Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/fromanglesevente00phil Transcriber’s note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. FROM THE ANGLE OF SEVENTEEN by EDEN PHILLPOTTS Author of “Widecombe Fair,” “The Lovers,” etc. Boston Little, Brown, and Company 1914 Copyright, 1912, By Little, Brown, and Company. All rights reserved Printers S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U.S.A. TO HUGHES MASSIE IN ALL FRIENDSHIP ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FROM THE ANGLE OF SEVENTEEN I When the Doctor sent for me to his study, I hoped it was about the fireworks, because I was head boy that term, and, in a great position like that, there were advantages to make up for the anxiety. You bossed the fireworks on the fifth of November and many other such-like things. But the Doctor had nothing to say about fireworks. In fact, a critical moment had come in my life: I was to leave. “Sit down, Corkey,” said the Doctor; and that in itself was a startler, because he never asked anybody to sit down except parents or guardians. I sat and he looked at me with a friendly and regretful expression, the same as he did when he had to tell me my father was dead.