xt7cjs9h4j50 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7cjs9h4j50/data/mets.xml Rice, Alice Caldwell Hegan, 1870-1942. 1914  books b92-241-31439136 English Century Co., : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Honorable Percival  / by Alice Hegan Rice. text Honorable Percival  / by Alice Hegan Rice. 1914 2002 true xt7cjs9h4j50 section xt7cjs9h4j50 
THE HONORABLE PERCIVAL
 









































Their-boat had sailed
Their boat had sailed

 



             THE
HONORABLE PERCIVAL



               BY
      ALICE HEGAN RICE
  AUTHOR OF -IRS. WIGGS OF THE CABBAGE PATCH,"
      OA ROMANCE OF BILLY-GOAT HILL," ETC.



   NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
      1914

 



























Copyright, 1914, by
THE CENTUXY CO.

Copyright, 1914. by
MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE


Published, October, 1914


 












CONTENTS



CHAPTER
  I A BLIGHTED BEING

  II A COUNTERBIRRITANT  .

  III CONVALESCENCE  . . . . .

  IV COUNTER-CURRENTS . . . .

  V STRANDED

  VI IN THE WIND-SHELTER . .

VII THE DAY THAT NEVER WAS

VIII IN THE CROW'S-NEST .

IX DRAGGING ANCHOR  .

  X ON THE SEARCH

  XI THE GYMKHANA

XII THE SONG OF THE SIREN  .

XIII PERCIVAL PROCRASTINATES  .

XIV NEPTUNE TAKES A HAND  .

XV PERCIVAL RISES TO AN OCCASION

XVI IN PORT .



     PAGE
. . .    3

. . . 23

. . . 32

. . . 45

. . . 61

. . . 83

. . . 106

. . . 132

. . . 156

. . . 170

. . . 187

 . . 212

. . . 235

. . . 246

. . . 258

. . . 272

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     LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

                                                PAGE
Their boat had sailed .   .  . .   .  . Frontispiece
"Well, did you ever! Where did you come from"    19
Her hair, still damp, was hanging about her shoul-
    ders, and she carried a bundle of bath-towels
    under her arm   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   .  . 41
"Mr.   Hascombe!"   she   demanded   breathlessly,
    "you'll take me out in the surf boat, won't
    you"    .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   . 67
At a break-neck speed towards the wharf .   .  . 79
"I don't know   what makes me so everlastingly
    silly!" she said fiercely, trying to swallow the
    rising sobs, "but he won't understand!" .  . 93
"I like the way your mouth looks when you read it" 121
"Roberta!" he called sternly. "What are you doing
    out here .. .   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   .129
"You will have to join the crowd," suggested Bobby
    when Percival complained of not seeing her as
    often as he wished .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   . 145
"If you want to hold my hand, Mr. Hascombe, you
    are welcome to it".   .  .  .  .  .  .  .   . 151
He sat on a table swinging his feet in unison with
    a lot of other young feet, while he sipped lemon-
    ade from the same glass as Bobby Boynton . 209
"Isn't that the prettiest thing you ever saw" she
    asked, glancing at him over her shoulder .  . 225
"It's quite worth while," he said, "getting a jab in
    the wrist, to have you looking after me like
    this. .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   .255
"I'm so sorry!" whispered Bobby. putting her arm
    impulsively around his heaving shoulders .  . 267

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       THE
HONORABLE PERCIVAL

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                THE
  HONORABLE PERCIVAL

                  I
           A BLIGHTED BEING
    HE   Honorable Percival HIascombe
 T  came aboard the Pacific liner about
to sail from San Francisco, preceded by a
fur coat, a gun-case, two pigskin bags, a
hat-box, and a valet. He was tall and slen-
der, and moved with an air of fastidious
distinction. He wore a small mustache, a
monocle, and an expression of unutterable
ennui. His costume consisted of a smart
tweed traveling-suit, with cap to match,
white spats, and a pair of binoculars swung
across his shoulders. In his eyes was the
look, carefully maintained, of one who has
sounded the depths of human tragedy.
  Since his advent into the world twenty-
                   3

 


The Honorable Percival



eight years before, he had been made to
feel but one responsibility. His elder
brother, having persistently refused to pro-
vide himself with a wife and heir, the duty
of perpetuating the family name fell upon
him, Percival Hascombe, second son of the
late Earl of Westenhanger, of Hascombe
Hall, fifth in descent from the great
AWestenhanger whose marble effigy adorns
the dullest and most respectable cathedral
in southern England.
  From the time Percival had been able to
cast a discriminating eye, his adoring fam-
ily had presented the feminine flowers of
the country-side for his inspection. One
after another they had met with his grave
consideration and subsequent disapproba-
tion. Fears had begun to be entertained
that he would follow in the solitary foot-
steps of his bachelor brother, when Lady
Hortense Vevay appeared on the scene.
  Lady Hortense, with her mother, the
Duchess of Dare, had come down to Devon
for the shooting one autumn, seeking rest
                   4

 



A Blighted Being



after a strenuous social season following
her presentation at court. She had been
there less than a week when she bagged
the biggest game in the neighborhood. The
explanation was obvious: the Lady Hor-
tense had no faults to be discovered.
The closest inspection through two pairs
of glasses, Percival's and her own, failed
to reveal a flaw. Her birth and position
were equal to his own; her beauty, if at-
tenuated, was sufficient; while her discrim-
inating taste amounted to a virtue. The
Honorable Percival proffered his hand, and
was accepted. Hascombe Hall rang with
applause.
  All might have been well had not
mother and daughter been pressed to
seal the compact by a closer intimacy in a
ten-days' visit at the hall. The young
people were allowed to bask uninterrupted
in the light of each other's perfections, and
the result was disastrous. Two persons
who have achieved distinction as soloists
do not take kindly to duets. A few days
                   5

 


        The Honorable Percival

after the Vevays' return to London, Lady
Hortense wrote a perfectly worded note,
and asked to be released from the engage-
ment.
  The utterly preposterous fact that a
Hascombe of Hascombe Hall had been
jilted was too amazing a circumstance to
be concealed, and the county buzzed with
rumors. The Honorable Percival, whose
pride had sustained a compound fracture,
set sail immediately for America. After
a hurried trip across the continent, he was
embarking again, this time for Hong-Kong,
where a sympathetic married sister held
out embracing arms, and a promise of
refuge from wagging tongues.
  As he moved languidly down the deck
and sank into the steamer-chair that bore
his name, he assured himself for the
fortieth time since leaving England that
life bored him to tears. He had sounded
its joys and its sorrows, he had exhausted
its thrills; it was like a scenic railway over
which he was compelled to ride after
                   6

 



A Blighted Being



every detail had become monotonously
familiar. There was nothing more for him
to learn about life, nothing more for him
to feel. At least that is what the Honora-
ble Percival thought. But when one
reckons too confidently on having ex-
hausted the varieties of human experience,
one is apt to get a jolt.
  Carefully selecting a cigarette from a
gold case, he struck a light, and, after a
wwhiff or two, lay back and, closing his eyes
on the stir and confusion, gave himself
up to painful reflections. His shrunken
self-esteem, like a feathered thing exposed
to wet weather, was clamoring for a sunny
spot in which to expand to natural propor-
tions. Had lie been aloe to remain at home,
the unending chorus of feminine praise
would soon have dried his draggled feath-
ers and left him preening himself con-
tentedly in the comforting assurance that
Lady Hortense was in no way worthy of
him. But being confronted thus suddenly
with the necessity of supplying his egotism
                    7

 



The Honorable Percival



with all its nourishment, he found himself
unequal to the task. Behind every con-
soling thought stalked that totally incredi-
ble "No." He tortured his brain for pos-
sible reasons for Hortense's deflection, but
could find none. Detail by detail he re-
viewed their acquaintance from the first
time he had bowed over her fingers, in Lord
Carlton's hunting-lodge, to the moment he
had touched his lips to the same fingers in
formal farewell on the terrace at Has-
combe Hall. It had been such a well-bred
courtship from the start, so thoroughly ap-
proved by both sides, so perfectly con-
ducted throughout!
  Then, following suddenly on this smooth
course of events, came a series of bumps
that made Percival wince as he recalled
them: protests, evasions, humiliating ques-
tions on the part of the public, and then
ignominious flight. He shuddered as he
thought of the dull, wet days on the Atlantic
and his hideous week in America. He had
been in a perpetual state of protest against
                   8

 


A Blighted Being



everything from the hotel service to what
he termed the " crass vulgarity of the
States. "
  There had been but one oasis in the
desert of gloom through which he had
traveled, and that had been on his inter-
minable trip across the continent, when for
ten brief minutes Lis blight had been lifted,
and he had caught a breath of the incense
for which his soul hungered.
  It was at a little station in Wyoming that
he, a convalescent from love, had for the
first time in weeks managed to look up and
take a bit of amatory nourishment. lIe
was standing alone on the rear platform of
the observation-car, arms on railing, watch-
ing with no interest whatever the taking
off of mail-bags. Suddenly within his line
of vision came a stalwart young chap and
a girl, each astride a bronco. They drew
rein at the platform, cursorily scanned the
waiting train, glanced at him, then at each
other, and, apparently without the slightest
reason, burst into unrestrained merriment.
                    9

 


        The Honorable Percival

Percival continued to survey them calmly
and haughtily through his monocle. His
first glance had revealed the fact that the
girl -was strikingly pretty. Her lithe young
body showed round and comely in its khaki
suit and brown leggings. Her black mane
was braided in two short, thick plaits with
a dash of scarlet ribbons at the ends. Blue
eyes, full of daring, danced under the black-
est of brows, and the smile she flashed at
her companion revealed a dimple of dis-
tracting proportions.
  As Percival gazed he was quite oblivious
of the fact that the laugh was at his ex-
pense. In fact, he accorded her darting
glances a far more flattering interpreta-
tion, and when her escort dismounted, and
disappeared within the station, he deliber-
ately caught her eye and held it. There
was a touch of daring in her face and figure,
an evident sense of security in the fact that
the train was already beginning to move.
He shifted his position from the end of the
platform to the side next the station, and
                   10

 


A Blighted Beinlg



she met the challenge by gathering up her
reins and keeping pace with the slow-mov-
ing train.
  For a short distance road and track lay
parallel, and as the train slowly got
under way, the bronco was put to a run.
Side by side, not ten feet apart, Percival
and the girl moved abreast, their eyes
keeping company. He had never seen
anything so vitally young and untram-
meled as she -was. She rode superbly,
like an Indian, leaning well for-ward, grip-
ping the bronco with her knees, with
one hand grasping his mane. Every
muscle was tense with life, every nerve
a-quiver with glee. Before the young
Englishman knew it, his own sluggish
blood was stirring in his veins through
sympathy. Then the train began to gain
upon her, and throwing herself bad: in
the saddle, she shook a vanquished head.
As Percival raised his cap she wheeled
her horse, and, standing in the stirrups,
blew an audacious kiss from her finger-
                    11

 


The Honorable Percival



tips. The next instant she was dashing
away across the wide, bleak prairies, the
only living thing in sight, her scarlet rib-
b)ons a streak of color in the dull-gray
landscape.
  Percival had taken heart of grace from
that airy kiss. It stood to him as a sym-
bol that, though one of the sex had proved
a deserter to his standard, there were still
volunteers. He treasured the incident as a
king treasures the homage of his humblest
subject when rebellion is rife in the king-
dom. On such trifles often hang one's self-
esteem.
  AWhen the stir and bustle on deck became
so lively that he was no longer able to in-
dulge in introspection, he got up and in-
differently joined the moving throng. The
warning had sounded for those going
ashore, and the numerous gang-ways were
crowded. Passengers lined the promenade-
deck, shouting and waving to the crowd on
the wharf below. From the bridge-deck
the captain could be hear cheerfully swear-
                   12

 


           A Blighted Being

ing through a megaphone at the second of-
ficer below. Chinese deck-stewards glided
about in their felt slippers, trying to at-
tach the right person to the right steamer-
chair. Cabin-boys scurried about with
baskets of fruit and flowers and other sea-
going impedimenta that, after one appreci-
ative glance from the recipient, are usually
consigned to the ice-box. All was noise and
confusion.
  Percival's critical eye swept the line of
human backs that presented themselves at
the railing. The same old types! He
could describe them with his eyes shut: the
conventional globe-trotters, avid to obtain
and to impart information; business men
comparing statistics and endlessly discuss-
ing the tariff; rich wanderers in quest of
health; poor missionaries in quest of "for-
eign fields"; fussy Frenchmen; stolid Ger-
mans; a few suspicious-looking English-
men; and always the ubiquitous Americans,
who had the same effect upon him that
a highly colored cloth has on the deli-
                    13

 



The Honorable Percival



cate sensibilities of a certain large animal.
  The most conspicuous example of the last
class was a somewhat noisy young person
in a still more resonant steamer-coat who
hung at an angle of forty-five degrees over
the railing, and exchanged confidences of
a personal nature with an old man on the
wharf twenty feet below. Every time Per-
cival's walk brought him toward the bow
of the boat, his eyes were offended by that
blue-and-lavender steamer-coat and by a
pair of beaded-leather slippers with three
straps across the instep and absurdly high
French heels. Could any one but an
American, he soliloquized, be guilty of
starting on a journey in such a costume
  The prospect of being imprisoned be-
tween decks for four weeks, with this heter-
ogeneous collection appalled him. His
only safety lay in maintaining a rigid and
uncompromising aloofness. He would dis-
courage all advances from the start, he
would promptly nip in the bud the first sign
of intrusion. lie had left the only country
                   14

 


           A Blighted Being

an Englishman regards as the proper place
for existence, to cross two abominable seas
and an even more abominable continent, for
the sole purpose of privacy, and privacy
he meant to have at all costs.
  As the Saluria weighed anchor and
steamed out of the Golden Gate, he went
below to see that his valet had made satis-.
factory disposition of his varied belongings.
His state-room was at the end of a short
passage leading from the main one, and he
was displeased at finding the deep ledge
under the passage window completely filled
with flowers and fruit that evidently be-
longed to some one occupying a room in
the same passage.
  He rang for the cabin-boy.
  "Remove that greengrocer's shop!" he
commanded peremptorily. "It is abomin-
ably stuffy down here. We can't have
the port-holes filled up like that, you
know. "
  The bland face of the young Chinaman
assumed an expression of mild inquiry.
                   15

 


The Honorable Percival



  "Take away!" ordered Percival, resort-
ing to gesture.
  "No can," said the boy, calmly. "All
same b'long one missy. Missy b'long
cap'in."
  Percival turned impatiently to his valet,
who was coming through the passage.
  "Judson, get those things out of the win-
dow, and keep them out. Do you hear"
  "Yes, sir. But where shall I put them,
sir "
  "On the floor-in the sea-wherever You
like," said Percival, as he slipped his arms
into the top-coat that was being respect-
fully held for him.
  Once again on deck, he found that the
wind had acquired a sudden edge. The
short chop of the waves and scudding of
gray clouds indicated that the customary
bit of rough weather after leaving the
Golden Gate was to be expected. Percival
was not happy in rough weather. He
attributed it to extreme sensitiveness
to atmospheric conditions. Whatever the
                  16

 


           A Blighted Being

cause, the result remained that he was not
happy.
  The motion of the vessel made him pause
a moment. The casual observer would
have said he stopped to cast an experi-
enced eye on a sky that could not deceive
him; but the casual observer does not al-
wavs know. It is a long distance between
the prow and the stern of an ocean liner,
when the deck is composed of alternating
mountains and valleys that one has to
climb and descend. Percival found it de-
cidedly hard going before he reached his
steamer-chair.
  When he did so, he encountered a sight
that filled him with chagrin. Wrapped in
the folds of his rug was that obnoxious
blue-and-lavender steamer-coat, with its
owner snugly ensconced within, her eyes
closed, and her cheek brazenly reposing
on the Hascombe crest that adorned the
pillow under her head!
  Percival paused, irresolute, and his nos-
trils quivered. He wanted very much to
                   17

 


         The Honorable Percival

sit down, and he was unwilling to occupy
any other steamer-chair, for fear its owner
might claim it. There was nothing left for
him but to pace up and down that un-
dulating deck until the young person
opened her eyes and discovered, by glances
which he would render unmistakable, that
she was trespassing.
  When his third round brought him in
front of her, and he saw that she was
awake, he carefully adjusted his monocle,
and turned upon her a look that was not
unfamiliar to certain menials in the em-
ploy of Hascombe Hall.
  But no withering blight followed his look.
Instead, the wearer of the gaudy coat sat
up suddenly and said, with a radiant smile:
  "Well, did you ever! Where did you
come from  "
  By a curious twist, his mind suddenly
beheld a rolling prairie in place of the tum-
bling sea, and a comely figure in khaki and
broktn leggings in place of the muffled form
in the hideous coat. His suspicion was
                  18


 



















I       /











               A1
    S t-r ttv "  
    tot j f ' Y'.W ial



"Well, did you ever! Where



did you come from "



2

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A Blighted Being



confirmed when he met the frank gaze of
the bluest eyes that ever held a chal-
lenge.
  Instead of being amused, Percival was
profoundly annoyed. The incident on the
train had been pretty enough in its way,
but it was closed. As it stood, it had been
rather artistic and satisfying. A wild, un-
known bit of femininity dashing into his
life for ten throbbing minutes, then vanish-
ing into the sunset, was one thing, and this
very tangible young person in clothes of
the wrong cut and color, addressing him in
terms of easy familiarity, was quite an-
other.
  "I beg your pardon," he said stiffly.
"Did you address me"
  Her eyes clouded.
  "Why, I thought-I thought you were
some one I knew. Is this your chair"
  "It is. Pray do not discommode your-
self2"
  "That is all right," she answered, trying
to disentangle her high heels from his rug.
                   21

 


The Honorable Percival



"I 've had my nap, thank you. Think I '11
go down and get a sandwich."
  Percival waited in frigid silence until
she had departed; then he sank limply into
the warm nest she had just left, and closed
his eyes on a world that failed in all re-
spects to give satisfaction.



22


 









II



           A COUNTER-IRRITANT
IF there is a place on earth where one
   meets with the present face to face, it is
on shipboard. Whether salt water and sea
air act as a narcotic on memories of the
past and dreams of the future has never
been proved, but it is undeniably true that
at sea time becomes a static thing and con-
cerns itself solely with the affairs of the
moment.
  During that first long afternoon Percival
slept; and if the faithless Hortense essayed
to haunt his dreams, she was drowned in
the profundity of his slumber. It was not
until his valet touched his arm and respect-
fully submitted the information that the
first gong had sounded for dinner that he
woke to the fact that the Saluria was still
swinging from the trough to the summit of
                   23

 



The Honorable Percival



increasingly high waves and that the deck
was virtually deserted.
  "If you are not feeling quite the thing,
sir," said the valet, solicitously, "shall I
serve your dinner on deck, sir"
  Instantly Percival rose.
  "By no means," he said coldly. "Get
me a sherry and bitters. I '11 dress at
once. "
  Proud indifference to every passing sen-
sation was manifest in each detail of his
careful toilet when he took his place at the
captain's table some twenty minutes later.
With a haughty inclination of the head, he
seated himself and, apparently unaware of
the glances cast upon him, devoted himself
to an absorbed perusal of the menu. HIe
was quite used to being looked at; in fact,
he suffered the admiration of the public
with noble tolerance: only it must keep its
distance; he could have no presuming.
  On his arrival the conversation suffered
a sudden chill; but the captain, who knew
the signs of approaching icebergs, soon
                   24

 


A Counter-Irritant



steered the talk back into warm waters. It
was evident that the captain was in the
habit of occupying the center of the stage, a
fact which should have gratified Percival,
inasmuch as it focused attention at the far
end of the table. Strange to say, lie was
not gratified. He conceived an immediate
dislike for the large, good-looking officer,
who seemed built especially to show off his
smart uniform, and who brazenly ignored
all conventions save those of navigation.
His peculiarities of speech, which at an-
other time might have gratified Percival
and confirmed the report he was bearing
back to England that Americans were, if
possible, more obnoxious at home than
abroad, now jarred upon him grievously.
Ile found it difficult to follow the story
that was causing the present merriment.
  "And when my Nelson eye discovered,"
the captain was concluding, "that Ah Foo
was perambulating an affair in Shanghai,
I summoned the slave and asked him if his
mind was set on becoming festooned in
                   25

 


The Honorable Percival



matrimony. He thought it was. So I up
and bought the damsel for him, paid one
hundred Mex. for her, and, if you '11 be-
lieve me, haven't had a dime's worth of
work out of Ah Foo since!"
  Percival found himself on the dry beach
of non-comprehension when the tide of
laughter followed the receding story.
  "A cup of very strong tea and dry
toast," he said over his shoulder to the
waiting Chinaman.
  As his eyes returned to the study of the
menu, he was for the first time aware that
the objectionable young person, with a
glitter of rhinestones in her hair, was
sitting next the captain, giving him story
for story, and laughing much more than
the occasion seemed to Percival to warrant.
He particularly disliked to hear a woman
laugh aloud in public, and he was vexed
with himself that he looked up every time
her laugh rang out. To be sure, she was
well worth looking at. Despite the clash-
ing colors of her costume, he could not
                  26

 


A Counter-Irritunt



deny the charm of her blue eyes and black
hair, and of the red lips whose only fault
was that they smiled too much. It was her
dress, her freedom, her unrestrained gaiety
that offended Percival. In England a girl
of her age would still be a trembling bud,
modestly hiding behind a mass of elderly
foliage.
  The absence of a chaperon puzzled him.
The two other women at the table, a Mrs.
Weston and her daughter, had evidently
just met her, and the captain seemed to be
the only one who had known her before.
He called her "Bobby," and treated her
with the easy familiarity of a big brother.
  "Don't talk to me about Wyomiing!"
he was saying now, in answer to some boast
of hers. "Anybody can have it that wants
it. I make 'em a present of it, with Da-
kota thrown in. You remember, Bobby, the
last time I was at the ranch All hands on
deck at two bells in the morning watch, a
twenty-mile sail on a bucking bronco, then
back to the ranch, where we shipped a cargo
                   27

 


The lionorable Percival



of food that would sink a tramp. A gal-
lon or so of soup in the hold, a saddle of
venison, a broiled antelope, and six vegeta-
bles in the forward hatchway, with three
kinds of pie in the bunkers. It was a reg-
ular food jag three times a day. It took
me just two weeks at sea to get over those
two days on land."
  Percival stirred uneasily. His tea and
toast were long in coming, and a certain
haunted look was dawning on his face.
Through the port-holes he could see the
deep-purple sky rising to give place to still
deeper-purple sea as the ship rose with
sickening regularity. He took an olive.
  "Isn't there a good deal of motion"
asked Mrs. Weston, a delicate, appealing
blonde, whose opinions were always tenta-
tive until they received the stamp of mas-
culine approval.
  " Motion!" thundered the captain, bring-
ing down a huge tattooed fist on the
table. "Is n't that like a woman When
[ have ordered this calm weather espe-
                   28

 


A Counter-Irritant



cially for Mrs. Weston's benefit! I 've a
good mind to whistle for a hurricane."
  "No, no, please!" she protested in mock
terror.
  Percival turned away from the foolish
chatter. Matters of a deep and sinister
nature occupied his mind. He felt within
him wars and rumors of wars. Ile wished
that the curtains would stop swinging out
from the wall in that silly fashion. It was
deuced uncanny to see them hang at an
angle of twenty-five degrees, then slowly
and mysteriously fall back into their places.
He tried not to watch them, but it was even
more dangerous to look at the man next
him breaking soft-boiled eggs into a glass
tumbler. He took another olive.
  An electric fan overhead whirred inces-
santly, and the bright, flashing blades
smote his eyes with diabolical precision.
The circular motion, instead of cooling him,
brought beads of perspiration to his brow.
  " Who '11 have some Chinese chow"
asked the captain. "I always order a dish
                   29

 


fihe Honorable Percival



or two the first night out. Can't give you
any birds '-nest soup-"
  A violent shudder passed over Percival,
and he made a li-htning calculation of the
distance from the table to the stairway.
In doing so he noted that it was a spiral
stairway. Why in the name of heaven was
everything round The port-holes, the
revolving--chairs, the electric fans, the
plates, the olives-
  At the thought of olives, all the pent-up
possibilities became imminent certainties.
He rose dizzily, collided with the Chinaman
bringing his tea, and made blindly for the
stairs. Half-way up, he staggered; each
step rose to meet him, then fell away from
his foot the moment he touched it. He
grasped the baluster-rail, and stood wildly
clinging, like a shipwrecked sailor to a
mast. He was dazed, dumb, paralyzed with
fear of the inevitable, and aware only of
the burst of uncontrollable laughter that
had followed his abrupt retreat. Some-
body from above held out a succoring hand,
                   30

 


A Counter-Irritant



at which he grasped f rantically. Stum-
bling, half blind, this unfortunate victim
to atmospheric conditions was guided up
the remaining steps and out on deck, where
lie was anchored to the railing and kindly
left to his fate.



31


 









DI



             CONVALESCENCE
DUIIRING the monotonous days that
     followed, the Honorable Percival
Tiascombe discovered that the satisfaction
of being exclusive is usually tempered by
the discomfort of being bored. So lofty
and forbidding had been his manner that
no one had ventured to intrude even a
casual good morning. A bachelor under
thirty, with a competence of such dimen-
sions that it had entailed incompetency,
and a doting family that danced attend-
ance upon his every whim, he was figura-
tively as well as literally at sea in this
new environment. At times he faltered in
his stern determination not to allow any
one to become acquainted with him. It
was only the fear that any leniency might
result in undue liberty on the part of some
                  32

 


Convalescence



aggressive American that caused him to
preserve his deep seclusion.
  Bored, blase, blighted, he had one more
affliction to endure. The young person
had gotten hopelessly on his nerves; in
fact, she was the most disturbing object on
the horizon. She played shuffle-board in
front of his chair when he wanted to read;
she practised new dance-steps with the
first officer when he wanted to sleep; she
caused him to lift his unwilling eyes a
dozen times an hour by her endless circuits
of the deck. She was on terms of friend-
ship with everybody on board except him-
self, including the second class and steer-
age. There seemed no end to her activi-
ties, no limit to her enthusiasm. The more
she attracted his unwilling attention, the
more persistently he ignored her.
  As the time passed and danger of in-
trusion lessened, his ennui increased. One
dull, humid day, when the whole world
resembled a dripping sponge, Percival
reached the limit of his endurance. The
                    33

 


         The Honorable Percival

canvas was down, and nothing could be seen
but long vistas of slippery decks, with bare-
footed Chinese sailors everlastingly mop-
ping and slopping about in the wet. He
had counted the five hundred and fiftieth
raindrop that clung to the red life-belt at
the rail when he saw the young Scotchman
next him look at his watch.
  "VWhat time do you make it"X" asked
Percival, and his voice sounded almost
strange to him.
  "Eleven," said the man, getting to his
feet; "aboot time for the fun to begin in
the bathing-tank."
  Ordinarily Percival would have allowed
the conversation to end there, but he felt
now that lie would be risking his sanity if
he sat there any longer counting rain-
drops.
  "What 's taking place ' he asked list-
lessly.
  "The usual morning diversion: the cap-
tain's daughter is teaching a couple of
bairns to swinm."
                   34

 


Convalescence



  "Surely they won't go in on a beastly
day like this !"
  "I '11 be bound they do. Shall we go
find out "
  Forward a number of people were al-
ready hanging over the rail, highly di-
verted at what was taking place in the big
canvas tank on the deck below. Percival,
looking down, beheld the young person
standing on the lower rung of a ladder,
coaxing a small boy to jump from the plat-
form above. Now, on several occasions in
the past Percival had met Disillusion face
to face in a bathing-suit. A certain atten-
uated memory of the faithless Hortense
made him wince even yet. But the round
and graceful figure poised in dancing im-
patience on the ladder-rung defied criti-
cism. Much as he disapproved of the pub-
lic exhibition, he could not check a breath of
admiration.
  The small boy shivering on the platform
vibrated between courage and fear; then,
urged by the shouts from above, and lured
                   35

 


The Honorable Percival



by that sparkling face and those out-
stretched arms below, he leaped. Shrieks
of laughter followed as his fat little body
spanked the water, and was quickly righted
and deposited, gasping, but victorious, on
a life-buoy. Then the small girl must dive,
and after that all three must splash and
jump and float and swim like a trio of mad
young porpoises.
  The Honorable Percival was a good
swimmer himself, and his interest kindled
as he watched the perfect ease with which
the young person handled herself in the
narrow