Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) BEALBY A HOLIDAY BY H. G. WELLS AUTHOR OF “THE WIFE OF SIR ISAAC HARMAN,” ETC. New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1915 _All rights reserved_ COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY P. F. COLLIER & SON. COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY H. G. WELLS. Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1915. Reprinted March, 1915. April, 1915. May, 1915. July, 1915. August, 1915. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. YOUNG BEALBY GOES TO SHONTS 1 II. A WEEK-END AT SHONTS 22 III. THE WANDERERS 56 IV. THE UNOBTRUSIVE PARTING 95 V. THE SEEKING OF BEALBY 131 VI. BEALBY AND THE TRAMP 190 VII. THE BATTLE OF CRAYMINSTER 226 VIII. HOW BEALBY EXPLAINED 263 BEALBY CHAPTER I YOUNG BEALBY GOES TO SHONTS § 1 The cat is the offspring of a cat and the dog of a dog, but butlers and lady’s maids do not reproduce their kind. They have other duties. So their successors have to be sought among the prolific, and particularly among the prolific on great estates. Such are gardeners, but not under-gardeners, gamekeepers, and coachmen—but not lodge people, because their years are too great and their lodges too small. And among those to whom this opportunity of entering service came was young Bealby, who was the stepson of Mr. Darling, the gardener of Shonts.