his mind to put the desk into Billy's hands without asking the excellent lady's consent. "'Don't take my horse, Jim,' he said to his servant upon arriving at home.

Starting point is 05:05:04 I am going to ride again presently. Just tie him to the rack till I want him. Going into the house, he met cousin Sarah Ann, to whom he said, Sarah Ann, I will write my own letters and attend to my own business hereafter, and I'll thank you not to sign my name for me again. You have placed me in a very awkward position, and I can't explain it to anybody without exposing you. understand me now please i will not tolerate any such interference in future ordinarily cousin sarah ann would have been ready enough with a reply to such a remark as this

Starting point is 05:05:49 but just now she was fairly frightened by her husband's tone and manner she saw at a glance that he was in a very serious earnest and she knew him well enough to know that it would not do to provoke him further. She was always afraid of him, even when she was riding roughshod over him. When he seemed most submissive and she most aggressive, she was in the habit of scanning his countenance very carefully, as an engineer watches his steam gauge. When she saw steam rising, she usually had a safety valve, a flood of tears, ready for immediate use. just now she saw indications of an explosion which appalled her and she dared not face the danger for a moment without reply therefore she sank weeping into the nearest chair while her husband walked into her room opened her wardrobe and took from it the little desk in which his son's letters and papers were locked coming back to her he said i will take the key to this desk if you please she looked up with a frightened countenance and asked what for

Starting point is 05:07:14 i want to open the desk what are you going to do with it i'm going to put it into my lawyer's hands wait then i must look over the papers first no billy will do that but there's some of mine in it private ones it doesn't matter billy will sort them and return yours to you but he shan't look at my papers give me the key sarah ann i can't it's lost very well then said he taking his knife from his pocket breaking the frail lock and walking out of the house without another word cousin sarah ann was thoroughly overcome she knew that her husband had received the reply to her letter which he had meant to receive herself and she knew too that her mastery over him was at an end for the present at least worse than all she knew that the desk and its contents would inevitably go into billy barksdale's hands and she had her own reasons for thinking this the sorest affliction possible to her there was no help for it now however and she could do nothing except throw herself on her bed and shed tears of bitter mortification vexation and dread meanwhile major pagebrook galloped over to shirley with the desk under his arm the conversation already reported between billy and miss suey was hardly more than finished when he dismounted and walked into the young lawyer's office

Starting point is 05:09:10 he opened his business by telling billy about the note held by dr harrison i don't understand it he said harrison says the note is data November 19th, which was just one day after Ewing came of age, and I remember that Ewing was taken sick on the morning of his birthday, very sick, as you know, and never left his bed afterwards. When was Ewing at the courthouse last? asked Billy. Not since the day Robert left. Did he owe Harrison any money that you know of? no but harrison says foggy won that much from him and he had to borrow to pay it you are sure however that ewing could not possibly have had a chance to sign the note after he came of age

Starting point is 05:10:10 of course he couldn't he was delirious from the very first and we never left him i think i see how it is said billy foggy and charley harrison are too intimate for any straight dealings. I reckon Charlie was as deeply interested in the winnings as Foggy was, but they have made Ewing execute the note to Charlie for money borrowed to pay Foggy with, so that it would be legally good. They made him dated ahead, too, so that it would appear to have been executed after Ewing came of age. They didn't anticipate his sickness, and they haven't thought to compare dates. i think we can beat them this time when they get ready to sue but we mustn't let them sue billy said major pagebrook i would never consent to plead the baby act or to get out of it by any legal quibble if the signature is genuine as i reckon it is that wouldn't be honorable

Starting point is 05:11:22 no i shall pay the note off and i only want to know whether i must charge it to ewing's estate or not after taking out administration papers if i can i ought to in justice to the other children if i can't i must pay it myself look into it please and let me know about it i have brought you ewing's desk so you can look over all his papers and a taut to all his affairs for me i want to get everything straight so saying he took his leave end of chapter twenty eight chapter twenty nine of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter twenty nine mr barksdale the younger goes upon a journey not until the next morning did mr billy find time to examine the papers in ewing's desk indeed even then he deemed the matter one of very little consequence inasmuch as the papers whatever they might happen to be were probably of no legal importance being of necessity the work of a minor there might be memoranda there however and possibly a will disposing of personal property which under the law of Virginia would be good if executed by a minor over eighteen years of age. In view of these possibilities, therefore, Billy sat down to the task of examining the papers,

Starting point is 05:13:12 which were pretty numerous, such as they were. After a while he became interested in the very miscellaneousness of the assortment. Little memoranda were there, of the date on which a horse had been shod, of the amount paid for a new pair of boots, of the times at which the boy had written letters to his friends, and of a hundred other unimportant things. There were bits of poor verse, too, such as may be found in the desk of almost every boy. Old letters, full of nothing, were there in abundance, but nothing which could possibly be of any value to anybody. on all the letters except one was marked in Ewing's handwriting to be burned without reading in case of my death

Starting point is 05:14:04 the one exception attracted Billy's attention and opening it he was surprised to find Robert Pagebrook's name appended to it it was in fact the letter which cousin Sarah Ann had opened during her son's last illness after reading her son's last illness after reading it, Mr. Billy sat down to think. Presently, looking at his watch, he went to the door and called a servant. Go and ask your Miss Su-Die to put two or three shirts and some socks and handkerchiefs into my satchel for me, and then you go and tell Polidore to saddle Greybeard and the bay,

Starting point is 05:14:46 and get ready to go with me to the courthouse directly. Do you hear? The servant made no answer to the... question with which Mr. Billy closed his speech. Indeed, that gentleman expected none. Virginians always ask, Do you hear when they give instructions to servants? And they never get or expect an answer.

Starting point is 05:15:11 Without the question, however, they would never secure attention to the instruction. To say, do so-and-so, without adding, Do you hear, would be the idlest possible waste. of words on the part of anyone giving an order to the average virginian house servant mr billy was in the habit of making sudden journeys on business without giving the slightest warning to the family except that contained in a request that his satchel or saddle-bags be packed so that miss sooty was not in the least surprised when his present message came to her she was surprised however when instead of riding away without a word of farewell as he usually did he came into the house and kissing her tenderly said keep your spirits up sudy and don't let things worry you too much i'm going to richmond on the two o'clock train and don't know how long i'll be gone good-bye little girl and he kissed her again all this was quite out of character miss sooty felt billy was affectionate enough at all times but he detested leave-takings and always avoided them when he could

Starting point is 05:16:32 to seek one was quite unlike him and miss sudy was puzzled to know what prompted him to do it on this particular occasion he rode away however without offering any explanation whatever mr billy went to richmond as he had said he intended doing but he did not remain there an hour he went to the cashier of a bank a gentleman with whom he was well acquainted got from him a letter of introduction to a prominent man in philadelphia and left for that city on the first train arriving in philadelphia about nine o'clock the next day mr billy ate a hasty breakfast and proceeded to the little collegiate institute in which robert had once been a professor as the reader will remember introducing himself to president courier he asked for a private interview and was invited for the purpose into dr courier's inner office i believe doctor he said after telling that gentleman who he was that there was something due professor pagebrook on his salary at the time his connection with this college terminated was there not yes sir there was about three hundred dollars do him if I remember correctly, but it has been paid, I think. Have you any way of ascertaining precisely how and when? asked Billy.

Starting point is 05:18:06 Yes, my own letter book should show. Let me see, turning over the leaves. Ah, here it is. A draft for the amount was sent to him by letter on the 8th of November, addressed to some courthouse, Virginia. thank you said billy the draft i suppose was regular new york exchange of course would you mind telling me from what bank you bought it and to whose order in the first place it was made payable pardon my asking such questions but i need this information for use in the cause of justice oh you need offer no apology i assure you so much sir, returned the President. I have nothing to conceal in the matter. The draft was drawn by the Susquehanna Bank, and to my order, I think.

Starting point is 05:19:06 Yes, I remember endorsing it. Thank you, sir, said Billy. You are very courteous, and I am indebted to you for information which I should have found it difficult to get from any other source. Good morning, sir. Leaving the college, which was situated in one of the suburbs, Mr. Billy took a carriage and drove into the city. There he delivered his letter of introduction and secured from the gentleman to whom it was addressed, a personal introduction to the cashier of the Susquehanna Bank.

Starting point is 05:19:43 To this latter person, he said, I am looking up evidence in a case, and, if I am not greatly mistaken, you can help me in an effort to set a wrong right on the eighth of last month you sold a draft on new york for three hundred dollars payable to the order of david courier now in the ordinary course of business i suppose that draft has been returned to you after payment yes if it was paid before the first of the month we settle with our new york correspondence once a month we settle with our new york correspondence once a month I'll look at the last batch of return checks and see. Thank you. I should be glad to see the endorsements on the paper, if possible. The cashier went to the vault, and returning with a large bundle of canceled checks, soon found the one wanted.

Starting point is 05:20:42 Billy turned it over and examined the endorsements on the back. Then, turning to the banker, he asked, would it be possible for me to get temporary possession of this draft by depositing the amount of its face with you until its return you merely wish it for use in evidence asked the banker that's all said billy you can take it then without a deposit mr barksdale it is of no value now but we usually keep our cancelled exchange so i shall be obliged if you will return this when you've done with it this was precisely what robert had come to philadelphia to secure and after finding what the endorsements on the draft were he would willingly have paid its face outright if that had been necessary to get possession of it who knows what the value of a bit of writing may be even after its purpose has to all appearance been fully answered i know a great commercial house in which it is an inexorable law that no bit of paper once written on in the way of business shall ever be destroyed however valueless it may seem to be and on more than one occasion the wisdom of the rule has been strikingly made manifest so it was with this paid cancelled and returned draft

Starting point is 05:22:15 worthless in all eyes but his to billy it was far more precious than if it had been crisp and new and payable to his own order end of chapter twenty nine chapter thirty of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter thirty the younger mr barksdale asks to be put upon his oath it was nearly noon when the train which brought billy barksdale back from philadelphia stopped at the courthouse and that young gentleman went from the station immediately to the court-room where the circuit court as he knew was in session has the grand jury been impaneled yet he asked the commonwealth's attorney yes it is just gone out but as usual there is nothing for it to do so it will report no bills in an hour or so, I reckon. Have me sworn and sent before it then, said Billy. I think I can put it in the way of finding something to do. The official was astonished, but he lost no time in complying with the rather singular request.

Starting point is 05:23:45 Billy went before the grand jury and remained there for a considerable time. This was a very unusual occurrence. in every way and it quickly produced a buzz of excitement in and about the building there was rarely ever anything for grand juries to do in this quiet county and when there was anything it usually hinged upon some publicly known and talked of matter everybody knew in advance what it was about and the probable result was easy to predict now however all was mystery a prominent young lawyer had been sworn and sent before the grand jury at his own request and the length of time during which he was detained there effectually dispelled the belief which at first attained that he merely wanted to secure the presentment of some negligent road overseas Even the Commonwealth's attorney could not manage to look wise enough as he sat there stroking his beard to deceive anybody into the belief that he knew what was going on. The minutes were very long ones. The excitement soon extended beyond the courthouse, and everybody in the village was on tiptoe with suppressed curiosity.

Starting point is 05:25:10 The courtroom was full to overflowing when Billy's. came quietly out of the grand jury's apartment and took his seat in the bar, as if nothing out of the ordinary course of affairs had happened. It did not tend to allay the excitement, certainly, when the deputy sheriff on duty at the door of the jury room beckoned to the Commonwealth's attorney, and that gentleman went upstairs three steps at a time, disappearing within the chamber devoted to the secret inquest and remaining there. When half an hour later,

Starting point is 05:25:46 Major Edwin Pagebrook was called, sworn and sent up as a witness, wild rumors of a secret crime among the better classes began to circulate freely in the crowd, starting from nowhere and gradually taking definite shape as they spread from one to another

Starting point is 05:26:06 of the eager villagers. The excitement was now absolutely pain, in its intensity and even the judge himself began walking restlessly back and forth in the space set apart for the bench When Major Pagebrook came out of the room with a downcast face he went immediately home and Rosenwater a merchant in the village was called when he came out distinct efforts were made to worm the secret from him him. He was mindful of his oath, however, and refused to say anything. Finally, the members of the grand jury marched slowly downstairs and took their stand in front of the clerk's desk.

Starting point is 05:26:55 "'Pole the grand jury,' said the judge. When that ceremony was over, the question which everybody in the building had been mentally asking for hours was formulated by the court. gentlemen of the grand jury have you any presentments to make we have your honor answered the foreman read the report of the grand jury mr clerk the official rose and after adjusting his spectacles very deliberately read aloud we the grand jury on our oaths present dr charles harrison and james madison raves for forgery and for a conspiracy to defraud edwin pagebrook honor about the tenth day of november in this present year within the jurisdiction of this honorable court the crowd was fairly stunned nobody knew or could guess what it meant the commonwealth's attorney was the first to speak as the legal representative of the commonwealth i move the court to issue a warrant for the arrest of charles harrison and james madison raves and i ask that the grand jury be instructed to return to their room and to put their indictments in proper form

Starting point is 05:28:24 the two men thus accused of crime being present in court were taken in charge by the sheriff if the commonwealth's attorney has no further motions to make in this case said the judge the court will take a recess in order to give time for the preparation of indictments in due form may it please the court said the official addressed i have only to ask that your honor will instruct the sheriff to separate the two prisoners during the recess i do not know that this is necessary but it may tend to further the interests of justice the court sees no reason to refuse the request said the judge mr sheriff you will see that your two prisoners are not allowed to confer together in any way until after the reassembling of the court at four o'clock end of chapter thirty chapter thirty one of a man of honor by george carey eggleston this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter thirty one mr william barksdale explains precisely what dr harrison's emotions were when he found himself in the sheriff's hands nobody is likely ever to know as that gentleman was always of taciturn moods in matters closely concerning himself and on the present occasion was literally dumb with foggy the case was different he was always a prudent man he was not given to the taking of unnecessary risks for the sake of abstract principles he made no pretensions to the possession of heroic fortitude under affliction and he had no special reputation for high-toned honor to lose

Starting point is 05:30:31 The clutch of the law was to him an uncomfortable one, and he was prepared to escape it by any route which might happen to be open to him. This disposition upon his part was an important factor in the problem which Billy had set out to solve. He knew Foggy was a moral coward, and upon his cowardice he depended, in part, for the success of his undertaking. As soon as Quargy was a moral cowardice,

Starting point is 05:31:01 adjourned the Commonwealth's attorney requested the members of the grand jury to make themselves as comfortable as might be while he should be engaged in the preparation of formal indictments against the two prisoners going then to his office he closeted himself with billy barksdale who had preceded him thither by his request you'll help me with this prosecution won't you billy he asked With as good a will as I ever carried to a fish fry, said Billy. Well, then, said the attorney, tell me just how the thing stands. I confess I'm all in a jumble about it. Begin at the beginning and tell the whole story. Then we'll know where we stand and how to proceed. Accordingly, Billy recounted the history of the protested draft,

Starting point is 05:31:58 the promise to pay. It's none. fulfillment and the trouble which ensued. He then continued, My suspicions as to the real facts of the case were aroused by accident. Major Pagebrook consulted me a few days ago about a note signed by Ewing Pagebrook drawn in favor of Charlie Harrison, which, Harrison said, had been given him when he advanced money to Ewing with which to pay a gambling debt to Foggy.

Starting point is 05:32:31 that note was evidently dated ahead as it bore date of november the nineteenth one day after ewing attained his majority when in fact the boy was taken ill on the morning of his twenty-first birthday and never left his bed afterwards this confirmed me in the belief that foggy and harrison were confederates in their gambling operations they fleeced the boy and then had him borrow the money with which to pay from harrison and give a note for it so as to make the consideration good and they took pains to have him dated ahead so as to get rid of the minority trouble this by itself would have amounted to nothing but in looking over ewing's papers i found a letter there from bob page burke which i happened accidentally to know was received during ewing's illness here it is i'll read it my dear ewing i cannot tell you how grieved i am at the news your letter brings me i can ill afford to lose the three hundred dollars which i entrusted to you to hand to your father and even if you do make it good when you come of age as you so solemnly promise me you will i am meanwhile placed in a very awkward position with regard to it i promised your father to pay him that money by a certain day and was greatly pleased as you know when upon arriving at the court-house on my way north i found the remittance awaiting me there as it enabled me to make the payment in advance of the time agreed upon when i in my haste to catch the train gave you the check to give to your father i dismissed the subject from my mind

Starting point is 05:34:29 and said about the work of repairing my fortunes with a light heart, little thinking that matters would turn out as they have. But while I am sorely annoyed by the fact that this may place me in an awkward position, I am willing to trust my reputation in your hands. Remember that you are now bound in honor, not merely to pay this money as soon as you shall attain your majority, but also to protect me from undeserved disgrace by frankly stating the facts of the case to your father in the event of his entertaining doubts of my integrity this much you are in honor bound to do in any case and you have also given me your word that you will do it if your father shall seem disposed to think me not unduly dilatory in the matter of payment you need tell him nothing

Starting point is 05:35:26 you may spare yourself that mortification send me the money and i will remit it to him merely saying that unavoidable circumstances which i am not at liberty to explain have prevented the earlier payment which i intended to make but in agreeing to do this ewing i am moved solely by my desire to shield you from disgrace and consequent ruin when i gave you that money for your father it was a sacred trust and in converting it to other uses you not only wronged me but you made yourself guilty of something very like a crime pardon me if i speak plainly for i am speaking only for your good and i speak only to you i want you to understand how terribly wrong and altogether dishonorable your act was so that you may never be guilty of another such i am not disposed to reproach you but i do want to warn you you are the son of a gentleman and you have no right to bring disgrace upon your father's name you ought not to gamble and if you do gamble you have no right to surrender your honour in payment of your losses i promise you as you ask me to do that i will not tell what you have done and you know i never break a promise under any circumstances whatever but in promising this i place my own reputation in your keeping depending upon you in the event of necessity to frankly acknowledge your fault so that i may not appear to have run away from a debt which in fact i have paid when i read that letter continued billy i began to see daylight

Starting point is 05:37:28 bob had given his word of honor to ewing not to expose him ewing had died before he could make the money matter good and bob like the great big honorable dear old fellow that he is allowed himself to go to jail and bear the reputation of an absconding debtor rather than break his promise to the dead boy he paid the money again too i suspected of course that foggy and charlie harrison were mixed up in the matter some way particularly as the very last visit ewing ever made to the court-house was made in the day that bob went away i went to philadelphia and there found the cancelled draft drawn in favor of david courier endorsed to robert pagebrook and by him endorsed to edwin pagebrook then followed as you know an endorsement to james m raves signed e pagebrook that of course was written by ewing who at the suggestion of these two men made the draft over to them or to one of them by signing his own name which happened when written with the initial only to be the same as his father's foggy then endorsed it to harrison and he being respectable had no difficulty in getting rosenwater to cash it for him it never entered rosenwater's head of course to question any of the signatures back of harrison's now my theory is that this draft did not cover ewing's losses by two hundred and twenty-five dollars and so the two thrifty gentlemen made the boy execute the note that harrison holds for that amount dating it ahead and making it for borrowed money you're right barksdale without a doubt

Starting point is 05:39:36 said the commonwealth's attorney but how are we going to make a jury see it there's plenty of evidence to found an indictment on but i'm afraid there ain't enough to secure a conviction that's true said billy but we must do our very best if we can't convict both we may one and even if we fail altogether in the prosecution we will at least expose the rascals and this county will be too hot for them afterwards foggy is always shaky in the knees and if we give him half a chance we'll turn state's evidence why not sound him on the subject foggy needed very little sounding indeed at the first intimation that there might be hope for him if he would tell what he knew he volunteered a confession which bore out billy's theory to the letter from his statement too it appeared that harrison was the author of the whole scheme he had overborne ewing's scruples and by dinty's of threats compelled him to commit a practical forgery by writing his own name in such a way as to make it appear to be his father's. While Foggy was at it, he made a clean breast, telling all about his partnership with Harrison in the gambling operations, and admitting that the note Harrison held was dated ahead and given solely for a gambling debt.

Starting point is 05:41:16 The Commonwealth's attorney agreed to enter a Nali Prosequai in Foggie's case and to transfer him at the trial from the prisoner's box to the witness stand. When Billy came out from this conference, he found Major Pagebrook awaiting an opportunity to speak to him. The Major, it seems, after going home, had returned to the courthouse. Billy, he said, I know now about that letter from Robert to Ewing. Sarah Ann has told me she read it when it came. What is to be done about it?

Starting point is 05:42:00 Nothing, said Billy, except that you will, of course, return Robert the extra $300 he has paid you. Of course I'll do that, but, I mean, the fact is, I don't want that letter to appear on the trial. You will have to tell where you got it, and it will come out, in spite of everything,

Starting point is 05:42:23 that Sarah Ann knew of it. Well, Cousin Edwin, what am I to do? This has been a wretched business from first to last. Poor Bob has suffered severely for Ewing's fault, and I must speak plainly through Cous— through your wife's iniquing. Not only has he had to pay the money twice, he has been sent to jail, and but for a lucky accident, his reputation as an honorable man would have been destroyed forever, and that merely to gratify your wife's petty and unreasonable spite against him. It became my duty to unravel this mystery for the sake of freeing Bob from an unjust and undeserved disgrace.

Starting point is 05:43:14 in doing that i have accidentally stumbled upon the discovery of a crime and even if it were not illegal i am not the man to compound a felony for you i am heartily sorry but your wife is only reaping what she has sown i would do anything honorable to spare your feelings cousin edwin but i cannot help giving evidence in this case i really do not see however precisely how bob's letter can be used as evidence if it had been sufficient in itself to establish the facts to which it referred i should have used it to set bob right and the thing would have ended there but bob's statement was of course an interested one and i feared that after a time if not immediately gossip would seize upon that point and say the whole thing was made up merely to clear bob i knew he would never show ewing's letter to which his was a reply and so i set myself to work hunting up the draught i don't see how the letter can well come up on the trial i don't see how the letter can well come up on the trial but if it should become necessary for me to tell about it i must tell all about it of course major pagework walked away his head bowed as if there were a heavy weight upon his shoulders and billy pitied him heartily this woman who in her groundless malignity had brought so much wrong and brought so much of sorrow upon the good old man, was his wife, and he could not free himself from the fact

Starting point is 05:45:05 or its consequences. He had never willingly done a wrong in his life, and it seemed peculiarly hard that he should now have to suffer so sorely for the sins of the woman whom he called wife. End of Chapter 32 of A Man of Honor by George Carey Eggleston. this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter thirty two which is also the last upon leaving major pagebrook billy mounted his horse and galloped away toward shirley not caring to remain till the court should reassemble at four as there could hardly be any business done beyond the formal presentation of the indictments by the grand jury and the committal of the prisoners to await trial When he entered the yard gate at Shirley, he found his father, who had returned from the courthouse sometime before, awaiting him. I have not told Soudie, my son, said the old gentleman. I found it hard to keep my lips closed, but you have managed this affair grandly, my boy,

Starting point is 05:46:29 and you ought to have the pleasure of telling the story in your own way. Go into the office, and I'll send Souty to you. miss sooty was naturally enough alarmed when her uncle repressed everything like an expression of joy and in doing that managing to look as solemn as a death warrant told her that billy wanted to see her in the office immediately but billy's look as she entered reassured her he met her just inside the door and taking her face between his hands said i'm as proud and as glad as a boy with red morocco tops to his boots little girl what about cousin billy asked miss sudy in a tremor of uncertainty because i've been doing the duty you've set me i've been turning something up I've torn the mask off that dear old rascal Bob Pagebrook and shown him up in his true colors. It's just shameful the way he's been deceiving us, making us think him an absconding debtor and all that when he ain't nothing of the sort. He's as true as... as you are.

Starting point is 05:47:46 There, that's a figure of speech he'd approve if he could hear it, and he shall too. I'm going to write him a letter tonight telling him just what I think of him. There was a little flutter in Miss Suuty's manner as she sat down, unable to stand any longer. Tell me about it, please, was all she could say. Well, in a word, Bob's all right, with a big balance over. He's as straight as a well rope when the bucket's full. let me make you understand that in advance and then i'll tell my story and with this billy proceeded in his own way to tell the young woman all about the visit to philadelphia and its results when he had finished miss sudy simply sat and looked at him smiling through her tears the thankfulness she could not put into words when after a while she found her voice she said some things when she said some things

Starting point is 05:48:49 which were very pleasant indeed to Mr. Billy in the hearing. The next day's mail carried three letters to Mr. Robert Pagebrook. What Miss Souty said in hers, I do not know, and if I did, I should not tell. Colonel Barksdale wrote in a stately way, as he always did when he meant to be particularly affectionate, the gist of his letter lying in the sentence with which he opened it, which was, did not know until now how much of your father there is in you. Mr. Billy's letter would make the fortune of any comic paper if it could be published. Robert insists that there were just 365 hitherto unheard-of metaphors in the body of it,

Starting point is 05:49:38 and twenty-one more in the postscript. He says he counted them carefully. Naturally enough, after all that had happened, everybody at surely wanted Robert to come back again as soon as possible, and one and all entreated him to spend the Christmas there. This he promised to do, but at the last moment he was forced to abandon his purpose in consequence of the utter failure of Mr. Dudley's health, an occurrence which left Robert with the entire burden of the paper upon him, and made it impossible for him to leave New York during the holidays.

Starting point is 05:50:17 Even with Robert there, the publishers were anxious about the management of the paper at so critical a time. But Robert's single-handed success fully justified the confidence Mr. Dudley had felt and expressed in his ability to conduct the paper. And when, a month later, Dudley resigned entirely to go abroad in search of health, our friend Robert Pagebrook was promoted to his place and pay, having won his way in a few months to a position in his new profession, which he had not hoped to gain without years of patient toil. The rest of my story hardly needs telling. The winter was passed in hard work on Robert's part,

Starting point is 05:51:06 but the work was of a sort which it delighted him to do. He knew the worth of printed words, and rejoiced in the possession of that power which the printing press only can give to a moment. man, multiplying him, as it were, and enabling him to give utterance to his thought in the presence of an audience too vast and too widely scattered ever to be reached by any one human voice. It was a favorite theory of his two that printed words carry with them some of the force expended upon them by the press itself, that a sentence which would fall meaningless from its

Starting point is 05:51:46 author's lips may mold a score of human lives if it be put in type. He was and is an enthusiast in his work, and never apostle went forth to preach a new gospel with more of earnestness or with a stronger sense of responsibility than Robert Pagebrook brings with him daily to his desk. The winter softened into spring, and when the spring was richest in its promise, there was a quiet wedding at Shirley. My story is fully told, but my friend who writes novels insists that I must not lay down the pen until I shall have gathered up what he calls the loose threads, and knitted them into a seemly and unraveled end. Major Pagebrook, dreading the possible exposure of his wife's misconduct, placed money in the

Starting point is 05:52:44 hands of a friend, and that friend became surety for Dr. Harrison's appearance when called for trial. Of course, Dr. Harrison betook himself to other parts, going, indeed, to the West Indies, where he died of yellow fever a year or two later. Foggy disappeared also, but whither he went, I really do not know. Billy Barksdale is still a bachelor, and still likes to listen while Aunt Catherine explains relationships with her keys. Colonel Barksdale has retired from practice and lives quietly at Shirley. Cousin Sarah Ann is still Cousin Sarah Ann, but she lives in Richmond now, having discovered years ago that the heir of the country did not agree with her. Robert and Sudy have a pretty little place in the country, within half an hour's ride,

Starting point is 05:53:44 of new york and i sometimes run out to spend a quiet sunday with cousin sudy robert i can see in his office any day their oldest boy william barksdale pagebrook entered college last september end of chapter thirty two end of a man of honor by george carey eggleston

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