SHORT STORIES

Otago Witness, Issue 3335, 13 February 1918, Page 58

SHORT STORIES

FATHER'S FREAK. By E. Everett-Gkeejt. (Copyright.) The boys came tumbling in one oyer the other in shrieks of laughter, which ■was not altogether unusual. "I say, girls, father has the most appalling freak in tow. I believe he's bringing him in here. You never saw • such a dot-and-go-one. He looks all oh one side, too. 1 say, do go and look outl They're coming across the Castle Green this minute. Bet you he's bringing him in here." I ran to the window, and looked out. Mary—our dear, delightful, lovely Mary, the eldest of us all, and a sort of mother and playmate too —was seeing that the kettle boiled, and that tea was made just as father liked it. Father was curator to the museum, and a sort of keeper to the castle which stood so commandingly across the green, and had a big ruin attached wiuch was shown to strangers by the porter, but which father showed himself if antiquaries or strange creatures like that came poking round. I used to call them "daddy's ducks and drakes," . but - the boys more often called them by other names. And here was father with a real "freak" in tow, and I peered out to see what a "freak" could be like. He was a tall man, rather bent, who walked quite slowly by the aid of a stick, and with a queer little twist and hop in his gait, as though something had gone wrong with the mechanism of his legs. "Boys," Mary's gentle voice was saying, "you should never laugh at any physical misfortune of another. It might happen to any of us to meet with a disfiguring or laming accident. How should we like it if people made game of our l infirmity?" Mary always made the boys see things right way round. By the time father and his Freak were in our bright, bow-win- ■ dowed room, looking out across the sunny Castle Green, they all vied one with another to set him a chair or make him feel at home. "Mr Lennard is interested in the museum and in the castle. He is staying in the. town for a little while, and I am foing to take him all over to-morrow, lary, my dear, will yom give us some tea?*' Mary, behind the old silver-plated urn, attending to all of us and seeing that everybody got what each wanted, was a delightful person. I saw Mr Lennard's big dark eyes watching her again and again. Father told all the interesting tales about the castle, which we liked hearing, even though wo knew them all. I tried not to stare, but really the Freak was very funny! One side of his face was quite handsome—romantic-lcoking almost; but the other had an odd little twist quite impossible to describe, which seemed to match the hop-and-go-one of his walk. It just did seem as if some wicked fairy in a sort of freakish humour ' had mixed him up a little wrong, and that one side only showed it. But he had a very nice voice and a pleasant manner, and before we had half finished tea we all liked him, freak or no freak. "Who owns the place? Is the castle ever lived in?" he asked as we rose from the table and stood in the window, looking*at it, with the sunset glow throwing it up into splendid relief against the rose and amber of the sky. The crenelated battlements looked very fine, and 60 did the long rows of windows and the whole bulk of the great place. , "It has not been lived in for' a very' / long time now," father told him. "It belongs to Lord Inshester. But when he married his wife did not like the place, and before the son was born they left it, and have never returned. The Lord Inshester I know is dead. His son holds the title now. But I suppose his mother set him against the castle, and he has never been here. I heard she was dead, too, rather recently. Perhaps he may come now. But he has some property abroad which he inherited through her. I fancy his interests centre more there." "A pity—quite a pity," Mr Lennard said. "I've an idea that when a man has property he should know all he can about it, and live there as much as he is able." "I quite agree. I wish Lord Inshester would come back," then he paused and smiled and added, "and yet, I sometimes think that if he does I may lose my berth, and that would be a serious thing at my time of life!" "Why do you think that?" "Because it is really a well-paid sinecure, rather out of date. In these hurrying modern days few people care about museums; and they only stroll through the ruins and are off to their motor cars within half an hour. And this house and garden stand very near the castle. Any owner with modern ideas might wish to get rid of me and my family." Father and his "freak" walked out into the garden to smoke and talk, and the boys rushed off to cricket, whilst I helped Mary to wash up our delicate china and old silver, which she never trusted to the servants, because mother, whom I could scarcely remember, had never done it either. Mr Lennard seemed as though lis liked Castlcbrook, though it was not a verv lively place. Two day« later Mary and I met him In the meadows on horseback. Except for the funny twist in his face he locked quite nice, and stopped and spoke to ii 3 • ho lot me stroko his horse's snoulder, and he told mo about other horses. But he looked at Mary most of the time, and I did not wonder, because Mary, in the sunshine, with golden daffodils stuck into the waistband of hor biue linen dress, looked juefc a i fl»rling. Very soon I was quite, quite euro

that Mr Lennard was'falling in love with her. The boys began to see it, too; and Guy came in one day from school with quite a hot, flushed face. "Look here, Molly," he said, and tried to put on a grand air, as though he were really somebody important, " that freak's all very well in his way. He can tell a rattling good story and lie's not half bad. But we can't have him dangling here like this after you! The fellows are beginning to notice it. We're not going to have our Mary take up with a dot-and-go-one like that. Seel If father doesn't put in his oar and give him a hint, some of us will have to hoof him out of the place double quick." Mary laughed, but her face glowed strangely. She looked more lovely than ever. " Boys," she said in her gentle way that was so sweet and yet so firm, " I do not like that sort of nonsense talked. Mr Lennard is father's friend- " " Father's freak," somebody interpolated. "And very kind to us all. But, you know, children, that I have father and all of you to think of. ,1 could not marry Mr Lennard or anybody else. But you must not think it would make any difference his being—what you call—a freak. It is not things like that which matter. It is the mind and spirit—not the body. And Mr Lennard——' Mary stopped suddenly, for we saw him crossing the green with father. "There, you see!" cried the boys triumphantly, "he's always after you. You'll have to give him the straight chuck, or we'll never get rid of him from Castlebrook. And you're worth somebody better, Mary. We mean you, if you marry at all, to make a good marriage one of these days." The boys call me the little pitcher with long ears. Perhaps I was one. Anyhow, I'm sure I saw a good deal in the days that followed, as well as hearing a good deal, too. The freak was alier Mary. I could see it plain as a pikestaff—and hear it, too: in his voice, in the things he said, and the way he said them. And one day, in the garden, after he had been and gone, Mary sat very still with the tears in her eyes, and presently, daddy came and sat down beside her and took her hands in his. I "My darling," he said, "Mr Lennard has been speaking to me. My Mary, I must not let vou sacrifice yourself for me and the children." "Father, dear, how could I leave you all?"\ "My sweet one, it would be hard to spare you, and yet other fathers—and brothers—have to spare their dear ones when a holier call comes. Mary, do you love him? Don't mind telling your old father the truth. Once a lovely and wellloved Mary left her home for Jiie and for him.. He will understand." The tears fell faster now. "Dear father, you are so~sweet to me. Ido care for him. I dared not say otherwise to him—l dare not to you. But-—" " Mary, he has asked me if he could get a house and occupation in this place, whether you would come to him then? Dearest, if you were near to us—and there is little Lilias—she i 3 coming on " - I am Lillias, and the youngest, and the idea of my filling Mary's place! But when I heard again they were * talking about what might be done if Mr Lennard could live near us in Castlebrook. But to think of our Mary marrying —the freak! What would the boys say? The boys said a great many things. But you never saw how good the freak was to us all—and how patient. He got the boys together and he told them that he understood how they must hate it, and that he wondered how he had had " the consummate cheek " to think of such a thing himself as that Mary could ever care for him. But Mary stood beside him with shining eyes, and somehow when the light of her eyes was turned upon his face, and he looked back at her, he looked •scarcely at all a freak, and the boys felt that the wind had been taken out of their sails.

And then, all of a sudden, we had our thoughts turned into a dinherent direction, and v/e were all too dense to understand! Lord Inshester was coming back to the castle. Father said rather gravely that perhaps it was as well to have one daughter settled in life. Mr Lennard had some property, though he said little of his resources, and Mary's home would be secure, and she could take me if needful. " Men and boys can always emigrate," he said, his face looking a little anxious. But he was interested in seeing the castle got ready for its owner, and presently an intimation reached him. to the effect that Lord Inshester did not want any fuss made upon his arrival, though he would esteem it a favour if Mr Quiltor and his family would be at the castle to receive him. It was awfully exciting, but it scemd all right to us. Father knew more about the castle than anybody else, and was a sort of major-domo in his own way. He kept the lawyer informed about things here, and the lawyer passed it all on to Lord Inshester. Mary wore one of her trousseau dresses, and looked lovely. She always looked lovely now with the love-light in her eyes. But I know she would be thinking all the time of her freak, who was in London on business, and not about Lord Inshester, who might turn out to be a regular " holy terror." as the boys called it. Well, we all got there in good time. The castle is a lovely place—such splendid suites of rooms, panelled, tapestried, decorated in all kinds of ways by all kinds of big-wigs who did that sort of thing. And such a view from the terrace, over the gardens, and over the little town to the river, which made its horseshoo bend round the whole. I had run out to see this when there came a sound of wheels. The great castle carriage dashed up '"-to the courtyard ; wo ali streamed out into the great mediaeval hall, and out from the carriage there

stepped, in his rather slow, but not undignified way—Father's Freak ! And then Ave didn't guess! At least I and the boys did not —not just for the moment. But he came straight up and took Mary into his arms, and kissed her before us all, and said : " Dearest, this is the sweetest welcome that I could have—to my home—and yours!" Then we understood. You should have heard the yell the boys sent up. I think we all went a little dr*,ty for ten minutes or so, and when we came to ourselves Leonard (as we call him now, and have done ever since) had got Mary away with him somewhere, and daddy was staring round the place as though he could not believe his eyes. But little pitchers have their privileges, and soon I rushed after Mary and the freak, and I found on the terrace, and I heard him say: " It was three years ago —a bad accident in a fire. And for a long time I thought I never could marry. But I am recovering, and I shall recover more and more, though so slowly. But I vowed 1 would never ask a woman to be my wife who could not Jove me for myself, in spite of what had happened, and what I looked like. I could have bought a semblance of love, I knew. But the counterfeit would only be a torment. And then I had never known what love was myself till I looked into my Mary's eyes. And Mary looked back at me, and I saw little by little the light of love kindle there! My darling, my darling, how I will bless you for it to the last day of my' life. In one day I have realised both my dreams—my home—my wife!" And that is how our Mary came to be the Lady of the Manor, Lady Inshester of the (jastle; just because .*he could see deeper down than any of the rest of us, and was not scared or put off by Father's Freak!