Trumps

Trumps

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Trumps, by George William Curtis
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Title: Trumps
Author: George William Curtis
Release Date: March 29, 2005 [eBook #15498]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRUMPS***
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TRUMPS
A Novel
by
GEO. WM. CURTIS
Author of Nile Notes of a Howadji, The Howadji in Syria, The Potiphar Papers, Prue and I, etc.
1861

CONTENTS

Chapter
I. SCHOOL BEGINS II. HOPE WAYNE III. AVE MARIA! IV. NIGHT V. PEEWEE PREACHING VI. EXPERIMENTUM CRUCIS VII. CASTLE DANGEROUS VIII. AFTER THE BATTLE IX. NEWS FROM HOME X. BEGINNING TO SKETCH XI. A VERDICT AND A SENTENCE XII. HELP, HO! XIII. SOCIETY XIV. A NEW YORK MERCHANT XV. A SCHOOL-BOY NO LONGER XVI. PHILOSOPHY XVII. OF GIRLS AND FLOWERS XVIII. OLD FRIENDS AND NEW XIX. DOG-DAYS XX. AUNT MARTHA XXI. THE CAMPAIGN XXII. THE FINE ARTS XXIII. BONIFACE NEWT, SON, & CO., DRY GOODS ON COMMISSION XXXIV. "QUEEN AND HUNTRESS" XXV. A STATESMAN--AND STATESWOMAN XXVI. THE PORTRAIT AND THE MINIATURE XXVII. GABRIEL AT HOME XXVIII. BORN TO BE A BACHELOR XXIX. MR. ABEL NEWT, GRAND STREET XXX. CHECK XXXI. AT DELMONICO'S XXXII. MRS. THEODORE KINGFISHER AT HOME. On dansera XXXIII. ANOTHER TURN IN THE WALTZ XXXIV. HEAVEN'S LAST BEST GIFT XXXV. MOTHER-IN-LAW AND DAUGHTER-IN-LAW XXXVI. THE BACK WINDOW XXXVII. ABEL NEWT Vice SLIGO MOULTRIE REMOVED XXXVIII. THE DAY AFTER THE WEDDING XXXIX. A FIELD-DAY XL. AT THE ROUND TABLE XLI. A LITTLE DINNER XLII. CLEARING AND CLOUDY XLIII. WALKING HOME XLIV. CHURCH GOING XLV. IN CHURCH XLVI. IN ANOTHER CHURCH XLVII. DEATH XLVIII. THE HEIRESS XLIX. A SELECT PARTY L. WINE AND TRUTH LI. A WARNING LII. BREAKFAST LIII. SLIGO MOULTRIE vice ABEL NEWT LIV. CLOUDS AND DARKNESS LV. ARTHUR MERLIN'S GREAT PICTURE LVI. REDIVIVUS LVII. DINING WITH LAWRENCE NEWT LVIII. THE HEALTH OF THE JUNIOR PARTNER LIX. MRS. ALFRED DINKS LX. POLITICS LXI. GONE TO PROTEST LXII. THE CRASH, UP TOWN LXIII. ENDYMION LXIV. DIANA LXV. THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE LXVI. MENTOR AND TELEMACHUS LXVII. WIRES LXVIII. THE INDUSTRIOUS APPRENTICE LXIX. IN AND OUT LXX. THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PEOPLE LXXI. RICHES HAVE WINGS LXXII. GOOD-BY LXXIII. THE BELCH PLATFORM LXXIV. MIDNIGHT LXXV. REMINISCENCE LXXVI. A SOCIAL GLASS LXXVII. FACE TO FACE LXXVIII. FINISHING PICTURES LXXIX. THE LAST THROW LXXX. CLOUDS BREAKING LXXXI. MRS. ALFRED DINKS AT HOME LXXXII. THE LOST IS FOUND LXXXIII. MRS. DELILAH JONES LXXXIV. PROSPECTS OF HAPPINESS LXXXV. GETTING READY LXXXVI. IN THE CITY LXXXVII. A LONG JOURNEY LXXXVIII. WAITING LXXXIX. DUST TO DUST XC. UNDER THE MISLETOE

CHAPTER I.
SCHOOL BEGINS.
Forty years ago Mr. Savory Gray was a prosperous merchant. No gentleman on 'Change wore more spotless linen or blacker broadcloth. His ample white cravat had an air of absolute wisdom and honesty. It was so very white that his fellow-merchants could not avoid a vague impression that he had taken the church on his way down town, and had so purified himself for business. Indeed a white cravat is strongly to be recommended as a corrective and sedative of the public mind. Its advantages have long been familiar to the clergy; and even, in some desperate cases, politicians have found a resort to it of signal benefit. There are instructive instances, also, in banks and insurance offices of the comfort and value of spotless linen. Combined with highly-polished shoes, it is of inestimable mercantile advantage.
Mr. Gray prospered in business, and nobody was sorry. He enjoyed his practical joke and his glass of Madeira, which had made at least three voyages round the Cape. His temperament, like his person, was just unctuous enough to enable him to slip comfortably through life.
Happily for his own comfort, he had but a speaking acquaintance with politics. He was not a blue Federalist, and he never d'd the Democrats. With unconscious skill he shot the angry rapids of discussion, and swept, by a sure instinct, toward the quiet water on which he liked to ride. In the counting-room or the meeting of directors, when his neighbors waxed furious upon raking over some outrage of that old French infidel, Tom Jefferson, as they called him, sending him and his gun-boats where no man or boat wants to go, Mr. Gray rolled his neck in his white cravat, crossed his legs, and shook his black-gaitered shoe, and beamed, and smiled, and blew his nose, and hum'd, and