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CHAPTER IV. FR ED FOSTER.

An angry man indeed was Sir Anthcny Zembra when ho found i.hat the stranger who had been thus unceremoniously tbrust into his houss- promised to be a fixture there, at leasl for a considerable time. And naturally he wa^s impatient to know who he was i but he would not ask Sabina ; he made his inquiries of Dr. Huogertord, plainly intimating the while tha'o as likely as not this unwelcome guest was a common swindler, and eill the fuss abo«t the hurt knee part of a scheme of robbery. " He would be an enterprising burglar who would get himself smashed about like that on puipose,'' said the young surgeon, laughing. "Anyhow, Sir Anthony, it will be many a day before he is able to run away with anything-. And I will say this for him : he tries to make as light of his injuries as may be — especially it Miss Zembra is within hearing ; and talks quite contentedly about the whole affair. He has pluck, at all events — " "Yes, yes; but — but — God bless my soul, I want to know who he is ! "Who is he ? Who is he ? ' Sir Anthony demanded. " Well, I think I should call him, speaking generally, a sporting character," the surgeon answered. "At least I can't make out that lie has any occupation besides riding steeplechases, backing horses, playing billiards, and so forth. But his interest insuch matters seems to be of an all-round character. He offered to lay me six to four on Oxford for the boat race." "Professional conversation!" Sir Anthony said. " My fault, at all events," the young surgeon said, promptly. " Well, it is neither that race nor any other that he'll be present at for many a day to come, poor fellow." " What I want to know is," observed Sir Anthony, coldly, '-when you mean to remove him from this house. I don't see that we are responsible for the accident in any way whatever ; and, really, to have one's domestic arrangements upset in this fashion, on behalf of a stranger, is perfectly absurd. Common humanity ? Common stupidity ! When is this gentleman jockey, or whatever he is—' gentleman jock ' is the phrase, isn't it ? — when is ho going to clear out of my house ?" " Well, now, Sir Anthony," the surgeon said, " I would beg of you not to hurry his removal. I would rather not run any risk, unlebs you have imperative need of the room, I dare say everything will go on well ; his constitution seems to be a sound and healthy one ; and as soon as it is fairly safe we will have him taken away — but not to his own rooms, I hope. Bury-strect, St. James's, is nob a very cheerful place for a man who will have to bo on his back for the. next month or two. I don't know what his means are ; but if he could afford to go to Brighton — if he were to get a front room on the King's Road or the Marine Parade, that would be most lively for him. And then on a fine day he might be wheeled down tho Pier on a stretcher, and get the aea air and the sunlight into his blood"' " I cannot say that I feel called upon to concern myself about the young man," observed Sir Anthony, in his lofty manner, " although one naturally wishes him a speedy recovery. In the moan time I shall be glad to have the use and freedom of my own house again the very earliest opportunity." Lady Zembra, for her part, flatly declined to allow the maid Catherine to be for ever dancing attendance on the sick-room ; and as Sabina could not do everything herself — and as, moreover, she could nob wholly neglect certain charges of hers down in the Chelsea district — she got in a trained nurse to help her, defraying the cost out of her own pocket. Bub she herself spent a large portion of each day in the invalid's

chamber ; and' she would bring him- newspag.ers and. illustrated^ journals and-bookfr;; and would sib amiably chatting, wifchi him to lighten 1 the. tedium, of Hisenforced confinement. Fred Foster,, itmust be confessed), was not much> o?> a< reader ; when lie had glansed at the latest' betting for the Lincolnshire Handicap^, and seen • how Cherry Blossom stood for the Liverpool Grand National, he was content to -put the evening paper aside, and would rather talk .to Sabina s in a timid and re* s-peetful and grateful way.. And yet he' spoke cheerfully, too, for he would not have hor think he was fretting . overmuch ; , and as they became better Mends, lie was- quitefuankly garrulous about himself, and. his^ experiences, and companions, and pursuits. It was a new world, this that was being, opened to her ; and yet ib was interesting, in a fashion ; for she waa a friendly and. sympathetic kind of creature, and accustomed to meeting diverse people, who all. had their own way of life. And there was a sort of good-natured cynicism and saturnine honesty in this young man's talk that was. in a measure attractive ; .and he seemed, to. have seen a good deal of the world for one of his years. But it was when he told her about. his homo in Buckiughcunshiue, and the old people there, that he-pleased her mo3t. It appeared that he was returning from a visit to them (having sent on his portmanteau, by rail) when he met, with the smash in Bayswater Koad. His father, lie told her, had a good many years ago laid out his last penny on property down Ameraham and Missenden way, in the expectation of a railway being made along the valley ; but the railway never came ; land would not sell at all ; farms were letting badly ; and times were not as they used to be. Still, that seemed a comfortable home that ho talked about ; and Sabina, sitting in this silent room, listening with friendly interest to his idle discourse, could see for herself the big, old-fashioned, red brick house fronting the road ; a row of. tall elms outside; inside -the low, wide hal^.with its pillars ; rambling corridors and rooms with cascmontcd windows ; a spacious garden behind ; and, busy in the vineries,. an old gentleman ir* . v elveteen coat a»id gaiters, with a velvet cap and tassel on his head, a pair of sheets in his hands, and, not far away from h"m a long clay pipe* " But it's -the Mater," he wculd say (and he was fo'jd of returning; to, this point, and Sabina. liked to hear him speak in,thisj fashion), "it's the Mater lias? been my stand-by through thick and thin ; and whatever happens to me I know I've got one frier Ci. Well, you sec 5 the governor has beer-i rather inclined- to- cut up rough,, with me from time to time, and no wonder, for I have been an idle wretch.; I mean, the only things ] can do well don't seem to. bi ing in much coin, and I dare say I have been p* disappointment bo, him. But theold lady is my stauncb friend through every'inng. And mind, I don't mean only in the way of money. No, no. Youi see*, Miss Zembra, a man \ilio has had a* little experience in turf ai lairs, and mixed himself up ifl that kind of Hie — well. I don't suppose that he can have the highest notions about human nature, and be too ready to believe in people; but its a very capital thing for him if he snows that somewhere O-' other — no matter where, but somewhere —there is one human being that is just as 'jood as gold. I suppose, now, at my age, jny one perfect human being should be a young woman, not an old one ; a divinity and angel about eighteen or twenty. Well, I've never met a:*y of that kind ; I've never met any girl even fit to be compared to my mother. It isn*u ribbons and sceiVcs, and a dog-cart and a pair of ponies driven tandem, for~her ; she dcesn't think what she can get out of you ; it'j what she can do for you, that she thinks of ; she's just as good as gold, she is." "And I hope and am sure you will always think so,"' Sabina said, " But why should you have disappointed your father?" " Well* you see, my wares don't fetch a. big price in the world's nvu'ket," said he> and thei ft was an odd kind ot simplicity in his .self disparagement. " What am Ito do ? I can rida a horse ; and I've even been complimented at times for a nicibh bit of mouth-touching. And I play a faii game at- billiards. And I'd back myself at a pigeon-match even against the Claimant, and that is saying something " 11 Pigeon-shooting?" she said— there was the least trace of surprise in her tone : and that of itsclt was a compliment. "I beg your pax don — 1 shouldn't have mentioned that," ho paid, laughing a little. "Sentiment has changed. But don't you believe the nonsense that is talked about pigeon-shooting, either, Miss Zembra. It •used to bo the most fashionable thing going ; it isn't- now ; and why ? Because it's easy? Because it's meiely slaughter? Not a bit ; it's because it's too difficult — and n score ib kept. If you put a man into a hot corner at a pheasant shoot and let him bhzo away, he'll make a bag somehow, and nobody counts the misses ; it's different in an open field, with a crowd of fashionable people looking on, and the reporters with their note-books just behind yon. Did you ever hear _of the Lords and Commons pigeon-shooting match at Hurlingham ? "No; before your time, I suppose. And before mine, too, rather ; but I've seen the score ; and if you look at that score you'll find how it was that pigeon-shooting cea&cd to be fashionable. People always turn their backs on what they can't do. You don't like to have all your lady-friends looking on while you show what a duffer you are ; and you don't want to have the score in Ihe newspapers next day. Then don't you believe the stories about the maiming of the pigeons either ; that's all newspaper nonsense. Do you think they'd get a single man to lay a sovereign if anything like that wore allowed ? No, no ; and, of course, the betting-men back the pigeon ; they know he'll play fair ; they may nob be sure about the noble sportsman ; but they know the bird will try to get away if he can. You can't 'pull' a pigeon." However, he saw by the expression of her face— and the hazel eyes wero easy to read — that this was not a wholly grateful subject ; and he gob away from it. She was far more pleased by his descriptions of the morning gallops, before breakfast, on Epsom. Downs ; and he spoke rather wistfully about them ; and she thought it a pitiable thing that he should bo lying here, helpless. But whether he spoke wistfully or cheerfully, all the way through these chance conversations there ran an innocent assumption that she must be interested ; and she did become interested, without hardly knowing why. For one thinpj, he talked about horsG3 with a genuine enthusiasm ; and she grew to sympathise in his admiration of skilful riding ; and could almost understand how Jem Robinson burst into tears of vexation when he found he had been tricked by the lad Twitchet ; and she was sorry for Fordham when sho was told how Sam Rogers had served him the same turn. It was a new world to her ; and there were plenty of strange characters in it, and striking incidents, and moving histories. She grew almost familiar with its physical aspects ; whon he described the Grand National course, she had to construct in her imagination the successive thorn fences and hurdles bushed with gorse, and Beecher's Brook, and Valentine's Brook, and the Water Jump, and then again tho hurdles on the

straightway for home. Cherry Blossom was now afc 11 to 2, and stall first favourite, and how could she help hoping the horse would win, seeing: ihab -this young man, who seemed so good-natured, and cheerful, and patient under his grievously bad luck, was so obviously anxious about it ? The Duke of Exminster called on Fred Foster to see how he was getting on ; and very sorry was that young gentleman that Sabina happened to be out. "Very sorry," he said, "I should like you to have met, if jusfc for once, the very straightest man that ever had anything to do with the English turf— the very straightest, and all his life through, too. I wonder who ever heard of him ' readying' a horse and running: it out of form so as to scoop the big handicap afterwards " "Bub is it so unusual to find an honcsL man on the turf ? ' Sabina asked. He did notanswer ; he only paid, evasively, and a little grimly : — " Horse-racing is a great game ; and it lias got to be played different ways.' Now, as hat> alicicly been said, the training that Sabina had voluntarily undergone had taught her a wide catholicity of sympathy ; and she had long ago got rid of any Pharisaical notion that because a certain way of life is right for this or that person, it is necessarily so for all. This kind of life that he described, if it did not appear to be informed by any lof ty purpose, or to be exerting any beneficial influence on others, was nevertheless apparently joyous and merry, and so far it was distinctly well ; while it was certainly not one whit more selfish than the lives of the vast majority of the people — highly respectable and praisewoithy people — whom she saw around her. Perhaps there was a trifle too much luncheonbasket in it ; and there was a pretty continuous popping of champagne- bottles ; but on the other hand that was probably the handiest way of celebrating victories ; and, for the rest, there seemed to be a considerable amount of good-comradeship and generous help for the unfortunate in this set that he described. Nay, when she began and told him how she spent her ow n time — what her occupations Avere, and so forth — he said lie was quite ashamed of Jrimself ; he wondered what she would think ,of him, who could but talk of horses, and hounds, and partridges, and tennis-courts, I while she was engaged in such un&cltish and Sicfrle work. " But then," said he, looking at her, •" thj?re are nob many like you." " What do you mean ?<!? <! she said. ",Gh, I can't tell you to your face," he answeied, gently ; and then an accustomed flush mantled in the pale and beautiful forehead ; and she turned quickly aside to get him his lemon-juice and soda-water, which ?vV££ the beverage allowed him at this time. On another occasion he said :—: — "You know, it's awfully good of you, Miss Zembia, to bother yourself about me, and to come and chat with me now and again ; and you so busy. Bub I have remorse of con&cience. I really must ask you not to let me take up so much of your time — there are so many others who have better claims. " "Perhaps you forget how you came to be here at all,"' said Sabina. " Oh, but you must put that out of your head,'' he insi&ted. " You weie in no way responsible for the accident. Anybody's dog would have brought about the same thing. Or rather, it was my own stupidity that did it ; for I should have seen the little heap of gravel. Or rather — and this is the truth — it was a piece of pure bad luck. I've come a cropper many a time before ; bub this time, by pure bad luck, I chanced to hit the kerbstone. Well, why should you consider yourself responsible for that? However, you must not think me ungrateful for all your goodness to me ; and I have been wondering whether you wouldn't let me take a little paib in what you aie doing. I mean,'* he added, with a touch of halfaniused embariassmcnt, "you might bring me luck —that is, supposing Schiller were to win the Shipley Hall Handicap on Tuesday next, would you accept a ten pound note for distribution among your poor people V " Oh ye^, ceitainly, if you care to give it me, ' said Mhs Zembra, promptly ; she had long ago ceased to be squeamish about such matters. " It's rather a shabby offer, isn't it, to make it conditional ?" he continued. " But every loose farthing I've gob I've pub on that horse ; and if I went out now I'd .sell my boot*, I believe, and clap everything on ; for it's as good as a moral, &o the Duke says. And then there's the glory — you see, I own a ki.xth share in bins horse " Miss Zembra had taken up the evening paper ; she wanted to know something about the animal that was perhaps to win ten pounds for her. "The Derby Meeting," he said. "The Shipley Hall Handicap." "Oh, yes, here it is," she said. "Schiller, 4 to 1 against. That does not look promising, does it ?" ♦ ' Promising enough. I wish it was 20 to 1. I know the old horse will pull it off for ue this time, though it isn't a big thing. We can't all be Dukes." "Bub with regard to the ten pounds, now," said Sabina, rather diffidently, " I am afraid I accepted heedlessly. " "Oh, a bargain's a bargain," he said, with much cheerfulness, "and I think you'll find by next Tuesday afternoon that Schiller has landed you that ten-pound note for your pensioners : the money might go a worse way." It may be said generally that he bore this imprisonment with really remarkable fortitude, the more so that, when Sabina was absent, the other members of the household did nothing at all to relieve his solitude. Lady Zembra was so kind as to make inquiries about him from day to day of the nurse, and Sir Anthony would ask an occasional question of the doctor ; bub it was very clear that their solicitude was prompted solely by their desire to know when he was going away. In these circumstances, Sabina did whab she could to keep him amused ; and g;ave him as much of her time as was possible ; and in this way she came to know his history, even from his boyhood's days, in a curiously intimate fashion. He liked to talk ; he was grateful to so gentle and considerate a listener ; for, indeed, in her attitude towards him there was an almost maternal kindliness and patience and sympathy. One would scarcely have remembered that, as a matter of fact, he was a couple of years older than she was. He talked to her as if he knew she would pass no harsh judgment when he made confession ; and also as if he was sure beforehand that she would like well enough to know all about his first pistol, and his adventures with his pony, and his birdstuffing, and his various scrapes at school, and the gradual way in which in after life hebecameassociatedwichthesporting world. She got to understand all about his somewhat strained relations with his father ; his dependence on his mother, and his abundant gratitude towards her ; his general habits of life ; his opinion of particular men ; his manner of looking at the tricks of fickle fortune. Moreover, through all this self-revelation there ran a vein of sarcasm that gave ifc piquancy. His judgment of people and things was shrewd and sharp ; so was his judgment of himself ; and there was a kind of innocent saturnine honesty

about Mm that amused her, and attracted her -at; (the satae .time. -" If I had broken my neck that time I pitched on the pavement," he said, on one .occasion, " I suppose I should have had to give, an aoconnt of myself. Well, I should just have said this : ' Lord, there are some who would tell me I was a very good sort of fellow ; but I know I've been rather a bad sort of fellow ; only, I was gust what you made me.' " And it was hardly her business to point out to him that this theory of moralresponsibility—.ar irresponsibility — was of & primitive and unworkable character. One thing, finally, was certain ; this man interested her, and Janie Wygram had maintained that, so far, Sabina had neA r er shows herself interested (in Janie's sense of the phrasein any man, (To be continued.)

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TAN18871126.2.56.2

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Te Aroha News, 26 November 1887, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
3,454

CHAPTER IV. FRED FOSTER. Te Aroha News, 26 November 1887, Page 6

CHAPTER IV. FRED FOSTER. Te Aroha News, 26 November 1887, Page 6

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