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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4444.txt b/4444.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c177c18 --- /dev/null +++ b/4444.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3193 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext Adventures of Harry Richmond, by Meredith, v1 +#50 in our series by George Meredith + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other +Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +THE ADVENTURES OF HARRY RICHMOND + +By George Meredith + + + +CONTENTS + +BOOK 1. +I. I AM A SUBJECT OF CONTENTION +II. AN ADVENTURE ON MY OWN ACCOUNT +III. DIPWELL FARM +IV. I HAVE A TASTE OF GRANDEUR +V. I HAVE A DEAR FRIEND +VI. A TALE OF A GOOSE + +BOOK 2. +VII. A FREE LIFE ON THE ROAD +VIII. JANET ILCHESTER +IX. AN EVENING WITH CAPTAIN BULSTED +X. AN EXPEDITION +XI. THE GREAT FOG AND THE FIRE AT MIDNIGHT +XII. WE FIND OURSELVES BOUND ON A VOYAGE +XIII. WE CONDUCT SEVERAL LEARNED ARGUMENTS WITH THE CAPTAIN OF THE + 'PRISCILLA' +XIV. I MEET OLD FRIENDS + +BOOK 3. +XV. WE ARE ACCOSTED BY A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE LADY IN THE FOREST +XVI. THE STATUE ON THE PROMONTORY +XVII. MY FATHER BREATHES, MOVES, AND SPEAKS +XVIII. WE PASS A DELIGHTFUL EVENING, AND I HAVE A MORNING VISION +XIX. OUR RETURN HOMEWARD +XX. NEWS OF A FRESH CONQUEST OF MY FATHER'S +XXI. A PROMENADE IN BATH +XXII. CONCLUSION OF THE BATH EPISODE + +BOOK 4. +XXIII. MY TWENTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY +XXIV. I MEET THE PRINCESS +XXV. ON BOARD A YACHT +XXVI. IN VIEW OF THE HOHENZOLLERN'S BIRTHPLACE +XXVII. THE TIME OF ROSES +XXVIII. OTTILIA +XXIX. AN EVENING WITH DR. JULIUS VON KARSTEG +XXX. A SUMMER STORM, AND LOVE +XXXI. PRINCESS OTTILIA'S LETTER +XXXII. AN INTERVIEW WITH PRINCE ERNEST AND A MEETING WITH PRINCE OTTO + +BOOK 5. +XXXIII. WHAT CAME OF A SHILLING +XXXIV. I GAIN A PERCEPTION OF PRINCELY STATE +XXXV. THE SCENE IN THE LAKE-PALACE LIBRARY +XXXVI. HOMEWARD AND HOME AGAIN. +XXXVII. JANET RENOUNCES ME +XXXVIII. MY BANKERS' BOOK. + +BOOK 6. +XXXIX. I SEE MY FATHER TAKING THE TIDE AND AM CARRIED ON IT MYSELF +XL. MY FATHER'S MEETING WITH MY GRANDFATHER +XLI. COMMENCEMENT OF THE SPLENDOURS AND PERPLEXITIES OF MY FATHER'S + GRAND PARADE +XLII. THE MARQUIS OF EDBURY AND HIS PUPPET +XLIII. I BECOME ONE OF THE CHOSEN OF THE NATION +XLIV. MY FATHER IS MIRACULOUSLY RELIEVED BY FORTUNE + +BOOK 7. +XLV. WITHIN AN INCH OF MY LIFE . +XLVI. AMONG GIPSY WOMEN +XLVII. MY FATHER ACTS THE CHARMER AGAIN +XLVIII. THE PRINCESS ENTRAPPED +XLIX. WHICH FORESHADOWS A GENERAL GATHERING +L. WE ARE ALL IN MY FATHER'S NET +LI. AN ENCOUNTER SHOWING MY FATHER'S GENIUS IN A STRONG LIGHT + +BOOK 8. +LII. STRANGE REVELATIONS, AND MY GRANDFATHER HAS HIS LAST OUTBURST +LIII. THE HEIRESS PROVES THAT SHE INHERITS THE FEUD AND I GO DRIFTING +LIV. MY RETURN TO ENGLAND +LV. I MEET MY FIRST PLAYFELLOW AND TAKE MY PUNISHMENT +LVI. CONCLUSION + + + +THE ADVENTURES OF HARRY RICHMOND + + +BOOK 1. + +I. I AM A SUBJECT OF CONTENTION +II. AN ADVENTURE ON MY OWN ACCOUNT +III. DIPWELL FARM +IV. I HAVE A TASTE OF GRANDEUR +V. I HAVE A DEAR FRIEND +VI. A TALE OF A GOOSE + + + +CHAPTER I + +I AM A SUBJECT OF CONTENTION + +One midnight of a winter month the sleepers in Riversley Grange were +awakened by a ringing of the outer bell and blows upon the great hall- +doors. Squire Beltham was master there: the other members of the +household were, his daughter Dorothy Beltham; a married daughter Mrs. +Richmond; Benjamin Sewis, an old half-caste butler; various domestic +servants; and a little boy, christened Harry Lepel Richmond, the squire's +grandson. Riversley Grange lay in a rich watered hollow of the Hampshire +heath-country; a lonely circle of enclosed brook and pasture, within view +of some of its dependent farms, but out of hail of them or any dwelling +except the stables and the head-gardener's cottage. Traditions of +audacious highwaymen, together with the gloomy surrounding fir-scenery, +kept it alive to fears of solitude and the night; and there was that in +the determined violence of the knocks and repeated bell-peals which +assured all those who had ever listened in the servants' hall to +prognostications of a possible night attack, that the robbers had come at +last most awfully. A crowd of maids gathered along the upper corridor of +the main body of the building: two or three footmen hung lower down, bold +in attitude. Suddenly the noise ended, and soon after the voice of old +Sewis commanded them to scatter away to their beds; whereupon the footmen +took agile leaps to the post of danger, while the women, in whose bosoms +intense curiosity now supplanted terror, proceeded to a vacant room +overlooking the front entrance, and spied from the window. + +Meanwhile Sewis stood by his master's bedside. The squire was a hunter, +of the old sort: a hard rider, deep drinker, and heavy slumberer. Before +venturing to shake his arm Sewis struck a light and flashed it over the +squire's eyelids to make the task of rousing him easier. At the first +touch the squire sprang up, swearing by his Lord Harry he had just +dreamed of fire, and muttering of buckets. + +'Sewis! you're the man, are you: where has it broken out?' + +'No, sir; no fire,' said Sewis; 'you be cool, sir.' + +'Cool, sir! confound it, Sewis, haven't I heard a whole town of steeples +at work? I don't sleep so thick but I can hear, you dog! Fellow comes +here, gives me a start, tells me to be cool; what the deuce! nobody hurt, +then? all right!' + +The squire had fallen back on his pillow and was relapsing to sleep. + +Sewis spoke impressively: 'There's a gentleman downstairs; a gentleman +downstairs, sir. He has come rather late.' + +'Gentleman downstairs come rather late.' The squire recapitulated the +intelligence to possess it thoroughly. 'Rather late, eh? Oh! Shove him +into a bed, and give him hot brandy and water, and be hanged to him!' + +Sewis had the office of tempering a severely distasteful announcement to +the squire. + +He resumed: 'The gentleman doesn't talk of staying. That is not his +business. It 's rather late for him to arrive.' + +'Rather late!' roared the squire. 'Why, what's it o'clock?' + +Reaching a hand to the watch over his head, he caught sight of the +unearthly hour. 'A quarter to two? Gentleman downstairs? Can't be that +infernal apothecary who broke 's engagement to dine with me last night? +By George, if it is I'll souse him; I'll drench him from head to heel as +though the rascal 'd been drawn through the duck-pond. Two o'clock in +the morning? Why, the man's drunk. Tell him I'm a magistrate, and I'll +commit him, deuce take him; give him fourteen days for a sot; another +fourteen for impudence. I've given a month 'fore now. Comes to me, a +Justice of the peace!--man 's mad! Tell him he's in peril of a lunatic +asylum. And doesn't talk of staying? Lift him out o' the house on the +top o' your boot, Sewis, and say it 's mine; you 've my leave.' + +Sewis withdrew a step from the bedside. At a safe distance he fronted +his master steadily; almost admonishingly. 'It 's Mr. Richmond, sir,' he +said. + +'Mr. . . .' The squire checked his breath. That was a name never +uttered at the Grange. 'The scoundrel?' he inquired harshly, half in a +tone of one assuring himself, and his rigid dropped jaw shut. + +The fact had to be denied or affirmed instantly, and Sewis was silent. + +Grasping his bedclothes in a lump, the squire cried: + +'Downstairs? downstairs, Sewis? You've admitted him into my house?' + +'No, sir.' + +'You have!' + +'He is not in the house, sir.' + +'You have! How did you speak to him, then?' + +'Out of my window, sir.' + +'What place here is the scoundrel soiling now?' + +'He is on the doorstep outside the house.' + +'Outside, is he? and the door's locked?' + +'Yes, sir.' + +'Let him rot there!' + +By this time the midnight visitor's patience had become exhausted. A +renewal of his clamour for immediate attention fell on the squire's ear, +amazing him to stupefaction at such challengeing insolence. + +'Hand me my breeches,' he called to Sewis; 'I can't think brisk out of my +breeches.' + +Sewis held the garment ready. The squire jumped from the bed, fuming +speechlessly, chafing at gaiters and braces, cravat and coat, and allowed +his buttons to be fitted neatly on his calves; the hammering at the hall- +door and plucking at the bell going on without intermission. He wore the +aspect of one who assumes a forced composure under the infliction of +outrages on his character in a Court of Law, where he must of necessity +listen and lock his boiling replies within his indignant bosom. + +'Now, Sewis, now my horsewhip,' he remarked, as if it had been a simple +adjunct of his equipment. + +'Your hat, sir?' + +'My horsewhip, I said.' + +'Your hat is in the hall,' Sewis observed gravely. + +'I asked you for my horsewhip.' + +'That is not to be found anywhere,' said Sewis. + +The squire was diverted from his objurgations against this piece of +servitorial defiance by his daughter Dorothy's timid appeal for +permission to come in. Sewis left the room. Presently the squire +descended, fully clad, and breathing sharply from his nostrils. Servants +were warned off out of hearing; none but Sewis stood by. + +The squire himself unbolted the door, and threw it open to the limit of +the chain. + +'Who's there?' he demanded. + +A response followed promptly from outside: 'I take you to be Mr. Harry +Lepel Beltham. Correct me if I err. Accept my apologies for disturbing +you at a late hour of the night, I pray.' + +'Your name?' + +'Is plain Augustus Fitz-George Roy Richmond at this moment, Mr. Beltham. +You will recognize me better by opening your door entirely: voices are +deceptive. You were born a gentleman, Mr. Beltham, and will not reduce +me to request you to behave like one. I am now in the position, as it +were, of addressing a badger in his den. It is on both sides +unsatisfactory. It reflects egregious discredit upon you, the +householder.' + +The squire hastily bade Sewis see that the passages to the sleeping +apartments were barred, and flung the great chain loose. He was acting +under strong control of his temper. + +It was a quiet grey night, and as the doors flew open, a largely-built +man, dressed in a high-collared great-coat and fashionable hat of the +time, stood clearly defined to view. He carried a light cane, with the +point of the silver handle against his under lip. There was nothing +formidable in his appearance, and his manner was affectedly affable. He +lifted his hat as soon as he found himself face to face with the squire, +disclosing a partially bald head, though his whiskering was luxuriant, +and a robust condition of manhood was indicated by his erect attitude and +the immense swell of his furred great-coat at the chest. His features +were exceedingly frank and cheerful. From his superior height, he was +enabled to look down quite royally on the man whose repose he had +disturbed. + +The following conversation passed between them. + +'You now behold who it is, Mr. Beltham, that acknowledges to the +misfortune of arousing you at an unseemly hour--unbetimes, as our gossips +in mother Saxon might say--and with profound regret, sir, though my habit +is to take it lightly.' + +'Have you any accomplices lurking about here?' + +'I am alone.' + +'What 's your business?' + +'I have no business.' + +'You have no business to be here, no. I ask you what 's the object of +your visit?' + +'Permit me first to speak of the cause of my protracted arrival, sir. +The ridicule of casting it on the post-boys will strike you, Mr. Beltham, +as it does me. Nevertheless, I must do it; I have no resource. Owing to +a rascal of the genus, incontinent in liquor, I have this night walked +seven miles from Ewling. My complaint against him is not on my own +account.' + +'What brought you here at all?' + +'Can you ask me?' + +'I ask you what brought you to my house at all?' + +'True, I might have slept at Ewling.' + +'Why didn't you?' + +'For the reason, Mr. Beltham, which brought me here originally. I could +not wait-not a single minute. So far advanced to the neighbourhood, I +would not be retarded, and I came on. I crave your excuses for the hour +of my arrival. The grounds for my coming at all you will very well +understand, and you will applaud me when I declare to you that I come to +her penitent; to exculpate myself, certainly, but despising self- +justification. I love my wife, Mr. Beltham. Yes; hear me out, sir. I +can point to my unhappy star, and say, blame that more than me. That +star of my birth and most disastrous fortunes should plead on my behalf +to you; to my wife at least it will.' + +'You've come to see my daughter Marian, have you?' + +'My wife, sir.' + +'You don't cross my threshold while I live.' + +'You compel her to come out to me?' + +'She stays where she is, poor wretch, till the grave takes her. You've +done your worst; be off.' + +'Mr. Beltham, I am not to be restrained from the sight of my wife.' + +'Scamp!' + +'By no scurrilous epithets from a man I am bound to respect will I be +deterred or exasperated.' + +'Damned scamp, I say!' The squire having exploded his wrath gave it free +way. 'I've stopped my tongue all this while before a scoundrel 'd +corkscrew the best-bottled temper right or left, go where you will one +end o' the world to the other, by God! And here 's a scoundrel stinks of +villany, and I've proclaimed him 'ware my gates as a common trespasser, +and deserves hanging if ever rook did nailed hard and fast to my barn +doors! comes here for my daughter, when he got her by stealing her, +scenting his carcase, and talking 'bout his birth, singing what not sort +o' foreign mewin' stuff, and she found him out a liar and a beast, by +God! And she turned home. My doors are open to my flesh and blood. And +here she halts, I say, 'gainst the law, if the law's against me. She's +crazed: you've made her mad; she knows none of us, not even her boy. Be +off; you've done your worst; the light's gone clean out in her; and hear +me, you Richmond, or Roy, or whatever you call yourself, I tell you I +thank the Lord she has lost her senses. See her or not, you 've no hold +on her, and see her you shan't while I go by the name of a man.' + +Mr. Richmond succeeded in preserving an air of serious deliberation under +the torrent of this tremendous outburst, which was marked by scarce a +pause in the delivery. + +He said, 'My wife deranged! I might presume it too truly an inherited +disease. Do you trifle with me, sir? Her reason unseated! and can you +pretend to the right of dividing us? If this be as you say--Oh! ten +thousand times the stronger my claim, my absolute claim, to cherish her. +Make way for me, Mr. Beltham. I solicit humbly the holiest privilege +sorrow can crave of humanity. My wife! my wife! Make way for me, sir.' + +His figure was bent to advance. The squire shouted an order to Sewis to +run round to the stables and slip the dogs loose. + +'Is it your final decision?' Mr. Richmond asked. + +'Damn your fine words! Yes, it is. I keep my flock clear of a foul +sheep.' + +'Mr. Beltham, I implore you, be merciful. I submit to any conditions: +only let me see her. I will walk the park till morning, but say that an +interview shall be granted in the morning. Frankly, sir, it is not my +intention to employ force: I throw myself utterly on your mercy. I love +the woman; I have much to repent of. I see her, and I go; but once I +must see her. So far I also speak positively.' + +'Speak as positively as you like,' said the squire. + +'By the laws of nature and the laws of man, Marian Richmond is mine to +support and comfort, and none can hinder me, Mr. Beltham; none, if I +resolve to take her to myself.' + +'Can't they!' said the squire. + +'A curse be on him, heaven's lightnings descend on him, who keeps husband +from wife in calamity!' + +The squire whistled for his dogs. + +As if wounded to the quick by this cold-blooded action, Mr. Richmond +stood to his fullest height. + +'Nor, sir, on my application during to-morrow's daylight shall I see +her?' + +'Nor, sir, on your application'--the squire drawled in uncontrollable +mimicking contempt of the other's florid forms of speech, ending in his +own style,--'no, you won't.' + +'You claim a paternal right to refuse me: my wife is your child. Good. +I wish to see my son.' + +On that point the squire was equally decided. 'You can't. He's asleep.' + +'I insist.' + +'Nonsense: I tell you he's a-bed and asleep.' + +'I repeat, I insist.' + +'When the boy's fast asleep, man!' + +'The boy is my flesh and blood. You have spoken for your daughter-- +I speak for my son. I will see him, though I have to batter at your +doors till sunrise.' + +Some minutes later the boy was taken out of his bed by his aunt Dorothy, +who dressed him by the dark window-light, crying bitterly, while she +said, ' Hush, hush!' and fastened on his small garments between tender +huggings of his body and kissings of his cheeks. He was told that he had +nothing to be afraid of. A gentleman wanted to see him: nothing more. +Whether the gentleman was a good gentleman, and not a robber, he could +not learn but his aunt Dorothy, having wrapped him warm in shawl and +comforter, and tremblingly tied his hat-strings under his chin, assured +him, with convulsive caresses, that it would soon be over, and he would +soon be lying again snug and happy in his dear little bed. She handed +him to Sewis on the stairs, keeping his fingers for an instant to kiss +them: after which, old Sewis, the lord of the pantry, where all sweet +things were stored, deposited him on the floor of the hall, and he found +himself facing the man of the night. It appeared to him that the +stranger was of enormous size, like the giants of fairy books: for as he +stood a little out of the doorway there was a peep of night sky and trees +behind him, and the trees looked very much smaller, and hardly any sky +was to be seen except over his shoulders. + +The squire seized one of the boy's hands to present him and retain him at +the same time: but the stranger plucked him from his grandfather's hold, +and swinging him high, exclaimed, 'Here he is! This is Harry Richmond. +He has grown a grenadier.' + +'Kiss the little chap and back to bed with him,' growled the squire. + +The boy was heartily kissed and asked if he had forgotten his papa. He +replied that he had no papa: he had a mama and a grandpapa. The stranger +gave a deep groan. + +'You see what you have done; you have cut me off from my own,' he said +terribly to the squire; but tried immediately to soothe the urchin with +nursery talk and the pats on the shoulder which encourage a little boy to +grow fast and tall. 'Four years of separation,' he resumed, 'and my son +taught to think that he has no father. By heavens! it is infamous, it +is a curst piece of inhumanity. Mr. Beltham, if I do not see my wife, I +carry off my son.' + +'You may ask till you're hoarse, you shall never see her in this house +while I am here to command,' said the squire. + +'Very well; then Harry Richmond changes homes. I take him. The affair +is concluded.' + +'You take him from his mother?' the squire sang out. + +'You swear to me she has lost her wits; she cannot suffer. I can. I +shall not expect from you, Mr. Beltham, the minutest particle of +comprehension of a father's feelings. You are earthy; you are an +animal.' + +The squire saw that he was about to lift the boy, and said, 'Stop, never +mind that. Stop, look at the case. You can call again to-morrow, and +you can see me and talk it over.' + +'Shall I see my wife?' + +'No, you shan't.' + +'You remain faithful to your word, sir, do you?' + +'I do.' + +'Then I do similarly.' + +'What! Stop! Not to take a child like that out of a comfortable house +at night in Winter, man?' + +'Oh, the night is temperate and warm; he shall not remain in a house +where his father is dishonoured.' + +'Stop! not a bit of it,' cried the squire. 'No one speaks of you. +I give you my word, you 're never mentioned by man, woman or child in the +house.' + +'Silence concerning a father insinuates dishonour, Mr. Beltham.' + +'Damn your fine speeches, and keep your blackguardly hands off that boy,' +the squire thundered. 'Mind, if you take him, he goes for good. He +doesn't get a penny from me if you have the bringing of him up. You've +done for him, if you decide that way. He may stand here a beggar in a +stolen coat like you, and I won't own him. Here, Harry, come to me; come +to your grandad.' + +Mr. Richmond caught the boy just when he was turning to run. + +'That gentleman,' he said, pointing to the squire, 'is your grandpapa. +I am your papa. You must learn at any cost to know and love your papa. +If I call for you to-morrow or next day they will have played tricks with +Harry Richmond, and hid him. Mr. Beltham, I request you, for the final +time, to accord me your promise observe, I accept your promise--that I +shall, at my demand, to-morrow or the next day, obtain an interview with +my wife.' + +The squire coughed out an emphatic 'Never!' and fortified it with an oath +as he repeated it upon a fuller breath. + +'Sir, I will condescend to entreat you to grant this permission,' said +Mr. Richmond, urgently. + +'No, never: I won't!' rejoined the squire, red in the face from a fit of +angry coughing. 'I won't; but stop, put down that boy; listen to me, you +Richmond! I'll tell you what I'll do. I 'll--if you swear on a Bible, +like a cadger before a bench of magistrates, you'll never show your face +within a circuit o' ten miles hereabouts, and won't trouble the boy if +you meet him, or my daughter or me, or any one of us-hark ye, I'll do +this: let go the boy, and I'll give ye five hundred--I'll give ye a +cheque on my banker for a thousand pounds; and, hark me out, you do this, +you swear, as I said, on the servants' Bible, in the presence of my +butler and me, "Strike you dead as Ananias and t' other one if you don't +keep to it," do that now, here, on the spot, and I'll engage to see you +paid fifty pounds a year into the bargain. Stop! and I'll pay your +debts under two or three hundred. For God's sake, let go the boy! You +shall have fifty guineas on account this minute. Let go the boy! And +your son--there, I call him your son--your son, Harry Richmond, shall +inherit from me; he shall have Riversley and the best part of my +property, if not every bit of it. Is it a bargain? Will you swear? +Don't, and the boy's a beggar, he's a stranger here as much as you. Take +him, and by the Lord, you ruin him. There now, never mind, stay, down +with him. He's got a cold already; ought to be in his bed; let the boy +down!' + +'You offer me money,' Mr. Richmond answered. + +'That is one of the indignities belonging to a connection with a man like +you. You would have me sell my son. To see my afflicted wife I would +forfeit my heart's yearnings for my son; your money, sir, I toss to the +winds; and I am under the necessity of informing you that I despise and +loathe you. I shrink from the thought of exposing my son to your +besotted selfish example. The boy is mine; I have him, and he shall +traverse the wilderness with me. By heaven! his destiny is brilliant. +He shall be hailed for what he is, the rightful claimant of a place among +the proudest in the land; and mark me, Mr. Beltham, obstinate sensual old +man that you are! I take the boy, and I consecrate my life to the duty +of establishing him in his proper rank and station, and there, if you +live and I live, you shall behold him and bow your grovelling pig's head +to the earth, and bemoan the day, by heaven! when you,--a common country +squire, a man of no origin, a creature with whose blood we have mixed +ours--and he is stone-blind to the honour conferred on him--when you in +your besotted stupidity threatened to disinherit Harry Richmond.' + +The door slammed violently on such further speech as he had in him to +utter. He seemed at first astonished; but finding the terrified boy +about to sob, he drew a pretty box from one of his pockets and thrust a +delicious sweetmeat between the whimpering lips. Then, after some +moments of irresolution, during which he struck his chest soundingly and +gazed down, talked alternately to himself and the boy, and cast his eyes +along the windows of the house, he at last dropped on one knee and +swaddled the boy in the folds of the shawl. Raising him in a business- +like way, he settled him on an arm and stepped briskly across gravel-walk +and lawn, like a horse to whose neck a smart touch of the whip has been +applied. + +The soft mild night had a moon behind it somewhere; and here and there a +light-blue space of sky showed small rayless stars; the breeze smelt +fresh of roots and heath. It was more a May-night than one of February. +So strange an aspect had all these quiet hill-lines and larch and fir- +tree tops in the half-dark stillness, that the boy's terrors were +overlaid and almost subdued by his wonderment; he had never before been +out in the night, and he must have feared to cry in it, for his sobs were +not loud. On a rise of the park-road where a fir-plantation began, he +heard his name called faintly from the house by a woman's voice that he +knew to be his aunt Dorothy's. It came after him only once: 'Harry +Richmond'; but he was soon out of hearing, beyond the park, among the +hollows that run dipping for miles beside the great highroad toward +London. Sometimes his father whistled to him, or held him high and +nodded a salutation to him, as though they had just discovered one +another; and his perpetual accessibility to the influences of spicy +sugarplums, notwithstanding his grief, caused his father to prognosticate +hopefully of his future wisdom. So, when obedient to command he had +given his father a kiss, the boy fell asleep on his shoulder, ceasing to +know that he was a wandering infant: and, if I remember rightly, he +dreamed he was in a ship of cinnamon-wood upon a sea that rolled mighty, +but smooth immense broad waves, and tore thing from thing without a sound +or a hurt. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +AN ADVENTURE ON MY OWN ACCOUNT + +That night stands up without any clear traces about it or near it, like +the brazen castle of romance round which the sea-tide flows. My father +must have borne me miles along the road; he must have procured food for +me; I have an idea of feeling a damp forehead and drinking new milk, and +by-and-by hearing a roar of voices or vehicles, and seeing a dog that +went alone through crowded streets without a master, doing as he pleased, +and stopping every other dog he met. He took his turning, and my father +and I took ours. We were in a house that, to my senses, had the smell of +dark corners, in a street where all the house-doors were painted black, +and shut with a bang. Italian organ-men and milk-men paraded the street +regularly, and made it sound hollow to their music. Milk, and no cows +anywhere; numbers of people, and no acquaintances among them; my thoughts +were occupied by the singularity of such things. + +My father could soon make me forget that I was transplanted; he could act +dog, tame rabbit, fox, pony, and a whole nursery collection alive, but he +was sometimes absent for days, and I was not of a temper to be on +friendly terms with those who were unable to captivate my imagination as +he had done. When he was at home I rode him all round the room and +upstairs to bed, I lashed him with a whip till he frightened me, so real +was his barking; if I said 'Menagerie' he became a caravan of wild +beasts; I undid a button of his waistcoat, and it was a lion that made a +spring, roaring at me; I pulled his coat-tails and off I went tugging at +an old bear that swung a hind leg as he turned, in the queerest way, and +then sat up and beating his breast sent out a mew-moan. Our room was +richer to me than all the Grange while these performances were going +forward. His monkey was almost as wonderful as his bear, only he was too +big for it, and was obliged to aim at reality in his representation of +this animal by means of a number of breakages; a defect that brought our +landlady on the scene. The enchantment of my father's companionship +caused me to suffer proportionately in his absence. During that period +of solitude, my nursemaid had to order me to play, and I would stumble +about and squat in the middle of the floor, struck suddenly by the marvel +of the difference between my present and my other home. My father +entered into arrangements with a Punch and Judy man for him to pay me +regular morning visits opposite our window; yet here again his genius +defeated his kind intentions; for happening once to stand by my side +during the progress of the show, he made it so vivid to me by what he +said and did, that I saw no fun in it without him: I used to dread the +heralding crow of Punch if he was away, and cared no longer for wooden +heads being knocked ever so hard. + +On Sundays we walked to the cathedral, and this was a day with a delight +of its own for me. He was never away on the Sunday. Both of us attired +in our best, we walked along the streets hand in hand; my father led me +before the cathedral monuments, talking in a low tone of British +victories, and commending the heroes to my undivided attention. +I understood very early that it was my duty to imitate them. While we +remained in the cathedral he talked of glory and Old England, and dropped +his voice in the middle of a murmured chant to introduce Nelson's name or +some other great man's and this recurred regularly. 'What are we for +now?' he would ask me as we left our house. I had to decide whether we +took a hero or an author, which I soon learnt to do with capricious +resolution. We were one Sunday for Shakespeare; another for Nelson or +Pitt. 'Nelson, papa,' was my most frequent rejoinder, and he never +dissented, but turned his steps toward Nelson's cathedral dome, and +uncovered his head there, and said: 'Nelson, then, to-day'; and we went +straight to his monument to perform the act of homage. I chose Nelson in +preference to the others because near bed-time in the evening my father +told me stories of our hero of the day, and neither Pitt nor Shakespeare +lost an eye, or an arm, or fought with a huge white bear on the ice to +make himself interesting. I named them occasionally out of compassion, +and to please my father, who said that they ought to have a turn. They +were, he told me, in the habit of paying him a visit, whenever I had +particularly neglected them, to learn the grounds for my disregard of +their claims, and they urged him to intercede with me, and imparted many +of their unpublished adventures, so that I should be tempted to give them +a chance on the following Sunday. + +'Great Will,' my father called Shakespeare, and 'Slender Billy,' Pitt. +The scene where Great Will killed the deer, dragging Falstaff all over +the park after it by the light of Bardolph's nose, upon which they put an +extinguisher if they heard any of the keepers, and so left everybody +groping about and catching the wrong person, was the most wonderful +mixture of fun and tears. Great Will was extremely youthful, but +everybody in the park called him, 'Father William'; and when he wanted to +know which way the deer had gone, King Lear (or else my memory deceives +me) punned, and Lady Macbeth waved a handkerchief for it to be steeped in +the blood of the deer; Shylock ordered one pound of the carcase; Hamlet +(the fact was impressed on me) offered him a three-legged stool; and a +number of kings and knights and ladies lit their torches from Bardolph; +and away they flew, distracting the keepers and leaving Will and his +troop to the deer. That poor thing died from a different weapon at each +recital, though always with a flow of blood and a successful dash of his +antlers into Falstaff; and to hear Falstaff bellow! But it was mournful +to hear how sorry Great Will was over the animal he had slain. He spoke +like music. I found it pathetic in spite of my knowing that the whole +scene was lighted up by Bardolph's nose. When I was just bursting out +crying--for the deer's tongue was lolling out and quick pantings were at +his side; he had little ones at home--Great Will remembered his +engagement to sell Shylock a pound of the carcase; determined that no +Jew should eat of it, he bethought him that Falstaff could well spare a +pound, and he said the Jew would not see the difference: Falstaff only +got off by hard running and roaring out that he knew his unclean life +would make him taste like pork and thus let the Jew into the trick. + +My father related all this with such a veritable matter-of-fact air, and +such liveliness--he sounded the chase and its cries, and showed King Lear +tottering, and Hamlet standing dark, and the vast substance of Falstaff-- +that I followed the incidents excitedly, and really saw them, which was +better than understanding them. I required some help from him to see +that Hamlet's offer of a three-legged stool at a feverish moment of the +chase, was laughable. He taught me what to think of it by pitching Great +Will's voice high, and Hamlet's very low. By degrees I got some +unconscious knowledge of the characters of Shakespeare. + +There never was so fascinating a father as mine for a boy anything under +eight or ten years old. He could guess on Saturday whether I should name +William Pitt on the Sunday; for, on those occasions, 'Slender Billy,' as +I hope I am not irreverent in calling him, made up for the dulness of his +high career with a raspberry-jam tart, for which, my father told me +solemnly, the illustrious Minister had in his day a passion. If I named +him, my father would say, 'W. P., otherwise S. B., was born in the year +so-and-so; now,' and he went to the cupboard, 'in the name of Politics, +take this and meditate upon him.' The shops being all shut on Sunday, +he certainly bought it, anticipating me unerringly, on the Saturday, +and, as soon as the tart appeared, we both shouted. I fancy I remember +his repeating a couplet, + + 'Billy Pitt took a cake and a raspberry jam, + When he heard they had taken Seringapatam.' + +At any rate, the rumour of his having done so, at periods of strong +excitement, led to the inexplicable display of foresight on my father's +part. + +My meditations upon Pitt were, under this influence, favourable to the +post of a Prime Minister, but it was merely appetite that induced me to +choose him; I never could imagine a grandeur in his office, +notwithstanding my father's eloquent talk of ruling a realm, shepherding +a people, hurling British thunderbolts. The day's discipline was, that +its selected hero should reign the undisputed monarch of it, so when I +was for Pitt, I had my tart as he used to have it, and no story, for he +had none, and I think my idea of the ruler of a realm presented him to me +as a sort of shadow about a pastrycook's shop. But I surprised people by +speaking of him. I made remarks to our landlady which caused her to +throw up her hands and exclaim that I was astonishing. She would always +add a mysterious word or two in the hearing of my nursemaid or any friend +of hers who looked into my room to see me. After my father had got me +forward with instructions on the piano, and exercises in early English +history and the book of the Peerage, I became the wonder of the house. +I was put up on a stool to play 'In my Cottage near a Wood,' or 'Cherry +Ripe,' and then, to show the range of my accomplishments, I was asked, +'And who married the Dowager Duchess of Dewlap?' and I answered, 'John +Gregg Wetherall, Esquire, and disgraced the family.' Then they asked me +how I accounted for her behaviour. + +'It was because the Duke married a dairymaid,' I replied, always tossing +up my chin at that. My father had concocted the questions and prepared +me for the responses, but the effect was striking, both upon his visitors +and the landlady's. Gradually my ear grew accustomed to her invariable +whisper on these occasions. 'Blood Rile,' she said; and her friends all +said 'No!' like the run of a finger down a fiddlestring. + +A gentleman of his acquaintance called on him one evening to take him out +for a walk. My father happened to be playing with me when this gentleman +entered our room: and he jumped up from his hands and knees, and abused +him for intruding on his privacy, but afterwards he introduced him to me +as Shylock's great-great-great-grandson, and said that Shylock was +satisfied with a pound, and his descendant wanted two hundred pounds, +or else all his body: and this, he said, came of the emigration of the +family from Venice to England. My father only seemed angry, for he went +off with Shylock's very great grandson arm-in-arm, exclaiming, 'To the +Rialto!' When I told Mrs. Waddy about the visitor, she said, 'Oh, dear! +oh, dear! then I'm afraid your sweet papa won't return very soon, my +pretty pet.' We waited a number of days, until Mrs. Waddy received a +letter from him. She came full-dressed into my room, requesting me to +give her twenty kisses for papa, and I looked on while she arranged her +blue bonnet at the glass. The bonnet would not fix in its place. At +last she sank down crying in a chair, and was all brown silk, and said +that how to appear before a parcel of dreadful men, and perhaps a live +duke into the bargain, was more than she knew, and more than could be +expected of a lone widow woman. 'Not for worlds!' she answered my +petition to accompany her. She would not, she said, have me go to my +papa there for anything on earth; my papa would perish at the sight of +me; I was not even to wish to go. And then she exclaimed, 'Oh, the +blessed child's poor papa!' and that people were cruel to him, and would +never take into account his lovely temper, and that everybody was his +enemy, when he ought to be sitting with the highest in the land. I had +realized the extremity of my forlorn state on a Sunday that passed empty +of my father, which felt like his having gone for ever. My nursemaid +came in to assist in settling Mrs. Waddy's bonnet above the six crisp +curls, and while they were about it I sat quiet, plucking now and then at +the brown silk, partly to beg to go with it, partly in jealousy and love +at the thought of its seeing him from whom I was so awfully separated. +Mrs. Waddy took fresh kisses off my lips, assuring me that my father +would have them in twenty minutes, and I was to sit and count the time. +My nursemaid let her out. I pretended to be absorbed in counting, till I +saw Mrs. Waddy pass by the window. My heart gave a leap of pain. I +found the street-door open and no one in the passage, and I ran out, +thinking that Mrs. Waddy would be obliged to take me if she discovered me +by her side in the street. + +I was by no means disconcerted at not seeing her immediately. Running +on from one street to another, I took the turnings with unhesitating +boldness, as if I had a destination in view. I must have been out near +an hour before I understood that Mrs. Waddy had eluded me; so I resolved +to enjoy the shop-windows with the luxurious freedom of one whose +speculations on those glorious things all up for show are no longer +distracted by the run of time and a nursemaid. Little more than a glance +was enough, now that I knew I could stay as long as I liked. If I +stopped at all, it was rather to exhibit the bravado of liberty than to +distinguish any particular shop with my preference: all were equally +beautiful; so were the carriages; so were the people. Ladies frequently +turned to look at me, perhaps because I had no covering on my head; but +they did not interest me in the least. I should have been willing to ask +them or any one where the Peerage lived, only my mind was quite full, and +I did not care. I felt sure that a great deal of walking would +ultimately bring me to St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey; to anything else +I was indifferent. + +Toward sunset my frame was struck as with an arrow by the sensations of +hunger on passing a cook's-shop. I faltered along, hoping to reach a +second one, without knowing why I had dragged my limbs from the first. +There was a boy in ragged breeches, no taller than myself, standing +tiptoe by the window of a very large and brilliant pastry-cook's. +He persuaded me to go into the shop and ask for a cake. I thought it +perfectly natural to do so, being hungry; but when I reached the counter +and felt the size of the shop, I was abashed, and had to repeat the +nature of my petition twice to the young woman presiding there. + +'Give you a cake, little boy?' she said. 'We don't give cakes, we sell +them.' + +'Because I am hungry,' said I, pursuing my request. + +Another young woman came, laughing and shaking lots of ringlets. + +'Don't you see he's not a common boy? he doesn't whine,' she remarked, +and handed me a stale bun, saying, 'Here, Master Charles, and you needn't +say thank you.' + +'My name is Harry Richmond, and I thank you very much,' I replied. + +I heard her say, as I went out, 'You can see he's a gentleman's son.' +The ragged boy was awaiting me eagerly. 'Gemini! you're a lucky one,' +he cried; 'here, come along, curly-poll.' I believe that I meant to share +the bun with him, but of course he could not be aware of my beneficent +intentions: so he treated me as he thought I was for treating him, and +making one snatch at the bun, ran off cramming it into his mouth. I +stood looking at any hand. I learnt in that instant what thieving was, +and begging, and hunger, for I would have perished rather than have asked +for another cake, and as I yearned for it in absolute want of food, the +boy's ungenerous treatment of me came down in a cloud on my reason. I +found myself being led through the crush of people, by an old gentleman, +to whom I must have related an extraordinary rigmarole. He shook his +head, saying that I was unintelligible; but the questions he put to me, +'Why had I no hat on in the open street?--Where did my mother live?-- +What was I doing out alone in London?' were so many incitements to +autobiographical composition to an infant mind, and I tumbled out my +history afresh each time that he spoke. He led me into a square, +stooping his head to listen all the while; but when I perceived that we +had quitted the region of shops I made myself quite intelligible by +stopping short and crying: 'I am so hungry.' He nodded and said, 'It 's +no use cross-examining an empty stomach. You'll do me the favour to dine +with me, my little man. We'll talk over your affairs by-and-by.' + +My alarm at having left the savoury street of shops was not soothed until +I found myself sitting at table with him, and a nice young lady, and an +old one who wore a cap, and made loud remarks on my garments and +everything I did. I was introduced to them as the little boy dropped +from the sky. The old gentleman would not allow me to be questioned +before I had eaten. It was a memorable feast. I had soup, fish, meat, +and pastry, and, for the first time in my life, a glass of wine. How +they laughed to see me blink and cough after I had swallowed half the +glass like water. At once my tongue was unloosed. I seemed to rise +right above the roofs of London, beneath which I had been but a wandering +atom a few minutes ago. I talked of my wonderful father, and Great Will, +and Pitt, and the Peerage. I amazed them with my knowledge. When I +finished a long recital of Great Will's chase of the deer, by saying that +I did not care about politics (I meant, in my own mind, that Pitt was +dull in comparison), they laughed enormously, as if I had fired them off. +'Do you know what you are, sir?' said the old gentleman; he had frowning +eyebrows and a merry mouth 'you're a comical character.' + +I felt interested in him, and asked him what he was. He informed me that +he was a lawyer, and ready to be pantaloon to my clown, if I would engage +him. + +'Are you in the Peerage?' said I. + +'Not yet,' he replied. + +'Well, then,' said I, 'I know nothing about you.' + +The young lady screamed with laughter. 'Oh, you funny little boy; you +killing little creature!' she said, and coming round to me, lifted me out +of my chair, and wanted to know if I knew how to kiss. + +'Oh, yes; I've been taught that,' said I, giving the salute without +waiting for the invitation; 'but,' I added, 'I don't care about it much.' + +She was indignant, and told me she was going to be offended, so I let her +understand that I liked being kissed and played with in the morning +before I was up, and if she would come to my house ever so early, she +would find me lying next the wall and ready for her. + +'And who lies outside?' she asked. + +'That's my papa,' I was beginning to say, but broke the words with a sob, +for I seemed to be separated from him now by the sea itself. + +They petted me tenderly. My story was extracted by alternate leading +questions from the old gentleman and timely caresses from the ladies. +I could tell them everything except the name of the street where I lived. +My midnight excursion from the house of my grandfather excited them +chiefly; also my having a mother alive who perpetually fanned her face +and wore a ball-dress and a wreath; things that I remembered of my +mother. The ladies observed that it was clear I was a romantic child. +I noticed that the old gentleman said 'Humph,' very often, and his +eyebrows were like a rook's nest in a tree when I spoke of my father +walking away with Shylock's descendant and not since returning to me. +A big book was fetched out of his library, in which he read my +grandfather's name. I heard him mention it aloud. I had been placed on +a stool beside a tea-tray near the fire, and there I saw the old red +house of Riversley, and my mother dressed in white, and my aunt Dorothy; +and they all complained that I had ceased to love them, and must go to +bed, to which I had no objection. Somebody carried me up and undressed +me, and promised me a great game of kissing in the morning. + +The next day in the strange house I heard that the old gentleman had sent +one of his clerks down to my grandfather at Riversley, and communicated +with the constables in London; and, by-and-by, Mrs. Waddy arrived, having +likewise visited those authorities, one of whom supported her claims upon +me. But the old gentleman wished to keep me until his messenger returned +from Riversley. He made all sorts of pretexts. In the end, he insisted +on seeing my father, and Mrs. Waddy, after much hesitation, and even +weeping, furnished the address: upon hearing which, spoken aside to him, +he said, 'I thought so.' Mrs. Waddy entreated him to be respectful to my +father, who was, she declared, his superior, and, begging everybody's +pardon present, the superior of us all, through no sin of his own, that +caused him to be so unfortunate; and a real Christian and pattern, in +spite of outsides, though as true a gentleman as ever walked, and by +rights should be amongst the highest. She repeated 'amongst the highest' +reprovingly, with the ears of barley in her blue bonnet shaking, and her +hands clasped tight in her lap. Old Mr. Bannerbridge (that was the old +gentleman's name) came back very late from his visit to my father, so +late that he said it would be cruel to let me go out in the street after +my bed-time. Mrs. Waddy consented to my remaining, on the condition of +my being surrendered to her at nine o'clock, and no later, the following +morning. + +I was assured by Mr. Bannerbridge that my father's health and appetite +were excellent; he gave me a number of unsatisfying messages, all the +rest concerning his interview he whispered to his daughter and his +sister, Miss Bannerbridge, who said they hoped they would have news from +Hampshire very early, so that the poor child might be taken away by the +friends of his infancy. I could understand that my father was +disapproved of by them, and that I was a kind of shuttlecock flying +between two battledores; but why they pitied me I could not understand. +There was a great battle about me when Mrs. Waddy appeared punctual to +her appointed hour. The victory was hers, and I, her prize, passed a +whole day in different conveyances, the last of which landed us miles +away from London, at the gates of an old drooping, mossed and streaked +farmhouse, that was like a wall-flower in colour. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +DIPWELL FARM + +In rain or in sunshine this old farmhouse had a constant resemblance to a +wall-flower; and it had the same moist earthy smell, except in the +kitchen, where John and Martha Thresher lived, apart from their +furniture. All the fresh eggs, and the butter stamped, with three bees, +and the pots of honey, the fowls, and the hare lifted out of the hamper +by his hind legs, and the country loaves smelling heavenly, which used to +come to Mrs. Waddy's address in London, and appear on my father's table, +were products of Dipwell farm, and presents from her sister, Martha +Thresher. On receiving this information I felt at home in a moment, and +asked right off, 'How long am I to stay here?--Am I going away tomorrow?- +-What's going to be done with me?' The women found these questions of a +youthful wanderer touching. Between kissings and promises of hens to +feed, and eggs that were to come of it, I settled into contentment. A +strong impression was made on me by Mrs. Waddy's saying, 'Here, Master +Harry, your own papa will come for you; and you may be sure he will, for +I have his word he will, and he's not one to break it, unless his +country's against him; and for his darling boy he'd march against +cannons. So here you'll sit and wait for him, won't you?' I sat down +immediately, looking up. Mrs. Waddy and Mrs. Thresher raised their +hands. I had given them some extraordinary proof of my love for my +father. The impression I received was, that sitting was the thing to +conjure him to me. + +'Where his heart's not concerned,' Mrs. Waddy remarked of me +flatteringly, 'he's shrewd as a little schoolmaster.' + +'He've a bird's-nesting eye,' said Mrs. Thresher, whose face I was +studying. + +John Thresher wagered I would be a man before either of them reached that +goal. But whenever he spoke he suffered correction on account of his +English. + +'More than his eating and his drinking, that child's father worrits about +his learning to speak the language of a British gentleman,' Mrs. Waddy +exclaimed. 'Before that child your h's must be like the panting of an +engine--to please his father. He 'd stop me carrying the dinner-tray on +meat-dish hot, and I'm to repeat what I said, to make sure the child +haven't heard anything ungrammatical. The child's nursemaid he'd lecture +so, the poor girl would come down to me ready to bend double, like a +bundle of nothing, his observations so took the pride out of her. That's +because he 's a father who knows his duty to the child:--"Child!" says +he, "man, ma'am." It's just as you, John, when you sow your seed you +think of your harvest. So don't take it ill of me, John; I beg of you be +careful of your English. Turn it over as you're about to speak.' + +'Change loads on the road, you mean,' said John Thresher. 'Na, na, he's +come to settle nigh a weedy field, if you like, but his crop ain't nigh +reaping yet. Hark you, Mary Waddy, who're a widde, which 's as much as +say, an unocc'pied mind, there's cockney, and there's country, and there +'s school. Mix the three, strain, and throw away the sediment. Now, yon +'s my view. + +His wife and Mrs. Waddy said reflectively, in a breath, 'True!' + +'Drink or no, that's the trick o' brewery,' he added. + +They assented. They began praising him, too, like meek creatures. + +'What John says is worth listening to, Mary. You may be over-careful. +A stew's a stew, and not a boiling to shreds, and you want a steady fire, +and not a furnace.' + +'Oh, I quite agree with John, Martha: we must take the good and the evil +in a world like this.' + +'Then I'm no scholar, and you're at ease,' said John. + +Mrs. Waddy put her mouth to his ear. + +Up went his eyebrows, wrinkling arches over a petrified stare. + +In some way she had regained her advantage. 'Art sure of it?' he +inquired. + +'Pray, don't offend me by expressing a doubt of it,' she replied, bowing. + +John Thresher poised me in the very centre of his gaze. He declared he +would never have guessed that, and was reproved, inasmuch as he might +have guessed it. He then said that I could not associate with any of the +children thereabout, and my dwelling in the kitchen was not to be thought +of. The idea of my dwelling in the kitchen seemed to be a serious +consideration with Mrs. Martha likewise. I was led into the rooms of +state. The sight of them was enough. I stamped my feet for the kitchen, +and rarely in my life have been happier than there, dining and supping +with John and Martha and the farm-labourers, expecting my father across +the hills, and yet satisfied with the sun. To hope, and not be +impatient, is really to believe, and this was my feeling in my father's +absence. I knew he would come, without wishing to hurry him. He had the +world beyond the hills; I this one, where a slow full river flowed from +the sounding mill under our garden wall, through long meadows. In Winter +the wild ducks made letters of the alphabet flying. On the other side of +the copses bounding our home, there was a park containing trees old as +the History of England, John Thresher said, and the thought of their +venerable age enclosed me comfortably. He could not tell me whether he +meant as old as the book of English History; he fancied he did, for the +furrow-track follows the plough close upon; but no one exactly could +swear when that (the book) was put together. At my suggestion, he fixed +the trees to the date of the Heptarchy, a period of heavy ploughing. +Thus begirt by Saxon times, I regarded Riversley as a place of extreme +baldness, a Greenland, untrodden by my Alfred and my Harold. These +heroes lived in the circle of Dipwell, confidently awaiting the arrival +of my father. He sent me once a glorious letter. Mrs. Waddy took one of +John Thresher's pigeons to London, and in the evening we beheld the bird +cut the sky like an arrow, bringing round his neck a letter warm from him +I loved. Planet communicating with planet would be not more wonderful to +men than words of his to me, travelling in such a manner. I went to +sleep, and awoke imagining the bird bursting out of heaven. + +Meanwhile there was an attempt to set me moving again. A strange young +man was noticed in the neighbourhood of the farm, and he accosted me at +Leckham fair. 'I say, don't we know one another? How about your +grandfather the squire, and your aunt, and Mr. Bannerbridge? I've got +news for you.' + +Not unwilling to hear him, I took his hand, leaving my companion, the +miller's little girl, Mabel Sweetwinter, at a toy-stand, while Bob, her +brother and our guardian, was shying sticks in a fine attitude. 'Yes, +and your father, too,' said the young man; 'come along and see him; you +can run?' I showed him how fast. We were pursued by Bob, who fought for +me, and won me, and my allegiance instantly returned to him. He carried +me almost the whole of the way back to Dipwell. Women must feel for the +lucky heroes who win them, something of what I felt for mine; I kissed +his bloody face, refusing to let him wipe it. John Thresher said to me +at night, 'Ay, now you've got a notion of boxing; and will you believe +it, Master Harry, there's people fools enough to want to tread that ther' +first-rate pastime under foot? I speak truth, and my word for 't, they'd +better go in petticoats. Let clergymen preach as in duty bound; you and +I'll uphold a manful sport, we will, and a cheer for Bob!' + +He assured me, and he had my entire faith, that boxing was England's +natural protection from the foe. The comfort of having one like Bob to +defend our country from invasion struck me as inexpressible. Lighted by +John Thresher's burning patriotism, I entered the book of the History of +England at about the pace of a carthorse, with a huge waggon at my heels +in the shape of John. There was no moving on until he was filled. His +process of receiving historical knowledge was to fight over again the +personages who did injury to our honour as a nation, then shake hands and +be proud of them. 'For where we ain't quite successful we're cunning,' +he said; 'and we not being able to get rid of William the Conqueror, +because he's got a will of his own and he won't budge, why, we takes +and makes him one of ourselves; and no disgrace in that, I should hope! +He paid us a compliment, don't you see, Master Harry? he wanted to be an +Englishman. "Can you this?" says we, sparrin' up to him. "Pretty +middlin'," says he, "and does it well." "Well then," says we, "then +you're one of us, and we'll beat the world"; and did so.' + +John Thresher had a laborious mind; it cost him beads on his forehead to +mount to these heights of meditation. He told me once that he thought +one's country was like one's wife: you were born in the first, and +married to the second, and had to learn all about them afterwards, ay, +and make the best of them. He recommended me to mix, strain, and throw +away the sediment, for that was the trick o' brewery. Every puzzle that +beset him in life resolved to this cheerful precept, the value of which, +he said, was shown by clear brown ale, the drink of the land. Even as a +child I felt that he was peculiarly an Englishman. Tales of injustice +done on the Niger river would flush him in a heat of wrath till he cried +out for fresh taxes to chastise the villains. Yet at the sight of the +beggars at his gates he groaned at the taxes existing, and enjoined me +to have pity on the poor taxpayer when I lent a hand to patch the laws. +I promised him I would unreservedly, with a laugh, but with a sincere +intention to legislate in a direct manner on his behalf. He, too, though +he laughed, thanked me kindly. + +I was clad in black for my distant mother. Mrs. Waddy brought down a +young man from London to measure me, so that my mourning attire might be +in the perfect cut of fashion. 'The child's papa would strip him if he +saw him in a country tailor's funeral suit,' she said, and seemed to blow +a wind of changes on me that made me sure my father had begun to stir up +his part of the world. He sent me a prayer in his own handwriting to say +for my mother in heaven. I saw it flying up between black edges whenever +I shut my eyes. Martha Thresher dosed me for liver. Mrs. Waddy found me +pale by the fireside, and prescribed iron. Both agreed upon high- +feeding, and the apothecary agreed with both in everything, which +reconciled them, for both good women loved me so heartily they were near +upon disputing over the medicines I was to consume. + +Under such affectionate treatment I betrayed the alarming symptom that my +imagination was set more on my mother than on my father: I could not help +thinking that for any one to go to heaven was stranger than to drive to +Dipwell, and I had this idea when my father was clasping me in his arms; +but he melted it like snow off the fields. He came with postillions in +advance of him wearing crape rosettes, as did the horses. We were in the +cricket-field, where Dipwell was playing its first match of the season, +and a Dipwell lad, furious to see the elevens commit such a breach of the +rules and decency as to troop away while the game was hot, and surround +my father, flung the cricket-ball into the midst and hit two or three of +the men hard. My father had to shield him from the consequences. He +said he liked that boy; and he pleaded for him so winningly and funnily +that the man who was hurt most laughed loudest. + +Standing up in the carriage, and holding me by the hand, he addressed +them by their names: 'Sweetwinter, I thank you for your attention to my +son; and you, Thribble; and you, my man; and you, Baker; Rippengale, and +you; and you, Jupp'; as if he knew them personally. It was true he +nodded at random. Then he delivered a short speech, and named himself a +regular subscriber to their innocent pleasures. He gave them money, and +scattered silver coin among the boys and girls, and praised John +Thresher, and Martha, his wife, for their care of me, and pointing to the +chimneys of the farm, said that the house there was holy to him from +henceforth, and he should visit it annually if possible, but always in +the month of May, and in the shape of his subscription, as certain as the +cowslip. The men, after their fit of cheering, appeared unwilling to +recommence their play, so he alighted and delivered the first ball, and +then walked away with my hand in his, saying: + +'Yes, my son, we will return to them tenfold what they have done for you. +The eleventh day of May shall be a day of pleasure for Dipwell while I +last, and you will keep it in memory of me when I am gone. And now to +see the bed you have slept in.' + +Martha Thresher showed him the bed, showed him flowers I had planted, and +a Spanish chestnut tree just peeping. + +'Ha!' said he, beaming at every fresh sight of my doings: 'madam, I am +your life-long debtor and friend!' He kissed her on the cheek. + +John Thresher cried out: 'Why, dame, you trembles like a maid.' + +She spoke very faintly, and was red in the face up to the time of our +departure. John stood like a soldier. We drove away from a cheering +crowd of cricketers and farm-labourers, as if discharged from a great +gun. 'A royal salvo!' said my father, and asked me earnestly whether I +had forgotten to reward and take a particular farewell of any one of my +friends. I told him I had forgotten no one, and thought it was true, +until on our way up the sandy lane, which offered us a last close view of +the old wall-flower farm front, I saw little Mabel Sweetwinter, often my +playfellow and bedfellow, a curly-headed girl, who would have danced on +Sunday for a fairing, and eaten gingerbread nuts during a ghost-story. +She was sitting by a furze-bush in flower, cherishing in her lap a lamb +that had been worried. She looked half up at me, and kept looking so, +but would not nod. Then good-bye, thought I, and remembered her look +when I had forgotten that of all the others. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +I HAVE A TASTE OF GRANDEUR + +Though I had not previously seen a postillion in my life, I gazed on the +pair bobbing regularly on their horses before me, without a thought upon +the marvel of their sudden apparition and connection with my fortunes. +I could not tire of hearing the pleasant music of the many feet at the +trot, and tried to explain to my father that the men going up and down +made it like a piano that played of itself. He laughed and kissed me; +he remembered having once shown me the inside of a piano when the keys +were knocked. My love for him as we drove into London had a recognized +footing: I perceived that he was my best friend and only true companion, +besides his being my hero. The wicked men who had parted us were no +longer able to do harm, he said. I forgot, in my gladness at their +defeat, to ask what had become of Shylock's descendant. + +Mrs. Waddy welcomed us when we alighted. Do not imagine that it was at +the door of her old house. It was in a wide street opening on a splendid +square, and pillars were before the houses, and inside there was the +enchantment of a little fountain playing thin as whipcord, among ferns, +in a rock-basin under a window that glowed with kings of England, copied +from boys' history books. All the servants were drawn up in the hall to +do homage to me. They seemed less real and living than the wonder of the +sweet-smelling chairs, the birds, and the elegant dogs. Richest of +treats, a monkey was introduced to me. 'It 's your papa's whim,' Mrs. +Waddy said, resignedly; 'he says he must have his jester. Indeed it is +no joke to me.' + +Yet she smiled happily, though her voice was melancholy. From her I now +learnt that my name was Richmond Roy, and not Harry Richmond. I said, +'Very well,' for I was used to change. Everybody in the house wore a +happy expression of countenance, except the monkey, who was too busy. +As we mounted the stairs I saw more kings of England painted on the back- +windows. Mrs. Waddy said: 'It is considered to give a monarchical +effect,'--she coughed modestly after the long word, and pursued: 'as it +should.' I insisted upon going to the top floor, where I expected to +find William the Conqueror, and found him; but that strong connecting +link between John Thresher and me presented himself only to carry my +recollections of the Dipwell of yesterday as far back into the past as +the old Norman days. + +'And down go all the kings, downstairs,' I said, surveying them +consecutively. + +'Yes,' she replied, in a tone that might lead one to think it their +lamentable fate. 'And did the people look at you as you drove along +through the streets, Master Richmond?' + +I said 'Yes,' in turn; and then we left off answering, but questioned one +another, which is a quicker way of getting at facts; I know it is with +boys and women. Mrs. Waddy cared much less to hear of Dipwell and its +inhabitants than of the sensation created everywhere by our equipage. +I noticed that when her voice was not melancholy her face was. She +showed me a beautiful little pink bed, having a crown over it, in a room +opening to my father's. Twenty thousand magnificent dreams seemed to +flash their golden doors when I knew that the bed was mine. I thought it +almost as nice as a place by my father's side. + +'Don't you like it, Mrs. Waddy?' I said. + +She smiled and sighed. 'Like it? Oh! yes, my dear, to be sure I do. +I only hope it won't vanish.' She simpered and looked sad. + +I had too many distractions, or I should have asked her whether my +amazing and delightful new home had ever shown symptoms of vanishing; it +appeared to me, judging from my experience, that nothing moved violently +except myself, and my principal concern was lest any one should carry me +away at a moment's notice. In the evening I was introduced to a company +of gentlemen, who were drinking wine after dinner with my father. They +clapped their hands and laughed immoderately on my telling them that I +thought those kings of England who could not find room on the windows +must have gone down to the cellars. + +'They are going,' my father said. He drank off a glassful of wine and +sighed prodigiously. 'They are going, gentlemen, going there, like good +wine, like old Port, which they tell us is going also. Favour me by +drinking to the health of Richmond Roy the younger.' + +They drank to me heartily, but my father had fallen mournful before I +left the room. + +Pony-riding, and lessons in boxing and wrestling, and lessons in French +from a French governess, at whose appearance my father always seemed to +be beginning to dance a minuet, so exuberantly courteous was he; and +lessons in Latin from a tutor, whom my father invited to dinner once a +fortnight, but did not distinguish otherwise than occasionally to take +down Latin sentences in a notebook from his dictation, occupied my +mornings. My father told the man who instructed me in the art of self- +defence that our family had always patronized his profession. I wrestled +ten minutes every day with this man's son, and was regularly thrown. On +fine afternoons I was dressed in black velvet for a drive in the park, +where my father uncovered his head to numbers of people, and was much +looked at. 'It is our duty, my son, never to forget names and persons; +I beg you to bear that in mind, my dearest Richie,' he said. We used to +go to his opera-box; and we visited the House of Lords and the House of +Commons; and my father, though he complained of the decay of British +eloquence, and mourned for the days of Chatham, and William Pitt (our old +friend of the cake and the raspberry jam), and Burke, and Sheridan, +encouraged the orators with approving murmurs. + +My father no longer laid stress on my studies of the Peerage. 'Now I +have you in the very atmosphere, that will come of itself,' he said. +I wished to know whether I was likely to be transported suddenly to some +other place. He assured me that nothing save a convulsion of the earth +would do it, which comforted me, for I took the firmness of the earth in +perfect trust. We spoke of our old Sunday walks to St. Paul's and +Westminster Abbey as of a day that had its charm. Our pew among a +fashionable congregation pleased him better. The pew-opener curtseyed +to none as she did to him. For my part, I missed the monuments and the +chants, and something besides that had gone--I knew not what. At the +first indication of gloom in me, my father became alarmed, and, after +making me stand with my tongue out before himself and Mrs. Waddy, like a +dragon in a piece of tapestry, would resume his old playfulness, and try +to be the same that he had been in Mrs. Waddy's lodgings. Then we read +the Arabian Nights together, or, rather, he read them to me, often acting +out the incidents as we rode or drove abroad. An omission to perform a +duty was the fatal forgetfulness to sprinkle pepper on the cream-tarts; +if my father subjected me to an interrogation concerning my lessons, he +was the dread African magician to whom must be surrendered my acquisition +of the ring and the musty old lamp. We were quite in the habit of +meeting fair Persians. He would frequently ejaculate that he resembled +the Three Calendars in more respects than one. To divert me during my +recovery from measles, he one day hired an actor in a theatre, and put a +cloth round his neck, and seated him in a chair, rubbed his chin with +soap, and played the part of the Barber over him, and I have never +laughed so much in my life. Poor Mrs. Waddy got her hands at her sides, +and kept on gasping, 'Oh, sir! oh!' while the Barber hurried away from +the half-shaved young man to consult his pretended astrolabe in the next +room, where we heard him shouting the sun's altitude, and consulting its +willingness for the impatient young man to be further shaved; and back he +came, seeming refreshed to have learnt the sun's favourable opinion, and +gabbling at an immense rate, full of barber's business. The servants +were allowed to be spectators; but as soon as the young man was shaved, +my father dismissed them with the tone of a master. No wonder they loved +him. Mrs. Waddy asked who could help it? + +I remember a pang I had when she spoke of his exposure to the risk of +marrying again; it added a curious romantic tenderness to my adoration of +him, and made me feel that he and I stood against the world. To have his +hand in mine was my delight. Then it was that I could think earnestly of +Prince Ahmed and the kind and beautiful Peribanou, whom I would not have +minded his marrying. My favourite dream was to see him shooting an arrow +in a match for a prize, and losing the prize because of not finding his +arrow, and wondering where the arrow had flown to, and wandering after it +till he passed out of green fields to grassy rocks, and to a stony +desert, where at last he found his arrow at an enormous distance from the +shooting line, and there was the desert all about him, and the sweetest +fairy ever imagined going to show herself to him in the ground under his +feet. In his absence I really hungered for him, and was jealous. + +During this Arabian life, we sat on a carpet that flew to the Continent, +where I fell sick, and was cured by smelling at an apple; and my father +directed our movements through the aid of a telescope, which told us the +titles of the hotels ready to receive us. As for the cities and +cathedrals, the hot meadows under mountains, the rivers and the castles- +they were little more to me than an animated book of geography, opening +and shutting at random; and travelling from place to place must have +seemed to me so much like the life I had led, that I was generally as +quick to cry as to laugh, and was never at peace between any two +emotions. By-and-by I lay in a gondola with a young lady. My father +made friends fast on our travels: her parents were among the number, and +she fell in love with me and enjoyed having the name of Peribanou, which +I bestowed on her for her delicious talk of the blue and red-striped +posts that would spout up fountains of pearls if they were plucked from +their beds, and the palaces that had flown out of the farthest corners of +the world, and the city that would some night or other vanish suddenly, +leaving bare sea-ripple to say 'Where? where?' as they rolled over. +I would have seen her marry my father happily. She was like rest and +dreams to me, soft sea and pearls. We entered into an arrangement to +correspond for life. Her name was Clara Goodwin; she requested me to go +always to the Horse Guards to discover in what part of the world Colonel +Goodwin might be serving when I wanted to write to her. I, in return, +could give no permanent address, so I related my history from the +beginning. 'To write to you would be the same as writing to a river,' +she said; and insisted that I should drop the odious name of Roy when I +grew a man. My father quarrelled with Colonel Goodwin. Months after I +felt as if I had only just been torn from Clara, but she stood in a mist, +irrecoverably distant. I had no other friend. + +Twelve dozen of splendid Burgundy were the fruit of our tour, to be laid +down at Dipwell farm for my arrival at my majority, when I should be a +legal man, embarked in my own ship, as my father said. I did not taste +the wine. 'Porter for me that day, please God!' cried Mrs. Waddy, who +did. My father eyed her with pity, and ordered her to send the wine down +to Dipwell, which was done. He took me between his knees, and said +impressively, 'Now, Richie, twelve dozen of the best that man can drink +await you at the gates of manhood. Few fathers can say that to their +sons, my boy! If we drink it together, blessings on the day! If I'm +gone, Richie, shut up in the long box,' his voice shook, and he added, +'gone to Peribanou underneath, you know, remember that your dada saw that +the wine was a good vintage, and bought it and had it bottled in his own +presence while you were asleep in the Emperor's room in the fine old +Burgundy city, and swore that, whatever came to them both, his son should +drink the wine of princes on the day of his majority.' Here my father's +tone was highly exalted, and he sat in a great flush. + +I promised him I would bend my steps toward Dipwell to be there on my +twenty-first birthday, and he pledged himself to be there in spirit at +least, bodily if possible. We sealed the subject with some tears. He +often talked of commissioning a poet to compose verses about that +wonderful coming day at Dipwell. The thought of the day in store for us +sent me strutting as though I had been in the presence of my drill- +master. Mrs. Waddy, however, grew extremely melancholy at the mention of +it. + +'Lord only knows where we shall all be by that time!' she sighed. + +'She is a dewy woman,' said my father, disdainfully They appeared always +to be at variance, notwithstanding her absolute devotion to him. My +father threatened to have her married to somebody immediately if she +afflicted him with what he called her Waddyism. She had got the habit +of exclaiming at the end of her remarks, 'No matter; our clock strikes +soon!' in a way that communicated to me an obscure idea of a door going +to open unexpectedly in one of the walls, and conduct us, by subterranean +passages, into a new country. My father's method of rebuking her anxious +nature was to summon his cook, the funniest of Frenchmen, Monsieur +Alphonse, and issue orders for a succession of six dinner-parties. +'And now, ma'am, you have occupation for your mind,' he would say. + +To judge by the instantaneous composure of her whole appearance, he did +produce a temporary abatement of her malady. The good soul bustled out +of the room in attendance upon M. Alphonse, and never complained while +the dinners lasted, but it was whispered that she had fits in the upper +part of the house. No sooner did my father hear the rumour than he +accused her to her face of this enormity, telling her that he was +determined to effect a permanent cure, even though she should drive him +to unlimited expense. We had a Ball party and an Aladdin supper, and for +a fortnight my father hired postillions; we flashed through London. My +father backed a horse to run in the races on Epsom Downs named Prince +Royal, only for the reason that his name was Prince Royal, and the horse +won, which was, he said, a proof to me that in our country it was common +prudence to stick to Royalty; and he bade me note that if he went in a +carriage and two, he was comparatively unnoticed, whereas when he was +beheld in a carriage and four, with postillions, at a glance from him the +country people tugged their forelocks, and would like, if he would let +them, to kiss his hand. 'We will try the scarlet livery on one of our +drives, Richie,' said he. Mrs. Waddy heard him. 'It is unlawful, sir,' +she said. 'For whom, ma'am?' asked my father. 'None but Royal . . .' +she was explaining, but stopped, for he showed her an awful frown, and +she cried so that my heart ached for her. My father went out to order +the livery on the spot. He was very excited. Then it was that Mrs. +Waddy, embracing me, said, 'My dear, my own Master Richmond, my little +Harry, prepare your poor child's heart for evil days.' I construed her +unintelligible speech as an attack upon my father, and abused her +violently. + +While I was in this state of wrathful championship, the hall-door was +opened. I ran out and caught sight of my aunt Dorothy, in company with +old Mr. Bannerbridge. I was kissed and hugged for I know not how long, +until the smell of Riversley took entire possession of me, and my old +home seemed nearer than the one I lived in; but my aunt, seeing tears on +my cheeks, asked me what was my cause of sorrow. In a moment I poured +out a flood of complaints against Mrs. Waddy for vexing my father. When +she heard of the scarlet livery, my aunt lifted her hands. 'The man is +near the end of his wits and his money together,' said Mr. Bannerbridge; +and she said to me, 'My darling Harry will come back to his own nice +little room, and see his grandpapa soon, won't you, my pet? All is ready +for him there as it used to be, except poor mama. "Kiss my boy, my +Harry--Harry Richmond." Those were her last words on her death-bed, +before she went to God, Harry, my own! There is Sampson the pony, and +Harry's dog Prince, and his lamb Daisy, grown a sheep, and the ploughboy, +Dick, with the big boots.' Much more sweet talk of the same current that +made my face cloudy and bright, and filled me with desire for Riversley, +to see my mother's grave and my friends. + +Aunt Dorothy looked at me. 'Come now,' she said; 'come with me, Harry.' +Her trembling seized on me like a fire. I said, 'Yes,' though my heart +sank as if I had lost my father with the word. She caught me in her arms +tight, murmuring, 'And dry our tears and make our house laugh. Oh! +since the night that Harry went . . . . . And I am now Harry's mama, he +has me.' + +I looked on her forehead for the wreath of white flowers my mother used +to wear, and thought of my father's letter with the prayer written on the +black-bordered page. I said I would go, but my joy in going was gone. +We were stopped in the doorway by Mrs. Waddy. Nothing would tempt her to +surrender me. Mr. Bannerbridge tried reasoning with her, and, as he +said, put the case, which seemed to have perched on his forefinger. He +talked of my prospects, of my sole chance of being educated morally and +virtuously as became the grandson of an English gentleman of a good old +family, and of my father having spent my mother's estate, and of the +danger of his doing so with mine, and of religious duty and the awfulness +of the position Mrs. Waddy stood in. He certainly subdued me to very +silent breathing, but did not affect me as my aunt Dorothy's picturing of +Riversley had done; and when Mrs. Waddy, reduced to an apparent +submissiveness, addressed me piteously, 'Master Richmond, would you leave +papa?' I cried out, 'No, no, never leave my papa,' and twisted away from +my aunt's keeping. My father's arrival caused me to be withdrawn, but I +heard his offer of his hospitality and all that was his; and subsequently +there was loud talking on his part. I was kissed by my aunt before she +went. She whispered, 'Come to us when you are free; think of us when you +pray.' She was full of tears. Mr. Bannerbridge patted my head. + +The door closed on them and I thought it was a vision that had passed. +But now my father set my heart panting with questions as to the terrible +possibility of us two ever being separated. In some way he painted my +grandfather so black that I declared earnestly I would rather die than go +to Riversley; I would never utter the name of the place where there was +evil speaking of the one I loved dearest. 'Do not, my son,' he said +solemnly, 'or it parts us two.' I repeated after him, 'I am a Roy and +not a Beltham.' It was enough to hear that insult and shame had been +cast on him at Riversley for me to hate the name of the place. We cried +and then laughed together, and I must have delivered myself with amazing +eloquence, for my father held me at arms' length and said, 'Richie, the +notion of training you for a General commandership of the British army is +a good one, but if you have got the winning tongue, the woolsack will do +as well for a whisper in the ear of the throne. That is our aim, my son. +We say,--you will not acknowledge our birth, you shall acknowledge our +worth.' He complained bitterly of my aunt Dorothy bringing a lawyer to +our house. The sins of Mrs. Waddy were forgiven her, owing to her noble +resistance to the legal gentleman's seductive speech. So I walked up and +down stairs with the kings of England looking at me out of the coloured +windows quietly for a week; and then two ugly men entered the house, +causing me to suffer a fearful oppression, though my father was +exceedingly kind to them and had beds provided for them, saying that they +were very old retainers of his. + +But the next day our scarlet livery appeared. After exacting particular +attention to his commands, my father quitted Mrs. Waddy, and we mounted +the carriage, laughing at her deplorable eyes and prim lips, which he +imitated for my amusement. 'A load is off my head,' he remarked. He +asked me if splendour did not fatigue me also. I caught the answer from +his face and replied that it did, and that I should like to go right on +to Dipwell 'The Burgundy sleeps safe there,' said my father, and thought +over it. We had an extraordinary day. People stood fast to gaze at us; +in the country some pulled off their hats and set up a cheer. The +landlords of the inns where we baited remained bare-headed until we +started afresh, and I, according to my father's example, bowed and lifted +my cap gravely to persons saluting us along the roads. Nor did I seek to +know the reason for this excess of respectfulness; I was beginning to +take to it naturally. At the end of a dusty high-road, where it descends +the hill into a town, we drew up close by a high red wall, behind which I +heard boys shouting at play. We went among them, accompanied by their +master. My father tipped the head boy for the benefit of the school, and +following lunch with the master and his daughter, to whom I gave a kiss +at her request, a half-holiday was granted to the boys in my name. How +they cheered! The young lady saw my delight, and held me at the window +while my father talked with hers; and for a long time after I beheld them +in imagination talking: that is to say, my father issuing his +instructions and Mr. Rippenger receiving them like a pliant hodman; +for the result of it was that two days later, without seeing my kings +of England, my home again, or London, I was Julia Rippenger's intimate +friend and the youngest pupil of the school. My father told me +subsequently that we slept at an hotel those two nights intervening. +Memory transplants me from the coach and scarlet livery straight to my +place of imprisonment. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +I MAKE A DEAR FRIEND + +Heriot was the name of the head boy of the school. Boddy was the name of +one of the ushers. They were both in love with Julia Rippenger. It was +my fortune to outrun them in her favour for a considerable period, during +which time, though I had ceased to live in state, and was wearing out my +suits of velvet, and had neither visit nor letter from my father, I was +in tolerable bliss. Julia's kisses were showered on me for almost +anything I said or did, but her admiration of heroism and daring was so +fervent that I was in no greater danger of becoming effeminate than +Achilles when he wore girl's clothes. She was seventeen, an age +bewitching for boys to look up to and men to look down on. The puzzle of +the school was how to account for her close relationship to old +Rippenger. Such an apple on such a crab-tree seemed monstrous. Heriot +said that he hoped Boddy would marry old Rippenger's real daughter, and, +said he, that's birch-twigs. I related his sparkling speech to Julia, +who laughed, accusing him, however, of impudence. She let me see a +portrait of her dead mother, an Irish lady raising dark eyelashes, whom +she resembled. I talked of the portrait to Heriot, and as I had +privileges accorded to none of the other boys and could go to her at any +hour of the day after lessons, he made me beg for him to have a sight of +it. She considered awhile, but refused. On hearing of the unkind +refusal, Heriot stuck his hands into his pockets and gave up cricketing. +We saw him leaning against a wall in full view of her window, while the +boys crowded round him trying to get him to practise, a school-match of +an important character coming off with a rival academy; and it was only +through fear of our school being beaten if she did not relent that Julia +handed me the portrait, charging me solemnly to bring it back. I +promised, of course. Heriot went into his favourite corner of the +playground, and there looked at it and kissed it, and then buttoned his +jacket over it tight, growling when I asked him to return it. Julia grew +frightened. She sent me with numbers of petitions to him. + +'Look here, young un,' said Heriot; 'you're a good little fellow, and I +like you, but just tell her I believe in nothing but handwriting, and if +she writes to me for it humbly and nicely she shall have it back. Say I +only want to get a copy taken by a first-rate painter.' + +Julia shed tears at his cruelty, called him cruel, wicked, false to his +word. She wrote, but the letter did not please him, and his reply was +scornful. At prayers morning and evening, it was pitiful to observe her +glance of entreaty and her downfallen eyelashes. I guessed that in +Heriot's letters to her he wanted to make her confess something, which +she would not do. 'Now I write to him no more; let him know it, my +darling,' she said, and the consequence of Heriot's ungrateful obstinacy +was that we all beheld her, at the ceremony of the consecration of the +new church, place her hand on Mr. Boddy's arm and allow him to lead her +about. Heriot kept his eyes on them; his mouth was sharp, and his arms +stiff by his sides. I was the bearer of a long letter to her that +evening. She tore it to pieces without reading it. Next day Heriot +walked slowly past Mr. Boddy holding the portrait in his hands. The +usher called to him! + +'What have you there, Heriot?' + +My hero stared. 'Only a family portrait,' he answered, thrusting it safe +in his pocket and fixing his gaze on Julia's window. + +'Permit me to look at it,' said Mr. Boddy. + +'Permit me to decline to let you,' said Heriot. + +'Look at me, sir,' cried Boddy. + +'I prefer to look elsewhere, sir,' replied Heriot, and there was Julia +visible at her window. + +'I asked you, sir, civilly,' quoth Boddy, 'for permission to look,-- +I used the word intentionally; I say I asked you for permission . . .' + +'No, you didn't,' Heriot retorted, quite cool; 'inferentially you did; +but you did not use the word permission.' + +'And you turned upon me impudently,' pursued Boddy, whose colour was +thunder: 'you quibbled, sir; you prevaricated; you concealed what you +were carrying . . .' + +'Am carrying,' Heriot corrected his tense; 'and mean to, in spite of +every Boddy,' he murmured audibly. + +'Like a rascal detected in an act of felony,' roared Boddy, 'you +concealed it, sir . . .' + +'Conceal it, sir.' + +'And I demand, in obedience to my duty, that you instantly exhibit it for +my inspection, now, here, at once; no parleying; unbutton, or I call Mr. +Rippenger to compel you.' + +I was standing close by my brave Heriot, rather trembling, studious of +his manfulness though I was. His left foot was firmly in advance, as he +said, just in the manner to start an usher furious: + +'I concealed it, I conceal it; I was carrying it, I carry it: you demand +that I exhibit for your inspection what I mean no Boddy to see? I have +to assure you respectfully, sir, that family portraits are sacred things +with the sons of gentlemen. Here, Richie, off!' + +I found the portrait in my hand, and Heriot between me and the usher, in +the attitude of a fellow keeping another out of his home at prisoner's- +base. He had spied Mr. Rippenger's head at the playground gate. I had +just time to see Heriot and the usher in collision before I ran through +the gate and into Julia's arms in her garden, whither the dreadful +prospect of an approaching catastrophe had attracted her. + +Heriot was merely reported guilty of insolence. He took his five hundred +lines of Virgil with his usual sarcastic dignity: all he said to Mr. +Rippenger was, 'Let it be about Dido, sir,' which set several of the boys +upon Dido's history, but Heriot was condemned to the battles with Turnus. +My share in this event secured Heriot's friendship to me without costing +me the slightest inconvenience. 'Papa would never punish you,' Julia +said; and I felt my rank. Nor was it wonderful I should when Mr. +Rippenger was constantly speaking of my father's magnificence in my +presence before company. Allowed to draw on him largely for pocket- +money, I maintained my father's princely reputation in the school. At +times, especially when the holidays arrived and I was left alone with +Julia, I had fits of mournfulness, and almost thought the boys happier +than I was. Going home began to seem an unattainable thing to me. +Having a father, too, a regular father, instead of a dazzling angel that +appeared at intervals, I considered a benefaction, in its way, some +recompense to the boys, for their not possessing one like mine. My +anxiety was relieved by my writing letters to my father, addressed to the +care of Miss Julia Rippenger, and posting them in her work-basket. She +favoured me with very funny replies, signed, 'Your own ever-loving Papa,' +about his being engaged killing Bengal tigers and capturing white +elephants, a noble occupation that gave me exciting and consolatory +dreams of him. + +We had at last a real letter of his, dated from a foreign city; but he +mentioned nothing of coming to me. I understood that Mr. Rippenger was +disappointed with it. + +Gradually a kind of cloud stole over me. I no longer liked to ask for +pocket-money; I was clad in a suit of plain cloth; I was banished from +the parlour, and only on Sunday was I permitted to go to Julia. I ceased +to live in myself. Through the whole course of lessons, at play-time, in +my bed, and round to morning bell, I was hunting my father in an unknown +country, generally with the sun setting before me: I ran out of a wood +almost into a brook to see it sink as if I had again lost sight of +him, and then a sense of darkness brought me back to my natural +consciousness, without afflicting me much, but astonishing me. Why was +I away from him? I could repeat my lessons in the midst of these dreams +quite fairly; it was the awakening among the circle of the boys that made +me falter during a recital and ask myself why I was there and he absent? +They had given over speculating on another holiday and treat from my +father; yet he had produced such an impression in the school that even +when I had descended to the level of a total equality with them, they +continued to have some consideration for me. I was able to talk of +foreign cities and could tell stories, and I was, besides, under the +immediate protection of Heriot. But now the shadow of a great calamity +fell on me, for my dear Heriot announced his intention of leaving the +school next half. + +'I can't stand being prayed at, morning and evening, by a fellow who +hasn't the pluck to strike me like a man,' he said. Mr. Rippenger had +the habit of signalizing offenders, in his public prayers, as boys whose +hearts he wished to be turned from callousness. He perpetually suspected +plots; and to hear him allude to some deep, long-hatched school +conspiracy while we knelt motionless on the forms, and fetch a big breath +to bring out, 'May the heart of Walter Heriot be turned and he comprehend +the multitudinous blessings,' etc., was intensely distressing. Together +with Walter Heriot, Andrew Saddlebank, our best bowler, the drollest +fellow in the world, John Salter, and little Gus Temple, were oftenest +cited. They declared that they invariably uttered 'Amen,' as Heriot did, +but we none of us heard this defiant murmur of assent from their lips. +Heriot pronounced it clearly and cheerfully, causing Julia's figure to +shrink as she knelt with her face in the chair hard by her father's desk- +pulpit. I received the hearty congratulations of my comrades for singing +out 'Amen' louder than Heriot, like a chorister, though not in so +prolonged a note, on hearing to my stupefaction Mr. Rippenger implore +that the heart of 'him we know as Richmond Roy' might be turned. I did +it spontaneously. Mr. Rippenger gazed at me in descending from his desk; +Julia, too, looking grieved. For my part, I exulted in having done a +thing that gave me a likeness to Heriot. + +'Little Richmond, you're a little hero,' he said, caressing me. 'I saw +old Rippenger whisper to that beast, Boddy. Never mind; they won't hurt +you as long as I'm here. Grow tough, that's what you've got to do. I'd +like to see you horsed, only to see whether you're game to take it +without wincing--if it didn't hurt you much, little lad.' + +He hugged me up to him. + +'I'd take anything for you, Heriot,' said I. + +'All right,' he answered, never meaning me to suffer on his account. He +had an inimitable manner of sweet speaking that endeared him to younger +boys capable of appreciating it, with the supernatural power of music. +It endeared him, I suppose, to young women also. Julia repeated his +phrases, as for instance, 'Silly boy, silly boy,' spoken with a wave of +his hand, when a little fellow thanked him for a kindness. She was angry +at his approval of what she called my defiance of her father, and +insisted that I was the catspaw of one of Heriot's plots to vex him. +'Tell Heriot you have my command to say you belong to me and must not be +misled,' she said. His answer was that he wanted it in writing. She +requested him to deliver up her previous letters. Thereupon he charged +me with a lengthy epistle, which plunged us into boiling water. Mr. +Boddy sat in the schoolroom while Heriot's pen was at work, on the wet +Sunday afternoon. His keen little eyes were busy in his flat bird's head +all the time Heriot continued writing. He saw no more than that Heriot +gave me a book; but as I was marching away to Julia he called to know +where I was going. + +'To Miss Rippenger,' I replied. + +'What have you there?' + +'A book, sir.' + +'Show me the book.' + +I stood fast. + +'It 's a book I have lent him, sir,' said Heriot, rising. 'I shall see +if it's a fit book for a young boy,' said Boddy; and before Heriot could +interpose, he had knocked the book on the floor, and out fell the letter. +Both sprang down to seize it: their heads encountered, but Heriot had the +quicker hand; he caught the letter, and cried 'Off !' to me, as on +another occasion. This time, however, he was not between me and the +usher. I was seized by the collar, and shakes roughly. + +'You will now understand that you are on a footing with the rest of +the boys, you Roy,' said Boddy. 'Little scoundrelly spoilt urchins, +upsetting the discipline of the school, won't do here. Heriot, here +is your book. I regret,' he added, sneering, 'that a leaf is torn.' + +'I regret, sir, that the poor boy was so savagely handled,' said Heriot. + +He was warned to avoid insolence. + +'Oh, as much Virgil as you like,' Heriot retorted; 'I know him by heart.' + +It was past the hour of my customary visit to Julia, and she came to +discover the reason of my delay. Boddy stood up to explain. Heriot went +forward, saying, 'I think I'm the one who ought to speak, Miss Rippenger. +The fact is, I hear from little Roy that you are fond of tales of Indian +adventure, and I gave him a book for you to read, if you like it. Mr. +Boddy objected, and treated the youngster rather rigorously. It must +have been quite a misunderstanding on his part. Here is the book it's +extremely amusing.' + +Julia blushed very red. She accepted the book with a soft murmur, and +the sallow usher had not a word. + +'Stay,' said Heriot. 'I took the liberty to write some notes. My father +is an Indian officer, you know, and some of the terms in the book are +difficult without notes. Richie, hand that paper. Here they are, Miss +Rippenger, if you'll be so kind as to place them in the book.' + +I was hoping with all my might that she would not deny him. She did, +and my heart sank. + +'Oh, I can read it without notes,' she said, cheerfully. + +After that, I listened with indifference to her petition to Boddy that I +might be allowed to accompany her, and was not at all chagrined by his +refusal. She laid down the book, saying that I could bring it to her +when I was out of disgrace. + +In the evening we walked in the playground, where Heriot asked me to do a +brave thing, which he would never forget. This was that I should take a +sharp run right past Boddy, who was pacing up and down before the gate +leading into Julia's garden, and force her to receive the letter. I went +bounding like a ball. The usher, suspecting only that I hurried to speak +to him, let me see how indignant he was with my behaviour by striding all +the faster as I drew near, and so he passed the gate, and I rushed in. +I had just time to say to Julia, 'Hide it, or I'm in such a scrape.' + +The next minute she was addressing my enemy: + +'Surely you would not punish him because he loves me?' and he, though he +spoke of insubordination, merited chastisement; and other usher phrases, +seemed to melt, and I had what I believe was a primary conception of the +power of woman. She led him to talk in the gentlest way possible of how +the rain had refreshed her flowers, and of this and that poor rose. + +I could think of nothing but the darling letter, which had flashed out of +sight as a rabbit pops into burrows. Boddy departed with a rose. + +'Ah, Richie,' she said, 'I have to pay to have you with me now.' + +We walked to the summer-house, where she read Heriot's letter through. +'But he is a boy! How old is Heriot? He is not so old as I am!' + +These were her words, and she read the letter anew, and read it again +after she had placed it in her bosom, I meanwhile pouring out praises of +Heriot. + +'You speak of him as if you were in love with him, Richmond,' she said. + +'And I do love him,' I answered. + +'Not with me?' she asked. + +'Yes, I do love you too, if you will not make him angry.' + +'But do you know what it is he wants of me?' + +I guessed: 'Yes; he wants you to let him sit close to you for half an +hour.' + +She said that he sat very near her in church. + +'Ah,' said I, 'but he mustn't interrupt the sermon.' + +She laughed, and mouthed me over with laughing kisses. 'There's very +little he hasn't daring enough for!' + +We talked of his courage. + +'Is he good as well?' said Julia, more to herself than to me; but I sang +out, + +'Good! Oh, so kind!' + +This appeared to convince her. + +'Very generous to you and every one, is he not?' she said; and from that +moment was all questions concerning his kind treatment of the boys, and +as to their looking up to him. + +I quitted her, taking her message to Heriot: 'You may tell him--tell him +that I can't write.' + +Heriot frowned on hearing me repeat it. + +'Humph!' he went, and was bright in a twinkling: 'that means she'll +come!' He smacked his hands together, grew black, and asked, 'Did she +give that beast Boddy a rose?' + +I had to confess she did; and feeling a twinge of my treason to her, felt +hers to Heriot. + +'Humph!' he went; 'she shall suffer for that.' + +All this was like music going on until the curtain should lift and reveal +my father to me. + +There was soon a secret to be read in Heriot's face for one who loved +it as I did. Julia's betrayed nothing. I was not taken into their +confidence, and luckily not; otherwise I fear I should have served +them ill, I was so poor a dissembler and was so hotly plied with +interrogations by the suspicious usher. I felt sure that Heriot and +Julia met. His eyes were on her all through prayer-time, and hers +wandered over the boys' heads till they rested on him, when they gave a +short flutter and dropped, like a bird shot dead. The boys must have had +some knowledge that love was busy in their midst, for they spoke of +Heriot and Julia as a jolly couple, and of Boddy as one meaning to play +the part of old Nick the first opportunity. She was kinder to them than +ever. It was not a new thing that she should send in cakes of her own +making, but it was extraordinary that we should get these thoughtful +presents as often as once a fortnight, and it became usual to hear a boy +exclaim, either among a knot of fellows or to himself, 'By jingo, she is +a pretty girl!' on her passing out of the room, and sometimes entirely of +his own idea. I am persuaded that if she had consented to marry Boddy, +the boys would have been seriously disposed to conspire to jump up in the +church and forbid the banns. We should have preferred to hand her to the +junior usher, Catman, of whom the rumour ran in the school that he once +drank a bottle of wine and was sick after it, and he was therefore a weak +creature to our minds; the truth of the rumour being confirmed by his +pale complexion. That we would have handed our blooming princess to him +was full proof of our abhorrence of Boddy. I might have thought with the +other boys that she was growing prettier, only I never could imagine her +so delicious as when she smiled at my father. + +The consequence of the enlistment of the whole school in Heriot's +interests was that at cricket-matches, picnics on the hills, and boating +on the canal, Mr. Boddy was begirt with spies, and little Temple reported +to Heriot a conversation that he, lying hidden in tall grass, had heard +between Boddy and Julia. Boddy asked her to take private lessons in +French from him. Heriot listened to the monstrous tale as he was on the +point of entering Julia's boat, where Boddy sat beside her, and Heriot +rowed stroke-oar. He dipped his blade, and said, loud enough to be heard +by me in Catman's boat, + +'Do you think French useful in a military education, sir?' + +And Boddy said, 'Yes, of course it is.' + +Says Heriot, 'Then I think I shall take lessons.' + +Boddy told him he was taking lessons in the school. + +'Oh!' says Heriot, 'I mean private lessons'; and here he repeated one of +Temple's pieces of communication: 'so much more can be imparted in a +private lesson!' + +Boddy sprang half up from his seat. 'Row, sir, and don't talk,' he +growled. + +'Sit, sir, and don't dance in the boat, if you please, or the lady will +be overset,' said Heriot. + +Julia requested to be allowed to land and walk home. Boddy caught the +rudder lines and leapt on the bank to hand her out; then all the boys in +her boat and in Catman's shouted, 'Miss Julia! dear Miss Julia, don't +leave us!' and we heard wheedling voices: 'Don't go off with him alone!' +Julia bade us behave well or she would not be able to come out with us. +At her entreaty Boddy stepped back to his post, and the two boats went +forward like swans that have done ruffling their feathers. + +The boys were exceedingly disappointed that no catastrophe followed the +events of the day. Heriot, they thought, might have upset the boat, +saved Julia, and drowned Boddy, and given us a feast of pleasurable +excitement: instead of which Boddy lived to harass us with his tyrannical +impositions and spiteful slaps, and it was to him, not to our Heriot, +that Julia was most gracious. Some of us discussed her conduct. + +'She's a coquette,' said little Temple. I went off to the French +dictionary. + +'Is Julia Rippenger a coquette, Heriot?' I asked him. + +'Keep girls out of your heads, you little fellows,' said he, dealing me a +smart thump. + +'Is a coquette a nasty girl?' I persisted. + +'No, a nice one, as it happens,' was his answer. + +My only feeling was jealousy of the superior knowledge of the sex +possessed by Temple, for I could not fathom the meaning of coquette; but +he had sisters. Temple and I walked the grounds together, mutually +declaring how much we would forfeit for Heriot's sake. By this time my +Sunday visits to Julia had been interdicted: I was plunged, as it were, +in the pit of the school, and my dreams of my father were losing +distinctness. A series of boxes on the ears from Boddy began to astound +and transform me. Mr. Rippenger, too, threatened me with carvings, +though my offences were slight. 'Yes,' said Temple and I, in chorus, +'but you daren't strike Heriot!' This was our consolation, and the +sentiment of the school. Fancy, then, our amazement to behold him laying +the cane on Heriot's shoulders as fiercely as he could, and Boddy +seconding him. The scene was terrible. We were all at our desks doing +evening tasks for the morrow, a great matchday at cricket, Boddy watching +over us, and bellowing, 'Silence at your work, you lazy fellows, if you +want lessons to be finished at ten in the morning!' A noise came growing +up to us from below, up the stairs from the wet-weather shed, and Heriot +burst into the room, old Rippenger after him, panting. + +'Mr. Boddy, you were right,' he cried, 'I find him a prowler, breaking +all rules of discipline. A perverted, impudent rascal! An example shall +be set to my school, sir. We have been falling lax. What! I find the +puppy in my garden whistling--he confesses--for one of my servants------ +here, Mr. Boddy, if you please. My school shall see that none insult me +with impunity!' He laid on Heriot like a wind on a bulrush. Heriot bent +his shoulders a trifle, not his head. + +'Hit away, sir,' he said, during the storm of blows, and I, through my +tears, imagined him (or I do now) a young eagle forced to bear the +thunder, but with his face to it. Then we saw Boddy lay hands on him, +and in a twinkling down pitched the usher, and the boys cheered--chirped, +I should say, they exulted so, and merely sang out like birds, without +any wilfulness of delight or defiance. After the fall of Boddy we had no +sense of our hero suffering shame. Temple and I clutched fingers tight +as long as the blows went on. We hoped for Boddy to make another attempt +to touch Heriot; he held near the master, looking ready to spring, like a +sallow panther; we kept hoping he would, in our horror of the murderous +slashes of the cane; and not a syllable did Heriot utter. Temple and I +started up, unaware of what we were going to do, or of anything until we +had got a blow a-piece, and were in the thick of it, and Boddy had us +both by the collars, and was knocking our heads together, as he dragged +us back to our seats. But the boys told us we stopped the execution. +Mr. Rippenger addressed us before he left the school-room. Saddlebank, +Salter, and a good many others, plugged their ears with their fists. +That night Boddy and Catman paced in the bedchambers, to prevent plotting +and conspiracy, they said. I longed to get my arms about Heriot, and +thought of him, and dreamed of blood, and woke in the morning wondering +what made me cry, and my arms and back very stiff. Heriot was gay as +ever, but had fits of reserve; the word passed round that we were not to +talk of yesterday evening. We feared he would refuse to play in the +match. + +'Why not?' said he, staring at us angrily. 'Has Saddlebank broken his +arm, and can't bowl?' + +No, Saddlebank was in excellent trim, though shamefaced, as was Salter, +and most of the big boys were. They begged Heriot to let them shake his +hand. + +'Wait till we win our match,' said Heriot. + +Julia did not appear at morning prayers. + +'Ah,' said Temple, 'it'd make her sick to hear old Massacre praying.' It +had nearly made him sick, he added, and I immediately felt that it had +nearly made me sick. + +We supposed we should not see Julia at the match. She came, however, and +talked to everybody. I could not contain myself, I wanted so to tell her +what had befallen Heriot overnight, while he was batting, and the whole +ground cheering his hits. I on one side of her whispered: + +'I say, Julia, my dear, I say, do you know . . .' + +And Temple on the other: ' Miss Julia, I wish you'd let me tell you--' + +We longed to arouse her pity for Heriot at the moment she was admiring +him, but she checked us, and as she was surrounded by ladies and +gentlemen of the town, and particular friends of hers, we could not speak +out. Heriot brought his bat to the booth for eighty-nine runs. His +sleeve happened to be unbuttoned, and there, on his arm, was a mark of +the cane. + +'Look!' I said to Julia. But she looked at me. + +'Richie, are you ill?' + +She assured me I was very pale, and I felt her trembling excessively, and +her parasol was covering us. + +'Here, Roy, Temple,' we heard Heriot call; 'here, come here and bowl to +me.' + +I went and bowled till I thought my head was flying after the ball and +getting knocks, it swam and throbbed so horribly. + +Temple related that I fell, and was carried all the way from the cricket- +field home by Heriot, who would not give me up to the usher. I was in +Julia's charge three days. Every time I spoke of her father and Heriot, +she cried, 'Oh, hush!' and had tears on her eyelids. When I was quite +strong again, I made her hear me out. She held me and rocked over me +like a green tree in the wind and rain. + +'Was any name mentioned?' she asked, with her mouth working, and to my +'No,' said 'No, she knew there was none,' and seemed to drink and choke, +and was one minute calm, all but a trembling hanging underlip, next +smiling on me, and next having her face carved in grimaces by the jerking +little tugs of her mouth, which I disliked to see, for she would say +nothing of what she thought of Heriot, and I thought to myself, though I +forbore to speak unkindly, 'It's no use your making yourself look ugly, +Julia.' If she had talked of Heriot, I should have thought that crying +persons' kisses were agreeable. + +On my return into the school, I found it in a convulsion of excitement, +owing to Heriot's sending Boddy a challenge to fight a duel with pistols. +Mr. Rippenger preached a sermon to the boys concerning the unChristian +spirit and hideous moral perversity of one who would even consent to +fight a duel. How much more reprehensible, then, was one that could +bring himself to defy a fellow-creature to mortal combat! We were not of +his opinion; and as these questions are carried by majorities, we decided +that Boddy was a coward, and approved the idea that Heriot would have to +shoot or scourge him when the holidays came. Mr. Rippenger concluded his +observations by remarking that the sharpest punishment he could inflict +upon Heriot was to leave him to his own conscience; which he did for +three days, and then asked him if he was in a fit state of mind to beg +Mr. Boddy's pardon publicly. + +'I'm quite prepared to tell him what I think of him publicly, sir,' said +Heriot. + +A murmur of exultation passed through the school. Mr. Rippenger seized +little Temple, and flogged him. Far from dreading the rod, now that +Heriot and Temple had tasted it, I thought of punishment as a mad +pleasure, not a bit more awful than the burning furze-bush plunged into +by our fellows in a follow-my-leader scamper on the common; so I caught +Temple's hand as he went by me, and said, eagerly, 'Shall I sing out +hurrah?' + +'Bother it!' was Temple's answer, for he had taken a stinging dozen, and +had a tender skin. + +Mr. Rippenger called me up to him, to inform me, that whoever I was, +and whatever I was, and I might be a little impostor foisted on his +benevolence, yet he would bring me to a knowledge of myself: he gave me +warning of it; and if my father objected to his method, my father must +write word to that effect, and attend punctually to business duties, for +Surrey House was not an almshouse, either for the sons of gentlemen of +high connection, or for the sons of vagabonds. Mr. Rippenger added a +spurning shove on my shoulder to his recommendation to me to resume my +seat. I did not understand him at all. I was, in fact, indebted to a +boy named Drew, a known sneak, for the explanation, in itself difficult +to comprehend. It was, that Mr. Rippenger was losing patience because +he had received no money on account of my boarding and schooling. The +intelligence filled my head like the buzz of a fly, occupying my +meditations without leading them anywhere. I spoke on the subject to +Heriot. + +'Oh, the sordid old brute !' said he of Mr. Rippenger. 'How can he know +the habits and feelings of gentlemen? Your father's travelling, and +can't write, of course. My father's in India, and I get a letter from +him about once a year. We know one another, and I know he's one of the +best officers in the British army. It's just the way with schoolmasters +and tradesmen: they don't care whether a man is doing his duty to his +country; he must attend to them, settle accounts with them--hang them! +I'll send you money, dear little lad, after I've left.' + +He dispersed my brooding fit. I was sure my father was a fountain of +gold, and only happened to be travelling. Besides, Heriot's love for +Julia, whom none of us saw now, was an incessant distraction. She did +not appear at prayers. She sat up in the gallery at church, hardly to be +spied. A letter that Heriot flung over the gardenwall for her was +returned to him, open, enclosed by post. + +'A letter for Walter Heriot,' exclaimed Mr. Boddy, lifting it high for +Heriot to walk and fetch it; and his small eyes blinked when Heriot said +aloud on his way, cheerfully, + +'A letter from the colonel in India!' + +Boddy waited a minute, and then said, 'Is your father in good health?' + +Heriot's face was scarlet. At first he stuttered, 'My father!--I hope +so! What have you in common with him, sir?' + +'You stated that the letter was from your father,' said Boddy. + +'What if it is, sir?' + +'Oh, in that case, nothing whatever to me.' + +They talked on, and the youngest of us could perceive Boddy was bursting +with devilish glee. Heriot got a letter posted to Julia. It was laid on +his desk, with her name scratched completely out, and his put in its +place. He grew pale and sad, but did his work, playing his games, and +only letting his friends speak to him of lessons and play. His counsel +to me was, that in spite of everything, I was always to stick to my tasks +and my cricket. His sadness he could not conceal. He looked like an old +lamp with a poor light in it. Not a boy in the school missed seeing how +Boddy's flat head perpetually had a side-eye on him. + +All this came to an end. John Salter's father lived on the other side +of the downs, and invited three of us to spend a day at his house. The +selection included Heriot, Saddlebank, and me. Mr. Rippenger, not liking +to refuse Mr. Salter, consented to our going, but pretended that I was +too young. Salter said his mother and sisters very much wished to make +my acquaintance. We went in his father's carriage. A jolly wind blew +clouds and dust and leaves: I could have fancied I was going to my own +father. The sensation of freedom had a magical effect on me, so that I +was the wildest talker of them all. Even in the middle of the family I +led the conversation; and I did not leave Salter's house without +receiving an assurance from his elder sisters that they were in love with +me. We drove home--back to prison, we called it--full of good things, +talking of Salter's father's cellar of wine and of my majority Burgundy, +which I said, believing it was true, amounted to twelve hundred dozen; +and an appointment was made for us to meet at Dipwell Farm, to assist in +consuming it, in my honour and my father's. That matter settled, I felt +myself rolling over and over at a great rate, and clasping a juniper +tree. The horses had trenched from the chalk road on to the downs. I +had been shot out. Heriot and Salter had jumped out--Heriot to look +after me; but Saddlebank and the coachman were driving at a great rate +over the dark slope. Salter felt some anxiety concerning his father's +horses, so we left him to pursue them, and walked on laughing, Heriot +praising me for my pluck. + +'I say good-bye to you to-night, Richie,' said he. 'We're certain to +meet again. I shall go to a military school. Mind you enter a cavalry +regiment when you're man enough. Look in the Army List, you'll find me +there. My aunt shall make a journey and call on you while you're at +Rippenger's, so you shan't be quite lonely.' + +To my grief, I discovered that Heriot had resolved he would not return to +school. + +'You'll get thrashed,' he said; ' I can't help it: I hope you've grown +tough by this time. I can't stay here. I feel more like a dog than a +man in that house now. I'll see you back safe. No crying, young +cornet!' + +We had lost the sound of the carriage. Heriot fell to musing. He +remarked that the accident took away from Mr. Salter the responsibility +of delivering him at Surrey House, but that he, Heriot, was bound, for +Mr. Salter's sake, to conduct me to the doors; an unintelligible +refinement of reasoning, to my wits. We reached our town between two and +three in the morning. There was a ladder leaning against one of the +houses in repair near the school. 'You are here, are you!' said Heriot, +speaking to the ladder: 'you 'll do me a service--the last I shall want +in the neighbourhood.' He managed to poise the ladder on his shoulder, +and moved forward. + +'Are we going in through the window?' I asked, seeing him fix the ladder +against the school-house wall. + +He said, 'Hush; keep a look-out.' + +I saw him mount high. When he tapped at the window I remembered it was +Julia's; I heard her cry out inside. The window rose slowly. Heriot +spoke: + +'I have come to say good-bye to you, Julia, dear girl: don't be afraid of +me.' She answered inaudibly to my ears. He begged her to come to him at +once, only once, and hear him and take his hand. She was timid; he had +her fingers first, then her whole arm, and she leaned over him. 'Julia, +my sweet, dear girl,' he said; and she: + +'Heriot, Walter, don't go--don't go; you do not care for me if you go. +Oh, don't go.' + +'We've come to it,' said Heriot. + +She asked why he was not in bed, and moaned on: + +'Don't go.' I was speechless with wonder at the night and the scene. +They whispered; I saw their faces close together, and Heriot's arms round +her neck. 'Oh, Heriot, my darling, my Walter,' she said, crying, I knew +by the sound of her voice. + +'Tell me you love me,' said Heriot. + +'I do, I do, only don't go,' she answered. + +'Will you love me faithfully?' + +'I will; I do.' + +'Say, "I love you, Walter."' + +'I love you, Walter.' + +'For ever.' + +'For ever. Oh! what a morning for me. Do you smell my honeysuckle? +Oh, don't go away from me, Walter. Do you love me so?' + +'I'd go through a regiment of sabres to get at you.' + +'But smell the night air; how sweet! oh, how sweet! No, not kiss me, +if you are going to leave me; not kiss me, if you can be so cruel!' + +'Do you dream of me in your bed?' + +'Yes, every night.' + +'God bless the bed!' + +'Every night I dream of you. Oh! brave Heriot; dear, dear Walter, you +did not betray me; my father struck you, and you let him for my sake. +Every night I pray heaven to make you forgive him: I thought you would +hate me. I cried till I was glad you could not see me. Look at those +two little stars; no, they hurt me, I can't look at them ever again. But +no, you are not going; you want to frighten me. Do smell the flowers. +Don't make them poison to me. Oh, what a morning for me when you're +lost! And me, to look out on the night alone! No, no more kisses! Oh, +yes, I will kiss you, dear.' + +Heriot said, 'Your mother was Irish, Julia.' + +'Yes. She would have loved you.' + +'I 've Irish blood too. Give me her portrait. It 's the image of you.' + +'To take away? Walter! not to take it away?' + +'You darling! to keep me sure of you.' + +'Part with my mother's portrait?' + +'Why, yes, if you love me one bit.' + +'But you are younger than me, Heriot.' + +'Then good-night, good-bye, Julia.' + +'Walter, I will fetch it.' + +Heriot now told her I was below, and she looked down on me and called my +name softly, sending kisses from her fingers while he gave the cause for +our late return. + +'Some one must be sitting up for you--are we safe?' she said. + +Heriot laughed, and pressed for the portrait. + +'It is all I have. Why should you not have it? I want to be +remembered.' + +She sobbed as she said this and disappeared. Heriot still talked into +her room. I thought I heard a noise of the garden-door opening. A man +came out rushing at the ladder. I called in terror: 'Mr. Boddy, stop, +sir.' He pushed me savagely aside, pitching his whole force against the +ladder. Heriot pulled down Julia's window; he fell with a heavy thump on +the ground, and I heard a shriek above. He tried to spring to his feet, +but dropped, supported himself on one of his hands, and cried: + +'All right; no harm done; how do you do, Mr. Boddy? I thought I'd try +one of the attics, as we were late, not to disturb the house. I 'm not +hurt, I tell you,' he cried as loud as he could. + +The usher's words were in a confusion of rage and inquiries. He +commanded Heriot to stand on his legs, abused him, asked him what he +meant by it, accused him of depravity, of crime, of disgraceful conduct, +and attempted to pluck him from the spot. + +'Hands off me,' said Heriot; 'I can help myself. The youngster 'll help +me, and we'll go round to the front door. I hope, sir, you will behave +like a gentleman; make no row here, Mr. Boddy, if you've any respect for +people inside. We were upset by Mr. Salter's carriage; it's damaged my +leg, I believe. Have the goodness, sir, to go in by your road, and we'll +go round and knock at the front door in the proper way. We shall have to +disturb the house after all.' + +Heriot insisted. I was astonished to see Boddy obey him and leave us, +after my dear Heriot had hopped with his hand on my shoulder to the +corner of the house fronting the road. While we were standing alone a +light cart drove by. Heriot hailed it, and hopped up to the driver. + +'Take me to London, there's a good fellow,' he said; 'I'm a gentleman; +you needn't look fixed. I'll pay you well and thank you. But quick. +Haul me up, up; here's my hand. By jingo! this is pain.' + +The man said, 'Scamped it out of school, sir?' + +Heriot replied: 'Mum. Rely on me when I tell you I'm a gentleman.' + +'Well, if I pick up a gentleman, I can't be doing a bad business,' said +the man, hauling him in tenderly. + +Heriot sung to me in his sweet manner, 'Good-bye, little Richie. Knock +when five minutes are over. God bless you, dear little lad! Leg 'll get +well by morning, never fear for me; and we'll meet somehow; we'll drink +the Burgundy. No crying. Kiss your hand to me.' + +I kissed my hand to him. I had no tears to shed; my chest kept heaving +enormously. My friend was gone. I stood in the road straining to hear +the last of the wheels after they had long been silent. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A TALE OF A GOOSE + +From that hour till the day Heriot's aunt came to see me, I lived +systematically out of myself in extreme flights of imagination, locking +my doors up, as it were, all the faster for the extremest strokes of Mr. +Rippenger's rod. He remarked justly that I grew an impenetrably sullen +boy, a constitutional rebel, a callous lump: and assured me that if my +father would not pay for me, I at least should not escape my debts. +The title of little impostor, transmitted from the master's mouth to +the school in designation of one who had come to him as a young prince, +and for whom he had not received one penny's indemnification, naturally +caused me to have fights with several of the boys. Whereupon I was +reported: I was prayed at to move my spirit, and flogged to exercise my +flesh. The prayers I soon learnt to laugh to scorn. The floggings, +after they were over, crowned me with delicious sensations of martyrdom. +Even while the sting lasted I could say, it's for Heriot and Julia! and +it gave me a wonderful penetration into--the mournful ecstasy of love. +Julia was sent away to a relative by the sea-side, because, one of the +housemaids told me, she could not bear to hear of my being beaten. Mr. +Rippenger summoned me to his private room to bid me inform him whether I +had other relatives besides my father, such as grandfather, grandmother, +uncles, or aunts, or a mother. I dare say Julia would have led me to +break my word to my father by speaking of old Riversley, a place I half +longed for since my father had grown so distant and dim to me; but +confession to Mr. Rippenger seemed, as he said of Heriot's behaviour to +him, a gross breach of trust to my father; so I refused steadily to +answer, and suffered the consequences now on my dear father's behalf. +Heriot's aunt brought me a cake, and in a letter from him an +extraordinary sum of money for a boy of my age. He wrote that he knew +I should want it to pay my debts for treats to the boys and keep them in +good humour. He believed also that his people meant to have me for the +Christmas holidays. The sum he sent me was five pounds, carefully +enclosed. I felt myself a prince again. The money was like a golden +gate through which freedom twinkled a finger. Forthwith I paid my debts, +amounting to two pounds twelve shillings, and instructed a couple of day- +boarders, commercial fellows, whose heavy and mysterious charges for +commissions ran up a bill in no time, to prepare to bring us materials +for a feast on Saturday. Temple abominated the trading propensities of +these boys. 'They never get licked and they've always got money, at +least I know they always get mine,' said he; 'but you and I and Heriot +despise them.' Our position toward them was that of an encumbered +aristocracy, and really they paid us great respect. The fact was that, +when they had trusted us, they were compelled to continue obsequious, for +Heriot had instilled the sentiment in the school, that gentlemen never +failed to wipe out debts in the long run, so it was their interest to +make us feel they knew us to be gentlemen, who were at some time or other +sure to pay, and thus also they operated on our consciences. From which +it followed that one title of superiority among us, ranking next in the +order of nobility to the dignity conferred by Mr. Rippenger's rod, was +the being down in their books. Temple and I walked in the halo of +unlimited credit like more than mortal twins. I gave an order for four +bottles of champagne. + +On the Friday evening Catman walked out with us. His studious habits +endeared him to us immensely, owing to his having his head in his book on +all occasions, and a walk under his superintendence was first cousin to +liberty. Some boys roamed ahead, some lagged behind, while Catman turned +over his pages, sounding the return only when it grew dark. The rumour +of the champagne had already intoxicated the boys. There was a companion +and most auspicious rumour that Boddy was going to be absent on Saturday. +If so, we said, we may drink our champagne under Catman's nose and he be +none the wiser. Saddlebank undertook to manage our feast for us. Coming +home over the downs, just upon twilight, Temple and I saw Saddlebank +carrying a long withy upright. We asked him what it was for. He shouted +back: 'It's for fortune. You keep the rear guard.' Then we saw him +following a man and a flock of geese, and imitating the action of the man +with his green wand. As we were ready to laugh at anything Saddlebank +did, we laughed at this. The man walked like one half asleep, and +appeared to wake up now and then to find that he was right in the middle +of his geese, and then he waited, and Saddlebank waited behind him. +Presently the geese passed a lane leading off the downs. We saw +Saddlebank duck his wand in a coaxing way, like an angler dropping his +fly for fish; he made all sorts of curious easy flourishes against the +sky and branched up the lane. We struck after him, little suspecting +that he had a goose in front, but he had; he had cut one of the loiterers +off from the flock; and to see him handle his wand on either side his +goose, encouraging it to go forward, and remonstrating, and addressing it +in bits of Latin, and the creature pattering stiff and astonished, sent +us in a dance of laughter. + +'What have you done, old Saddle?' said Temple, though it was perfectly +clear what Saddlebank had done. + +'I've carved off a slice of Michaelmas,' said Saddlebank, and he hewed +the air to flick delicately at his goose's head. + +'What do you mean--a slice?' said we. + +We wanted to be certain the goose was captured booty. Saddlebank would +talk nothing but his fun. Temple fetched a roaring sigh: + +'Oh! how good this goose 'd be with our champagne.' + +The idea seized and enraptured me. 'Saddlebank, I 'll buy him off you,' +I said. + +'Chink won't flavour him,' said Saddlebank, still at his business: 'here, +you two, cut back by the down and try all your might to get a dozen +apples before Catman counts heads at the door, and you hold your +tongues.' + +We shot past the man with the geese--I pitied him--clipped a corner of +the down, and by dint of hard running reached the main street, mad for +apples, before Catman appeared there. Apples, champagne, and cakes were +now provided; all that was left to think of was the goose. We glorified +Saddlebank's cleverness to the boys. + +'By jingo! what a treat you'll have,' Temple said among them, bursting +with our secret. + +Saddlebank pleaded that he had missed his way on presenting himself ten +minutes after time. To me and Temple he breathed of goose, but he +shunned us; he had no fun in him till Saturday afternoon, when Catman +called out to hear if we were for cricket or a walk. + +'A walk on the downs,' said Saddlebank. + +Temple and I echoed him, and Saddlebank motioned his hand as though he +were wheedling his goose along. Saddlebank spoke a word to my +commissioners. I was to leave the arrangements for the feast to him, he +said. John Salter was at home unwell, so Saddlebank was chief. No +sooner did we stand on the downs than he gathered us all in a circle, and +taking off his cap threw in it some slips of paper. We had to draw lots +who should keep by Catman out of twenty-seven; fifteen blanks were +marked. Temple dashed his hand into the cap first 'Like my luck,' he +remarked, and pocketed both fists as he began strutting away to hide his +desperation at drawing a blank. I bought a substitute for him at the +price of half-a-crown,--Drew, a fellow we were glad to get rid of; he +wanted five shillings. The feast was worth fifty, but to haggle about +prices showed the sneak. He begged us to put by a taste for him; he was +groaned out of hearing. The fifteen looked so wretched when they saw +themselves divided from us that I gave them a shilling a-piece to console +them. They took their instructions from Saddlebank as to how they were +to surround Catman, and make him fancy us to be all in his neighbourhood; +and then we shook hands, they requesting us feebly to drink their +healths, and we saying, ay, that we would. + +Temple was in distress of spirits because of his having been +ignominiously bought off. Saddlebank, however, put on such a pace that +no one had leisure for melancholy. 'I'll get you fellows up to boiling +point,' said he. There was a tremendously hot sun overhead. On a sudden +he halted, exclaiming: 'Cooks and gridirons! what about sage and +onions?' Only Temple and I jumped at the meaning of this. We drew lots +for a messenger, and it was miserable to behold an unfortunate fellow +touch Saddlebank's hand containing the notched bit of stick, and find +himself condemned to go and buy sage and onions somewhere, without +knowing what it was for how could he guess we were going to cook a raw +goose! The lot fell to a boy named Barnshed, a big slow boy, half way up +every class he was in, but utterly stupid out of school; which made +Saddlebank say: 'They'll take it he's the bird that wants stuffing.' +Barnshed was directed where to rejoin us. The others asked why he was +trotted after sage and onions. 'Because he's an awful goose,' said +Saddlebank. + +Temple and I thought the word was out and hurrahed, and back came +Barnshed. We had a task in persuading him to resume his expedition, as +well as Saddlebank to forgive us. Saddlebank's anger was excessive. We +conciliated him by calling him captain, and pretending to swear an oath +of allegiance. He now led us through a wood on to some fields down to a +shady dell, where we were to hold the feast in privacy. He did not +descend it himself. Vexatious as it was to see a tramp's tent there, we +nevertheless acknowledged the respectful greeting of the women and the +man with a few questions about tentpegs, pots, and tin mugs. Saddlebank +remained aloft, keeping a look-out for the day-school fellows, Chaunter, +Davis, and Bystop, my commissioners. They did not keep us waiting long. +They had driven to the spot in a cart, according to Saddlebank's +directions. Our provisions were in three large hampers. We praised +their forethought loudly at the sight of an extra bottle of champagne, +with two bottles of ginger-wine, two of currant, two of raisin, four pint +bottles of ale, six of ginger-beer, a Dutch cheese, a heap of tarts, +three sally-lunns, and four shillingsworth of toffy. Temple and I joined +our apples to the mass: a sight at which some of the boys exulted aloud. +The tramp-women insisted on spreading things out for us: ten yards off +their children squatted staring: the man smoked and chaffed us. + +At last Saddlebank came running over the hill-side, making as if he meant +to bowl down what looked a black body of a baby against the sky, and +shouting, 'See, you fellows, here's a find!' He ran through us, swinging +his goose up to the hampers, saying that he had found the goose under a +furze-bush. While the words were coming out of his mouth, he saw the +tramps, and the male tramp's eyes and his met. + +The man had one eyebrow and his lips at one corner screwed in a queer +lift: he winked slowly. 'Odd! ain't it?' he said. + +Saddlebank shouldered round on us, and cried, 'Confound you fellows! +here's a beastly place you've pitched upon.' His face was the colour of +scarlet in patches. + +'Now, I call it a beautiful place,' said the man, 'and if you finds +gooses hereabouts growing ready for the fire, all but plucking, why, it's +a bountiful place, I call it.' + +The women tried to keep him silent. But for them we should have moved +our encampment. 'Why, of course, young gentlemen, if you want to eat the +goose, we'll pluck it for you and cook it for you, all nice,' they said. +'How can young gentlemen do that for theirselves?' + +It was clear to us we must have a fire for the goose. Certain +observations current among us about the necessity to remove the goose's +inside, and not to lose the giblets, which even the boy who named them +confessed his inability to recognize, inclined the majority to accept the +woman's proposal. Saddlebank said it was on our heads, then. + +To revive his good humour, Temple uncorked a bottle of champagne. The +tramp-woman lent us a tin mug, and round it went. One boy said, 'That's +a commencement'; another said, 'Hang old Rippenger.' Temple snapped his +fingers, and Bystop, a farmer's son, said, 'Well, now I've drunk +champagne; I meant to before I died!' Most of the boys seemed puzzled by +it. As for me, my heart sprang up in me like a colt turned out of +stables to graze. I determined that the humblest of my retainers should +feed from my table, and drink to my father's and Heriot's honour, and I +poured out champagne for the women, who just sipped, and the man, who +vowed he preferred beer. A spoonful of the mashed tarts I sent to each +of the children. Only one, the eldest, a girl about a year older than +me, or younger, with black eyebrows and rough black hair, refused to eat +or drink. + +'Let her bide, young gentlemen,' said a woman; 'she's a regular +obstinate, once she sets in for it.' + +'Ah!' said the man, 'I've seen pigs druv, and I've seen iron bent double. +She's harder 'n both, once she takes 't into her head.' + +'By jingo, she's pig-iron!' cried Temple, and sighed, 'Oh, dear old +Heriot!' + +I flung myself beside him to talk of our lost friend. + +A great commotion stirred the boys. They shrieked at beholding their +goose vanish in a pot for stewing. They wanted roast-goose, they +exclaimed, not boiled; who cared for boiled goose! But the woman asked +them how it was possible to roast a goose on the top of wood-flames, +where there was nothing to hang it by, and nothing would come of it +except smoked bones! + +The boys groaned in consternation, and Saddlebank sowed discontent by +grumbling, 'Now you see what your jolly new acquaintances have done for +you.' + +So we played at catch with the Dutch cheese, and afterwards bowled it for +long-stopping, when, to the disgust of Saddlebank and others, down ran +the black-haired girl and caught the ball clean at wicket-distance. As +soon as she had done it she was ashamed, and slunk away. + +The boys called out, 'Now, then, pig-iron !' + +One fellow enraged me by throwing an apple that hit her in the back. +We exchanged half-a-dozen blows, whereupon he consented to apologize, and +roared, 'Hulloa, pig-iron, sorry if I hurt you.' + +Temple urged me to insist on the rascal's going on his knees for flinging +at a girl. + +'Why,' said Chaunter, 'you were the first to call her pig-iron.' + +Temple declared he was a blackguard if he said that. I made the girl +take a piece of toffy. + +'Aha!' Saddlebank grumbled, 'this comes of the precious company you would +keep in spite of my caution.' + +The man told us to go it, for he liked to observe young gentlemen +enjoying themselves. Temple tossed him a pint bottle of beer, with an +injunction to him to shut his trap. + +'Now, you talk my mother tongue,' said the man; 'you're what goes by the +name of a learned gentleman. Thank ye, sir. You'll be a counsellor some +day.' + +'I won't get off thieves, I can tell you,' said Temple. He was the son +of a barrister. + +'Nor you won't help cook their gooses for them, may be,' said the man. +'Well, kindness is kindness, all over the world.' + +The women stormed at him to command him not to anger the young gentlemen, +for Saddlebank was swearing awfully in an undertone. He answered them +that he was the mildest lamb afloat. + +Despairing of the goose, we resolved to finish the cold repast awaiting +us. The Dutch cheese had been bowled into bits. With a portion of the +mashed tarts on it, and champagne, it tasted excellently; toffy to +follow. Those boys who chose ginger-wine had it, and drank, despised. +The ginger-beer and ale, apples and sallylunns, were reserved for supper. +My mind became like a driving sky, with glimpses of my father and Heriot +bursting through. + +'If I'm not a prince, I'm a nobleman,' I said to Temple. + +He replied, 'Army or Navy. I don't much care which. We're sure of a +foreign war some time. Then you'll see fellows rise: lieutenant, +captain, colonel, General--quick as barrels popping at a bird. I should +like to be Governor of Gibraltar.' + +'I'll come and see you, Temple,' said I. + +'Done! old Richie,' he said, grasping my hand warmly. + +'The truth is, Temple,' I confided to him, 'I've an uncle-I mean a +grandfather-of enormous property; he owns half Hampshire, I believe, and +hates my father like poison. I won't stand it. You've seen my father, +haven't you? Gentlemen never forget their servants, Temple. Let's drink +lots more champagne. I wish you and I were knights riding across that +country there, as they used to, and you saying, "I wonder whether your +father's at home in the castle expecting our arrival."' + +'The Baron!' said Temple. 'He's like a Baron, too. His health. Your +health, sir! It's just the wine to drink it in, Richie. He's one of the +men I look up to. It 's odd he never comes to see you, because he's fond +of you; the right sort of father! Big men can't be always looking after +little boys. Not that we're so young, though, now. Lots of fellows of +our age have done things fellows write about. I feel--' Temple sat up +swelling his chest to deliver an important sentiment; 'I feel uncommonly +thirsty.' + +So did I. We attributed it to the air of the place, Temple going so far +as to say that it came off the chalk, which somehow stuck in the throat. + +'Saddleback, don't look glum,' said Temple. 'Lord, Richie, you should +hear my father plead in Court with his wig on. They used to say at home +I was a clever boy when I was a baby. Saddleback, you've looked glum all +the afternoon.' + +'Treat your superiors respectfully,' Saddlebank retorted. + +The tramp was irritating him. That tramp had never left off smoking and +leaning on his arm since we first saw him. Two boys named Hackman and +Montague, not bad fellows, grew desirous of a whiff from his pipe. They +had it, and lay down silent, back to back. Bystop was led away in a +wretched plight. Two others, Paynter and Ashworth, attacked the apples, +rendered desperate by thirst. Saddlebank repelled them furiously. He +harangued those who might care to listen. + + +'You fellows, by George! you shall eat the goose, I tell you. You've +spoilt everything, and I tell you, whether you like it or not, you shall +have apples with it, and sage and onions too. I don't ask for thanks. +And I propose to post outposts in the wood to keep watch.' + +He wanted us to draw lots again. His fun had entirely departed from him; +all he thought of was seeing the goose out of the pot. I had a feeling +next to hatred for one who could talk of goose. Temple must have shared +it. + +'We 've no real captain now dear old Heriot 's gone,' he said. 'The +school's topsy-turvy: we're like a lot of things rattled in a box. Oh, +dear! how I do like a good commander. On he goes, you after him, never +mind what happens.' + +A pair of inseparable friends, Happitt and Larkins, nicknamed Happy-go- +Lucky, were rolling arm-in-arm, declaring they were perfectly sober, and, +for a proof of it, trying to direct their feet upon a lump of chalk, and +marching, and missing it. Up came Chaunter to them: 'Fat goose?' he +said-no more. Both the boys rushed straight as far as they could go; +both sung out, 'I'm done!' and they were. + +Temple and I contemplated these proceedings as matters belonging to the +ordinary phenomena of feasting. We agreed that gentlemen were always the +last to drop, and were assured, therefore, of our living out the field; +but I dreaded the moment of the goose's appearance, and I think he did +also. Saddlebank's pertinacity in withholding the cool ginger-beer and +the apples offended us deeply; we should have conspired against him had +we reposed confidence in our legs and our tongues. + +Twilight was around us. The tramp-children lay in little bundles in one +tent; another was being built by the women and the girl. Overhead I +counted numbers of stars, all small; and lights in the valley-lights of +palaces to my imagination. Stars and tramps seemed to me to go together. +Houses imprisoned us, I thought a lost father was never to be discovered +by remaining in them. Plunged among dark green leaves, smelling wood- +smoke, at night; at morning waking up, and the world alight, and you +standing high, and marking the hills where you will see the next morning +and the next, morning after morning, and one morning the dearest person +in the world surprising you just before you wake: I thought this a +heavenly pleasure. But, observing the narrowness of the tents, it struck +me there would be snoring companions. I felt so intensely sensitive, +that the very idea of a snore gave me tremours and qualms: it was +associated with the sense of fat. Saddlebank had the lid of the pot in +his hand; we smelt the goose, and he cried, 'Now for supper; now for it! +Halloa, you fellows!' + +'Bother it, Saddlebank, you'll make Catman hear you,' said Temple, wiping +his forehead. + +I perspired coldly. + +'Catman! He's been at it for the last hour and a half,' Saddlebank +replied. + +One boy ran up: he was ready, and the only one who was. Presently +Chaunter rushed by. + +'Barnshed 's in custody; I'm away home,' he said, passing. + +We stared at the black opening of the dell. + +'Oh, it's Catman; we don't mind him,' Saddlebank reassured us; but we +heard ominous voices, and perceived people standing over a prostrate +figure. Then we heard a voice too well known to us. It said, 'The +explanation of a pupil in your charge, Mr. Catman, being sent barefaced +into the town--a scholar of mine-for sage and onions . . .' + +'Old Rippenger!' breathed Temple. + +We sat paralyzed. Now we understood the folly of despatching a donkey +like Barnshed for sage and onions. + +'Oh, what asses we have been!' Temple continued. 'Come along-we run for +it! Come along, Richie! They 're picking up the fellows like +windfalls.' + +I told him I would not run for it; in fact, I distrusted my legs; and he +was staggering, answering Saddlebank's reproaches for having come among +tramps. + +'Temple, I see you, sir!' called Mr. Rippenger. Poor Temple had advanced +into the firelight. + +With the instinct to defeat the master, I crawled in the line of the +shadows to the farther side of a tent, where I felt a hand clutch mine. +'Hide me,' said I; and the curtain of the tent was raised. After +squeezing through boxes and straw, I lay flat, covered by a mat smelling +of abominable cheese, and felt a head outside it on my chest. Several +times Mr. Rippenger pronounced my name in the way habitual to him in +anger: 'Rye!' + +Temple's answer was inaudible to me. Saddlebank spoke, and other boys, +and the man and the woman. Then a light was thrust in the tent, and the +man said, 'Me deceive you, sir! See for yourself, to satisfy yourself. +Here's our little uns laid warm, and a girl there, head on the mat, going +down to join her tribe at Lipcombe, and one of our women sleeps here, and +all told. But for you to suspect me of combining--Thank ye, sir. +You've got my word as a man.' + +The light went away. My chest was relieved of the weight on it. I sat +up, and the creature who had been kind to me laid mat and straw on the +ground, and drew my head on her shoulder, where I slept fast. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A stew's a stew, and not a boiling to shreds +I can't think brisk out of my breeches +Kindness is kindness, all over the world +Learn all about them afterwards, ay, and make the best of them +To hope, and not be impatient, is really to believe +Unseemly hour--unbetimes + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Adventures of Harry Richmond, v1 +by George Meredith + diff --git a/4444.zip b/4444.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5f5f50 --- /dev/null +++ b/4444.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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