The Wooden Horse

s, had made a definite attempt at a change-but he had failed. Trojans had appeared from every part of the country, angry Trojans, tearful Trojans, indignant Trojans, important Trojans, poor-rela

on a journey, the lovely Lady Clare entertained a neighbouring baron at her husband's bed and board, and for two days all was well. But Sir Jeremy unexpectedly returned, and, being a gentleman of a pleasant fancy, walled up the room in which he had found the erring couple and left them inside. He then sat outside, and listened with a gen

in London. Special attention should be paid to the gold Drawing-room with its magnificent carving, the Library with its fine collection of old prints, and the Long Gallery with the family portraits, noticing especially the Vandyk

xpence, children half-price), with a view to benefiting the ch

that air of surprise, as of a building containing endless secrets, only some of which it intends to reveal. It is full of corners and angles, and

a protecting deity, its two towers to west and east, raised like giant hands, its grey walls rising sheer from the steep, she

of Britain-a land of wild, uncouth people, living in a state of perpetual watch and guard, fearing the sea, fearing the land, cringingly superstitious because of their crying need of superna

, July, and August, nigger minstrels, a café chantant, and a promenade, with six bathing-machines and two donkeys; two new hotels had sprung up within the last two years, a sufficient sign of its prosperity. No, Pendragon was doing its best to forget its anci

days that to the rest of the world are dim, mysterious, mythological, but to a Cornishman are as the events of yesterday. High on the moor behind the Cove stand four great rocks-wild, wind-beaten, grimly permanent. It is under their guardianship that the Cove lies, and it is something more than a mere superstitious reverence that those inhabitants of "dow

ay the tennis-lawns and the rose-garden, and, gleaming in the distance, at the

uth and vigour such as he had never known before. Those twenty years in New Zealand were, after all, to go for nothing; they were to be as though they had had no existence, and he was to be t

ght; some one was singing the refrain of a Cornish "chanty"-the swing of the tune came up to him from the gar

pt so soundly that he had not heard his man enter with his shaving water; it was quite cold now, and his razors were terribly blunt. He cut himse

light came in floods through the great windows at the head of the stairs, and shafts of golden light struck the walls

ing alone; Clare and Sir Jeremy alwa

clapping his brother on the back and putting his han

ly looking up from his mornin

her his father would recognise this elementary rule or whether he would talk, talk, talk, as he had done last night. They had had rather a bad time last night; Aunt Clare had had a headache, but his father had talked continuously-about sheep and Maor

o be, you know, there was always such heaps to do-the bread, old boy, if you can get hold of it. I remember once getting up at three in the morning to go and play cricket somewhere-fearful hot day it was, but I knocked up fifty, I remember. Probably the bowling

s at King's who ran the games were rather outers-pretty thoroughly ba

ably surprised. "And who t

pecial attention paid to the New Literature. We made it our boast that we never went back further than Meredith, except, of course, when one

hen they were strong and healthy like Robin. He had not quite understood about the society-an

worth a first any day of the week. But he had such lots of other things to do-his papers for the 'Gracchi' took up an

" repeated Harry, still mor

u live in Fallacy Street you're one of the wits. It's like belonging to the 'Mermaid' used to be, you know, in Shakespeare's ti

ve any room for me," said Harry, laughing. "I'm an awfully stupid old duffer. I haven't read anyth

bin had discovered some time before, but that he should b

d evidently made a blunder in his choice

this morning, Robi

positively got to get off to Randal's place to-night. I daren't keep them any longer. I'd do it this afternoon, only it's Aunt Clare's at-home day and she

Harry cheerfully; "th

bin would point out the new points of interest, and, perhaps, introduce him to some of his friends-it had been a favourite picture of his

. He must fall into the ways of the house, quietly, unobtrusively, with none of that jolting of other peo

t" and Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass," if there wasn't room in the box for both, was terrible! Of course Randal was coming himself in a few days, and it would have be

tretched in perfect order and discipline; colours in harmony, shapes and patterns of a tutored symmetry-it was the perfection of a modern gardener's art. He passed gardeners, grave, serious men with eyes intent on their work, and he remembered the strange old man who had watched over the garden when he had been a boy; an old m

ging view of sea and cliff and moor without any beating of the heart; to them the crooked, dusky windings of the Cove, the mighty grey rocks o

lace, with tall grasses and wild ferns and a little brook bubbling noisily over shining white and grey pebbles. He remembered it; how well he remembered it. He had often been there in those early days. He had tried to make a little mill in the brook. He had search

ad attempted improvement. He stayed there for some time, thinking, regre

h-no, he had never forgotten. But there was waking in him again that strange, half-inherited sense of the eternal presence of ancient days and old heathen ceremonies, and the manners of men who had lived in that place a thousand years before. He had known it when he was a boy; when he had chased rabbits over the moor, when he had seen the mist curling mysteriously from the sea and wr

ncied that he could see the strange faces in the shadow

he had been there before-like the garden, it was the very apotheosis of order and modern methods. "The Pendragon Hotel" astonished him by its stone pillars, its glimpse of a wonderful, c

with beds that were never clean. It had been something of a scandal, bu

ment of wigs in the window; coloured bottles of every size and hue glittered in the chemi

nd place seemed to stand still with the pleasant air of something restfully comfortable, and, above all, containing nothing that wasn't in the very best taste. It was this air of polite gentility that struck Harry so strongly. It had neve

ol, with some taste for adventure. He had had a wider horizon than most of them; Harry remembered how Bunny had envied him in New Zealand. He looked prosperous and sedate now, and the world must have treated him well. Harry spoke to him and was received with effusion. "Trojan, old man! Well, I never!

almost a challenge in his glance, as though he said, "We are quite ready to receive you if you are one of us. But you

and splendid space astonished him. The old place had seemed rather fine to him as a boy, but he saw now how bad it had really been. He

e for the present improvements. "The membership's going up like anything, and we're thinking of raising subscriptions. Very

d all knowing. But I must confess that, dirty and dingy as they were, I regret the old club-rooms. There was something extraordinarily homely and comf

to keep the old things, and all against progress. We're all for progress now. We've got some capital men on the Town Council-Harding, Belfast, Rogers, Snaith-you won't

can't. It's been there for hundreds of years; it'

and that sort of person, and it makes some pretty picture postcards that are certain to sell. O

d so long of the old times, the old beauties, the old quiet spirit of unprogressive content, that this new eagerness to be up

had been insulted in his presence and he had been unable to defend him. They said that the Cove must go, must make way for mode

little, twisting street of the Cove seemed to dance with its white shining cobbles in the light of the sun. It was mysterious as ever, but colours lingered in every corner. Purple mists seemed to hang about the dark alleys and twisting ways; golden shafts of light flashed through the open cottage doorways into rooms where motes of dust danced, like sprites, in the sun; smoke rose in little wr

was nothing to-day that could give the stranger a sense of outlawry, of almost savage avoidance of ordinary customs and manners. Harry's heart beat wildly as he walked down the st

rried back. He had discovered

time, and Pendragon has made great strides. For my part, I am very glad. It brings money to the shopkeepers, and the

e that they are thinking of pulling it down

it is, and is, I am told, extremely insanitary. We must be practical n

lose friend, bound to him by many ties, had been attacked violently

he said, "what d

t were a matter that interested him very little. "If the place

't changed quite as fast as the place has. You

as some one who would grow up one day perhaps, but was, at present at any rate, i

ecause the town isn't quite big enough to put up all the trippers that burden it in the summer? Don't you see what you will lose if you do? I suppose you think that I am sentimental, romantic, but upon

g at him-yes, Robin as well. He had only made a fool of himself; they could not understand how much he

am was present. If one of the family was bent on being absurd, it w

be on your trial this af

he repeated,

see you. We shall have the whole town--" She looked at him a little anxiously; so muc

noon by saying things about the Cove

y much afraid that I shan't do you justice,

se, and she wondered how she could for

he said; "and they are rather ridiculou

sh they were Maories," he said, "I

it really does make a difference, Harry. First impre

speak, "funked" it so. It was partly, of course, because of Robin. He did not want to make a fool of h

he could not let it alone. He had met Auckland society often enough and had, indeed, during his later years, been something of a society man, but there everything was straight-forward and simple. There was no tradition, no convention, no standard. Because oth

were already there, and a clergyman of ample proportions and quite beautifully brushed hair. He was introduced

at he had felt with Barbour in the morning. They were not obviously staring, but he knew that they were

down by the fire. Everybody else i

nished, delighted, and disappointed with an amount of emotion that left her no breath and gave her hearers a small opinion of her sincerity. "It's too terribly funny," she said, opening her eyes very wide indeed, "that you should have been in that amazing place, New Zealand-all sheep and Maories, isn't it?-and if there's one thing that I sho

said Harry, laughing; "we had rai

oo distressing when one has a new frock or must go to some stupid place to see some one. But I'm too awfully glad that you've come here, Mr. Trojan.

lost his shyness and wanted to become confidential. He would tell her how glad he was to be back in England again; how anxious he was to enter into all t

say. Pendragon is the sweetest little town, and even the dear, dirty trippers in the summer are the most delightful and amusing people you ever saw. And now that they tal

ys were massive ladies of any age over fifty. Clad in voluminous black silk, with several little reticules and iron chains, their black hair bound in tight coils at the back of their heads, each holding stiffly her teacup with a tenacity that was worthy of a better cause, they were awe-inspiring and militant. In spite of their motionless gravity, there was something aggressive in their frowning brows and cold, expressionless eyes. Harry thought that he

d and addressed t

sn't the word, apparently. Things have gone too far, and the only wise measure seems to be to roo

rible, and I'm sure it's very bad for all of us to have anything quite so horrible so close to our h

orated with much lace, and her fingers were thick with jewels; a large hat with great purple feathers waved above her head. It was a fantastic and gaudy impression that she made, and there was something rather pitiful in the contrast between her own obvious satisfaction with her pe

had something intent, almost luminous, about it, so that, paradoxically, its very blackness held hidden lights and colours. But it was her manner that Harry especially noticed. She followed her mother with a strange

re, the Miss Ponsonbys clutched their teacups even tighter than before and their brows became more clouded, the Miss Werrels smile

f this sudden hostility had made them friends: he liked that independence of h

there, I mean, and find absolutely no one in-all that way, to

hread of the conversation he lost

han her "Ah! Mrs. Bethel, I'm so glad that you were able to come. So good of you to trouble to call. Won'

was undesired by all the company present, including Clare herself. He also knew instinctively that their coming there ha

and she sat there white and shaking. As Harry bent over her with the scones, he saw to

he saw them imploring, beseeching him to help them. It was a difficult

nd them strongly. I'm so glad to meet you; my sister told me only this morning tha

, knowing that it would reach Clare's ears. The

I'm sure. We are only too delighted. It's not much g

storm a difficult position by the worst of all possible tactics made him extremely sorry for the daughter, who was forced to look on in silence. His thoughts, indeed, were with the girl-her splendid hair, her eyes, so

, I mean. So many people here look on it as a kind of rubbish-heap-pi

ant a lot to me as a boy. I have been sorry to find how unpo

said. "He is always there. We are a

racteristics, the way that she pushed back her hair when she was excited, the beautiful curve of her neck when she raised her eyes to his, the rise and fall o

sonbys, Mrs. le Terry; and when they had all gone, he

her, he stood at the window watching the lights of the town shining misti

iss Ponsonbys enemies for life," she said; "you never spoke to them onc

" said Harry carelessly,