CHAPTER XXIX
THE THREAD OF G. SELDEN
The Shuttle having in its weaving caught up the thread
of G. Selden's rudimentary existence and drawn it, with the
young man himself, across the sea, used curiously the thread
in question, in the forming of the design of its huge web. As
wool and coarse linen are sometimes interwoven with rich
silk for decorative or utilitarian purposes, so perhaps was this
previously unvalued material employed.
It was, indeed, an interesting truth that the young man,
during his convalescence, without his own knowledge, acted
as a species of magnet which drew together persons who might
not easily otherwise have met. Mr. Penzance and Mount
Dunstan rode over to see him every few days, and their visits
naturally established relations with Stornham Court much more
intimate than could have formed themselves in the same length
of time under any of the ordinary circumstances of country
life. Conventionalities lost their prominence in friendly
intercourse with Selden. It was not, however, that he himself
desired to dispense with convention. His intense wish to "do
the right thing," and avoid giving offence was the most ingenuous
and touching feature of his broad cosmopolitan good nature.
"If I ever make a break, sir," he had once said, with
almost passionate fervour, in talking to Mr. Penzance, "please
tell me, and set me on the right track. No fellow likes to look
like a hoosier, but I don't mind that half as much as--as
seeming not to APPRECIATE."
He used the word "appreciate" frequently. It expressed
for him many degrees of thanks.
"I tell you that's fine," he said to Ughtred, who brought
him a flower from the garden. "I appreciate that."
To Betty he said more than once:
"You know how I appreciate all this, Miss Vanderpoel.
You DO know I appreciate it, don't you?"
He had an immense admiration for Mount Dunstan, and
talked to him a great deal about America, often about the
sheep ranch, and what it might have done and ought to have
done. But his admiration for Mr. Penzance became affection.
To him he talked oftener about England, and listened
to the vicar's scholarly stories of its history, its past glories
and its present ones, as he might have listened at fourteen to
stories from the Arabian Nights.
These two being frequently absorbed in conversation,
Mount Dunstan was rather thrown upon Betty's hands. When
they strolled together about the place or sat under the deep
shade of green trees, they talked not only of England and
America, but of divers things which increased their knowledge
of each other. It is points of view which reveal qualities,
tendencies, and innate differences, or accordances of thought,
and the points of view of each interested the other.
"Mr. Selden is asking Mr. Penzance questions about
English history," Betty said, on one of the afternoons in which
they sat in the shade. "I need not ask you questions. You
ARE English history."
"And you are American history," Mount Dunstan answered.
"I suppose I am."
At one of their chance meetings Miss Vanderpoel had told
Lord Dunholm and Lord Westholt something of the story
of G. Selden. The novelty of it had delighted and amused
them. Lord Dunholm had, at points, been touched as Penzance
had been. Westholt had felt that he must ride over to Stornham
to see the convalescent. He wanted to learn some New York slang.
He would take lessons from Selden, and he would also buy a
Delkoff--two Delkoffs, if that would be better. He knew a
hard-working fellow who ought to have a typewriter.
"Heath ought to have one," he had said to his father.
Heath was the house-steward. "Think of the letters the poor
chap has to write to trades-people to order things, and un-
order them, and blackguard the shopkeepers when they are
not satisfactory. Invest in one for Heath, father."
"It is by no means a bad idea," Lord Dunholm reflected.
"Time would be saved by the use of it, I have no doubt."
"It saves time in any department where it can be used,"
Betty had answered. "Three are now in use at Stornham,
and I am going to present one to Kedgers. This is a
testimonial I am offering. Three weeks ago I began to use the
Delkoff. Since then I have used no other. If YOU use them
you will introduce them to the county."
She understood the feeling of the junior assistant, when
he found himself in the presence of possible purchasers. Her
blood tingled slightly. She wished she had brought a catalogue.
"We will come to Stornham to see the catalogue," Lord
Dunholm promised.
"Perhaps you will read it aloud to us," Westholt suggested
gleefully.
"G. Selden knows it by heart, and will repeat it to you
with running comments. Do you know I shall be very glad
if you decide to buy one--or two--or three," with an uplift
of the Irish blue eyes to Lord Dunholm. "The blood of the
first Reuben Vanderpoel stirs in my veins--also I have begun
to be fond of G. Selden."
Therefore it occurred that on the afternoon referred to
Lady Anstruthers appeared crossing the sward with two male
visitors in her wake.
"Lord Dunholm and Lord Westholt," said Betty, rising.
For this meeting between the men Selden was, without
doubt, responsible. While his father talked to Mount
Dunstan, Westholt explained that they had come athirst for the
catalogue. Presently Betty took him to the sheltered corner
of the lawn, where the convalescent sat with Mr. Penzance.
But, for a short time, Lord Dunholm remained to converse
with Mount Dunstan. In a way the situation was
delicate. To encounter by chance a neighbour whom one--
for reasons--has not seen since his childhood, and to be equal
to passing over and gracefully obliterating the intervening
years, makes demand even upon finished tact. Lord Dunholm's
world had been a large one, and he had acquired experience
tending to the development of the most perfect
methods. If G. Selden had chanced to be the magnet which
had decided his course this special afternoon, Miss Vanderpoel
it was who had stirred in him sufficient interest in Mount
Dunstan to cause him to use the best of these methods when
he found himself face to face with him.
He beautifully eliminated the years, he eliminated all but
the facts that the young man's father and himself had been
acquaintances in youth, that he remembered Mount Dunstan
himself as a child, that he had heard with interest of his visit
to America. Whatsoever the young man felt, he made no
sign which presented obstacles. He accepted the eliminations
with outward composure. He was a powerful-looking fellow,
with a fine way of carrying his shoulders, and an eye
which might be able to light savagely, but just now, at least,
he showed nothing of the sulkiness he was accused of.
Lord Dunholm progressed admirably with him. He soon
found that he need not be upon any strain with regard to the
eliminations. The man himself could eliminate, which was
an assistance.
They talked together when they turned to follow the others
to the retreat of G. Selden.
"Have you bought a Delkoff?" Lord Dunholm inquired.
"If I could have afforded it, I should have bought one."
"I think that we have come here with the intention of
buying three. We did not know we required them until
Miss Vanderpoel recited half a page of the catalogue to us."
"Three will mean a `rake off' of fifteen dollars to G.
Selden," said Mount Dunstan. It was, he saw, necessary that
he should explain the meaning of a "rake off," and he did so
to his companion's entertainment.
The afternoon was a satisfactory one. They were all kind
to G. Selden, and he on his part was an aid to them. In his
innocence he steered three of them, at least, through narrow
places into an open sea of easy intercourse. This was a good
beginning. The junior assistant was recovering rapidly, and
looked remarkably well. The doctor had told him that he
might try to use his leg. The inside cabin of the cheap
Liner and "little old New York" were looming up before
him. But what luck he had had, and what a holiday! It
had been enough to set a fellow up for ten years' work. It
would set up the boys merely to be told about it. He didn't
know what HE had ever done to deserve such luck as had
happened to him. For the rest of his life he would he waving
the Union Jack alongside of the Stars and Stripes.
Mr. Penzance it was who suggested that he should try the
strength of the leg now.
"Yes," Mount Dunstan said. "Let me help you."
As he rose to go to him, Westholt good-naturedly got up
also. They took their places at either side of his invalid chair
and assisted him to rise and stand on his feet.
"It's all right, gentlemen. It's all right," he called out
with a delighted flush, when he found himself upright. "I
believe I could stand alone. Thank you. Thank you."
He was able, leaning on Mount Dunstan's arm, to take a few
steps. Evidently, in a short time, he would find himself no
longer disabled.
Mr. Penzance had invited him to spend a week at the
vicarage. He was to do this as soon as he could comfortably
drive from the one place to the other. After receiving
the invitation he had sent secretly to London for one of the
Delkoffs he had brought with him from America as a specimen.
He cherished in private a plan of gently entertaining his
host by teaching him to use the machine. The vicar would
thus be prepared for that future in which surely a Delkoff
must in some way fall into his hands. Indeed, Fortune having
at length cast an eye on himself, might chance to favour
him further, and in time he might be able to send a "high-
class machine" as a grateful gift to the vicarage. Perhaps
Mr. Penzance would accept it because he would understand
what it meant of feeling and appreciation.
During the afternoon Lord Dunholm managed to talk
a good deal with Mount Dunstan. There was no air of intention
in his manner, nevertheless intention was concealed
beneath its courteous amiability. He wanted to get at the
man. Before they parted he felt he had, perhaps, learned
things opening up new points of view.
. . . . .
In the smoking-room at Dunholm that night he and his
son talked of their chance encounter. It seemed possible that
mistakes had been made about Mount Dunstan. One did not
form a definite idea of a man's character in the course of an
afternoon, but he himself had been impressed by a conviction
that there had been mistakes.
"We are rather a stiff-necked lot--in the country--when
we allow ourselves to be taken possession of by an idea,"
Westholt commented.
"I am not at all proud of the way in which we have taken
things for granted," was his father's summing up. "It is,
perhaps, worth observing," taking his cigar from his mouth
and smiling at the end of it, as he removed the ash, "that, but
for Miss Vanderpoel and G. Selden, we might never have
had an opportunity of facing the fact that we may not have
been giving fair play. And one has prided one's self on one's
fair play."
