Guy Livingstone; or, 'Thorough'Lawrence, George A. (George Alfred)
General
Guy Livingstone; or, 'Thorough'
Lawrence, George A. (George Alfred)
Fiction
It would have been difficult, I think, to have found another, among
living men, both by constitution and temperament, so inaccessible to
material terrors as Livingstone, yet when that name came upon him thus
suddenly he felt a thrill and a start through his nerves, so
unpleasantly like commonplace physical fear that ever, when he thought
of it, it made his cheek burn with shame. He could not, after that,
controvert gallant Lannes' maxim: "It is only a coward who says that he
never was afraid."
He stood silently, and allowed Lord Killowen to pass him, bowing
courteously, though coldly, to him. The latter never knew what mischief
he had done. After that momentary sensation had passed off, all the
worst elements of Guy's stubborn, haughty nature rose in rebellion at
what he deemed a despicable weakness. As if in defiance of the
consequences, all that evening and on the succeeding days he devoted
himself to Flora Bellasys with such unusual ardor that it made her
nervous: she thought it was too good to last.
When Mohun heard what had happened, he would not admit that there was
the slightest chance of a meeting with Cyril Brandon, though he knew the
character of the latter--fierce and intractable to a degree.
"Don't flatter yourself you will wipe off the score in that way," he
said to Guy, with his sardonic laugh. "Men will quarrel over cards and
about _lorettes_ easily enough, but who fights for a 'broken covenant'
now? We live two hundred years too late."
Ralph remembered how long he had lingered on the French seaboard
waiting for a challenge from beyond the Channel which never came, though
there was deeper provocation to justify it.
A few mornings after this had occurred Livingstone found himself without
a servant. His demeanor toward this estimable class had always been
imperious and stern to a fault, but latterly they, as well as others,
had felt the effects of his exasperated temper, and he was sometimes
brutally overbearing in his reprimands. On this particular occasion he
must have been unusually oppressive, for it exhausted the patience of
the much-enduring Willis, so that the worm turned again--insolently.
Before he had said ten words his master interrupted him, his eye turning
toward a heavy horsewhip that lay near with an expression that made
Willis retreat toward the door.
"So you have robbed me of enough to make you independent? Very well;
make your book up; the _maitre d'hotel_ will settle with you. You will
carry away some of my property, of course? I shall not trouble myself to
have your trunks searched, but if you take any thing that I happen to
want afterward, I'll have you arrested, wherever you are. Now go."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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