[Frontispiece: The Liberry] "THE LIBERRY" BY IAN HAY WITH FRONTISPIECE BY KLEBER HALL BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge 1924 COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1923 AND 1924, BY IAN HAY BEITH ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE * MASSACHUSETTS PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. "The Liberry" "THE LIBERRY" I I first met Mr. Baxter at the fourpenny box outside Mr. Timpenny's second-hand bookshop in High Street, and was attracted at once by the loving care with which he handled its contents. Dirty and dog's-eared as most of them were, he never snatched one up or threw it down, after the common fashion of patrons of inexpensive literature, but would gently extract a more than usually disreputable volume from its heap, blow the dust off, straighten the warped cover, and smooth out the wrinkled pages before dipping into the subject-matter. In fact, the last operation struck me as interesting him least of all. Becoming aware of my presence, he moved aside with a courtly little bow. He was a dusty old gentleman, in a very shabby frock-coat. He looked as if he lived in the fourpenny box himself. "Am I preventing you from selecting a volume, sir?" he inquired. I hastened to reassure him. I had no special designs on the fourpenny box, or indeed on any. I was merely idling. "I am waiting for the druggist to make up a prescription," I said. "Then you don't do your own dispensing, sir?" "As a rule, yes. I have run out of this particular drug, though. But you know me?" "Yes, sir; by sight. We do not take long in Broxborough to get to know every one by sight. You succeeded to Dr. Wiseman's practice, I think?" "Yes." "A good old man, sir, and a lover of books, like myself." "You're right about yourself," I said. "You handle a book as I would a delicate patient." "A very apt comparison, sir. To me, in a manner of speaking, a book is a human thing. A dilapidated book is a patient; I like to repair its broken back and gum in its loose pages. In fact, the late Archdeacon used to rally me upon the subject, sir. He insisted that I cared more for a book, as a book, than for what was inside it." I ventured, with immediate success, to draw him out upon the subject of the late Archdeacon. "Archdeacon Belford, sir. He died many years ago, and few remember him now. A great scholar and gentleman. I was associated with him almost continuously in my younger days. It was he who assisted me to found my library." "Your library?" "Yes, sir." The old gentleman's mild blue eyes suddenly glowed with pride. "Nothing very pretentious, of course; but I take my little pleasure in it. And it grows--it grows." He picked a small tattered volume out of the box--it looked like an ancient school prize--and turned down a few dog's-ears with a distressed expression.