A PRACTICAL TEST.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 269, 24 May 1889, Page 2

A PRACTICAL TEST.

(FKO3£ ALL THE YEAE SOUND.) Tom Chester lived by himself in a bouse furnishevl »nd decorated under his own inspt?ction — art furniture being one of his nvany " fads." ",I like to strike out a linear my se^f in furnishing, as well as An other things," he used often to say to his friends. But the friends did. not much like the line he had strtzeft: oat is the smoking room. It consisted of two oak settles, one on each .side of the fire, with very straight, .tall backs, and no cushions. Tom had picked them up cheap in a villa^^e inn. "£o unconventional," ha said. The friends, generally with a backache at the moment, sighed after conventionality, but said little* for Tom had very good whisky, and. was a very good fellow, they all agreed, except when his favourite: "fad" of all was in his mind. At the first sign of the entrance of this into the conversation, the friends usually had engagements which demanded their immediate presence. It was heralded by one particular sentence which they well knew. " I do not believe in arbitrary class distinctions," Tony would begin v I have, in tact, a practical test — '* But at that word the sole occupant of the settles was; generally Tom himself. " Ah, well," he soliloquised on these occasions. " successful experiment will not only convince the flippant but the thoughtful world. I can wait*" The last few words were tnie* Patience was certainly one 4 of Tom's leading characteristics. Still, one night when the friends had left him in peace, he was sitting aloneon the end of one of the settles, Sacking th« top bar of the grate, with a frown on his face, as he said to himself— "Three years four yearsshould be enough ; but it is difficult work. Now last night she did not seem to appreciate the ' French Revolution ' nearly so much. Had gome different frock on— thinking o that, no doubt. I'll ask Mrs Smith to prevent that sort of distraction, at any rate — What did you say. Mary I didn't ring." He turned round with a shade of irritation in bia s voice. "It's only seven; at hall 5 past I shall be ready." r ♦« Yes, sir." " Mr Chester " corrected Tom. t " Yes Mr Chester. I couldn't re* t member what you gave me to learn." I " Couldn't remember " began Ton. r ""Fetch the book here, Mary at r once." ) '] om's voice made her steps spteedy - and in less than three minutes she l stood at the elbow of his chair -with • the most modern of French grammar t books in her hand. He found the ) p ace he had carefully marked the I night before, and was going to givt . her a scolding in the tone of voice from which his friends fled, when he > glanced up at her — and involuntarily • softened bis words and tone. The . girl standing by him was plainly so frightened, so very anxious to take j in what he said to her now, that his i soolding ended abruptly in— I "Make haste then, Mary, and . never forget again." ) Downstairs she ran, and, drawing > a chair up to the kitchen fir*, put , the book and her elbows on her > knees, and gave her mind to the i part Tom had marked, only disturbed , by the voice of Mrs Smith, the houser keeper, as she said at intervals of • five minutes, which were given to complications in her knitting — ' "There Polly, my girl, don't r worry your brains too much. What , master wants with teaching you. such i stuff, I can't think. Cooking and . cleaning — that's what I was taught ; and it's poor comfort master would \ have if no one knew nothing but books." Mrs Smith had made these re- > marks before during the eighteen

months Pollys HTd' lived in Mi Giiester's house, therefore they did not engross her attentions. She / "worked till the k^tclieii clock struck half-past, and, | then starting' up, said— y '■ T ■-■- « Mrs Smith; I'mjready." '• Very well, piy girl.' You might straighten your hair a ittle, thoitgh, while I pick up; these stitches." Polly rummagedrin a large, deej drawer, and at tytfi extracted from, a mass of muslin, , cheap lace, and ribbon, two exercise" ftoois, a pen. and a much worn English history, Armed with thes©,, she, Mis Smith. and the knitting "went upstairs. Tom was in the library— a roon containing no temptation to any thing but study. He bad lined ii with books, and excluded all easychairs. The di awing room was theii place, he said, and theirs alone ii Tom's house; for no one entered the drawing room except admiring friends of Mrs Smith and Poily, when Tom was out and they had " company to tea." On one straight backed chair Tom awaited them." Mrs Smith took another, to which she was evidently well accustomed, at the end of the tab'o ; and Polly sat down at Tom's right hand. He had on a pair of spectacles, not needed in the lesst by his thirtyfive years ; but he had always a sort of feeling that they 'would be a help to him iv gaining and keeping Polly's attention. Very carefully he went through tbe French exercise she gave him, underlining her mistakes, and only once stopping when Polly said, arologetically, ' It's blutted, and that I know,' to say, 'Yon do not need the words ' and that,' Maiy.' Then he went through the mistakes with her, explaining each at length ;* so much' so, indeed', that Mary's thoughts had wandered to a •grey cosume,' she meant to have for Sundays, before he came to the last, She w;is recalled abruptly by his demand for her grammar book, but the verb committed to memory, in the kitchen hud more or less left it in the librar}', and the spectacles were wholly unnecessary aids to the gravity of Tom's counter ance, when he laid down the book and took Tip Green's History of the English. People, which lie read aloud to her on alternate nights with onrly:e, while she took notes. She had covered about two pages of her note book, with a straggling handwriting, when nine o'clook struck. Tom's voice and the click of Mrs Smith's needles stopped together. ' I should like better preparation next time, Mary.' lie said as he shut the book. * Yes, Mr Chr-st' r ; good night, Mr Chester.' Fallowed by Mrs Smith with a decorous 'Good night, sir,' Mary left the room, slowly at first ; but when they reached the kitchen stairs, it did not • eed Mrs Smith's 'Hurry, and see after supper, Polly,' to send her flying down the steps with a swift nes- which gave the books she threw ou the table impetuous enough to send them off * again. Tom put away the books, took off his Spectacles, and sto d by the fire, *^ lighting a cigar with some deliberation, and thinking of the work be had tried to do that; evening, and on. many an evening before. His ' f;id ' was very near his heart. Two years before, when Mrs Smith told him that her failing powers ni eded the help of younger eyes find lingers to keep his house, $it hurl ueenrrei to him that here \yas tho opportunity he had long wanted, to p-ove his theory that education alone transformed a man into a ' gentleman,' a woman into a ' lady ;' that the ticcident of birth was nothing, for nil class distinctions were the meie arbi trary growth of ages of ignorance. He inquired carofully into tbe system of teaching pursued at. most of the large orphanages, and having discovered the one he considered most complete, took from it Mary, aged fifteen, bright, intelligent, and: with a manner, neither too assured nor too shy. ' Excellent ground,' he said to himself. ' She will ass : st my housekeeper, and her education will be carried on by myself,' he said to the head of the institution, who stared, but said nothing. At eighteen he meant to send her to a thoroughly good finishing school for a year, to acquire whatever might be beyond his own power to give ; and then he would reach the crowning point of his ' practical test' — he •would marry her. And the only day-dream Tom ever had was one of a day when he would "be able to say, in a large room full of incredulous people, including most of the friends — ' Allow me to intro,.duce — nxy wife.' Whilst whispers .'^should fall on his ears of ' Charming woman ! Curiously successful ease.' It was a wet Sunday. Tom had turned over books, smoked, and used strong language about the weather, the day ; and at four o'clock ls*Trfd could no longer endure it but hailed the first break ir>. the clouds, and set out for a house where hehnd a standing invitation from an old friend of his family for ' Any Sunday afternoon.' He very seldom availed himself of this, for he cared little foi sooiety, and had no great liking foi this special form of it. But he felt it part of his work not to toucl •with the, world which was<to welcom* his wife id acknowledge the success , of hi* experiment. (Conduced in next issue.)

eUcCKSb^U li TKEATM.ENT