Person or Persons Unknown by Bruce Alexander Read Free Book Online Page B

remembered the rules of proper conduct, came to a sudden halt, and doffed my hat, easing the door closed behind me.
    Mr. Donnelly responded to my rude entrance by jumping from his chair and advancing upon me with open hand outstretched. “Good God, is it you, Jeremy? You look a man already. I’d say you are a man — and at what age are you?”
    “Fifteen, sir,” said I in a modest manner, allowing my hand to be pumped most vigorously.
    “Well, you look older and most particularly in that fine coat — quite the young gentleman!”
    “Do sit down, Jeremy,” said Lady Fielding. “Mr. Donnelly has kept us royally entertained with his tales of the Ribble Valley.”
    “Indeed he has/’ seconded Sir John with a deep chuckle.
    I brought over a chair and took a place next Annie, our cook. I could tell she and all the rest were in a merry mood. Their faces were flushed from laughter; all wore smiles. Annie passed me a wink as I sat down.
    “Ah, but I feel I’ve been unfair to folk there,” said Mr. Donnelly, resuming his recital. “They are good, simple country people, no more nor less. And if their country ways and their speech — oh, God, their speech!” — rolling his eyes most expressively, provoking more laughter — “if they seem strange to us, you may be sure that London ways and speech would seem even more strange to them.”
    “No doubt, no doubt,” said Sir John. “Who are we to set the mark?”
    Yet when he resumed, Mr. Donnelly seemed distinctiy more serious in style and mien: “No, diey are not fools. I would venture to say that of any and all, I was the bigger fool ever to have gone there in the pursuit of that reluctant widow.” He sighed a bitter sigh yet kept a smile upon his face. “You see before you that figure of comedy, a rejected suitor. It were not enough that I followed Lady Goodhope into deepest Lancashire where I attempted to begin a medical practice among folk so poor they could only offer to pay me with hens, piglets, and promises to whitewash my cottage; nor that I felt great pity for her in her widow’s state and tenderness for her even in those fits of foolish haughtiness to which she was often given; nor that I gave her ignorant son the only glimpses of education he had had in aU his nine years. No, none of that were enough. As I finally discovered, it was also necessary that I have a great personal fortune with which to finance the boy’s education and his return to London to take his father’s place in the House of Lords. What had I to offer her? A few hens, a piglet or two and one last offer of help from my father amounting to five hundred pounds. It wasn’t sufficient. She chose, rather, to sell herself to a Lancashire coal merchant of the town of Wigan, a man of such remarkable ignorance that he supposed that all that was needed for him to become Lord Goodhope was to marry Lady Goodhope. Even though he was disappointed to learn otherwise, he showed himself willing so that he might live in her house, which I myself heard him praise as ‘t’grandest in t’valley, or mos’ Lane’shire.’ No doubt she feels comfortable with him, for she herself comes of that class, though she is better educated. In any case, her choice is final. The banns have been posted. There was no reason for me to stay longer, and so … here I am.”
    As he finished, he sat silent for a moment with his eyes downcast. Each of the listening women let out an “aah,” which sounded in chorus as an expression of great disappointment and sympathy.
    For his part. Sir John leaned forward, clasping his hands upon the table. “True enough,” said he, “here you are. What are your plans, Mr. Donnelly?”
    “Why, to begin again. My father has made a small portion of that five hundred pounds available to me that I might open and equip a surgery in a section of Westminster. If I cannot thus establish myself here in Lx)ndon in … oh, say a year, then there is always the Navy for me. I cannot go on