United States or Laos ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Is it Shakspere’s? It is evidently a gentleman’s ring, and of the poet’s era. It is just such a ring as a man in his station would fittingly wear gentlemanly, but not pretentious. There was but one other person in the small town of Stratford at that time to whom the same initials belonged. This was one William Smith, but his seal is attached to several documents preserved among the records of the corporation, and is totally different.[136-*] Mr. Halliwell, in his “Life of Shakspere,” observes that “little doubt can be entertained that this ring belonged to the poet, and it is probably the one he lost before his death, and was not to be found when his will was executed, the word hand being substituted for seal in the original copy of that document.”[136-
One evening in the early summer, when they had resumed their walks after five o'clock, they saw, in a waste place, where houses had been going to be built for the last two years, a number of caravans drawn up in order. A rush of hope filled the heart of Clare: what if it should be the menagerie he knew so well! And, sure enough, there was Mr. Halliwell superintending operations!
"You can go," said Halliwell; and the policemen withdrew slowly, eyeing their prisoner doubtfully until the door closed. Then the officer wheeled round languidly, expecting to find the Egyptian gaunt and muscular. "Now then," he drawled, "why By Jove!" The gallant soldier was as much taken aback as if he had turned to find a pistol at his ear. He took his feet off the table.
"Silence!" said the captain, and not another word would he speak until he heard the sheriff coming up the stair. The Egyptian trembled at his step, and rose in desperation. "Why is the door locked?" cried the sheriff, shaking it. "All right," answered Halliwell; "the key is on your side." At that moment the Egyptian knocked the lamp off the table, and the room was at once in darkness.
"Oh, go away," cried Halliwell; whereupon Weary-world descended the stair haughtily, declaring that the sheriff was an unreasonable man, and that he was a queer captain who did not understand the English language. "Can I gae hame now, sheriff?" asked Langlands, hopefully. "Take this fellow back to his cell," Riach directed shortly, "and whatever else you do, see that you capture this woman.
Forgetting in the haste of my departure to replace the vines upon the grave, I had left the stone to shout its secret to the first comer. And that had happened to be Mr. Tubbs. Happened, I say, for I knew that he had not had the slightest notion where to look for the grave of Bill Halliwell. This running to earth of clues was purely an affair of his own picturesque imagination.
Abdiel indeed waked at the first pull, but had lain as still as a mouse ready to rouse his master, but not an instant before it should be necessary. Clare saw the sky, but he saw something else over him, better than the sky the face of Mrs. Halliwell, the mistress of the menagerie. In it, as she stood looking down on him, was compassion, mingled with self-reproach.
“Oh, Granny,” she said, “the boys have made a most wonderful coast down Halliwell Street and Aunt Theresa says I can go coasting until nine o’clock if you’ll let Maida go too. I thought maybe you would, especially if Billy comes along.” “If Misther Billy goes, ’twill be all roight.”
As for the Egyptian, she slid the ring into her pocket, and fell back before the officer's magnificence. "Oh," she cried, "is all sojers like you?" There was such admiration in her eyes that it would have been self-contempt to doubt her. Yet having smiled complacently, Halliwell became uneasy. "Who on earth are you?" he asked, finding it wise not to look her in the face.
At last, it being now quite dark, he turned, and made for the caravans. A crowd was going up the steps, passing Mrs. Halliwell slowly, and descending into the area surrounded by the beasts. Clare went up, and laid his money on the little white table. The good woman took it with a smile, threw it in her wooden bowl, and handed him, as if it had been his change, three bright sovereigns.
Word Of The Day