This FreedomHutchinson, A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth)
General
This Freedom
Hutchinson, A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth)
Marriage -- Fiction; Women -- Social and moral questions -- Fiction
Harry says to Huggo: “I say, I’m not going to be harsh; but, I say,
can’t you understand the disgrace; can’t you understand the shame,
old man? You’ve been at the finest school in England and you’ve had
to leave. You’re sixteen. Old man, when I was sixteen I got my footer
colours. I was the youngest chap in the team. You’re sixteen and you’ve
never even got a house cap and you’ve had to leave. Huggo, I’ve never
missed going down to a Founders’ Day since I went to Oxford. It’s always
been the day of the year for me. I don’t say I’ve ever done much in
life, but every time I’ve been down to Founders’ Day I’ve thought over,
in the train, any little thing I may have pulled out in the year and
I’ve felt, I’ve felt awfully proud to be taking it down to the old
school, so to speak. Old chap, the proudest, far the proudest of all,
was the year I went down when first you were there. I was proud. I’d
given a son to the place. I’d got a boy there. Another Occleve was going
to write the name up on the shields and rolls and things. It was the
year Garnett first came down as a Cabinet Minister. Huggo, I looked old
Garnett in the face with a grin. Whatever he’d done I’d got this much up
on him--he hadn’t given a son to the place. He hadn’t got a boy there.
That’s how I always felt. Well, old man, it’s all over. I can’t go
down to Founders’ Day ever again. I’ve never missed. Now--I’ve had to
withdraw my boy. I can’t go again. I couldn’t face it.”
He wiped his eyes. No tears in Huggo’s eyes. On Huggo’s face only a
look sullen and aggrieved; and sullen and aggrieved his mutter, “Well,
perhaps it was different for you. I couldn’t stick the place.”
She gasped out, “Huggo!” but Harry had heard, and Harry, perhaps in
offset to the emotion he had displayed, smashed his hand down on the
table before him and cried out, “Well, keep your mouth shut about it
then! Couldn’t stick it! What can you be? What can be the matter with
you? Couldn’t stick it! Tidborough! The finest school in the world!
Couldn’t stick it!”
She interposed, “Harry, dear! Huggo; Huggo, tell your father you didn’t
mean that.”
Huggo’s mumble: “I’m sorry, father.”
Harry’s deep, kind voice: “I’m sorry too, old man. It rather jarred.
Look here, this is all over. It’s just been a side-slip. I’ve forgotten
it. So has your mother. You just think over sometimes what I’ve said,
my boy. We’re fixing up this tutor’s for you. You start in fresh and go
like steam. Finest thing in the world a fresh start. Makes a side-slip
worth while. I’m going to be--I am--prouder of you than anything on
earth. My eldest boy! Like steam from now, old chap, eh?”
Strike on!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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