Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 32, Number 119, 19 May 1907 — Page 6

By Owen Oliver

Copyright, 1907, by Thomas . McKet. $2 S OME people try to make out that anyone can be a gentleman if he benaves decently. I hope I was that kind of gentleman before I had Aunt Annie's money; but you can't be the real eort unless you are born toi it- My father had kept a stationer's shop, and I was clerk in a merchant's office before the legacy came. So I knew that it didn't make me one. I don't suppose I should have tried to be one if it hadn't been for my mother. She always fancied that I was good enough for anything, . and she thought more than ever of me after father died. "You must go into society, Tom," she said when the money was paid over, "and take your proper position. You may feel a little strange at first, but you will soon get used to it; and some day you'll marry a lady, and mix with the highest in the land, as you ought to do." "I'd rather be as I am, mother," I told her. "I don't want to mix with people who'll look down on me. She drew herself up, like a great lady she had rather that way. "Nobody could look down upon my son" she declared. She always said "My Son" as if it were written In capitals! I knew I should never persuade her to think differently, and she took things to heart after we had lost the old governor. So I had to humor her; and I said I'd go into society If she could get me there. I thought It was safe to promise that, because she couldn't do it; but she took me quite seriously and wrote to the lawyer people at once. Their names were Oldham and Trust. They were two fine old gentlemen, and had done business for the nobility for hundreds of years the firm I mean. So they knew everybody in society. They wrote back that they only represented the financial Interests of their clients, and could not presume to interfere with their social arrangements. I thought that disposed of the idea; but my mother's ideas aren't easily disposed of! She went up to town the next day and called upon them; and after they had talked to her they said, if I came up to their office they would see what they could do. I suppose they thought I might be something like her. They asked me a lot of questions about my educar tion, and how I would act in different circumstances. They stared at me all the time over their spectacles, and at last Mr. Oldham nodded at Mr. Trust, and Mr. Trust turned around and patted me on the shoulder. "You'll do," he said. So it was settled that I was to go into society. I asked mother to come up to town and go into society with me, but she said she was too old to change, and I thought there was no need for her to. So I took a bachelor fiat; and the lawyers Introduced me to people, and got me asked to garden parties and at-homes and concerts and dances. I felt horribly uncomfortable, but I don't think I showed it very much. I am not that sort. I knew how to dress and speak and dance, and I didn't make any hideous mistakes; but I made a lot of little ones. People were very civil to me, especially mothers with plain daughters (the legacy was - 600,000) ; but I saw when they were laughing in their sleeves. I shouldn't have minded their laughing at my blunders if they had told .me what I ought to do, but they only glanced at one another for about a quarter of a second, and never helped me a bit except Charlie Brenton. He was a lord and the only son of the Earl of Parbury, and a real born gentleman every inch of him; tall, and slim, and aristocratic looking, and the same age as I was (that was twenty-five). He seemed too careless to take any trouble aboui anything in socley, but he was energetic enough when he played cricket and football and polo. I was good at sports, and that made us friendly. He gave- me a lot of hints In a casual sort of way, as if he wasn't saying anything. He always treated me as If I was a gentleman, and introduced me to his sister as "My friend Morrison." Her name was Mary Lady Mary Brentcn. He called her Molly. She wa3 tall and slight and stately, and very beautiful. She treated me like a gentleman, too. That was when I first wished that I really was. The second time t met her I had Just made an ass cf myself called people by their wrong titles, and all that sort of thing. The ladies and gentlemen EXT

looked at one another, and there was one of these pauses that I dreaded; and then Lady Mary stepped up to me and held out her hand. "Oh, Mr. Morrison!" she said, "I'm so relieved to see you. I can't find Charlie anywhere. Would it be too much trouble to you to take me to him?" I knew that she only did it to help me to cover my retreat; and she didn't seem the sort to laugh at me. So I asked her right out what I . had done wrong. She explained it all to me; and after that I often asked her about things. When she left town I wanted to go home for a few months, but my mother had made up her mind that I was to go and stay with some big people for Christmas, and she was going to arrange it with the lawyers. I didn't like the idea at all, and I got in such, a stew that I spoke to Charlie Brenton about it, after a football match, and told him just how I felt. At least I was going to, but he stopped me before I was half way through. "I'm getting up a lot of footer at our place this Christmas," he said; "taking the village team in hand you know. I'd been wondering if I dared ask such a swell player as you to come down and lend me a hand. You'd be doing me a favor, if it wouldn't bore you." He wouldn't have put it like that if he hadn't been a real gentleman. "I should like to come very much," I said, "because your people don't make me feel like like an outsider, j'ou know; but you see, that's just why I don't want to make myself a nuisance to them." "Nonsense," he said. "My people like you. You see, we're rather a sporting family, and we know a man when we meet one. So if you're sure we sha'nt bore j'ou " "Don't put It like that," I begged. "There's a good fellow. I I want to come." So I went

I was very comfortable at the castle, and it was so home-like that I almost forgot who they were. The Countess frightened me at first, because she was such a great lady that she couldn't help being grand. But she was very kind in her grand way. The Earl was a jovial old chap, and a rare sportsman, and played good billiards and bridge, and took long walks with us, and never put on any side about anything. Lady Mary was always doing things to put me at my ease without seeming to do them on purpose, though I knew she did. She taught me to play chess, and we played and sang together (my mother was a good musician, and I had picked up a little from her). I taught her figure skating when it froze. I admired her tremendously, but I was a little afraid of rfer, because she seemed so very much a lady. I can't describe just how she was different from an ordinary pretty girl; but she was. I always felt as If I was in church when I talked to her a big white church with stained glass windows. Lady Evelyn didn't give me that sort of feelin? at all, and I was friends with her directly. She was sixteen, and wore her hair in a plait, and was always up to something. She ran and threw snowballs, and had a kick at the football when Charlie and I were practising, and did things just like a bojr, and didn't care what she said. They called her "Pigtail," and I did, too. She called me Tommy and sometimes "Croesus." If I did anything that wasn't correct, she told me without any fuss; and I used to take her down to the villasre and buy her things. She said a gentleman might do that quite properly, because she was "only a kid, thank goodness!" She was the kind of girl I

Week, 66 Little LMda

should have liked for a sister. When I told her so she said she'd adopt me for a brother. I showed her my mother's photo, and Evelyn sent her a Christmas card. I think she did it to show me that she did not look down upon my people. She was very loyal to her friends, and not nearly as thoughtless as she seemed. . "You know, Tommy," she said when we were out for a walk one afternoon, "we're frightfully poor, but Molly and I ought to put it right, because we're jolly good-looking. I consider I'm better looking than she is though." "You silly little Pigtail!" I said. "Oh, well!" she said, "I am! But if I were a man and rich I'd rather marry Molly. She'll be very dutiful and try to like him. I shan't." "Like whom?" I asked. The man I have to marry, of course. I shall look out for somebody frightfully old; and when he dies I shall marry somebody I like. Wouldn't you?" "You mean that you and 'your sister will have to marry for money!" I said. "That's it. Beastly; isn't it?" She whistled and looked' serious for a few moments. Then she shrugged her shoulders. "I'll race you to the gate," she offered, "if you'll give me a start to the tree." We raced to the gate, which she reached first and vaulted! "You didn't try a bit," she reproached me. "Out of sorts, Tommy?" "Who is your sister going to marry?" I asked abruptly. "I don't know." She looked at me curiously. "Do you?" I suppose I turned red, or did something foolish. I cannot command my features like people who are used to society. Anyhow, she stared hard at me, and bit her lip, and tossed, her plait over her shoulder. "I've put my foot In it," she enquired; "havenrt I, Tommy?"

SHE SANG "SOLWEIG'S SONG" AND IT SEEMED TO HURT ME.

"Yes," I agreed; "you have. We're friends, aren't we, Pigtail?" "Yes," she said sturdily. "Then will you answer some questions, like a real, honest friend, Pigtail?" She looked at me for a moment, and I knew it was the real Pigtail, not the tomboy, who promised. "Yes," she said. "Honor bright." "Then did your brother ask me down here because jour sister " She caught hold of my arm. "No," she cried. "No! He never thought a word about it. Neither did father. Mother did!" "And your sister?" She shook her head. "I don't know what Molly thought She's funny. But she got in a towering rage when I called jrou a 'bounder. I've had that on my conscience rather, but I didn't know you, so it doesn't matter; does it?" "Not a bit," I said. "You're all right, Pigtail. Wouldn't j-our mother speak to her about it?" "Noo. We don't talk about these things; but it's understood! We've got to do it You've got to do it, too. j'ou know; marry to get into society, I mean. Why don't you marry. Molly? I expect you'd like her." "I expect so." I agreed, Tut I don't think I should care to mam anyone who didn't want me to." "I daresay she'd as soon marrj' 5ou as any of the others," Evelyn assured me; "and she's jolly nice, and she'd try to like j'ou, and she wouldn't give you away if she didn't. I'd stick up for you like anything." "I should like you for a sister-in-law, Evelyn," I said; "but that's hardly the main question. So we won't think any more about It."

By Pomona.

I kept thinking about it all the same. I couldn't make out if Lady Mary did or didn't. She seemed as if she liked my company, and I certainly liked hers; in fact, I wanted to marry her, and I wanted to very badly. I thought perhaps she'd rather marry me than some of the rich bounders in society, and I knew I'd be kinder to her and make her happier. I thought, too, that if I was honest with her, and didn't expect her to pretend that she liked me before she did, she might begin to like me a little. I knew, of course, that I could never be half good enough for her; but I didn't see that anyone else could be either. So I made up my mind to propose to her. I asked her one evening when we were playing chess. r "I want j'ou to answer some questions very frankly, Lady Mary," I said. "Will you?" She took up a bishop and looked about, for a long while, and then she put it down on the wrong color. "Ye-es," she said. "If you wish It." "I have not been brought up in this position," I began, "and I know that I make a lot of blunders, but I don't know if they grate on j-ou so much that that my society distresses jou, if I make you feel all the time that I am a rank outsider? You promised, to be quite frank. Lady Mary, and it will be the greatest kindness that j'ou can render me. Do I?" She moved the bishop to the square where it ought to have gone. No, Mr. Morrison," she said, "your blunders are never of that description. If it is not impertinent to say so, you have all the instincts of a gentleman. I think nothing of j-our blunders." She looked right up at me for a second, and then looked down again. "Apart from my blunders," I said, "is there anything about me that I mean, if I were of j'our own position, would my company, be unacceptable tc you?"

Tour company is quite aereptaDle to me," She said steadily. "Yes, quite, Mr. Morrison. Please do not distress yourself or me by thinking otherwise. I have much respect for you." "My respect for you is beyond words, Lady Mary," I said. "I feel that I am far below jou in every way, but perhaps I am not further below j'ou than some rich men who aspire to marry ladies of your position, and Will jou marry me, Lady Mary?" She moved her elbow quickly on the table and knocked over, several of the pieces. "You wish to marry me," she asked, "on account of my position?" No," I said. "Not for that I am very deeply in love with you. Lady Mary. I am afraid you will regard that as as inconvenient; but I give you my word as a as a man not to obtrude my affection upon j'ou, or to ask you to force yourself to show affection for me. I cannot- help hoping that it will come. I do not ask jou to try to make It come, only not to try to keep it away. If you would give me a fair chance of gaining it; will you, Lady Mary?" She picked up the fallen pieces slowly. "Yes," she said very faintly. I took her hand and put my lips to it; but she gave a sudden cry, and I dropped It quickly. "I beg your pardon," I said. She did not say anything for a long time. Then she laughed a funny awkward little laugh. "I suppose you have a right to to kiss my hand," she said, "if if you think that' kissing my hand Is the proper way to celebrate our our engagement" "No," I said. "I have no right to do anything that

distresses jou. Lady Mary.She was silent for some time again, and then she laughed the same curious, shy laugh. "We must not let our engagement disturb our friendship, anyhow," she said. "Shall we go and sing?" So we went and sang. I had never heard her sing like it; and when she sang "Solveig's Song." it seemed to hurt me. She had the daintiest voice, and it seemed just the dainty way she would sing her love, if she loved anybody. I saw the tears in her ej-es. I thought perhaps there was somebody else in her own position; but, when I asked her, she said "No, no, no!" quickly; and Ladj' Parburj- came In, and she ran away. I told Ladj' Parburj-, and she said she was glad. I suppose she was. in a way; and anyhow I could see she meant to play the game with me, and be friendlj', and not just tolerate me, like some people In her position would. The others seemed really pleased, especially Lady Evelyn. She rushed In when I was talking to her sister, and whirled me round till we came under the mistletoe, and then she looked up and laughed; and I kissed her. Lady Mary trembled when I did it. and when Evelyn ran out she turned very red, but I pretended not to notice. 4 There was an uncomfortable pause whenever they left us together the next day, and at last I spoke out to reassure her. "I quite understand your feelings, Lady Mary, I said. "Believe me, I will respect them." "You don't quite understand them," she said In a whisper, "because if I tried I think I ought to trj' and and " ' "No," I said firmly. "I do not wish you to persuade j'ourself that you care for me. I shall never

be satisnea wun a maKe-Deneve, nowever Kina. no not 'try dear Lady Mary. Let it come if It will. God grant it may." "But I think I should like to try," she said. "I ought to, because " She looked at me, and I felt on Are for a moment, for I saw that she felt it her duty to let me act as her lover, if I chose; but I steadied myself and onljr, touched her arm. "When you love. Lady Mary," I said, "there Is no Question of 'trying' and you are loyally doing all that j'ou 'ought' to in giving me your company. Wlll you come for a walk yith me, if you do not mind? "I do not mind," she said. "I shall like to. I -have something to tell j'ou." She laughed the shy, awkward laugh again as she ran away. It must be awkward for her, I knew, and I felt sorry for her. ' ,She was upstairs putting on her hat when the postman came. I had just read the letter and had walked Into the drawing-room, where they all were, when she came down. She looked pink and smiling, and I felt I couldn't say what I had to say till I turned away from her. As it was I couldn't begin for a few moments. "The lady waits. Sir Lazybones!" said PlgtalL "You do look nice, Molly. Now doesn't she?" She turned me round by the shoulders to look at her again. "Lady Mary looks herself," I said. "And I hav something to say to all of j'ou. This letter is from, tny lawj-ers. My Aunt's will left her money between, her nephews and nieces equally. They thought I was the only one, but they have found another family, a large one. There are twelve of us altos-ether. This, of course, alters everythincr. You will, perhaps, excuse my departing this evening." I thought, for once, I had put it like a gentleman. I hadn't understood how real gentlemen and ladies felt, I found, because I thought they would protest politelj', and then -let me go; but they didn't do anj'thing of the kind. The earl took hold of my arm , and said. Don't be such an ass. You'll. stop here, if I tie j-ou up." And Charlie wanted to know if E thought they were all bounders; and Pigtail caught hold of my hand and squeezed it furiously. f , "Oh, Tommy!" 6he cried. "And we're friends!" Lady Parbury startled me most of all; for she just went on with her embroidery as If nothing had " happened, and glanced up at me. r "You are keeping Molly waiting," she said calmly. Then at last I turned and looked at her; and she 4 reminded me of being in church more than ever. "I am quite ready Tom!" she said. She smiled at me, and blushed at using my name for the first time; and she seemed just as much the great lady, only more a woman. I looked at her for a long time; and she held out her hand; and I took It. "Now," I said, "I know what it means to be bora ladies and gentlemen. Let me act as If I had been born like you Thank you and good -by." I bent down and kissed her hand. I think that was t what a gentleman would have done. Then I walked -straight for the door, and into the passage. I hadnt ; much pluck after I got there, for everything was misty in my eyes, and I groped with my arms and found Lady Mary In them! ' "Oh!" she cried. "Dear gentleman ! " C