THE HAMPDENSHIRE WONDER BY J. D. BERESFORD AUTHOR OF "THE EARLY HISTORY OF JACOB STAHL" LONDON SIDGWICK & JACKSON, Ltd. 3 ADAM STREET, ADELPHI 1911 To MY FRIEND AND CRITIC ARTHUR SCOTT CRAVEN CONTENTS PART I MY EARLY ASSOCIATIONS WITH GINGER STOTT CHAP. PAGE I. THE MOTIVE 3 II. NOTES FOR A BIOGRAPHY OF GINGER STOTT 14 III. THE DISILLUSIONMENT OF GINGER STOTT 52 PART II THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WONDER IV. THE MANNER OF HIS BIRTH 65 V. HIS DEPARTURE FROM STOKE-UNDERHILL 86 VI. HIS FATHER'S DESERTION 101 VII. HIS DEBT TO HENRY CHALLIS 113 VIII. HIS FIRST VISIT TO CHALLIS COURT 139 INTERLUDE 145 PART II (continued) THE WONDER AMONG BOOKS IX. HIS PASSAGE THROUGH THE PRISON OF KNOWLEDGE 151 X. HIS PASTORS AND MASTERS 175 XI. HIS EXAMINATION 189 XII. FUGITIVE 213 PART III MY ASSOCIATION WITH THE WONDER XIII. HOW I WENT TO PYM TO WRITE A BOOK 219 XIV. THE INCIPIENCE OF MY SUBJECTION TO THE WONDER 230 XV. THE PROGRESS AND RELAXATION OF MY SUBJECTION 251 XVI. RELEASE 268 XVII. IMPLICATIONS 283 EPILOGUE: THE USES OF MYSTERY 289 PART I MY EARLY ASSOCIATIONS WITH GINGER STOTT CHAPTER I THE MOTIVE I I could not say at which station the woman and her baby entered the train. Since we had left London I had been engrossed in Henri Bergson's "Time and Free Will," as it is called in the English translation. I had been conscious of various stoppages and changes of passengers, but my attention had been held by Bergson's argument. I agreed with his conclusion in advance, but I wished to master his reasoning. I looked up when the woman entered my compartment, though I did not notice the name of the station. I caught sight of the baby she was carrying, and turned back to my book. I thought the child was a freak, an abnormality; and such things disgust me. I returned to the study of my Bergson and read: "It is at the great and solemn crisis, decisive of our reputation with others, that we choose in defiance of what is conventionally called a motive, and this absence of any tangible reason is the more striking the deeper our freedom goes."