Sir Richard drew on his gloves, thrust his toe into the stirrup,
and then turned to look at me over his arm.
"Peter," said he.
"Sir Richard?" said I.
"Regarding your walking tour--"
"Yes?"
"I think it's all damned tomfoolery!" said Sir Richard. After
saying which he swung himself into the saddle with a lightness
and ease that many younger might have envied.
"I'm sorry for that, sir, because my mind is set upon it."
"With ten guineas in your pocket!"
"That, with due economy, should be ample until I can find some
means to earn more."
"A fiddlestick, sir--an accursed fiddlestick!" snorted Sir
Richard. "How is a boy, an unsophisticated, hot-headed young
fool of a boy to earn his own living?"
"Others have done it," I began.
"Pish!" said the baronet.
"And been the better for it in the end."
"Tush!" said the baronet.
"And I have a great desire to see the world from the viewpoint of
the multitude."
"Bah!" said the baronet, so forcibly that his mare started; "this
comes of your damnable Revolutionary tendencies. Let me tell
you, Want is a hard master, and the world a bad place for one who
is moneyless and without friends."
"You forget, sir, I shall never be without a friend."
"God knows it, boy," answered Sir Richard, and his hand fell and
rested for a moment upon my shoulder. "Peter," said he, very
slowly and heavily, "I'm growing old--and I shall never marry--and
sometimes, Peter, of an evening I get very lonely and--lonely,
Peter." He stopped for a while, gazing away towards the green
slopes of distant Shooter's Hill. "Oh, boy!" said he at last,
"won't you come to the Hall and help me to spend my money?"
Without answering I reached up and clasped his hand; it was the
hand which held his whip, and I noticed how tightly he gripped
the handle, and wondered.
"Sir Richard," said I at last, "wherever I go I shall treasure
the recollection of this moment, but--"
"But, Peter?"
"But, sir--"
"Oh, dammit!" he exclaimed, and set spurs to his mare. Yet once
he turned in his saddle to flourish his whip to me ere he
galloped out of sight.