Delphi Complete Works of the Brontes Charlotte, Emily, Anne Brontë (Illustrated) (267 page)

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Authors: CHARLOTTE BRONTE,EMILY BRONTE,ANNE BRONTE,PATRICK BRONTE,ELIZABETH GASKELL

BOOK: Delphi Complete Works of the Brontes Charlotte, Emily, Anne Brontë (Illustrated)

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“Freinds Maria! D — n them how many are there? Mont I should judge from that laugh and the crack brained O’ Connor? first let me dress and then have at them — the drunken Blackguards!” So Mrs Thurston ringing the footman

appeared whom she bidd call Mr Percys servant and as the man came in she went out leaving a striking contrast in appearance to fill up her place in the room He was an aged and stunted fellow with a forehead moulded in to every demon feeling and his grey hairs and black Old fashioned cloaths mocked in every motion the alert twinkle of his deep grey eye Such was the celebrated Robert King or as all the world called him
Mr
S
death
an old villain whose crimes would fill the Newgate Calendar and whilolm the mentor of his almost equally accomplished Master whom now he served both as personal servant and as the cheif Agent in his extensive Horse trade an office which the old Theifs Yorkshire birth and Horse Jockey education perfectly qualified him to fill. He ushered Mr Percy up stairs candle in hand and when in a while they came down conducted him into the drawing Room where round a blazing fire sat the circle of partnership waiting for the advent of their stady head All jumped up as he appeared and being told that Mrs Thurston waited supper for them followed their Guide to the Dining Room O Connor swearing internal oaths of enjoyment at the long display of shining plate and snowhite[sic] table and Montmorency giving Percy a fiendly squint as he saw the beautiful woman who stood to welcome their enterance

She, when all were seated, with her somewhat pale though smiling face and large dark eyes and elegant womanly form to a painters eye made a beautiful companion to the lofty stature and August forehead of the Handsome though Dissipated looking man at her right hand and as good a contrast to the Black and sullen ferocity of the malignant Gordon on her left. The wild disjasked
profligate O’ Connor rattled and the facetious though far deeper dyied scoundrel Montmorency joked away opposite, but in such wise that as soon as possible Mrs Thurston quitted the table and left them to the paradise of Bottles and glasses that O Connors heart had all day been panting for

“Now” he cried drawing in to the fire “lets unite Theory and practice they’ve been a cursed while seperate with me fill round to our Hostess and may our own homes never want as fair an Ornament I mean when we have a Home G — d D — n!”

“Now my Hearts” said the Barrister “whats the use bothering ourselves with care and we have only a grain of sense in our heads here’s we four here been sitting all the Evening doing nothing but cracking a lot over the old foolishness and theres you Percy have only entered a quarter since and your Bread’s baked already D — n the jade fortune — pass the Bottle Arthur”

Arthur did so with another oath that yet more releived him and his wild Red head commenced its customary whirl of thoughtless oddity which Hector Matthias Montmorency took a delight in bothering to a truly Irish confusion of ideas all the while as he did it keeping a keen grey twinkle upon the motions of his Leader Alexander Percy “Come now my chuck” cried Hector coaxingly to O Connor “I want to have thy opinion at full on the subject we left before supper — ”

“Shiver my breeches if I aut forgotten it Mont — ”

“The identy of moral right and wrong my chuck you had just set about prosing — ”

“Oh by G — d I recollect — well and you see when a man says if I commit this crime I’m sure of getting a fairing for it either here or hereafter what’s that? Why its cowardice real D — d infernal poltroonery he’s afraid and he makes fear the mainspring of his refusal Dammn when I was aboard the Rover if I haddnt whipped my whittle into Grayson it would have been through fear of a licking. I did strike in and whats the issue — why I’de a thousand pounds that made half a years paradise after it! God — why theres Percy now. Whats his theory? — Ive had cause for handling him many a day — and so have you Mont By G — d — well what would have been the issue if I had?.

When I was aboard the Rover — (excuse me madam Mr Percy knows what I mean) — I used at first to be for ever asking myself — Is this right? if not what’ll be the issue? — Well Day came on after Day — never an hour but I had to do something wrong and never a night but I turned in as drunk as paradise — well I thought whats the theory of this? I see its practice and thats a regular elysium I looked we should all strike and founder some fine morning but it was useless nought happened and our purses became like the Widow’s cruise.
we had always our hand in them and they weighed never an ounce the lighter — Excuse me madam what could we do? Temptations came and goodly merchant men crossed on all sides of us What was the issue, why what was theirs became Ours — There was the fight of — well well we’ll not mention names but however it was the first time I shed blood, you’ll forgive me?. well I never slept a wink the night after for counting over the good

that I got by it where was the punishment there?. Oh the

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That strange union which formed Percy’s character of Debauched profligacy and impassioned feeling and restless Ambition and which then was but begginning to be over clouded by his after embittered melancholy but always excited the interest in Mrs Thurstons mind which it had done in the minds of many thousands besides and the story of his life its ceasless wanderings and rumoured crimes only added to that interest and kept awake the Romance which his present employment might have tended to destroy She had expected with much excitement the visit of so celebrated a man and when arrived each word and action seemed to fill up her fancys sketch or open features in the prospect unknown before

Mr Percy though she had not seen him had been a comrade of her Husbands in the Metropolis and Mr Thurston had now invited him to stay at his Residence whither he should follow him so soon as his buisiness at Fidena should be despatched and it was left till such time for his Lady to entertain him which at first she fancied herself quite unable to do but she little knew him — While his Gang was present He had appeared sour and Impetuous but they were now gone And while his Hostess occupied a Sopha by the fire He arose on a sudden and commenced a progress backward and forward through the room His Majestic figure now lightened now shadowed as he advanced to or receded from the fire and his blue wayward eyes enkindled and his expression each moment changing while he poured forth on many a subject his words so warmly and flowingly eloquent. If Mrs Thurston talked to him he would stop and listen with a keenness which almost fluttered and damped her but in turn when he talked she felt roused beyond the pitch of every day conversation She had no need to tempt him forwards for something had excited him with evident pleasure and it was far more the pretty swan like neck and Raven Ringlets of his Hostess that encouraged him than any regard for subject or any desire to shine

“I wonder” she said for she had heard of the morbid bitterness of his feelings “I wonder Sir after what I know to find you now so cheerful. It was much my fear that this wild moorland and ancient House would oppress you with lassitude and ennuye

“And there are times” he replied “when it might if I were left in it alone but not with you here and indeed I have too often held communion with loneliness to find it either strange or disagreeable when I think of long nights at sea and days of the winters in Norway
I am minded that but for the burial which they gave to other greifs I should have been withered into my grave before now. But I can always think best when I am far away at sea and I can feel best when I am even as I am now. you must forgive my intrusion on your time Mrs Thurston because it is seldom I can obtain such an opportunity of pleasure and if you knew how I shall feel when I leave you you would hold me very excusable in keeping you so long

Have not you been used to think of me as a debauched profligate — and one to whom God had denied every spark of kindly nature? — and I own that vice and I have held a long companionship.

TALES OF THE ISLANDERS

When Charlotte’s brother Branwell was given a set of twelve toy soldiers, an entire new imaginary world opened before them. The Twelves, or Young Men, became a constant source of inspiration for the Bronte children, spawning tales of swashbuckling adventures, darkest intrigue, doomed romance and spiteful spirits. The tales collected here make delightful reading, offering a unique insight into Bronte family life and Charlotte’s development as a writer.

This collection is exceptional in that it is the only surviving example of a complete set of stories written by one of the Brontë children. The four volumes of
Tales of the Islanders
, written in tiny hand-made books by Charlotte over a period of a year, comprise the entire output. They are therefore of particular interest because they form an entity. The four volumes reveal a significant development in Charlotte’s storytelling powers. The first volume is not even divided into chapters, though there are two distinct stories, introduced by a fascinating account of how the young Brontes first devised the idea for the Islanders. The play origin of the stories, with each child taking an active and inter-active dramatic role in their progression, is especially obvious in the first and crudest volume. Charlotte herself, Emily and Branwell all appear as themselves, as well as in a variety of fictitious incarnations with their youngest sister, Anne.