Priscilla and Charybdis: A Story of AlternativesMoore, Frank Frankfort
General
Priscilla and Charybdis: A Story of Alternatives
Moore, Frank Frankfort
Fiction
There was very little organization in the matter--very little was
required. Half-a-dozen house painters prepared as many lengths of
canvas containing the simple manly English words “Welcome Home,” and
half-a-dozen young gentlemen in the drapery line got together some
slices of bunting which they shaped and glued on to rollers, so that
they became bannerets in a moment. For the necessary bouquets they knew
that they could depend upon the Manor gardeners; so the arrangements
for the demonstration did not occupy much time or thought. The musical
accompaniments were suggested by the Town Band, and then it was that Mr.
Mozart Tutt, Mr. Morley Quorn, and the other members of the Framsby Glee
and Madrigal Meistersingers had a chance of putting into practical form
their recognition of what Mrs. Wingfield had done for them upon one
occasion, for they prepared some choice serenade music with which to
greet the lady and her husband in the course of the night.
Someone suggested that they should practise a chorus beginning “See,
the Conquering Hero Comes” for the railway station; but Mr. Tutt was too
wise to enter into any contract that would involve competition with the
band and the cheers of the public.
And on this scale the home-coming of Mr. and Mrs. Wingfield was arranged
for; and as neither of them had been informed of the intention of
Framsby, they were rather surprised when, late in the evening, their
train steamed into the station, and slowed down into an atmosphere of
yells. Beyond the barrier there was a sea of faces whose waves were caps
with an occasional straw hat, and here and there a bowler--all were in
the air undulating fitfully, and lapping the base of a headland bearing
the inscription “Welcome Home.”
“Gloriana!” cried Jack. “Is this for us? And I fancied we had been done
with all that sort of thing until the next general election.”
“Of course it’s for us,” said Priscilla. “I had no idea that Framsby
would rise equal to the occasion.”
“Framsby is rather more than equal to the occasion,” growled Jack. “What
I want to know is, what has Framsby got to do with the election?”
“This isn’t an election demonstration. Can’t you see that it’s only a
welcome home?”
“Dammitall!” murmured Jack.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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