United States or Italy ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Well?" he demanded, as the non-commissioned officer saluted. "Only twenty rounds left, Major." The Corporal lowered his voice. "Captain Hargraves sent word to rush reinforcements here as soon as it is dark, sir." Major Seymour glanced with unconcealed impatience at his wrist watch. God! Would night never come! "Can't we get our wounded to the base hospital, Major?" asked a younger officer.
At the close of the scene the audience raised a tumultuous roar of appreciation. The portrayal of the type was so exact, so sure and thorough, that the leading characters in the play were forgotten. After repeated calls, Hargraves came before the curtain and bowed, his rather boyish face bright and flushed with the knowledge of success. At last Miss Lydia turned and looked at the major.
During the anecdotes Hargraves never failed to laugh at exactly the right point. The Major was moved to declare to Miss Lydia one day that young Hargraves possessed remarkable perception and a gratifying respect for the old régime. And when it came to talking of those old days if Major Talbot liked to talk, Mr. Hargraves was entranced to listen.
That it came too late, that it asked what he knew now to be impossible, made it none the less grateful to him, but that it offered peace and a welcome home made it all the more terrible. "I came to take this step through young Hargraves, the new curate," his father wrote, "though he was but the instrument in the hands of Providence.
The crowd of women and children and a few men, which had gathered to witness the troop train's departure, was silently dispersing when an obsequious porter approached the tall stranger whose appearance had so excited John Hargraves. "Ye keb's out 'ere, sir," he said. "This way, sir," and as the stranger made no move to follow him, he leaned forward and lifted the latter's top coat from his arm.
The curtain went up on the first act of A Magnolia Flower, revealing a typical Southern plantation scene. Major Talbot betrayed some interest. "Oh, see!" exclaimed Miss Lydia, nudging his arm, and pointing to her program. The Major put on his glasses and read the line in the cast of characters that her fingers indicated. Col. Webster Calhoun .... Mr. Hopkins Hargraves. "It's our Mr.
Hargraves," said the major, who had remained standing, "you have put upon me an unpardonable insult. You have burlesqued my person, grossly betrayed my confidence, and misused my hospitality. If I thought you possessed the faintest conception of what is the sign manual of a gentleman, or what is due one, I would call you out, sir, old as I am. I will ask you to leave the room, sir."
The ground about was a shambles. Major Seymour stepped up to one of the figures lying upon the ground, a mud-incrusted coat thrown over his legs. Several privates who had been rendering what assistance they could, moved aside on the approach of their superior officers. Hargraves opened his eyes as Seymour knelt by him.
"The description," said the major frowning, "is not without grounds. Some exag latitude must be allowed in public speaking." "And in public acting," replied Hargraves. "That is not the point," persisted the major, unrelenting. "It was a personal caricature. I positively decline to overlook it, sir." "Major Talbot," said Hargraves, with a winning smile, "I wish you would understand me.
The fox hunts, the 'possum suppers, the hoe-downs and jubilees in the negro quarters, the banquets in the plantation-house hall, when invitations went for fifty miles around; the occasional feuds with the neighboring gentry; the Major's duel with Rathbone Culbertson about Kitty Chalmers, who afterward married a Thwaite of South Carolina; and private yacht races for fabulous sums on Mobile Bay; the quaint beliefs, improvident habits, and loyal virtues of the old slaves all these were subjects that held both the Major and Hargraves absorbed for hours at a time.
Word Of The Day