ITibris

|John HunterjS

BOY

PUBLISHER'S NOTE.

This NEW LONG STORY Is the most
Important volume by MARIE CORBLLt
published for some years, and the first
issued since the Author's serious illness.

May 31, 19OO.

BOY

A SKETCH
'By MARIE
CORELLI

London

HUTCHINSON 6? CO
Paternoster Row 1900

PRINTED BY

HAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

9-53"
C7<?7

CO
MY DEAREST FRIEND IN THE WORLD

BERTHA VYVER

WHO HAS KNOWN ALL MY LIFE FROM CHILDHOOD

AND HAS BEEN THE WITNESS OF ALL MY

LITERARY WORK FROM ITS

VERY BEGINNING

THIS SIMPLE STORY

IS
GRATEFULLY AND LOVINGLY DEDICATED

M723580

BOY

CHAPTER I

IT is said by many people who are supposed to
" know things," that our life is frequently, if not
always, influenced by the first impressions we our-
selves receive of its value or worthlessness. Some
folks, presuming to be wiser even than the wisest, go
so far as to affirm that if you, while still an infant in
long clothes, happen to take a disgust at the manner
and customs of your parents, you will inevitably be
disgusted at most events and persons throughout the
remainder of your earthly pilgrimage. If any truth
exists in such a statement, then " Boy " had excellent
cause to be profoundly disappointed in his prospects
at a very early outset of his career. He sat in what
is sometimes called a " feeding-chair," wedged in by
a bar which guarded him from falling forward or
tumbling out upon the floor, and the said bar was
provided with an ingenious piece of wood, which was
partially hollowed out in such wise as to keep him

7

8 Boy

firm by his fat waist, as well as to provide a resting-
place for the plateful of bread-and-milk which he was
enjoying as much as circumstances would permit him
to enjoy anything. Every now and then he beat the
plate solemnly with his spoon, as though improvising
a barbaric melody on a new sort of tom-tom, and
lifting a pair of large, angelic blue eyes upwards,
till their limpid light seemed to meet and mix with
the gold-glint of his tangled curls, he murmured
pathetically,

" Oh, Poo Sing ! Does 'oo feels ill ? Does 'oo
feels bad ? Oh, Poo Sing ! "

Now, "Poo Sing" was not a Japanese toy, or a
doll, or a bird, or any innocent object of a kind to
attract a child's fancy ; " Poo Sing " was nothing
but a Man, and a disreputable creature even at
that. "Poo Sing" was Boy's father, and "Poo
Sing" was for the moment to put it quite mildly
blind drunk. " Poo Sing " had taken his coat
and waistcoat off, and had pulled out the ends of
his shirt in a graceful white festoon all round the
waistband of his trousers. " Poo Sing " had also
apparently done some hard combing to his hair, for
the bulk of it stood somewhat up on end, and a few
grizzled and wiry locks strayed in disorderly fashion
across his inflamed nose and puffy eyelids, this effect
emphasising the already half-foolish, half-infuriated
expression of his face. " Poo Sing " staggered to
and fro, his heavy body scarcely seeming to belong

Boy 9

to his uncertain legs, and between sundry attacks of
hiccough, he trolled out scraps of song, now high, now
low, sometimes in a quavering falsetto, sometimes
in a threatening bass ; while Boy listened to him
wonderingly, and regarded his divers antics over the
bar of the " feeding-chair " with serious compassion,
the dulcet murmur of, " Does 'oo feels bad ? Poo
Sing ! " recurring at intervals between mouthfuls of
bread-and-milk and the rhythmic beat of the spoon.
They were a strangely assorted couple, Boy and
" Poo Sing," albeit they were father and son. Boy,
with his fair round visage and bright halo of hair,
looked more like a child-angel than a mortal, and
" Poo Sing," in his then condition, resembled no known
beast upon earth, since no beast ever gets voluntarily
drunk, save Man. Yet it must not for a moment be
imagined that " Poo Sing " was not a gentleman. He
was a gentleman, most distinctly, most emphati-
cally. He would have told you so himself, had you
presumed to doubt it, with any amount of oaths
to press home the fact. He would have spluttered
at you somewhat in the following terms :

" My father was a gentleman, and my grandfather
was a gentleman and my great-grandfather was a

gentleman and d n you, sir, our people were all

gentlemen, every sanguinary man-jack of them, back
to the twelfth century ! No tommy-rot with me !
None of your mean, skulking, money-grubbing Yankee
millionaires in our lot ! Why, you d d rascal !

io Boy

Call me a gentleman ! I should pretty much think
so ! I am a D'Arcy-Muir, and I have the blood of

kings in my veins d n you ! "

Gentleman ! Of course he was a gentleman ! His
language proved it. And his language was the
first lesson in English Boy received, though he was
not aware of its full significance. So that when

two or three years later on Boy cried out " D n

rascal papa ! " quite suddenly and vociferously, he had
no consciousness of saying anything that was not the
height of filial tenderness and politeness. To be a
D'Arcy-Muir, meant to be the descendant of a long
line of knights and noblemen who had once upon a
time possessed huge castles with deep dungeons,
where serfs and close kindred could be conveniently
imprisoned and murdered at leisure without distinction
as to character or quality ; knights and noblemen
who some generations onward were transformed into
" six-bottle-men " who thought it seemly to roll under
their dining-tables dead drunk every evening, and
who, having merged themselves and their "blue
blood" into this present nineteenth-century Captain
the Honourable James D'Arcy-Muir, the father of
Boy, were, we must suppose, in their condition of
departed spirits, perfectly satisfied that they had
bestowed a blessing upon the world by the careful
production of such a " gentleman " and Christian.

Captain the Honourable, mindful of his race and
breeding, took care to marry a lady, whose ancestry

Boy ii

was only just in a slight degree lower than his own.
She could not trace her lineage back to the twelfth
century, still she came of what is sometimes called a
good old stock, and she was handsome enough as a
girl, though always large, lazy and unintelligent.
Indolence was her chief characteristic ; she hated any
sort of trouble. She only washed herself under pro-
test, as a sort of concession to the civilisation of the
day. She had been gifted with an abundance of
beautiful hair, of a somewhat coarse texture, yet rich
in colour and naturally curly, it was " a nuisance,"
she averred, and as soon as she married, she cut it
short " to save the bother of doing it in the morning "
as she herself stated. Until she had secured a husband,
she had complied sufficiently with the rules of society
to keep herself tidily dressed ; but both before and
after her boy was born, she easily relapsed into the
slovenly condition which she considered "comfort,"
and which was her habitual nature. Truth to tell, she
had no incentive or ambition to appear at her best.
She had not been married to Captain the Honourable
D'Arcy-Muir one week before she discovered his
partiality for strong drink, and being far too lymphatic
to urge resistance, she sank into a state of passive
resignation to circumstances. What was the good of
a pretty " toilette " ? Her husband never noticed how
she dressed, whether she wore satin or sackcloth was
a matter of equal indifference to him, so, finding that
a short skirt and loose-fitting blouse formed a com-

12 Boy

fortable sort of " get-about " costume, she adopted it,
and stuck to it morning, noon, and night. Always
inclined to embonpoint, she managed to get extremely
stont in a very short time ; and chancing to read in
a journal an article on "hygiene," which eloquently
proved that corsets were harmful and really dangerous
to health, she decided to do without them. So that
by the time Boy was four years old, Mrs. D'Arcy-
Muir, in her continual study of personal ease, had
developed a loose, floppy sort of figure, which the
easy fitting blouse covered, but did not disguise ; to
save all possibility of corns she encased her somewhat
large feet in soft felt slippers, swept the short hair
from off her brows, did without collars and cuffs, and
" managed " her small house in Hereford Square in
her own fashion, which "managing" meant having
everything at sixes and sevens, meals served at all
hours, and a general preparation for the gradual
destruction of Boy's digestion by giving him his
bread-and-milk and other nourishment at moments
when he least expected it.

Thus, it may be conceded by those who know any-
thing about married life and housekeeping, that Boy
began his career among curious surroundings. From
his " feeding-chair " he saw strange sights, sights
which often puzzled him, and caused him to beat
monotonous time on his plate with his baton-spoon in
order to distract his little brain. Two large looming
figures occupied his horizon " Muzzy " and " Poo

Boy 13

Sing." " Muzzy " was the easy-going stout lady with
the felt slippers, who gave him his bread-and-milk
and said he was her boy, " Poo Sing " was, in the few
tranquil moments of his existence, understood to be
" Dads " or " Papa." Boy somehow could never call
him either " Dads " or " Papa " when he was| seized by
his staggering fits ; such terms were not sufficiently
compassionate for an unfortunate gentleman who was
subject to a malady which would not allow him to keep
steady on his feet without clutching at the sideboard
or the mantelpiece. Boy had been told by " Muzzy "
that when " Papa " rolled about the room he was " very
ill," and the most eloquent language could not fittingly
describe the innocent and tender emotions of pity in
Boy's mind when he beheld the progenitor of his
being thus cruelly afflicted ! Were it possible to touch
a drunkard's heart in the mid career of his drunken-
ness, then the gentle murmur of " Poo Sing ! " from
the fresh rosy lips of a little child, and that child his
own son, might have moved to a sense of uneasy
shame and remorse the particularly tough and fibrous
nature of Captain the Honourable D'Arcy-Muir.
But Captain the Honourable was of that ancient and
noble birth which may be seen asserting itself in
rowdy theatre-parties at restaurants in Piccadilly,
and he, with the rest of his distinguished set, said

openly " D n sentiment ! " As for any sacredness

in the life of a child, or any idea of grave respon-
sibility resting upon him as a father, for that child's

14 Boy

future, such primitive notions never occurred to him.
Sometimes when Boy stared at him very persistently
with solemnly enquiring grave blue eyes, he would
become suddenly and violently irritated, and would
demand, " What is the little beggar staring at ?
Looks like a d d idiot!"

Then pouring more whisky out of the ever-present
bottle into the ever-present glass, he would yell to
his wife, " See here, old woman ! This child is going
to be an infernal idiot! A regular water-on-the-
brain, knock-down idiot! Staring at me for all the
world as if I were a gorilla ! He's over-fed, that's
what's the matter ! Guzzling on bread-and-milk till
he can't get a drop more down. Never saw such a
d d little pig in all my d d life ! "

Thus would this gentleman of irreproachable
descent bawl forth, the while Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir,
provokingly passive, irritatingly flabby, and indolently
inert, preserved a discreet silence. Such behaviour
on her husband's part was of daily occurrence, " She
knew James's little ways," she would remark to any
sympathising friends who chanced to discourse with
her on the delicate and honeyed bliss of her matri-
monial life. " Why did you marry him ? " was the
question often asked of her, whereat she would
answer betwixt a sigh and a yawn, " Really I don't
know! He seemed quite as decent as most men,
and he belongs to a splendid family ! " " Did you
ever love him ? " was another query once put to her

Boy 15

by a. daring interlocutor inclined rather to romance
than reality. Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir looked politely
surprised.

" Love ! Oh, I don't think that had very much
to do with it," she said. " One doesn't think about
love after one is fifteen or sixteen. That's all goosey-
goosey-gander, you know ! "

And a placid smile of superior wisdom lit up her fat
face as she thus clinched the would-be heart-searching
enquiries of the mere sentimentalist. Because, after
all, as she argued, if Jim would get drunk it was no
use attempting to thwart him, he was master of him-
self and of his own actions. When, after a good heavy
bout of it, he was laid up in bed with a galloping
pulse, throbbing veins, parched tongue, and a half-
crazed brain, that also was no business of hers. She
had made no attempt to either restrain or guide him,
because she knew it was no use trying to do either. If
he did not drink in the house, he would drink outside
the house ; if he did not drink openly, he would
drink on the sly, few men ever took a woman's
advice for their good, though they would take all
women's recommendations to the bad. Mrs. D'Arcy-
Muir was perfectly aware of this peculiar code of
man's morals, as also of the strange limitations of
man's logic, and knowing these things was con-
tent to make herself as bodily comfortable as she
could, and let other matters go as an untoward
fate ordained. Thus it happened that it was only

16 Boy

Boy who really thought at all seriously concerning
the ' puzzle of existence. Boy, whose proper
Christian name was Robert, seemed nearly always
preoccupied about something or other. Judging
by the generally wistful expression of his small
features, it might be presumed that he had memories.
Probably most children have, though they are
incapable of expressing them. The enormous gulf of
difference between the very young and their elders,
exists not only on account of the disparity in years,
but also because the elders have retained, for the
most part, nothing more on their minds than the
quickly crowding and vanishing impressions of this
present world, while the children are, we may
imagine, busy with vague recollections of something
better than the immediate condition of things,
recollections which occasionally move them to wonder
why their surroundings have become so suddenly and
strangely altered. It is impossible not to see, in the
eyes of many of these little human creatures, a look
of infinite perplexity, sorrow and enquiry, a look
which gradually fades away as they grow older and
more accustomed to the ordinary commonplace busi-
ness of natural existence, while the delicate and dim
memories of the Soul in a former state wax faint and
indistinct, never to recur again, perhaps, till death
re-flashes them on the interior sight with the repeated
and everlasting assurance that " here is not our rest."
Boy had thoughts of the past, though none of the

Boy 17

future ; he was quite sure that all was not formerly
as it appeared to him now, that there was a time,
set far away among rainbow eternities, when "Muzzy"
and " Poo Sing" were non est> when indeed "Muzzy"
and "Poo Sing" would have seemed the wildest
incoherences and maddest impossibilities. How it had
chanced that the rainbow eternities had dispersed for
awhile, had rolled back as it were into space, and had
allowed the strange spectacle of " Muzzy " and " Poo
Sing " to intervene, was more than Boy could explain,
consciously or unconsciously. But he was certain he
had not always known these two now apparently
necessary personages, and he was equally certain he
had known some sort of beings infinitely more
interesting than they could ever be. Fully im-
pressed by this inward conviction, he often dwelt
upon it in his own mind, and this it was that
gave him the lovely far-away look in his dreamy blue
eyes, the tender little quivering smile on his rosy
mouth, and the whole serene and wise expression of
his fair and chubby countenance. Scarcely four years
old as he was, it was evident that he had the intuition
of some truer life than those around him dreamed of,
the halo of divine things was still about him, the
" God's image " was just freshly stamped on the bright
new coin of his being, and it remained for the coming
years to witness how long the brightness would last
in the hands of the untrustworthy individuals who
had it in possession. For it is a dangerous fallacy to

i8 Boy

aver that every man has the making of his destiny in
his own hands : to a certain extent he has, no doubt,
and with education and firm resolve, he can do much
to keep down the Beast and develop the Angel,
but a terrific responsibility rests upon those often
voluntarily reckless beings, his parents, who, without
taking thought, use the God's privilege of giving life,
while utterly failing to perceive the means offered to
them for developing and preserving that life' undei
the wisest and most harmonious conditions. It is
certainly true that many parents do what they call
their " best " for their children, that is, they work for
them, and educate them, and "place" them advan-
tageously, as they think, in life, but they are apt to
forget that this " life " they set store by, is not only
a question of food, clothing, money, and position,
its central pivot is Thought, and thought begins
with the first brain-pulsations. There is no use or
sense in denying the fact, it is so. Therefore the
progenitors of those living thought-cells cannot
possibly shirk the moral obligation which they
take upon themselves from the very moment of a
child's birth. "The sins of the fathers shall be
visited upon the children " is often quoted as a
merciless axiom, but it is merely the declaration
of a natural law, which, if broken, brings punishment
in its train.

Boy, lately arrived from the Infinite, was guiltless
of his present dubious surroundings. He did not

Boy 19

make his " honourable " father a drunkard, or his
mother a sloven. He came into the world designed,
perchance, to be the redemption of both his parents,
had they received his innocent presence in that spirit.
But they did not. They accepted him as a natural
result of marriage, and took no more heed of him
than a pair of monkeys casually observant of their
first offspring. They, by virtue of the evolution
theory, should, as human beings, have been on a
scale higher than the Simian ancestor, but Captain
D'Arcy-Muir was not even on a par with that hairy
personage, inasmuch as the bygone aboriginal
monkey, not being aware of strong drink, could not
degrade himself that way. As long as Boy was fed,
clothed, taken out, and put to bed regularly, " Muzzy "
and " Poo Sing " considered they were doing all their
necessary duty by him. " Muzzy " would indeed have
been profoundly astonished if she had known that
Boy took her clothing into his consideration, and
wondered why hooks were often off, and buttons
often gone from her garments, and why her hair was
so like some of the stuffing of the old arm-chair,
woolly sort of stuffing, which was coming through
the leather for want of mending. Boy used to com-
pare " Muzzy " with another lady who sometimes
came to visit him, Miss Letitia Leslie, a wonderful
vision to Boy's admiring eyes, a rustling, glistening
dream, made up of soft dove-coloured silk and violet-
scented old lace, and tender, calm blue eyes, and small

2O Boy

hands with big diamonds flashing on their dainty
whiteness, "Miss Letty," as she was generally called,
and "that purse-proud old maid," as Captain the
Honourable frequently designated her. Boy had his
own title for her, it was " Kiss-Letty," instead of
" Miss Letty," and he would often ask, in dull
moments when the numerous perplexities of his small
mind became too entangled for him to bear " Where
is Kiss-Letty ? Me wants Kiss-Letty ! Kiss-Letty
loves Boy, Boy loves Kiss-Letty ! "

And to hear him sweetly meandering along in this
fashion, the uninitiated stranger might have imagined
" Kiss-Letty " to be a kind of fairy, an elf, born of
moonlight and lilies, rather than what she really was,
a spinster of forty-five, who made no pretences to be
a whit younger than she was, a spinster who was
perfectly content to wear her own beautiful grey hair,
and to wish for no " touching up " on the delicate
worn pallor of her cheeks a spinster, moreover, who
was proud of her spinsterhood, as it was the sign of
her unbroken fidelity to a dead man who had loved
her. Miss Letitia Leslie had had her history, her
own private tragedy of tears and heart-break ; but
the depths of sorrow in her soul had turned to
sweetness instead of sourness, her own grief had
taught her to be compassionate of all griefs, and
the unkind sword of fate that had pierced her gentle
breast rendered her delicately cautious of ever
wounding, by so much as a word or a look, the

Boy 21

sensitive feelings of others. Death and circumstance
had made her the independent mistress of a large
fortune, which she used lavishly for the private doing
of good where evil abounded. Into the foul and
festering slums of the great city into the shabby
dwellings of poorly paid clerks and half-starved
curates, up among the barely furnished attics where
struggling artists worked for scanty livelihood and
the distant hope of fame, " Kiss-Letty " took her
sweet and gracious presence, wearing a smile that
was a very good reflex of God's sunshine, and
speaking comfort in a voice as tender as that of any
imagined angel bringing God's messages. Much of
the grinding of the ceaseless wheel of tribulation
did Miss Letitia see, as she went to and fro on her
various errands of mercy and friendship ; but perhaps
among all the haunts and homes where her per-
sonality was familiar, her interest had seldom been
more strongly aroused than in the ill-ordered house-
hold in Hereford Square, where Captain the Honour-
able D'Arcy-Muir drank and swore, and his wife
" slovened " the hours away in muddle and mis-
anthropy. For here was Boy, Boy, a soft, smiling
morsel of helpless life and innocent expectancy,
Boy, who stretched out plump mottled arms to
"Kiss-Letty," and said, chucklingly, "Ullo!" (an
exclamation he had picked up from the friendly
policeman at the corner of the square, who greeted
him thus when he went out in his perambulator)

22 Boy

" Ullo ! 'Ows J oo, Kiss-Letty ? Wants Boy out !
Kiss-Letty take Boy wiz her walk-talk."

Which observation, rendered into heavier English,
implied that Boy politely enquired after Miss
Letitia's health, and desired to go out walking and
likewise talking with that lady.

And no one in all the world responded more
promptly or more lovingly to Boy's delightful
amenities than Miss Letitia did. The wisely-sweet
expression of the child's face fascinated her, she
saw in Boy the possibilities of noble manhood,
graced perhaps by the rarest gifts of genius.
Believers in hereditary development would have
asked her how she could imagine it possible for a
child born of such parents to possess an ideal or
exceptionally endowed nature ? To which she would
have replied that she did not believe in the heritage
so much as the environment of liie. Here she was
partly wrong and partly right. Such inexplicable
things happen in the evolution of one particular
human being from a whole chain of other human
beings that it is impossible to gauge correctly the
result of the whole. Why, for example, the poet
Keats should have had such indifferent parentage
will always be somewhat of a mystery. And why
men, lineally descended from "ancient, noble and
honourable" families should, in this day, have de-
generated into turf-gamblers, drunkards and social
rascals generally, is also a bewildering conundrum.

Boy 23

In the case of Keats, birth and environment were
against him, in the case of the modern aristocrat
birth and environment are with him. The one has
become an English classic ; the other is an English
disgrace. Who shall clear up the darkness surround-
ing the working of this law ? Miss Letitia made no
attempt to penetrate such physiological obscurities,
she simply argued that for Boy to be brought up
in a "muddle," and set face to face with the ever-
present whisky-bottle, was decidedly injurious to his
future prospects. The D'Arcy-Muirs were poor,
though they had " expectations," she, Miss Letitia,
was rich. She had no relatives, no one in the
world had the least claim upon her, and she had
serious thoughts of adopting Boy. Would his parents
part with him ? That was a knotty point, a delicate
and very doubtful question. But she had considered
it for some time carefully, and had come to the
reasonable conclusion that, as Boy seemed to be
rather in the way of his father and mother than
otherwise, and that moreover, as her terms of adop-
tion were inclusive of making him her sole heir, it
was probable she might gain the victory. And the
very day on which this true narrative begins, when
Captain the Honourable was executing his whisky
war-dance to the accompaniment of his son's mur-
mured " Poo Sing ! " and rhythmic spoon-tapping,
was the one selected by the gentle lady to commence
operations, or, as she put it, " to break the proposition

24 Boy

gradually" to the strange parents whose daily lives
furnished such a singular example of wedded felicity
to their observant offspring. When her dainty
brougham, drawn by its sleek and spirited roans,
drew up at the door of the house in Hereford Square,
there were various signs even outside that habitation
to fill the order-loving spirit of Miss Letitia with
doubtful qualms and hesitations. To begin with,
there was not a blind in any of the windows that
was drawn up straight ; they were all awry. This
gave the dwelling a generally squinting, leering,
look which was not pleasant. Then again, the door-
steps were dirty. There were strange, smeary pieces
of paper floating down the area, in grimy companion-
ship with broken bits of straw. The bell-handle
hung out of its socket, somewhat like an eye under-
going the latest surgical operation for cataract. There
were recent traces of coal on the pavement, a ton
had evidently just been shot down the "hole-into-
the-cellar" arrangement which some brilliant British
" bright idea " has invented for the greater accumu-
lation of dirt in the streets ; and the coal-men had
not troubled to " clean up " after the performance
Miss Letitia, stepping lightly out of her carriage,
was compelled to crunch the heels of her pretty little
brodequins in coal-dust, and soil the delicate edge of
her frilled silk petticoat in the same. Cautiously
she handled the helpless-looking bell-pull, with the
result that a hollow tinkling sound awakened the

Boy 25

interior echoes. The door opened, and a slatternly
maid-servant appeared.

" Is Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir ?"

" Yes, 'm, at home to you, 'm, of course, } m. But
she's hout to most, on account of master's bein' orful
bad. Orful bad he is. Step in, please 'm."

Whereupon Miss Letitia "stepped in," asking
pleasantly as she did so,

" And how is dear Boy ? '

" Oh, jes' the same, 'm ! Allus smilin' an' comfoble-
like. Never see such a child for good temper. Seems
allus a-thinkin' pretty. This way, 'm ! "

And she escorted her visitor into a small side-room
which Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir called her "boudoir,"
announcing briskly,

" Miss Leslie, 'm ! "

" Dear me ! " and Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir, clad in the
usual short skirt and ill-fitting blouse, rose to receive
the in-coming guest.

" How nice of you, Letitia, to come ! So early too !
I'm afraid luncheon has been cleared "

" Pray don't speak of it," interrupted Miss Leslie
" of course at four o'clock "

"Is it four? Dear me!" and Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir
smiled sleepily. " Why, then it's time for tea. You
will have some tea ? "

" Thank you ! " murmured Miss Letty, " but don't
don't put yourself out in any way. Is Boy ? "

" Quite well ? Oh yes ! " and Boy's mother rang

26 Boy

the bell as she spoke. "Boy is in the dining-room
with his father. He has just had his bread-and-milk.
I have left him there because I think he keeps Jim
a little bit in order. Jim is really quite impossible
to-day, but of course he wouldn't hurt the child."

" Do you mean," said Miss Letitia, her cheeks
growing paler, " that your husband is ... well ! -you
know ! And that Boy is with him while in that
terrible condition ? "

Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir laughed.

" Of course ! How horrified you look, Letitia !
But you have no idea how useful Boy is in that way.
He really saves pounds' worth of furniture. When
Boy is strapped in his chair, and Jim is on the booze,
Jim never knocks the things about as he would if he
were alone, because you see he is afraid of upsetting
Boy. It is not out of kindness to Boy exactly, but
simply because he hates to hear a child yell. It gets
on his nerves. Then of course Boy thinks his father
is ill, and pities him so much that the two get on
together capitally."

And this lymphatic lump of a woman laughed
again, the while Miss Letitia gazed blankly at the
fireplace and endeavoured to control her indignant
feelings. The maidservant came in just then in
answer to the bell.

" Bring the tea, Gerty," commanded her mistress
with quite a grand air, as one who should say
" bid the thousand menials in the outer court of

Boy 27

the castle serve me with delicacies on their bended
knees."

Gerty had a severe cold, and sniffed violently and
unbecomingly.

"Please 'm, the milkman ain't been yet. This
mornin' he said as he might be late, as there was
a family t'other side of the square as liked their meals
punctual, and he guessed he'd have to go that side
first instead of ours. And there ain't none left from
the mornin' ; Master Boy's 'ad it all."

" Dear, sweet, greedy little pig ! " smiled Mrs.
D'Arcy-Muir affably. " Well, you can bring the
teacups and the teapot, and the kettle and the bread-
and-butter and Oh! there is condensed milk, I
know : will you have condensed milk, Letitia ? "

Miss Letitia responded somewhat primly,

" No, certainly not ! " Then, regretting her rather
sharp tone of voice, she added, " You must not think
me fanciful, but I cannot bear condensed milk in my
tea. You know I come of an old Devonshire family,
and I believe I grew up on genuine milk and genuine
cream."

" Oh, but condensed milk is quite genuine ! " said
Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir. " I love it ! 1 eat it on bread-
and-butter often instead of jam ; you must not have
old maids' prejudices, Letitia ! " And she smiled the
provoking smile of a superior being who knows
all the best things of life without teaching or ex-
perience.

28 Boy

Miss Letty sat patiently under the verdict of " old
maids' prejudices," wondering how on earth she was
going to broach the subject which was uppermost
in her mind to this woman who seemed for the
moment to have absorbed all the intellect of which
she was capable into the bland consideration of
condensed milk. She started the conversation again
hesitatingly.

" Is Captain D'Arcy-Muir likely to go out pre-
sently, do you think ? "

" I'm sure I couldn't say," replied Mrs. D'Arcy-
Muir, still smiling. " You see he can scarcely stand
he won't dress himself properly and he has just
taken to singing : listen ! " And she held up a fat
forefinger to invite attention. Miss Letitia had no
need to strain her ears for the extraordinary sounds
which came fitfully through the door, sounds be-
tween a cough and a yell, wherewith were inter-
mingled the familiar words

"Ole King Co ole
Was a jo oily old so ul ! "

"Pray, pray!" implored Miss Letty nervously,
" do get Boy out of that room ! Really, my dear,
it isn't fit for the child. I beg of you ! I I should
like to see Boy ! "

"Well, / can't go and fetch him," declared Mrs.
D'Arcy-Muir with a deeply-injured expression ; " I
should only get pushed out of the room, or hit in the

Boy 29

eye, if I attempted it when Jim is like this. But I'll
send Gerty."

And as Gerty just then entered with all the
necessities for tea, minus the milk, she added,

" Fetch Master Boy in here, will you ? "

" Yes, 'm. If he'll come with me."

She disappeared to fulfil her mission.

Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir sank back into the depths of
her easy-chair with the manner of one who has done
every duty that could possibly be expected of her.
Miss Letitia clasped and unclasped her neatly gloved
hands nervously. The noises of mingled coughing
and yelling increased in ferocity, and soon they
were broken by two widely differing sounds, a
drunken curse, and a child's laughter.

" D n you, get out of this ! "

" Kiss-Letty ! Ooo ee ! My kissy-kissy Kiss-
Letty ! "

And escaping from Gerty's hand, Boy literally
danced into the room.

CHAPTER II

MAKING straight for Miss Letitia, the jumping bundle
of dimples, gold curls, short knickers and waggling
pinafore, came with a wild bound into that lady's
arms.

" Oo-ee ! " he once more exclaimed " Vi'lets ! "

And, discovering a bunch of those sweet blossoms
half-hidden in the folds of Miss Leslie's soft lace
necktie, he burrowed his little nose into them
with delighted eagerness, then looking up again,
and smiling angelically, he repeated in a dulcet
murmur, " 'Es ! Vi'lets ! Oo' is wzy sweet, zoo
Kiss-Letty ! "

Miss Letitia pressed him to her breast, patted him,
smoothed his tousled locks, and took off his loosely-
hanging pinafore, thereby disclosing his whole chubby
form, clad in what city tailors euphoniously term a
' small gent's Jack Tar. 1

" Well, Boy ! " she said, her gentle voice trembling
with quite a delicious cooing sweetness " how are
you to-day ? "

"Me vezy well," answered Boy placidly, twining
round his dumpy fingers a long delicately-linked

30

Boy 31

gold chain which ' Kiss-Letty ' always wore " Vezy
well 'sank 'oo ! " (this with a big sigh). " Me awfoo'
bozzered " (bothered) " 'bout Dads ! Poo Sing ! Vezy

And Boy conveyed such a heartrending expression
of deep distress into his beautiful blue eyes, that Miss
Letitia was quite touched, and was almost persuaded
into a sense of pity for the degraded creature who
was " putting a thief into his mouth to steal away his
brains," in the opposite room.

"You see, Letitia," murmured Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir
with a fat complacent smile " You see just how Boy
takes it ? He and his father are the most perfect
friends in the world ! "

Good Miss Leslie looked as she felt, pained and
puzzled. How was she to broach the idea she had of
adopting Boy, if he was already considered by his
stupid mother to be a sort of stop-gap or " buffer "
between herself and the drunken rages of her
" honourable " lord and master ? She resolved to
temporize.

" I have been wondering," she began gently, as she
settled the little fellow more comfortably on her lap
" whether you would let Boy come and stay with
me for a few days - "

" Stay with you \ " exclaimed Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir
and so surprised was she that she actually lifted her
bulky form an inch or two out of its sunken attitude
in the arm-chair " With vou, Letitia ? A child like

32 Boy

that ? Why, you would not know in the least what
to do with him ! "

"I think I should," submitted Miss Letty, with a
little smile, " Besides, of course you could send Gerty
with him if you liked. But I do not think it would
be necessary. I have an excellent maid who is
devoted to children ; and then he could have a large
room to play about in and "

" Oh, it would never do ! never never ! " declared
Boy's mother, shaking her head with a half-reproach-
ful, half-compassionate air. " You see, my dear
Letitia, it is not as if you were married and had
children of your own. You wouldn't understand how
to manage Boy a bit."

" You think not ? " said Miss Letty patiently. " Well
perhaps I might be a little ignorant but would
you let me try ? "

" I could not I really could not ! " and Mrs.
D'Arcy-Muir smoothed her floppy blouse over her
massive bosom with a protective pat of her large
hand. "Boy would simply break his heart without
me. Wouldn't you, Boy ? "

Boy thus adjured, looked round enquiringly. He
had been busy arranging " Kiss-Letty's " gold chain
in loops and twists, such as pleased his fancy, and
thus employed, had failed to follow the conversation.

" How wouldn't Boy ? " he demanded.

" Boy wouldn't like to leave Muzzy," explained
Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir unctuously " would he ? "

Boy 33

Boy was still meditatively concerned with the
looping of the gold chain.

" Leave Muzzy ? " he queried. " Wha' for ? "

"What for?" echoed his mother. "To go with
Miss Letty all by your own self and no kind
good Muzzy to take care of you ! "

Boy stopped twisting the gold chain. Things
began to look serious. He put one rosy finger into
his rosier mouth, and started to consider the question.
" No kind good Muzzy to take care of you." Mrs.
D'Arcy-Muir was her own trumpeter on this occasion.
That she was a " kind good Muzzy " was entirely her
own idea. If Boy had been able to express himself
with thorough lucidity, he would most probably have
given the palm for "kindness and goodness," and
" taking care of him," to the servant Gerty, rather
than to Muzzy. But his little heart told him he
ought to love his Muzzy best of all and yet
how about " Kiss-Letty " ? He hesitated.

" Me loves Muzzy vezy much," he murmured, lower-
ing his pretty eyes, while his sensitive little under-
lip began to quiver " But me loves Kiss-Letty too.
Me would like out wiz Kiss-Letty ! "

And having thus taken courage to declare his true
sentiments, he felt more independent, and raised his
golden head with a curious little air ot defiance and
appeal intermingled. Just then a diversion occurred
in the entrance of the servant Gerty, carrying a jug.
" Oh, here is the milk at last ! " said Mrs. D'Arcy-

3

34 Boy

Muir, with a sigh of relief. " Now we can have tea.
Gerty, what do you think? here is Miss Leslie
wanting to take Boy to stay with her for a few days !
Did ever you hear of such a thing ! "

Gerty sniffed her usual sniff, which as she gave it,
almost amounted to an enigma.

" I should let him go, 'm, if I were you, J m," she
said, whereat Miss Letty could have embraced her.
" He ain't doin' no good 'ere, with the master on in
his tearin' tantrums an* swillin' whisky fit to bust
hisself, an' really there's no tellin' what might happen.
Oh yes, 'm, I should let him go, 'm ! "

" Would you really ? " and Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir rose
and lolled herself lazily along to the tea-table
"Well! Do you want him to-day, Letitia?"

" Why, yes, I can take him at once," replied Miss
Leslie, quite trembling with excitement, and com-
mending Gerty to all the special favours of providence
for the evident influence she exerted on the flabby
mind of her mistress " Nothing will please me
better."

" Such a funny notion of yours ! " smiled Mrs.
D'Arcy-Muir, hovering over the tea-things like a sort
of large loosely-feathered bird. "You are such a
regular old maid, Letitia, that I should have thought
you wouldn't have had a child messing about in your
beautiful house for the world. However, if you really
want him, take him, but you must have him alone
I can't spare Gerty."

Boy 35

Gerty smiled broadly.

"Oh, Miss Leslie won't want me, 'm," she cheer-
fully declared. " Master Boy don't give no trouble.
Shall I put his clothes together, 'm ? He ain't got
nothing but his white flannel sailor-suit and two little
shirts and nightgowns."

Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir sighed wearily.

" Oh dear, don't bother me about such things ! " she
said. " Just make a brown-paper parcel of what you
think the child will want for a week, and put it in
Miss Leslie's brougham. You came in your brougham,
Letitia? Of course. Yes. That will be all right.
Put it all in the brougham, Gerty."

" Yes, 'm. Shall I bring in Master Boy's hat and
overcoat in here ? "

" Certainly. Dear me, what a fuss ! " Here Gerty
promptly left the room. " One would think the child
was going to the wilds of Africa ! Do you take sugar,
Letitia ? Yes ? Ah, you are not inclined to be at all
stout, are you ? " this with a somewhat envious
glance at Miss Leslie's still perfectly graceful and
svelte figure " No, I should think you must be nearly
all skin and bone. Now, / can never take sugar. I
put on flesh directly. Here is your tea. Boy, do you
want any more milk ? "

Boy had, during the past few minutes, remained
in a condition of bland staring. Vague notions that
his " wanting out " with Kiss-Letty was going to be a
granted and accomplished fact, pleased his little brain,

36 Boy

but he had no skill to discourse on his sensations, even
in broken language. He was however too happy to
require any extra feeding. He therefore declined the
offer of ' more milk ' with a negative shake of his gold
curls, and after a little further consideration, clambered
off Miss Letitia's knee and went to his mother.

" Me goin' out wiz Kiss-Letty ? " he inquired with a
solemn air.

" Yes. You are going to stay with her in her grand
big house, away from poor Muzzy " replied the ' poor
Muzzy ' in question, taking a large mouthful of bread-
and-butter and swallowing it down with a gulp of tea.
'* And I hope you'll be a good boy."

" 'Ope me be a goo' boy ! " he echoed thoughtfully.
4 'Ess! Me tell Dads?"

Miss Letitia looked startled, Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir
smiled.

" No. You had better not tell Dads. He is ill, you
know. When you come back he will be quite well."

" Sink so ? " queried Boy dubiously.

" Think so ? Of course I think so. Now don't
stand staring there. Here's your picture-book, look
at that till Gerty brings you your hat and coat."

Boy took the interesting volume offered him, docilely,
but without enthusiasm. He knew it well. Its torn
covers, the impossible beasts and birds depicted
within it, the extraordinary jumble of rhymes which
Gerty would read to him at odd moments, and which
he would afterwards think about in pained silence,

Boy 37

all these things worried him. There was a large and
elaborately ornamented B in the book, and twisted
in and out its curly formation were two designs
which were utterly opposed to each other, a cricket-
bat and a bumble-bee. The ' poetry ' accompanying
it said

Fetch me the BAT
To kill the RAT.

After this ferocious couplet came the flamboyant
coloured drawing of a large yellow flower, unlike any
flower ever born in any field of the wide world. The
yellow flower being duly considered as a growth of
distinct individuality, other two lines appeared

Look here and see
The BUMBLE-BEE.

This particular page of his " picture-book " had
often puzzled Boy. When Gerty had first read to

him

Fetch me the BAT
To kill the RAT,

he had had at once asked,

"Where rat?"

Gerty had sought everywhere all over the ornate
capital letter and the other designs on the page for
the missing animal, but in vain. Therefore she
had been reluctantly compelled to admit the de-
pressing truth,

" There ain't no rat, Master Boy dear ! "

38 Boy

" Why no rat ? " pursued Boy, solemnly.

Driven to desperation, a bright idea suddenly
crossed Gerty's brain.

"I 'xpect it's cos it's killed," she said, " See,
Master Boy! It's 'a bat to kill a rat. 1 And the
rat's killed ! "

" Poo' rat ! " commented Boy thoughtfully" Gone !
Poo' Poo' rat ! gone altogezzer ! "

He sighed, and refused to ' look here and see, the
Bumble-bee.' He really wished to know who it was
that had asked for a bat to kill a rat, and why that
unknown individual had been so furiously inclined.
But he kept these desires to himself ; for he had an
instinctive sense that though Gerty was all kindness,
she was not quite the person to be trusted with his
closest confidences.

Just now he went into a corner, picture-book in
hand, and sat, watching his ' Muzzy ' and * Kiss-
Letty' taking tea together. Muzzy's back was to-
wards him, and he could not help wondering why it
was so big and broad ? Why it was so difficult to get
round Muzzy for example ? He had no such trouble
with Kiss-Letty. She was so slim and yet so strong,
and once, when she had lifted him up and carried
him from one room to the other, he felt as though
he were ' throned light in air,' so easy and graceful
had been the way she bore him. Now Muzzy always
took hold of him as if he were a lump. Not that
he argued this fact at all in his little mind, he was

Boy 39

simply thinking thinking, yes, if the sober truth
must be told, he was thinking quite sadly and
seriously how it happened that Muzzy was ugly and
Kiss-Letty pretty! It was such a pity Muzzy was
ugly ! for surely it was ugly to have red blotches on
the face, and hair like the arm-chair stuffing ? Such
a pity such a pity for Muzzy? Such a pity too
for Boy ! Ah, and such a pity it is for all idle,
slovenly women who " let themselves go " and think
their children ' take no notice ' of indolence, dirt, and
discordant colours. The sense of beauty and fitness
was very strong in Boy. Where he got it was a
mystery, it was certainly not a heritage derived
from either of his parents. He did not know that
* Kiss-Letty ' was many years older than c Muzzy/
but he did know that she was ever so much more
charming and agreeable to look at. He judged by
appearances, and these were all in * Kiss-Letty's '
favour. For in truth the elderly spinster looked a
whole decade younger than the more youthful married
woman. Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir, though she took life
with such provokingly indifferent ease, * wore ' badly,
Miss Leslie, despite many concealed sorrows and
disappointments, wore well. Her face was still
rounded and soft-complexioned, her eyes were bright
and clear, while her figure was graceful and her
dress choice and elegant. Boy indeed thought ' Kiss-
Letty' very beautiful, and he was not without ex-
perience. Several well-known " society beauties " of

40 Boy

the classed and labelled sort, who are hawked about
in newspaper ' fashionable ' columns as wearing blue
or green, or " looking lovely in white," and " stately
in pink " were wont to visit Captain the Honourable
and Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir on their ' at-home ' days, and
Boy was always taken into the drawing-room to see
them, but somehow they made no impression on
him. They lacked something though he could not
tell what that something was. None of them had
the smile of Kiss-Letty, or her soft dove-like glance
of eye. Peering at her now from his present corner
Boy considered her a very angel of loveliness. And
he was actually going away with her, to her * grand
big house,' Muzzy said. Boy tried to think what
the ' grand big house ' would be like. The nearest
approach his imagination could make to it was
Aladdin's palace, as pictured in one of the 'fairy
landscapes ' of a certain magic lantern which a very
burly gentleman, a Major Desmond, had brought to
him at Christmas. Major Desmond was a large,
jovial, white-haired, white-moustached personage, with
a rollicking mellow laugh, and an immense hand
which, whenever it was laid on Boy's head, caressed
his curls with the gentleness of a south wind touching
the petals of a flower. Muzzy's hand was hard and
heavy indeed compared to the hand of Major
Desmond. Major Desmond was a friend of Kiss-
Letty's, that was all Boy knew about him, that
and the magic-lantern incident. Ruffling and crink-

Boy 41

ling up the pages of the too-familiar * picture book '
mechanically, Boy went on with his own little quaint
sequence of thought, till suddenly, just as Muzzy
and Kiss-Letty had finished their tea, a dull crash
was heard in the opposite room, accompanied by a
loud oath then came silence. Boy trotted out of
his corner, his little face pale with fright.

"Oh Pod Sing!" he cried. "Dads ill ! Dads
hurted ! Me go to Dads ! "

" No no ! " and Miss Letty hastened to him and
caught him in her arms" No, dear ! Wait a minute !
Wait, darling ! Let Mother see first what is the
matter."

Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir had risen, and was about to
open the door and make some casual inquiry, when
Gerty came in, somewhat pale but giggling.

" It's only master, 'm," she said. " His foot tripped,
and down he fell. He ain't hurt hisself. He don't
even trouble to get up he's just a-sittin' on the floor
with the whisky-bottle as comfoble as you please ! "

Miss Letty shuddered as she listened, and clasped
Boy more warmly to her heart, placing her gentle
hands against his ears lest he should hear too much.

"Papa's all right, Boy dear," she said. "He has
just let something fall on the floor. See?"

" Zat all ? " queried Boy with an anxious look.

"That's all. Now" and Miss Letitia took his
dumpy wee hand in her own and led him across
the room " come along, and we'll have a nice drive

42 Boy

together, shall we? Gerty, have you got Master
Boy's things?"

"Yes, 'm." And Gerty, flopping down on both
knees in front of the little fellow, pulled a miniature
overcoat round his tiny form and stuck a sailor-hat
(marked ' Invincible ' on the ribbon) jauntily on his
head " There you are, Master Boy, dear ! Ain't you
grand, eh ? Going away visiting all by your own self !
Quite like a big man ! "

Boy smiled vaguely but sweetly, and turned one of
the buttons on his coat round and round meditatively.
Quite like a big man, was he ? Well, he did not feel
very big, but on the contrary particularly small and
especially just now, because Muzzy was standing
upright, looking down upon him with a spacious air
of infinite and overwhelming condescension. Surely
Muzzy was a very large woman? might not one
say extra large ? Boy stretched out his hand and
grasped her skirt, gazing wistfully up at the bulk
above him, the bulk which now stooped, like an
over-full sack of wheat toppling forward, to kiss him
and bid him good-bye.

" Remember, you've never been away from me
before, Boy," and ' Muzzy ' spoke in a kind of
injured tone " so I hope you will be good and
obedient, and keep your clothes clean. And when
you get to Miss Leslie's house, don't smear your
fingers on the walls, and mind you don't break
anything. You know it won't be as it is here,

Boy 43

where you can tumble about as you like all day
and play "

" Oh, but he can \ " interposed Miss Leslie hastily
" I assure you he can ! "

" Pardon me, Letitia, he can not" and Mrs. D'Arcy-
Muir swelled visibly with matronly obstinacy as she
spoke " It is not likely that in your house you can
have wooden soldiers all over the floor. It would be
impossible. Boy has very odd ways with his soldiers.
He likes to ' camp them out ' in different spots of the
pattern on the carpet and of course it does make
a place untidy. When one is a mother, one does not
mind these things " this with a superior and com-
passionate air " but you, with your precise notions
of order, will find it very trying."

Miss Leslie protested, with a little smile, that really
she had no particularly ' precise ' notions of order.

" Oh yes, you have," declared Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir
emphatically " Don't tell me you haven't, Letitia,
all old maids are the same. Then there is that
dreadful Cow of Boy's, the thing Major Desmond
gave him, along with the magic lantern, he can do
without the lantern, of course but I really am afraid
he had better take his Cow ! "

Miss Letitia laughed and a very pretty, musical
little laugh she had.

" Oh, by all means let us have the Cow ! " she said
gaily. " Where is it, Boy ? "

Boy looked up, then down, to the east, to the

44 Boy

west, and everywhere into the air, without committing
himself to a reply. Gerty came to the rescue.

"I'll fetch it," she said briskly. "I saw it on
Master Boy's bed a minute ago."

She left the room, to return again directly with the
interesting animal in question quite a respectably-
sized toy cow with a movable head which wagged
up and down for a long time when set in motion by
the touch of a finger. It had a blue ribbon round
its neck, and Boy called it * Dunny.' He welcomed
it now as he saw it with the confiding smile of long
and experienced friendship.

"Ullo Dunny!" he said "Wants out wiz Boy?
Turn along zen ! " And receiving the pasteboard
quadruped in his arms he embraced it with effusion.

" It is most absurd ! " said Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir
grandiosely " Still it would be rather awkward
for you, Letitia, if he were to start crying for his
Cow!"

" It would indeed ! " and the laughter still lighted
up Miss Letitia's soft eyes with a keen and merry
twinkle " I would not be without the Cow for
worlds ! "

Something in her voice or smile caused Mrs.
D'Arcy-Muir to feel slightly cross. There was an
unmistakable air of youth about this " old maid "
a sense of fun and a spirit of enjoyment which were
not in ' Muzzy's ' composition. And ' Muzzy ' straight-
way got an idea into her head that she was " out of

Boy 45

it," as it were, that Miss Letitia, Boy and * Dunny '
all understood each other in a manner which she
could never grasp, and knew the way to a fairyland
where she could never follow. And it was with a
touch of snappishness that she said,

" Well ! if you are going, hadn't you better go ?
My husband will probably be coming in here soon,
and he might perhaps make some objection to Boy's
leaving "

" Oh, I won't run the risk of tJiat \ " answered Miss
Leslie quickly. " Come along, Boy ! say good-bye
to Mother!"

Holding his ' Cow ' with one hand to his breast,
Boy raised his pretty little face to be kissed again.

" Goo ' bye, Muzzy dee-ar ! " he murmured " 'Ope
Dads better soon ! Kiss Dads for Boy ! "

This was his parting message to the drunkard
in the next room, and having uttered it, he drew
a long breath as of one who prepares to plunge
into unknown seas, and resigned himself to ' Kiss-
Letty,' who led him gently along, accommodating
her graceful swift step to his toddling movements,
through the hall and outside to her brougham, where
the footman in attendance, smiling broadly at the
sight of Boy, lifted the little fellow in, and seated
him cosily on the soft cushions. Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir
and the servant Gerty watched his departure from
the house door.

" I will take every care of him ! " called Miss

46 Boy

Letitia, as she followed her small guest into her
carriage " Don't be at all anxious ! "

She waved her hand, the footman shut the door,
and mounted the box, and in another minute the
smart little equipage had turned the corner of
Hereford Square and disappeared. Mrs. D'Arcy-
Muir remained for a few seconds on the steps of
her house, airing herself largely, and patronising with
a casual glance the clear blue of the afternoon sky.

" What a vain old woman that Miss Leslie is ! "
she remarked to Gerty "Really she tries to pass
herself off as about thirty ! "

Gerty sniffed, as usual.

" Oh, I don't think so, 'm ! " she said" I don't
think she tries to pass herself off as anything, 'm !
And I wouldn't never call her vain. She's just the
real lady, every inch of her, and of course she can't
help herself lookin' nice. And what a mercy it is
for Master Boy to be took away just now ! for I
didn't like to mention it before, 'm, but I don't know
what we're goin' to do with the Cap'en, he's goin'
on worse than ever, an he's bin an 1 torn nearly
every mossel of his clothes off, an' a puffeckly
disgraceful sight he is, 'm, lyin' sprawled on the floor
a-playin' ' patience ' ! "

CHAPTER III

Miss LETITIA'S house, her "great big house," as
Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir had expansively described it to
Boy, was situated on the sunniest side of Hans Place.
It was tastefully built, and all the window-ledges
had floral boxes delightfully arranged with flowers
growing in pots and hanging baskets, over which
on warm bright days spacious crimson-and-white
awnings stretched forth their protective shade, giving
the house-front quite a gay and foreign effect. The
door was white, and a highly-polished brass knocker
glinted in the sunshine with an almost knowing wink,
as much as to say " Use me And you shall see
Hospitalitee ! " When Miss Letty's brougham
drove up, however, this same knowing knocker was
not called into requisition, for the butler had heard
the approaching wheels, and had seen the approaching
trotting roans through a little spy-window of his own
in the hall, so that before Miss Letty had stepped
from the vehicle and had "jumped " her small visitor
out also, the door was opened and the butler himself
stood, a sedate figure of civil welcome on the
threshold. Without betraying himself by so much

47

48 Boy

as a profane smile, this dignitary of the household
accepted the Cow and the brown paper parcel which
constituted all Boy's belongings. He took them, so
to speak, to his manly bosom, and then, waving away
the carriage, coachman, footman and horses with a
slight yet stately gesture, he shut the house door and
followed his " lady " and the " young gentleman "
through the hall into a room which beamed with light,
warmth and elegance, Miss Letty's morning-room or
boudoir where, with undisturbed serenity he set the
Cow on the table between a cabinet portrait of Mr.
Balfour and a small bronze statuette of Mercury.
The Cow looked rather out of place there, but it did
not matter.

" Will you take tea, Madam ? " he asked, in a voice
rendered mellifluous by the constant and careful
practice of domestic gentleness.

" No, thank you, Plimpton," replied Miss Letty
cheerfully ; " we have had tea. Just ring the bell for
Margaret, will you ? "

Plimpton bowed, and withdrew, not forgetting to
deposit the brown paper parcel on a chair as he
made his exit. Boy stood speechless, gazing round
him in a state of utter bewilderment, and only
holding to any sense of reality in things by keeping
close to " Kiss-Letty," and for the further relief of his
mind glancing occasionally at the familiar " Dunny,"
who presented the appearance of grazing luxuriously
on an embroidered velvet table-cloth. Instinctively

Boy 49

aware of the little fellow's sudden shyness and touch
of fear, Miss Letty did not allow him to remain long
oppressed by his vague trouble. Kneeling down
beside him, she took off his hat, pulled him out of his
tiny overcoat, and kissed his little fat cheeks heartily.

" Now you are at home with Kiss- Letty," she said,
smiling straight into his big innocent blue eyes,
" aren't you ? "

Boy's breath came and went quickly his heart
beat hard. He lifted one dumpy hand and dubiously
inserted a forefinger through the loops of Miss
Letty's ever-convenient neck-chain. Then he smiled
with responsive sweetness into the kind face so close
to his own.

"'Ess," he murmured very softly, "Boy wiz Kiss-
Letty ! But me feels awfoo' funny ! "

Miss Letitia laughed and kissed him again.

" Feels awfoo' funny, do you ? " she echoed. " Oh,
but I feel just the same, Boy ! It's awfoo' funny for
me to have you here all to myself, don't you think
so?"

Boy's smile broadened he began to chuckle,
there was the glimmering perception of a joke some-
where in his brain. Just at that moment a comfort-
able-looking woman in a neat black dress, with a
smart white apron, entered, and to her Miss Letty
turned.

"This is the dear little fellow I told you about,
Margaret," she said, "the only son of the D'Arcy-

50 Boy

Muirs. Master Boy he is called. Boy, will you say
' how do you do ' to Margaret ? "

Boy looked up. He was easier in his mind now
and felt much more at home.

" How do, Margit ? " he said cheerfully. " Me turn
to stay wiz Kiss-Letty."

" Bless the wee laddie ! " exclaimed Margaret in
the broad soft accent of Inverness, of which lovely
town she was a proud native ; and down she flopped
on her knees, already the willing worshipper of one
small child's winsomeness. " And a grand time ye'll
have of it, I'm thinking, if ye Ye as good as ye're
bonnie ! Come away wi' me now and I'll wash ye'r
bit handies and put on anither suit," for her quick eye
had perceived the brown paper parcel while her quick
mind had guessed its contents. " And what time will
he be for bed, mem ? "

" What time do you go to bed, Boy ? " asked Miss
Letty, caressing his curls.

" Eight klock ! " responded Boy promptly ; " Gerty
puts me in barf and zen in bed."

Both Miss Leslie and her maid laughed.

"Well, it will be just the same to-night," said
' Kiss-Letty ' gaily ; " only it will be Margaret instead
of Gerty. But it's a long way off eight o'clock, you
go with Margaret now, and she will bring you back
to me in the drawing-room, and there you shall see
some pictures."

Boy smiled at the prospect, he was ready for

Boy 51

anything now. He put his hand trustfully in that of
Margaret, merely observing in a casual sort of way

" Dunny turn wiz me."

Margaret looked round enquiringly.

" He'means his Cow," explained Miss Letty, taking
that animal from its velvet pasture-land and handing
it to her maid, who received it quite respectfully.
"Just remember, Margaret, will you, that he likes
the Cow on his bed ! It sleeps with him always."

Mistress and maid exchanged a laughing glance,
and then Boy trotted off. Miss Letty watched him
slowly stumping up her handsome staircase, holding
on to Margaret's hand and chattering all the way,
and a sudden haze of tears blinded her sight. What
she had missed in her life ! what she had missed !
She thought of it with no selfish regret, but only a
little aching pain, and even now she stilled that pain
with a prayer a prayer that though God had not
seen fit to bless her with the love of husband or
children she might still be of use in the world, of
use perchance if only to shield and benefit this one
little human life of Boy's which had attracted so
much of her interest and affection. And with this
thought, dismissing her tears, she went up to her
own room, changed her walking dress for a graceful
tea-gown of black Chantilly lace which clothed her
slender figure with becoming ease and dignity, and
went into her drawing-room, where, near the French
window which opened into a beautiful conservatory.

52 Boy

stood a bluff, big gentleman with a white moustache,
chirruping tenderly to a plump bullfinch, which made
no secret of the infinite surprise it felt at such strange
attempts to imitate melodious warbling. Miss Leslie
uttered a low exclamation of pleasure.

"Why, Dick," she said, "this is delightful! I
thought you had gone abroad ? "

" So I was going," responded Dick otherwise
Major Desmond, advancing to take Miss Letty's
outstretched hand and raise it gallantly to his lips,
"but just as I was about to start, I read in the
newspapers of a fellow a man who was once in my
regiment who had got insulted by a dirty ragamuffin
of a chap in the Custom-house on the French frontier,
and I said to myself ' What ! am I going out of
England to be treated as if I were a thief, and have
my portmanteau searched by a Frenchy ? No ! as an
English officer I won't submit to it ! I will stay at
home !' It was a sudden resolution. You know I'm
a fellow to make sudden resolutions, am't I, Letty ?
Well, give you my word, I never looked upon Custom-
house regulations in the same light as I do now !
Come to think of it, you know, directly we leave our
own shores we're treated like thieves and rascals by
all the foreigners, and why should we expose our-
selves to it ? Eh ? I say why ? "

Miss Leslie laughed.

" Well, I'm sure / don't know why," she answered.
" Only I rather wonder you never thought of all this

Boy 53

before. You have always gone abroad some time in
the year, you know."

The Major pulled his white moustache thoughtfully.

" Yes, I have," he admitted. " And why the devil
I beg your pardon ! I have done it I can't imagine.
England's good enough for anybody. There's too
much gadding about everywhere nowadays. And the
world seems to me to shrink in consequence. Shrink !
by Jove ! it's no bigger than a billiard ball ! "

Miss Letty smiled, and said " Sweet ! " to her
bullfinch, which straightway warbled with delightful
inaccuracy the quaint air of " The Whistling Coon."

" Bravo ! Bravo ! " exclaimed Major Desmond,
after listening attentively to the little bird's per-
formance. " Now why the chap couldn't do that for
me I can't understand. I have been chirruping to
him till my tongue aches and couldn't get a note out
of him. Only a wink. You just say ' sweet ' and off
he starts. Well, and what have you been doing with
yourself, Letty? You look very fit."

"Oh, I'm always 'fit' as you call it," said Miss
Leslie placidly. " I live the same quiet life month after
month, you know, and I suppose it's scarcely possible
for anything to go very wrong with me. I have
passed through my storm and stress. The days go
by now all in the same even, monotonous way."

Major Desmond took two or three turns up and
down the room.

" Well, if you find it even and monotonous to be

54 Boy

doing good all your time," he observed, " I can
only say that I wish a -few more people would
indulge in monotony ! But don't you mean to have
a change?"

" Oh, I have provided a little distraction for myself,"
said Miss Letty, smiling demurely ; " I have got a
young man to stay with me for a few days."

" Young man ! " exclaimed the Major. " Well, upon

my word " here he stopped short, for at that

moment Boy, attired in his best suit of white flannel,
his face shining with recent ablutions, and his golden
hair brushed into a shining aureole of curls round his
brow, trotted into the room with a cheerful confidence
and assertiveness quite wonderful to see.

" Ullo, Major ! " he exclaimed : " Zoo turn to see
Boy?"

Major Desmond rose to the occasion at once.

" Of course ! " he said, and lifting Boy in his arms
he set him on his broad shoulder. " Of course I have
come to see you ! Impossible to keep away knowing
you to be here ! "

Boy chuckled.

"Me turn to stay wiz Kiss-Letty," he announced.

" So I perceive," replied the Major and turning
to Miss Leslie he said, " This is the young man, eh,
Letty ? Well, however did you manage to get hold
of him ? "

" I will tell you all about it at dinner," she answered
in a low tone. " You will stay and dine ? "

Boy 55

" With pleasure in fact I hoped you would ask
me," responded the Major frankly ; " I'm sick of club
food."

Boy from his lifted position on the Major's shoulder
had been quietly surveying everything in the room.
He now pointed to a copy of Burne-Jones's " Golden
Stair."

" Pitty ladies," he remarked.

" Yes," agreed Major Desmond, " very pitty ! All
so good and sweet and lovely, aren't they, Boy ? Each
one sweeter, gooder, lovelier as they come, and all
so full of pleasant thoughts that they have almost
grown alike. One ideal of goodness taking many
forms ! "

He spoke to himself now and not to Boy and his
eyes rested musingly on Miss Letty. She was just
setting a large vase of roses on the grand piano. She
looked from his distance a very gentle, fragile lady
dainty and elegant too almost young,

" Kiss-Letty wiz ze roses," observed Boy.

" Just so ! " agreed the Major, " and that is where
she always is, Boy ! Roses mean everything that is
good and sweet and wholesome, and I should not
wonder if ' Kiss-Letty ' was not something of a rose
itself in her way ! "

" Oh, Dick ! " expostulated Miss Letty, " how
can you talk such nonsense to the child ! What
flattery to an old woman like me ! "

" Boy doesn't know whether I'm talking nonsense

56 Boy

or the utmost wisdom," responded the Major un-
dauntedly. "And as I have often told you, you
will never be old to me, Letty. You are the best
friend I ever had, and if friends are not the roses
of life, I should like to know what flowers they
do represent ! And what I have said before, I say
again, that I'm ready to marry you to-morrow if
you'll have me."

" Oh, dear me ! " sighed Miss Leslie, with a little
tremulous laugh. " Just think ! Saying such a thing
before Boy ! "

" Boy ! I guarantee he doesn't understand a word
I have been talking about. Eh, Boy ? Do you know
what I have been saying to * Kiss-Letty ' ? "

Boy looked down at him with a profound air of
cherubic wisdom.

" Wants marry Kiss-Letty 'morrow if 'ave me," he
said solemnly.

And then Major Desmond had one of his alarming
laughs, a laugh which threatened to dislodge Boy
altogether from his position and throw him headlong
on the floor. Miss Letty laughed too, but more
gently, and on her pale cheeks there was a rosy tinge
suggestive of a blush.

" Well, well ! " said the Major, recovering from his
hilarity at last, " Boy is not such a fool as he looks,
evidently ! There, Letty, I won't tease you any
more. But you are very obstinate, you know, yes,
you are ! What does Longfellow say ?

Boy 57

'Trust no future, howe'er pleasant,
Let the dead past bury its dead :
Act, act, in the living present,
Heart within and God o'erhead.'

That's wholesome stuff, Letty. I like Longfellow
because he is always straight. Some poets go gigget-
ting about in all sorts of dark corners and pop out
suddenly upon you with a fire-cracker of a verse
which you can't understand a bit, because all the
meaning fizzles out while you are looking at it,
but Longfellow ! ' Let the dead past bury its dead.'
That's sense, Letty. And ' Act, act in the living
present.' Why, that's sense too. And why don't
you do it ? "

" I think I try to do it," answered Miss Letty
quietly ; " I like to be useful wherever I go. But for
me there is no dead past, as you know, it lives always
with me and makes the best and sweetest part of the
present."

" There, I suppose I've been putting my foot in it
again ! " muttered Major Desmond, somewhat dis-
consolately. "You know I never meant to suggest
that you did not do all the good you could and
more than is necessary in your life, but what I see
in Longfellow's line is that you should 'act, act in
the living present ' for yourself, Letty. For yourself
make yourself happy, as well as others make
me happy ! Now, wouldn't that be a praiseworthy
deed?"

58 Boy

" Not at all," replied Miss Letty, smiling, " for you
deserve to be much happier than I could ever make
you. You know there are many charming young
women you could marry."

" No, I don't know anything of the sort," said the
Major decisively. " The young women of the present
day are all hussies brazen-faced hussies, in my
opinion. Girls don't blush any more nowadays ;
men blush for them. No you're not going to get
rid of me in that way, Letty. At my age I'm not
going to be such a vain old ass as to go
smirking after girls who would only laugh at me
behind my back. I don't believe in philandering, but
I believe in love yes, love at all ages and in all
seasons but it must be the real thing and no sham
about it." Here he stopped, for Boy was wriggling
on his shoulder and showing unmistakable signs of
wishing to go free ; so he gently set him down.
"There you are, little chap ! and there you go
straight for the roses and ' Kiss-Letty ' ! Lucky
rascal ! " This as Boy trotted up to Miss Leslie and
stretched his short arms caressingly round her soft
lace skirts.

" Where's booful pick-shures?" he demanded ; " Boy
likes pick-shures."

Miss Leslie then bethought herself that she had
promised he should see some ' booful pick-shures '
when he came into the drawing-room, and turning
towards a pile of Editions de luxe in large quarto of

Boy 59

famous works such as " Don Quixote," " Idylls of the
King," and Dante's " Divina Commedia," she hesitated.

"Which shall I give him, Dick?" she asked the
Major.

"Put 'em all on the floor and let him choose for
himself," was the reply. " I believe in treating children
like lambs and birds let them frisk and fly about in
the fields of general information as they like, choose
their own bits of grass as it were. Now here's a
quintessence of brain for you," and he lifted four
large volumes off the side-table where they generally
stood and placed them on the floor " Come here,
Boy ! Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, Tennyson !
Never heard of 'em, did you ? No ! but you will
probably have the pleasure of making the acquaint-
ance of all four of 'em in a few years. That's where
the wonderful immortality of genius comes in, the
dead author is spiritually able to shake hands with
and talk to each and every generation which follows
him. There is a wonderful secret in the power of
expressed thought if we could only fathom it. Now,
which one are you going for first ? "

Boy sat down on the floor and considered. One or
two of the big books he opened cautiously and looked
in as though expecting to see some strange living
object inside, then he shut them quickly, smiling
mysteriously to himself the while. Then in the same
doubtful way he peeped into the second volume of
Dante entitled " Paradiso " and lo ! a picture

60 Boy

of angels ascending and descending one of Dore's
most wonderful conceptions of forms of light por-
trayed in a dazzling atmosphere, and his blue eyes
sparkled he opened the book wider and wider till
the whole page burst upon his view, whereupon he
curled down closer still and stared silently. Miss
Letty seated herself in a low chair, and took out
some dainty embroidery, and while her swift needle
went in and out with a bright-coloured silk behind it,
which wove a flower as it moved, she watched the
little fellow, and Major Desmond sitting opposite to
her did the same. The bullfinch began a scrap of his
'aria' but broke off to preen his wing, and there
was a silence in the pretty room while Boy's innocent
little face drooped in a rapture over the pictured
scene of heavenly glory. Not a word did he utter,
but merely drew a long breath like a sigh, and his
eyes darkened with an expression of wistful gravity.
Then he turned over a few more pages and came
upon that most exquisite " Cross " of Dore's imagina-
tion, where the dying Saviour of the world hangs
crucified, but is surrounded at every point by angels.
This seemed to fascinate him more than the other,
and he remained absorbed for many minutes, enrapt
and speechless. Some unaccountable influence held
Miss Leslie and her old friend Dick Desmond silent
too. The thoughts of both were very busy. The
Major had a secret in his soul which, had he declared
it, would have well-nigh killed Letitia Leslie, he

Boy 61

knew that the man she had loved, and whose memory
she honoured with such faithful devotion, had been
nothing but a heartless scamp, who in an unguarded
moment had avowed to him, Major Desmond, that he
was going to throw over Letty when he got back
from India, as he was 'on* with a much prettier and
wealthier woman ; but he had never * got back from
India' to carry out his intention death had seized
him in the heyday of his career, and Letty believed he
had died loving her, and her only. Who would have
undeceived her ? Who would have poisoned the faith
of that simple trusting heart? Not Dick Desmond
certainly ; though he had himself loved her for nearly
twenty years, and being of a steadfast nature had
found it impossible to love any one else. And he
was more content to have her as a friend than to have
the most charming ' other woman ' as a wife. And
he had jogged on quietly till now well, now he was
fifty, and Letty was forty-five.

" We're getting on by Jove, yes ! we're getting
on!" mused Dick. "And just think what that dead
rascal out in India has cost us ! Our very lives ! All
sacrificed ! Well, never mind ! I would not spoil
Letty's belief in her sweetheart for the world."

And yet he could not help feeling it to be a trifle
' hard,' as he felt the charm of Letty's quiet presence,
and saw Boy bending over Dore's picture of the
" Cross."

" If if she would have had me, we might have had

62 Boy

a child of our own like that," he mused dolefully ;
" and as it is, the poor little chap has got a drunken
beast for a father and a slovenly fool for a mother !
Well, well God arranges things in a queer way, and
I must say, without irreverence, it doesn't seem at
all a clear or a just way to me. Why the innocent
should suffer for the guilty (and they always do) is a
mystery."

Letty, meanwhile, was thinking too. Such sweet
and holy thoughts ! thoughts of her dead lover, her
' brave, true Harry,' as she was wont to call him in
her own mind a mind which was as white and pure
as the 'Taj-Mahal,' and which enshrined this same
'Harry' in its midst as a heroic figure of stately
splendour and godlike honour. No man was ever
endowed by woman with more virtues than Letty
gave to her dead betrothed, and her faith in him was
so perfect that she had become content with her
loneliness because she felt that it was only for a little
while, that soon she and her beloved would meet
again never to part. Is it impossible to believe that
the steadfast faith and love of a good woman may
uplift the departed spirit of an unworthy man out of
an uttermost Hell by its force and purity? Surely
in these days, when we are discovering what mar-
vellous properties there are in simple light, and the
passing of sound through space, it would be foolish
to deny the probability of noble Thought radiating to
unmeasured distances, and affecting for good those

Boy 63

who are gone from us, whom we loved on earth,
and whose present state and form of life we are
not as yet permitted to behold. Anyway, whatever
wonders lie hidden in waiting for us behind Death's
dark curtain, it may be conceded that the unfaithful
soul of the man she loved was in no wise injured by
Miss Letty's remembering tenderness and prayers,
but rather strengthened and sustained. She was
touched just now by Boy's admiration of the pictured
angels, and to her always thoughtful mind there was
something quaint in the spectacle of the little wonder-
ing fellow bending over the abstruse Great Poem of
Italy which arose to life and being through the poet's
own Great Wrong. Little did the enemies of Dante
dream that their names would be committed to lasting
execration in a Hell so immortal as the * Inferno,'
though it is to be deplored that so supreme a writer
should have thought it worth his while to honour, by
handing down to posterity, the names of those who
were as nobodies compared with himself. However
he, like other old-world poets, was not permitted to
see his fate beyond his own lifetime. We are wiser
in our generation. We know that the more an
author's work is publicly praised the more likely it
is to die quickly and immediately, and those who
desire their thoughts to last, and to carry weight with
future generations, should pray for the condemnation
of their present compeers in order to be in tune with
the slow but steady pulse-beat of Fame, One has

64 Boy

only to look back through a few centuries to see the
list of the Despised who are now become the Glorious
and a study of contemporary critics on the works
of Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens, is a very
wholesome lesson to the untried writer of books who
is afraid of the little acrimonies of Fleet Street. To
lead the world one must first be crucified, this is the
chief lesson of practical Christianity.

" Rather curious," said Major Desmond at last,
nodding towards Boy, and speaking softly as if he
were in church, " how he seems to like those fanciful
things ! "

Miss Letty smiled.

"Boy!"

Boy looked up with a start.

" Do you like the picture-book ? "

Boy gave no answer in words. He merely nodded
and placed one dumpy hand on the " Cross of
Angels," to keep the place. Suddenly, however, he
found voice. He had turned over a few more pages,
though still careful not to lose the picture he had
selected as his favourite, when he stopped and ex-
claimed breathlessly,

" Boy bin there ! "

The Major, with remarkable alertness, went down
on the floor beside him and looked over his golden
head.

" Boy been there ! Nonsense ! What ! In that
wonderful garden, with all those flowers and trees

Boy 65

and lovely angels flying about ! Boy couldn't get
there if he tried ! "

Boy looked at him with solemnly reproachful eyes.

" Tell 'oo Boy bin there," he repeated. " Boy seen
fowers and boo'ful people! Boy knows vesy well
about it ! "

The Major became interested.

" Oh, all right ! I don't wish to contradict you,
little chappie ! " he said with a cheery and confidential
air, " But when were you there last, eh ? "

Boy considered his rosy lips tightened, and his
fair brows puckered in a frown of mental puzzlement.

" Me dunno," he replied at last : " long, long time
'go awfoo' long ! " and he gave a deep sigh. " Dunno
'ow long " here he studied the picture again with
an approving air of familiarity. " But Boy 'members
it ; pitty p'ace, pitty fowers, all bwight, awfoo'
bwight ! 'ess ! me 'members it ! "

The Major got up from his knees, dusted his
trousers, and looked quizzically at Miss Letty.

" Odd little rascal," he observed, sotto voce. " Doesn't
know a bit what he is jabbering about ! "

Miss Letty's soft blue eyes rested on the child
thoughtfully.

"I'm not sure about that, Dick," she said. "We
are rather arrogant, we old worldly-wise people, in
our estimate of children ; Boy may remember where
he came from, and the imagination of a great artist
may have recalled to him a true reality."

5

66 Boy

Her voice was very sweet, her tace expressed a
faith and hope which made it beautiful ; and Dick
Desmond, in his quick, impulsive fashion, caught one
of her little white hands and raised it to his lips with
all the gallant grace of a soldier and a gentleman.

" God bless you, Letty ! " he said heartily ; " I know
very well where you came from ! and I don't want
any picture but yourself to remind me of the fact ! "

CHAPTER IV

THAT evening, after Boy had gone to bed, Miss
Leslie and the Major discussed the possibilities of
his future with great and affectionate interest.

" Of course," said Desmond, " it is a splendid
chance for the boy, but, Letty, that is just the very
reason that I am afraid he will not be allowed to
have it. The affairs of humanity are arranged in a
very curiously jumbled-up fashion, and I have always
found that when some specially good luck appears
about to favour a deserving person, something un-
favourable comes in the way and prevents him getting
it. And Fortune frequently showers her choicest
gifts on the most unworthy scoundrels, male and
female, that burden this earth's surface. It's odd
it's unfair, but it's true."

" Not always," said Miss Leslie, gently. " You
really must not get into the habit of looking on the
worst side of life, Dick."

" I won't," responded the Major promptly " at
least, not when you're looking at me. Out of your
sight I can do as I like ! "

67

68 Boy

Miss Letty laughed. Then she returned to the
chief subject of interest

" You see," she said, " it is not as if the D'Arcy-
Muirs were rich and had plenty of opportunities for
their son's advance in life. They certainly have
enough to live comfortably on, if they are frugal and
careful, but the man is so incorrigible "

" And the woman," put in Major Desmond.

" Well, yes she too is incorrigible in another way,
but after all slovenliness can scarcely be called a
sin."

" I think it can," said the Major emphatically. " A
slovenly woman is an eyesore and creates discord and
discomfort by her very appearance. She is a walking
offence. And when slovenliness is combined with
obstinacy, by Jove, Letty ! I tell you pigs going
the wrong way home are easy driving compared to
Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir ! "

" Yes, I know ! " and for a moment Miss Leslie's
even brows puckered in a little vexed line. " And
her obstinacy is of such a strange kind, all about
the merest trifles ! She argues on the question of a
teacup or a duster to the extreme verge of silliness,
but in important matters, such as the health or well-
being of her husband or of Boy she lets everything
go to pieces without a word of protest ! "

" Delightful creature ! " murmured the Major,
sipping his glass of port wine with a relish : they
were at dessert, and he was very comfortable, pleased

Boy 69

with the elegance of the table, which glistened with
old silver, delicate glass, and tastefully arranged
flowers, and still more pleased with the grace and
kindness of his gentle hostess, " I remember her
before Jim married her. A handsome large creature
with a slow smile, one of those smiles which begin
in the exact middle of the lips, spread to the corners
and gradually widen all over the face, an indiarubber
smile I call it, but the men who took to her in her
young days used to rave over her smile, and one
idiot said she had * magnificent maternal brows like
the Niobe in Florence.' Good old Niobe! Yes,
Letty, there are a certain set of fellows who always
lose their heads on large women, the larger the
better, give you my word ! They never consider
that the large girl will become a larger matron, and
unless attacked by a wasting disease (which heaven
forfend) will naturally grow larger every year. And
I tell you, Letty, there is nothing in the world that
kills a romantic passion so surely and hopelessly as
Fat I Ah, you may laugh ! but it is a painful truth.
Poetry moonlight music kisses all that pleasant
stuff and nonsense melt before Fat. I have never
met a man yet who was in love with a fat, really fat
woman ! And if a slim girl marries and gets fat
in the years to come, her husband, poor chap, may
deplore it, deeply deplore it but it's very distressing
he cannot help it his romance dies under it. Dies
utterly ! Ah ! We're weak creatures, we men, we

70 Boy

cannot stand Fat We like plumpness, oh yes !
We like round rosy curves and dimples, but not
actual Fat. Now, Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir will become
indeed has become Fat."

" Dear me ! " and Miss Leslie laughed, " you really
are quite eloquent, Dick ! I never heard you go on
in this way before. Poor Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir! She
really has no alternative "

" No alternative but to become Fat ? " enquired the
Major, solemnly glaring over his port wine.

" Now you know I don't mean it in that way,"
laughed Miss Leslie. " You really are incorrigible !
What I wished to point out was, that when a woman
finds that her husband doesn't care a bit how she
looks or what she wears, she is apt to become
careless."

"It doesn't follow that because a man is a churl a
woman should lose her self-respect," said the Major.
" Surely she should take a pride in being clean and
looking as well as she can for her own sake. Then
in this particular case there is Boy."

"Yes there is Boy," agreed Miss Letty medita-
tively. " And he certainly does notice things."

" Notice things ? I should think he does ! He is
always noticing. He notices his mother's untidiness,
and he notices his father's disgracefulness. If I were
Jim D'Arcy-Muir I should be ashamed to meet that
little chap's eyes."

Miss Letty sighed.

Boy 71

"Do you think," she asked after a pause, "they
will let me have him ? "

The Major considered, and for some minutes sat
twirling the ends of his white moustache reflectively.

"Well, to tell you the truth, Letty, I don't," he
said at last, " I don't believe they will for a moment.
Some parents would refuse your offer on account of
their love and affection for the child, and their own
natural desire not to part with him. That will not be
the D'Arcy-Muirs' reason. They will simply argue
that you are trying to ' patronise ' them. It will be
exactly like their muddled minds to put it that way.
They will say, ' She thinks we are going to put our
son under obligations to her for her money.' And
though they conduct themselves like pigs they think
a great deal of themselves in a ' county-family '
fashion. No, Letty I'm afraid you won't get a
chance of doing any good in that quarter. But if
you like I will take soundings that is, I will suggest
the idea of such a thing and see how they take it.
What do you say ? "

" Oh, I wish you would ! " said Miss Lettie earnestly.
" You see you know Captain D'Arcy-Muir "

" Well, in a way, yes, I know him in a way,"
corrected the Major ; " I used to know him better than
I do now. He was never in my regiment, thank the
Lord ! But I will try to get hold of him in a sober
moment, and see what can be done. But I don't give
out any hopes of him."

72 Boy

" Oh, Dick !" sighed Miss Letty.

" Well, I shall be very sorry for your disappoint-
ment, Letty, very sorry and sorrier still for the
little chap, for I think his life literally hangs on the
balance of this chance. If he is not allowed to take
it, all the worse for him, he will come to no good,
I fear."

" Don't say that ! " pleaded Miss Leslie, with pain
in her voice ; " don't say that ! "

"All right, I won't say it," said the Major, ex-
pressing however in his face and tone of voice that he
would probably think it all, the same. " But the world
is a bad place to fight in if you are not thoroughly
well equipped for the battle. God made the world,
so we are told, but I doubt whether He wished it to
be quite as overcrowded as it is just now. All the
professions all the trades all the arts overdone !
Army no go, Navy no go. If you are a soldier and
get any chance of facing fire, you know just what
your reward is likely to be, unless you are a Kitchener.
You may get a V.C., and after that the workhouse,
like some of the Crimean heroes. And in the Navy
you get literally nothing but very poor pay. The
best thing for a man now is to be an explorer, and
even when you are that, the world cannot be per-
suaded to believe that you have explored anything, or
been anywhere. You have simply been sitting at home
and reading up!" He laughed, and then went on, "If
you get Boy what are you going to do with him ? "

Boy 73

" I shall see what he likes to do best himself," said
Letty.

"At present he likes to hug you and see ' pick-
shures ' of heavenly places," said the Major. " That's
a bad sign, Letty ! Woman and Art spells ruin
like theatrical speculation ! Well ! Come and have
a game of chess with me before I go home to my
lonely bachelor rooms ; it is really too bad of you
to make a sour old man of me in this way ! "

Miss Leslie laughed heartily.

" No one will ever call you a sour old man, Dick,"
she said as she rose from the table. " You are the
most genial and generous-hearted fellow I know."

"Then why won't you have me?" pleaded
Desmond.

" Oh, you know why," said Letty. " What is the
use of going over it all again ? "

" Going over it all yes I know ! " said the Major
dismally. " You have got it into your head that if you
were to marry me, and that then afterwards we died
as we shall do and went to Heaven which is a
question you would find your Harry up there in the
shape of a stern reproving angel, ready to scold you
for having a little happiness and sympathy on earth
when he was not there. Now, if things are to be
arranged in that way, some folks will be in awful
trouble. The ladies who have had several husbands,
the husbands who have had several wives, stern
reproving angels all round, good gracious ! What a

74 Boy

row there will be ! Fact is fact, Letty, there cannot
possibly be peace in Heaven under such circum-
stances ! "

" Do stop talking such nonsense," said Miss Leslie,
still laughing. " Really I begin to wish you had gone
abroad after all ! "

" No, you don't," said Dick confidently, as he
followed her into the drawing-room. "You are
pleased to see me, you know you are ! Hullo !
Here's Margaret. What's up ? Something wrong
with Boy?"

" Oh no, sir," said Margaret, who had just entered
the room ; " but I thought perhaps Miss Leslie would
like to see him asleep. He is just the bonniest wee
bairnie ! "

" Oh, I must go and look at him ! " said Miss Letty
eagerly. " Will you come too, Dick ? "

The Major assented with alacrity, and they followed
Margaret upstairs, treading softly and on tiptoe as
they entered the pretty airy room selected for Boy's
slumbers. It was a large room, and one corner of it
was occupied by the big bed allotted to Margaret. In
an arched recess, draped with white muslin, was a
smaller and daintier couch, and here Boy lay in
his first sleep, his fair curls tossed on the pillow, his
round soft face rosy with warmth and health, his
pretty mouth slightly parted in a smile. Miss Leslie
bent over him tenderly and kissed his forehead,
Major Desmond looked on in contemplative and

Boy 75

somewhat awed silence. Presently he noticed a piece
of string tied to the little fellow's wrist. Pointing to
it he whispered solemnly,

"What's that?"

Margaret smiled.

" Oh, he just begged me to get him a bit of string,"
she said. " He said he always had to fasten his Cow up
at night lest it should run away ! " Margaret laughed.
" Bless the wee lad ! And there you see is the Cow at
the foot of the bed, and he has tied it to the string in
that way himself!"

" Good gracious me ! " said the Major, staring, " I
never heard of such a thing in my life ! And the Cow
can't run away ! Lucky Cow ! "

Boy stirred in his sleep and smiled. A slight
movement of the chubby wrist to which the beloved
" Dunny " was tied caused it to wag its movable head
automatically, and for a moment it looked quite a
sentient thing nodding wisely over unexpressed and
inexpressible pastoral problems.

" Come away," then said Miss Letty gently. " We
shall wake him if we remain any longer."

"Yes," said the Major dreamily, "we shall wake
him ! And then the Cow might bolt, or take to
tossing somebody on its horns, which would be very
alarming ! God bless my soul ! What a little chap
it is ! Beginning to look after a cow at his time of
life ! a budding farmer, upon my word ! Letty,
Australia is the place for him, a wild prairie

76 Boy

and cattle, you know, he is evidently a born
rancher ! "

Letty laughed, and they left the room together.
Margaret watched them as they went downstairs, and
gave a little regretful sigh.

"Poor dear Miss Letty!" she thought. "The sweetest
lady that ever lived, and no man has ever been wise
enough to find it out and marry her."

She bent over Boy's bed and carefully adjusted
the coverlet to keep him warm, then lowering the
light, left him sleeping peacefully with "Dunny" on
guard.

CHAPTER V

IT is a trite axiom, but no less true than trite, that
we are always happiest when we are most unconscious
of happiness, when the simple fact of mere existence
is enough for us, when we do not know how, or
when, or where the causes for our pleasure come
in, and when we are content to live as the birds
and flowers live, just for the one day's innocent
delight, untroubled by any thoughts concerning the
past or future. This is a state of mind which is
generally supposed to vanish with early youth,
though there are some few peculiarly endowed
natures, sufficiently well poised, and confident of
the flowing in of eternal goodness everywhere, to
be serenely joyous with all the trust of a little child
to the very extreme of old age. But even with men
and women not so fortunately situated the days when
they were happy without knowing it remain put
away in their memories as the sweetest time of life,
and are recalled to them again and again with more
or less poignancy, when pain and disappointment,
deceit, cruelty, and harshness unwind the rose-coloured
veil of romance from persons and things and show

77

78 Boy

them the world at its worst. Boy, in the house of
Miss Letitia Leslie, was just now living the un-
conscious life, and making for himself such a picture
gallery of sweet little souvenirs as were destined to
return to him in years to come sharpened with
pain, and embittered by a profitless regret. Every
morning he rose up to some new and harmless
delight, among surroundings of perfect sweetness
and peace, order, cleanliness, kindness, good-humour
and cheerfulness were the hourly investiture of the
household, and after he had been with " Kiss-Letty "
two or three days Boy began dimly to wonder
whether there really was such an individual as " Poo
Sing," or such a large lady as " Muzzy," in the world.
Not that the little fellow was forgetful of his parents,
but the parents themselves were of so hazy, and
vague, and undeterminate a character that the
individuality of the servant Gerty was far more real
and actual to the infant mind of their son than their
distinguished personalities. It is to be feared that
Boy would have been but faintly sorry had he been
told he was never to see his " kind good Muzzy "
any more. This was not Boy's fault by any means ;
the blame rested entirely with the "kind good Muzzy"
herself. And probably if Boy had felt any regrets
about it they would have been more for the parting
from the " Poo Sing " gentleman who was so often ill.
For the delusive notion of chronic illness on the part
of " Poo Sing " had got firmly fixed into Boy's little

Boy 79

head, he felt the situation to be serious, he was full
of a wistful and wondering compassion, and he had
a vague idea that his Dads did not get on so well
without him. But this he kept to himself. He was
for the present perfectly happy, and wished for no
more delightful existence than that which he enjoyed
in the company of " Kiss-Letty." He was going
through some wonderful experiences of life as well.
For instance, he was taken for the first time to the
Zoo, and had a ride on an elephant, a ride which
filled him with glory and terror. Glory that he could
ride an elephant, for he thought it was entirely his
own skill that guided and controlled the huge beast's
gentle meanderings along the smoothly rolled paths
of the gardens, and terror lest, skilful and powerful
though he was, he should fall, deeply humiliated, out
of the howdah in which he was proudly seated. Then
he was taken to Earl's Court Exhibition, and became
so weaned with the wonders there shown to him from
all parts of the world, there were so many wonders
and the world seemed so immense, that he fell fast
asleep while going round a strange pond in a strange
boat called a Venetian gondola, and Major Desmond
took him up in his arms, and he remembered nothing
more till he found himself in his little bed with
Margaret tucking him up and making him cosy. Then
there were the days when he was not taken out sight-
seeing at all, but simply stayed with Miss Letty and
accompanied her everywhere, and he was not sure

8o Boy

that he did not like these times best of all. For after
his dinner in the middle of the day, and before they
went for their drive, " Kiss-Letty " would take him on
her knee and tell him the most beautiful and amazing
fairy stories, descriptions of aerial palaces and
glittering-winged elves, which fascinated him and kept
him in open-mouthed ecstacy, and somehow or other
he learned a good deal out of what he heard. Miss
Leslie was not a brilliant woman, but she was
distinctly cultured and clever, and she had a way of
narrating some of the true histories of the world as
though they were graceful fantasies. In this fashion
she told Boy of the discovery of America by Chris-
topher Columbus, and ever afterwards the famous
navigator remained in Boy's mind as a sort of fairy
king who had made a new world. Happy indeed
were all those first lessons he received concerning the
great and good things done by humanity, sweet and
refining was the influence thus exerted upon him,
and if such peaceful days could have gone on ex-
panding gradually around his life the more that life
needed them, who can say what might not have been
the beneficial result ? But it often seems as if some
capricious fate interfered between the soul and its
environment ; where happiness might be perfect, the
particular ingredient of perfection is held back or
altogether denied, and truly there would seem to
be no good reason for this. Stoic philosophy would
perhaps suggest that the fortunate environment is

Boy 81

held back from the individual in order that he may
create it for himself, and mould his own nature in the
struggle, but then it so often happens that this
holding back affects the nature that is not qualified
either by birth or circumstances to enfranchise itself.
A grand environment is frequently bestowed on a low
and frivolous character that has not, and never will
have, any appreciation of its fortunate position, while
all rights, privileges, and advancements are obstinately
refused to the soul that would most gladly and greatly
have valued them. And so it was fated to be with
Boy. The happy days of his visit to Miss Letty
came, as all happy days must do, to an end ; and one
morning, as he sat at breakfast eating a succulent
slice of bread-and-jam, he was startled to see " Kiss-
Letty's " blue eyes brimming over with tears.
Amazing grief and fear took possession of him, he
put down his bread-and-jam and looked pitifully at
his kind friend and hostess.

" Zoo kyin', Kiss-Letty," he said : " Where does it
hurt oo?"

Miss Letty tried to smile, but only feebly succeeded.
She could have answered that "it" hurt her every-
where. " It " was a letter from Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir
requesting that Boy might be returned to his home
that afternoon. And Miss Letty knew that this
peremptory summons meant that her wish to adopt
Boy was frustrated and that the cause was lost. She
looked tenderly at the sweet little face that was

6

82 Boy

turned so wistfully to hers, and said gently though
with a slight quiver about her lips,

" Muzzy wants you, darling ! I am to take you
home to her to-day."

Boy gave no reply. It was the first difficult moral
situation of his life, and it was hardly to be wondered
at that he found it almost too much for him. The
plain fact of the matter was that, however much
" Muzzy " wanted him, he did not want " Muzzy."
Nor did he at all wish to go home. But he had
already a dim consciousness of the awful " must "
set over us by human wills, which, unlike God's will,
are not always working for good, and he had a
glimmering perception that he was bound to submit
to these inferior orders till the time came when he
could create his own "must" and abide by it. But
he could not put these vague emotions into speech ;
all he did was to lose his appetite for bread-and-jam
and to stare blankly at " Kiss-Letty." She mean-
while put Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir's letter in her pocket,
and tried to assume her usual bright and cheerful
air, but with very poor success. For in truth she
was greatly disappointed, and when she lifted Boy
out of his chair at the table and set him down on
the floor with a very fascinating toy in the shape
of a ' merry-go-round ' moved by clockwork, which
however he contemplated this morning with a faint
sense of the futility of all earthly pleasures, she
was vaguely troubled by presentiments to which

Boy 83

she could give no name. The hours wore on
languidly and it was with a sense of something
like relief that she heard a sharp rat-tat-tat at the
door, and a minute afterwards Major Desmond's
cheery voice in the hall. She went out to meet
him, leaving Boy with his toys in her morning-room,
but one glance at his face confirmed all her worst
fears.

" It's no go, Letty ! " he said regretfully, as he
shook hands. " I've done my best. But I'll tell you
where the trouble is. It's the woman. I could
manage D'Arcy-Muir, but not that stout play-actress.
When D'Arcy-Muir is sober he sees clearly enough,
and realizes quite well what a capital chance it is
for the little chap ; but there is no doing anything
with his jelly-fish of a wife. She bridles all over
with offence at your proposition says she has
her own ideas for Boy's education and future
prospects. Nice ideas they are likely to be !
Well ! It's no use fretting you must resign your-
self to the inevitable, Letty, and give up your pet
project."

Miss Letty listened with apparently unmoved
composure while he spoke, then when he had
finished she said quietly,

" Yes, I suppose I must. Of course I cannot press
the point. One must not urge separation between
mother and child. Oh yes, I must give it up"
this with a little pained smile " I have had to give

84 Boy

up so many hopes and joys in life that one more
disappointment ought not to matter so much, ought
it? Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir has written to me I am to
take Boy back this afternoon."

The Major's tender heart was troubled, but he
would not offer his friend any consolation, he knew
that the least said the soonest mended in such cases,-
and he saw that Miss Letty was just then too vexed
and grieved to bear many words even from him. So
he went in to Boy, and wound up his clockwork
'merry-go-round' for him, and told him fabulous
stories of giants, giants who, though terrible enough
to hold the world in awe, were yet unable to resist
the fascinations of " hasty pudding," and killed them-
selves by eating too much of that delicacy in an
unguarded moment. Which remarkable narratives,
in their grotesque incongruity, conveyed the true
lesson that a strong or giant mind may be frequently
destroyed by indulgence in one vice ; though Boy was
too young to look for morals in fairy legends, and
accepted these exciting histories as veracious facts.
And so the morning passed pleasantly after all,
though now and then a wistful look came into Boy's
eyes, and a shadow crossed the placid fairness of
" Kiss-Letty's " brow when either of the two chanced
to think of the coming parting from each other.
Boy however did not imagine it so much of a parting
as Miss Letty knew it would be ; he had a firm belief
that though he was going home to " Muzzy " he

Boy 85

should still see a great deal of his " Kiss-Letty " all
the same. She on the contrary knew enough of
Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir's obstinate disposition to be quite
certain of the fact that because a hint had been
thrown out by Major Desmond as to the advantages
of her adopting Boy, she would be forced to see less
of him than ever. Strange it is, and in a manner
terrible, that the future of a whole life should be
suspended thus between two human wills ! the one
working for pure beneficence, the other for selfishness,
and that the selfish side should win the day ! These
are mysteries which none can fathom ; but it too
often happens that a man's career has been decided
for good or evil by the amenities or discords of his
parents, and their quarrels or agreements as to the
manner of his education.

It was with a sad and sinking heart that Miss
Leslie took Boy accompanied by the faithful " Dunny "
back to the home of his progenitors that afternoon.
He had more luggage to carry away than he had
arrived with a brown paper parcel would not hold
his numerous toys, nor the pretty little suits of
clothes his kind hostess had presented him with. So
Major Desmond bought him an astonishingly smart
portmanteau, which fairly dazzled him, and into this
most of his new things were packed by Margaret,
who was sincerely sorry to lose her little charge.
The * merry-go-round,' being a Parisian marvel of
clockwork, had a special case of its own, and

86 Boy

" Dunny " ! well, " Dunny " was a privileged Cow,
and Boy always carried it in his arms. And thus
he returned, Biblically speaking, to the home of his
fathers, the house in Hereford Square, and his large
"Muzzy" received him with an almost dramatic
effusiveness.

" You poor child ! " she exclaimed. " How badly
your hair has been brushed ! Oh dear ! it's be-
coming a perfect mop ! We must have it cut
to-morrow."

Miss Leslie's cheeks reddened slightly.

" Surely you will not have his curls cut yet ? " she
began.

" My dear Letitia, I know best," said Mrs. D'Arcy-
Muir with an irritating air of smiling condescension.
" A boy even a very young boy looks absurd with
long hair. You have been very kind and nice to
him, I am sure, but of course you don't quite
understand "

Miss Leslie sat down opposite her with a curiously
quiet air of deliberation.

" I wish to speak to you for a few minutes," she
said. " Is your husband at home ? "

" No. He has gone into the country for -a few
days. I am quite lonely ! " and Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir
heaved a lazy smile. " I felt I could not possibly be
a day longer without my son in the house."

The extraordinary air of grandiloquence she gave
to the words " my son in the house," applied to a child

Boy 87

of barely four years old, would have made Miss Leslie
laugh at any other time, but she was too preoccupied
just now to even smile.

" I think," she went on in a methodical way " I
think Major Desmond did me the kindness to
mention to you and Captain D'Arcy-Muir an idea
I had concerning Boy "

" Oh yes, a most absurd idea," interposed Mrs.
D'Arcy-Muir, with quite a solemn reproach in her
voice. "Pardon me for saying so, Letitia, but I
really am surprised at you. A preposterous idea ! to
separate my boy from me ! "

" You mistake," answered Miss Leslie ; " I had no
wish to separate you. You would have seen quite as
much of Boy as you see now, or as you will see when
in the natural course of things you send him to
school. My sole desire in the proposition I made,
and which I asked Major Desmond to explain, was to
benefit your dear little child in every possible way.
I am all alone in the world "

"Yes, I know! So sad!" put in Mrs. D'Arcy-
Muir in a tone of commiseration that was almost
an insult.

" And I have a large fortune," pursued Miss Letty
with unruffled composure : " when my time comes to
die, I shall probably leave more than one-hundred-
thousand pounds "

" No ! You don't say so ! Really, Letitia, you are
indeed fortunate ! Why ever don't you marry ?

88 Boy

There are lots of poor fellows who would only be too
delighted."

"We can pass that question," said Miss Leslie
patiently. "What I wish to point out to you is that
I am what the world calls a fairly wealthy woman,
and that if you could see your way to letting me
adopt Boy and educate him, everything I possessed
would be his at my death."

" Oh, I don't wonder at all," said Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir
expansively, "that you have taken such a fancy to
my boy ! That's quite natural. And really, Letitia,
if you don't know how to dispose of your fortune
otherwise, I cannot imagine anything more pleasant
for you than to make him your heir. But to adopt
him for the purpose of educating him according to
your notions ! Oh dear no ! It would never do ! "

" If he is not educated according to my notions he
will certainly not be my heir," said Miss Letty very
firmly. " He is just now at an age when anything can
be done with him. Give me leave to take him out of
the radius of his father's unfortunate example, and
surround him with all that is healthy and good and
useful, and I am sure you will not regret it."

" Dear me ! I am so sorry for you ! " and " Muzzy "
smiled blandly ; " I feel for you with all my heart, and
I quite understand your wish to have Boy ! It would
be delightful for you, but I cannot possibly hear of it !
I am his mother, I could not part with him under
any circumstances whatever ! "

Boy 89

" You are quite resolved, then ? " and Miss Leslie
looked at her steadily.

" Quite ! I have my own ideas of education, and I
could not possibly allow the slightest interference.
My son " and here she swelled visibly with a sense
of her own importance " will have every chance in
life!"

" God grant it ! " said Miss Letitia fervently. " No
one in the world desires his good more heartily than
I do. And if ever I can be of any assistance to him
in his career, I will. But for the present I will say
good-bye, both to you and to him."

" Are you going away ? " enquired Mrs. D'Arcy-
Muir with but a faint show of interest.

"Yes, I shall go to Scotland for the rest of the
summer, and I have arranged to join a party of
friends in Egypt this winter. So I shall not be here
to interfere " and Miss Letty smiled rather sadly as
she emphasised the word " with Boy. I hope he
will not quite forget me."

" I hope not," said " Muzzy " with bland commisera-
tion. " But of course you know children never
remember anything or anybody for long. And what
a blessing that is, isn't it ? "

Miss Letty made no answer ; she was down on the
floor kissing Boy.

" Good-bye, darling," she whispered," good-bye !
I shall not see you for a while, but you will always
love me, won't you ? "

90 Boy

" Alvviz love 'oo ! " murmured Boy earnestly, with
a vague sense that he was experiencing a very
dreadful emotion which seemed quite to contract his
little heart " Alwiz ! " and he threw his chubby arms
round Miss Letty's neck and kissed her again and
again.

" Dear little man ! " she said with almost a half-sob.
" Poor little man ! God bless you ! "

Then she rose, and turning to Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir
held out her hand.

" Good-bye ! " she said. " If you should ever change
your mind about Boy, please let me know at once. I
shall be glad to have him at any time between now
and till he is seven, after that it would be no use
as all his first impressions will have taken root too
deeply in his nature to be eradicated."

" How dreadful ! " exclaimed " Muzzy " with a wide
smile. " You are really quite a blue-stocking, Letitia !
You talk just like a book of philosophy or degen-
eration which is it ? I never can remember ! I
always wonder what people mean when they try to be
philosophic and talk about impressions on the mind !
Because of course impressions are always coming and
going, you know nothing ever remains long enough
to make a lasting effect."

Miss Letty said no more. It was useless to talk to
such a woman about anything but the merest common-
places. The ins and outs of thought the strange
slight threads of feeling and memory out of which the

Boy 91

character of a human being is gradually woven like a
web, the psychic influences, the material surroundings,
the thousand-and-one things that help to strengthen
or to enervate the brain and heart and spirit, all these
potentialities were unknown to the bovine female who
waxed fat and apathetic out of pure inertia and sloth.
She was, as she was fond of announcing, a * mother,'
but her ideas of motherhood consisted merely in
feeding Boy on sloppy food which frequently did not
agree with him, in dosing him with medicine when he
was out of sorts, in dressing him anyhow, and in
allowing him to amuse himself as he liked wherever
he could, however he could, at all times and in all
places dirty or clean. A child of the gutter had the
same sort of maternal care. Of order, of time, of
refinement, of elegance and sweet cleanliness there
was no perception whatever ; while the Alpha and
Omega of the disordered household was of course
" Poo Sing," who rolled in and rolled out as he chose,
more or less disgraceful in appearance and conduct at
all hours. However, there was no help for it Miss
Letty had held out a rescue, and it had been refused,
and there was nothing more to be done but to leave
Boy, for the present at any rate, in his unfortunate
surroundings. But there were tears in the eyes of the
tender-hearted lady when she returned home alone
that day, and missed the little face and the gay prattle
that had so greatly cheered her loneliness. And after
dinner, when the stately Plimpton handed her her cup

92 Boy

of coffee, she was foolish enough to be touched by his
solemnly civil presentation to her of a diminutive pair
of worn shoes set in orderly fashion on a large silver
tray.

" Master Boy left these behind him, my lady," he
said, he always called Miss Letty ' my lady ' out of
the deep deference existing towards her in his own
mind. " They're his ^old ones." Plimpton was fond
of aspirating his h's, he thought the trick gave an
elegant sound to his language.

"Thank you, Plimpton," said Miss Leslie, with a
faint smile. " I will send them to his mother in the
morning."

But she did not send them to his mother. When
she was quite alone, she kissed each little shoe tenderly,
and tied them up together in soft silk paper with a
band of blue ribbon, and then, like a fond weak
creature, put them under her pillow when she went to
bed and cried a little, then slept and dreamed that
her " brave true Harry " was alive and wedded to her,
and that Boy was her very own darling, with no other
" Muzzy " in the world.

CHAPTER VI

DAYS went on, months went on, years went on, as
they have a habit of doing, till Boy arrived at the
mature age of nine. Changes had occurred during
this period, which slight in themselves were destined
to have their lasting effect upon his character and
temperament. To begin with, Captain and Mrs.
D'Arcy-Muir had been compelled, through the force
of circumstances, to leave the house in Hereford
Square, and give up living in London altogether.
The Honourable Captain's means had been consider-
ably straitened through his "little ways," and often
and often during occasional flashes of sobriety it
would occur to him that Boy was steadily growing,

and that what a d d pity it was that Miss Leslie

had not adopted him after all. Once or twice he
had broached the subject to his wife, but only to
be met by a large placid smile, and the remark

"Jim, I really am surprised at you! I thought
you had more pride. But really you don't seem
to mind the idea of your only son being put in the
position of a pauper ! "

"Don't see where the pauper comes in," growled
93

94 Boy

the Honourable Jim. " A hundred thousand pounds
is surely enough to keep a man from the workhouse.
And if that lot of money is going around begging,
I don't see why the little chap shouldn't have it.
I've nothing to leave him, why the deuce don't you
let the old lady take him and have done with it ? "

" Well ! " exclaimed Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir, with a
lachrymose air of deeply seated injury, " if you are
so lost to decency as to wish to part from your own
flesh and blood "

" Oh, hang it all ! " burst out the " Honourable "

scion of century-condensed aristocracy : " D n your

flesh and blood ! Have it your own way ! Do as
you d n please ! Only don't bother me."

In this way such marital discussions always ended,
and Boy struggled steadily along in growth and
being and thought, wholly unconscious of them. He
had lost sight of Miss Letty, but truly had not
forgotten her though in the remote village on the
sea coast where his father had now elected to dwell
in order that he might indulge in his pet vice without
undue public comment or observation, he found
himselt so utterly estranged from all delicate and
helpful sympathies as to be almost rendered stunned
and stupid. In the first year after he had left
London he was taught some desultory lessons by
a stolid-faced country wench who passed for being
a nursery governess, but whose abilities were chiefly
limited to ogling the young sailor and farmer lads

Boy 95

of the place, and inventing new fashions for arranging
her coarsely abundant hair. Boy's contempt for her
knew no bounds : he would sit and watch her out of
the corners of his eyes while she stood before a looking-
glass, smirking at her own reflection, and quite un-
wittingly he developed a curious vein of satire which
soon showed itself in some of the questions he put to
her and to others. A sad little change had taken
place in him the far-off, beautiful angel look of his
countenance had all but vanished, and an expression
of dull patience combined with weariness had taken
its place. For by this time of course he had found
out the true nature of " Poo Sing's " chronic illness,
and the knowledge of it had filled him with an
inexpressible disgust and shame. Child though he
was, he was not too young to feel a sick thrill when
he saw his father march into the house at night with
the face, voice, and manner of an infuriated ruffian
bent on murder. And he no longer sat in a chair
innocently murmuring " Poo Sing " but slunk away
from the evil sight, whispering faintly to himself,
"Father! Oh, father!" In dark corners of the
house, and more often outside the house in a wooded
little solitude of pines, where scarcely a bird's wings
fluttered to disturb the dark silence, Boy would sit by
himself meditating, and occasionally reading for he
had been quick to learn his letters, and study offered
as yet no very painful difficulties to him. He was
naturally a boy of bright brain and acute perception

96 Boy

but the brightness had been darkened and the
perception blunted by the ever down-pressing weight
of home influences brought about by his father's
degradation and his mother's indifference. He began
to see clearly now that it was not without good cause
he had felt sorry for his " Muzzy's " ugliness, for that
ugliness was the outcome of her own fault. He used
to wander down to the border of the sea, mechanically
carrying a tin pail and wooden spade, and there would
sit shovelling in sand and shovelling it out again ; and
while thus engaged would sometimes find there one
or two ladies walking with their children ladies in
trim serge skirts, and tidily belted blouses, and neat
sailor-hats set gracefully on prettily arranged hair,
and he could not for the life of him understand why
his mother should allow her dress to be less orderly
than that of the cook, and her general appearance
less inviting and odorous than that of the old woman
who came round twice a week to sell prawns and
shrimps at the door. And so he brooded and brooded
till on one sudden and alarming day the stolid
nursery governess was found on his father's knee,
with his father's arms clasped round her, and such
an appalling clamour ensued that Boy, who was of
course not told the real reason of the disorder, stood
terrified and thought every one in the house had
gone raving mad, and that he, poor small chap, was
left alone in the middle of a howling wilderness.
The stolid nursery governess, on being discovered,

Boy 97

had promptly fainted, and lay on the floor with her
large feet well upturned and more than an inch of
stocking exposed ; the " Honourable " Jim rattled
out all his stock of oaths till he was black and blue in
the face with impotent swearing, and Mrs. D'Arcy-
Muir, plumping heavily down in the nearest convenient
chair, lifted up her voice and wept. And in the
middle of her weeping, happening to perceive Boy
standing on the threshold of the room, very pale-
faced and half paralysed with fright, she caught him
up in her arms and exclaimed, " My poor, dear,
injured son ! " with a wifely and maternal gusto that
was more grotesque than impressive. Boy somehow
felt that he was being made ridiculous, though he
could not have told why. And when the stolid-faced
nursery governess had prolonged her fainting fit as
much as was desirable and endurable, when with
many grunts and sighs, spasmodic kicks and plunges,
she righted herself, so to speak, first into a sitting
posture, and then gradually rose to her feet, a tearful
martyr to wrongful suspicions, and, with one injured-
innocence look of reproach at Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir and
a knowing side-wink at the irate and roaring "Jim,"
left the room and afterwards the house, never to
return, Boy lived for many days in a state of deep
wonderment, not knowing what to make of it. It
was a vast puzzle to his young mind, but he was
conscious of a certain advantage to himself in the
departure of the ill-used young woman, who had so

7

98 Boy

casually superintended his few lessons in the intervals
of dressing her hair. He was left very much more
alone, and took to wandering " daunering " as the
Scotch would say all about the village and down by
the edge of the sea, like a small waif of the world,
neglected and astray. He was free to amuse himself
as he liked, so he strolled into all sorts of places, dirty
and clean, and got his clothes torn and ragged, his
hands and face scratched and soiled ; and if it chanced
that he fell into a mud-puddle or a sea-pool which he
often did he never thought of telling his mother that
he was wet through, because she never noticed it, and
he therefore concluded that it did not matter. And
he began to grow thin, and wiry, and brown, and
unkempt, till there was very little difference in
appearance between him and the common boys of
the village, who were wont to haunt the sea-shore
and pick up stray treasures in the way of weed and
shell and wreckage there, boys with whom he very
soon began to fraternise, much to his detriment.
They were not bad boys but their language was
brutal, and their manners more so. They called him
a " ninny " when he first sought their society, and one
big lout beat him on the head for his too sharp
discovery of a shilling buried in the sand. But these
were trifles ; and after proving that he was not afraid
of a ducking, or a stand-up fight either, they relented
towards him, and allowed him to be an associate of
their scavenger pursuits. Thus he learnt new forms

Boy 99

of language and new customs of life, and gradually
adopted the lazy, slouching walk of his shore-
companions, together with their air of general
indifference, only made occasionally piquant by a
touch of impudence. Boy began to say sharp
things now and then, though his little insolences
savoured more of satire than malice. He did not
mean to be rude at any time, but a certain vague
satisfaction moved him when he found that he could
occasionally make an observation which caused his
elders to wince, and privately wonder whether their
grey hairs were not standing on end. He rather
repressed this power, however, and thought a good
deal more than he said. He began to consider his
mother in a new light, her ways no longer puzzled
him so much as they amused him. It was with
almost a humorous condescension that the child sat
down obediently to his morning lessons with her,
lessons which she, with much elaboration and import-
ance, had devised for his instruction. Truth to tell,
they were very easy samples of learning, her dense
brain was not capable of arranging anything more
than the most ordinary forms of study, and Boy
learnt more of the world in an hour's listening to
the chat of the fishermen on the quay, than his
" Muzzy " could have taught him in a hundred years.
There was in particular one old, old man, wrinkled
and weather-beaten, whose sole life's business seemed
to be to sit on a tar-barrel and smoke his pipe, except

ioo Boy

when he gave a hand to help pull in the fishing
smacks as they came to shore laden with herring or
mackerel. He was known in the place by the nick-
name of " Rattling Jack," and to him Boy would
often go, and with half bold, half shy questions
would draw him out to tell stories of the sea,
though the old chap was not very fond of harking
back to his past life and adventures, and generally
preferred to expound short essays on the conduct of
life, drawn from his long experience.

" Aye, there y' are," he said on one occasion, when
Boy, with some pride, brought for his inspection a
beautiful rose-coloured sea-anemone which he had
managed to detach from the rocks and carry off in his
tin pail. " There y' are, you see ! Now ye've made
a fellow-creature miserable y' are as 'appy as the day
is long ! Eh, eh why for mussy's sake didn't ye leave
it on the rocks in the sun with the sea a-washin' it an'
the blessin' of the Lord A'mighty on it ? They things
are jes' like human souls there they stick on a rock
o' faith and hope maybe, jes' wantin' nothin' but to be
let alone ; and then by-and-by some one comes along
that begins to poke at 'em, and pull 'em about, and
wake up all their sensitiveness-like 'urt 'em as much
as possible, that's the way ! and then they pulls 'em
off their rocks and carries 'em off in a mean little tin
pail ! Ay, ay, ye may call a tin pail whatever ye
please a pile o' money or a pile o' love it's nought
but a tin pail not a rock with the sun shinin' upon it.

Boy 101

And o' coorse they dies there ain't no sense in livin'
in a tin pail."

These remarks being somewhat profound, were
rather beyond Boy's comprehension, but he gathered
something of their sense and looked rather wistfully
at his sea-trophy.

"Will it die now?" he asked anxiously.

" Av coorse it will ! How 'd you like to be off your
own blessed rock, and squeeged into a pail ? Come
now, tell me that ! Wouldn't you kick the bucket
over ? Hor hor hor ! " and the old man laughed
hoarsely at what he considered a bright and natural
witticism " an' die an' 'ave done with it ? "

" I suppose I should," answered Boy meditatively.
" What do you do when you die ? "

" I ain't done it yet," replied Rattling Jack rather
testily. " But I expec' when I 'ave to, I'll do it as well
as my betters stretch out my legs, turn up my toes,
shut up my eyes, chuckle-chuckle in my windpipe,
and go slick off. There ain't no particular style o'
doing it."

Boy stood sta