Faneswood

Chapter I

The Reverend Jonathan Aske was a very rural dean, who was respected by some for the warmth of his heart and the coolness of his head, and loved by all for the shortness of his sermons and the length of his purse. In short, he was a popular man ; liked by everyone except his tailor. In his youth he had loved and lost. The result of the loving was our hero, Roger A Faneswood. 2 Aske ; of the losing, the absence of a good temper. His rusticity was observable for many reasons. It was observable in the white straw hat of summer, in the black straw hat of winter, and in the black-and white straw hat of spring. All were of the same large - brimmed, high - crowned type, and in no season was he seen in a hat other than a straw. His boots were very stout. He had a shrewd face, with marks of ill - temper at the junction of brow and nose, and was accounted, and, moreover, was a gentleman.

Moreover, the Reverend Jonathan Aske was very fond of books, and his son Roger loved them no less than he did ; yet his father refused to believe that he under stood more than half of what he read, Faneswood. 3 and snubbed him if he attempted to talk about that half even. And the days of the 'youth of Roger Aske were passed between books and sport. He was as passionately devoted to the one as to the other ; so he neither became a dreamer or a clodhopper. To mingle the two would make a dreaming clodhopper ; yet was the boy not that ? Hitherto there had been but four memorable epochs in his life — the receiving of his first knife, the attiring of his lower members in knickerbockers, ditto, ditto trousers ; and, fourthly, the arrival of a silver watch and gun. As a knife is the first love of a boy's boyhood, so a watch is the grande passion of his schooldays.

In rapture he gazes upon its round moonlike face, peeps shyly at its hidden charms, sleeps cheek touching Faneswood. 4 cheek, refuses to be parted, and what cham pion quicker to the fore for his beloved than he is for his at the first imputations cast upon its capabilities. Now, the commencement of a fifth epoch was the arrival of a certain letter.

Chapter II

To you, 0 sweet skimmer of these pages — I mean you, you conceited modern young lady — I cannot speak of Oxford without fear of perpetual contradiction, for have you not spent one commemoration week, seven entire days, under the shelter of our Alma Mater's own wing, studied us, laughed at us, learnt our habits from our own veracious lips, explored our habitat ; and finally, as you thought, made us altogether miserable from admiration — perchance lov _ for yourself and your pretty ways ? Dear, tender heart, you little know that half the undergraduates think " Commem." week the greatest bore on earth. You never Faneswood. 6 hear the unuttered imprecations showered upon the head of your brother or cousin or kind friend that your chaperon and yourself are staying with, and all because he has asked the consigner of your dear relative to the devil to meet you and yours on the following day.

Oh no ! you only hear the " most de lighted to come, what time do you lunch ? " — uttered perhaps a little too quickly, and by rote-like with the feeling that at any rate he will have a claim upon to-morrow's host next year when his own friends have to be entertained, and therefore, for his own sake and interests, had better accept. And he comes, and finds that it wasn't so bad after all. Nice girl ! but B — and S — tell me they had a grand time of it at W — , and why the deuce wasn't I there % etc., etc. And now, as you read, you say, " Well, I Faneswood. 7 knew all that before ; " but why you should say it with a trace of a quiver on your lips, and wrhy an ominous sound should come from where your Parisian-booted little foot should be, I will not ask. And the letter ? One morning — a November morning, so cold, that the moorhens were tamely feeding upon the rectory lawn, and the sparrows were still sitting where they had roosted the night before, forgetting in their exceeding discomfort the demands that their little stomachs had upon their other members — Roger Aske and his father were sitting in silence at the breakfast table, when, to their mutual astonishment, the postman passed quickly by the window of the dining-room, stamped his feet upon the mat, left a letter, and then proceeded to pursue his daily task with even more zeal than usual, owing to the near ap- Faneswood. proach of Christmas, and the good things that he is wont to bring to all postmen in the shape of half-crowns, five-shilling pieces, and an occasional half-sovereign.

The letter in question was brought in, the envelope thoroughly examined, the postmark carefully scrutinised, and finally the epistle itself was read, and in due course consequentially restored to the en velope and consigned to an inner pocket. Roger had a presentiment that the letter in some way concerned himself, and with some anxiety awaited a summons to follow his father to the paternal sanctum. For him, the Rev. Jonathan Aske — Rector of "Wickham, a Rural. Dean in the Archdeaconry of Bruton Langley, in the Diocese of , and an Honorary Canon of the Cathedral of the same — had no molles aditus et tempora, no, his son had to Faneswood. 9 await his will, and that morning he waited patiently. Breakfast over, the rector retired to his study, and Roger began to think he must have been mistaken in his idea that the letter concerned himself, and he was cor respondingly disappointed.

However, as he would not see his father again until their six-o'clock dinner, he went to the window, put his hands in his pockets, and con sidered how best to amuse himself. There was a meet within four miles, he knew, and his pony was in fairly good condition. It was true that his coat was longer than it should have been, and that a canter of two minutes' duration gave him the appearance of a mauled hare ; but still he was as keen as his young master was to excel in the noble art of being in at the finish, and always kept, Faneswood. 10 for the first five minutes, in the immediate rear of the first flight. Then the gallant little animal would gradually drop behind, snort with rage his remaining breath away, and finally retire upon his very scanty laurels to give the pack a lead, and break down yet more completely the already broken gaps.

Presently the boy sauntered out on the lawn, but found to his disappointment that the turf was as hard as one nip-ht's frost could make it, and hunting — for himself, at least — was out of the question. He examined the roads. There was ice about, so he abandoned the idea of a quiet ride, and determined to start about two o'clock and go for a long trudge over the frozen fields. There is nothing more charming, provided that the day be bright and cold, than a Faneswood. 11 winter afternoon's walk. You must avoid all roads, go nowhere in particular, and have a country-boy's love for the fields and their occupants. The rustle of the field - mouse as he pushes his way under the frosty leaves, makings for his snuo home ; the whirr of some startled covey, which in a moment puts half a mile between itself and you, then goes scuttling along the ground, every bird standing out clear against the white frost — these things must delight you.

Presently, as you come suddenly round a hedge-corner, you espy a couple of hares feeding on the frosty herbage, now nibbling, now rubbing their bewhiskered faces, all unconscious of the presence of an intruder. At seeing you, when they do, both recon noitre in a squatting position, and then, if you are worthy of their alarm, they sink Faneswood. 12 lithely down upon the short stubble, and, in some extraordinary way, almost disappear from sight. And you note, by the way in which every field is crossed and re-crossed by the tracks of the partridge, how many miles those busy birds in a short time go. As the afternoon faded into evening, Roger retraced his steps, hearing, as he went, the coveys in the distant fields saying their curious good-nights ; the mouse is silent in the hedgerow now, and the sparrows, more like leaves than birds, are settled for the night, and the firelight glimmers in the windows of home.

Within five minutes his feet are upon the fender, a novel on his lap, and tea and hot toast in easy reach. Now, a man who has lived much by himself will understand me when I say — Faneswood. 13 different books for different meals. Reading at meals is said to be a bad habit. Roger learnt it at school, where, during dinner, everybody, from the house-master to the bottom-of-the-school third-form boy, used to read. There was the master himself, who, having many idle sons, is deep in a volume on Manitoba ; there was the upper-fourth-form boy studying his " rep." for that afternoon ; upon the right someone was inflicting badly read extracts from the Comic History of England upon the table in general ; whilst the modest third-form genius was entranced in a Boy's Own. When our hero came in that evening, as there were two hours before dinner, he put on the most slovenly coat that he could find, and, with a delicious sense of being on good terms with everybody, and devoutly wishing Faneswood. 14 that his fond parent would be a little more sociable, he made for his sanctum — a charming little snuggery, on which he had spent all the annual " fivers " which a certain rich uncle had never failed to send him.

Let it not be supposed that his father was a poor man. Far from it. But, unfortunately, a mania for rare books, combined with a liking for supplying the wants of about half the village, swallowed up what surplus his generosity left over. Had he been fortunate at the University, and taken a " first " instead of a very moderate '' third," he wTould in all probability have curbed his desire to possess one of the finest libraries in the county, and been only too glad to provide his son with a most liberal allowance, and send him likewise to his beloved Brasenose. Faneswood. 15 To return to Roger. The young Epi curean drew a huge chair up to the fire, put the kettle on to boil, rang for toast, and then, as usual, proceeded to admire his books, and next proceeded to select one. He ran his fingers quickly over a fragment ary edition of Walter Savage Landor, Cellini's Memoirs, Stonehenge's Rural Sports, Matthew Arnold's Essays in Criticism, Balzac's La Peau de Chagrin, Heine's Prose Works, Sir Henry Pottinger's Blue and Green, a fine romance of the days of those factions ; The Woman in White, and Taine's English Literature.

Finally, he settled down with a volume of Sterne. It was fortunate that he had a strong mental digestion, and was able to discrimin ate between the really good and the merely Faneswood. 16 specious, or the bad consequences of such miscellaneous reading would soon have been apparent. One day, much to his father's contempt, he gave vent to the following ideas : that for breakfast you should read the paper, and nothing but the paper, for everything around you should be as fresh as possible ; for lunch, when you want everything at hand without the trouble of fetching it, a volume of Wilkie Collins ; at tea over the fire, something dainty, witty, and artistic, such as Sterne's Sentimental Journey, or Heine's fine, delicious prose ; during dinner, when your wits are keen, and ideas flow freely at the slightest im petus given them, Matthew Arnold's essays, or Balzac's Shorter Pieces. 'Did you ring, Sir?" " Yes, Tanny " (the housekeeper's name was Mrs Tanner), " a little more cream, please.'

Chapter III

When the dinner-bell rang, Roger found his father in the dining-room already seated. " I wished," the rector began, " to speak to you about a matter which chiefly con cerns yourself, and so I have ordered supper instead of dinner. We can wait upon our selves." His son said nothing, but in his excite ment cut up about half-a-loaf, and won dered whether a gun or horse was about to arrive on the morrow. " I have here," the rector presently began, " a letter from your Uncle Aske, which — " " Thought so, a brace of pointers ! " the boy mentally ejaculated. B Faneswood. " Contains a most generous proposal Here Roger's father took off his spec tacles, and looked consequentially across the table at his son, as if he expected him to make a most profound obeisance. " Evidently not pointers ! " Roger thought to himself, all agog with curiosity.

" The letter is as follows: — ' Faneswood Hall, November 30_A. " ' Dear Jonathan, — In bed last night I was troubled with severe toothache. You know that the course of treatment to which I subject myself on those occasions is stoically simple. To busy myself with my friend's affairs. " I do not regulate my habits, as do some more worthy than myself, with the pre cision of a machine ; and it is to this that I ascribe the tendency which my mind has Faneswood. 19 to pursue a current of thought, regardless of the sequence of ideas. "'Well, strange to say, in a short time I was thinking of my own youth, and was counting up the chances I had thrown away, when my thoughts turned upon your boy Roger, and the lines of his education struck me as running; in the same groove as mine had done before him.

" ' This I determined to prevent by a scheme subject to your approval or disapproval. " ' You, Jonathan, are most generous, and are the victim of a most worthy hobby. Rare books stand to you in the same re lation as does the "Faneswood Strain" to mvself. You have doubtless given vour boy a most excellent education, but, dear brother, ought his education to cease here ? " ' The education of a boy's brain seems to me to be like the choosing of a carpet— Faneswood. 20 it requires the joint consultation of two third parties. I myself being the pos sessor of some brains, suffer from insuffi cient training during my youth ; trust me that Roger, who also has brains, will suffer in the same way when he reaches my time of life. " ' My point, Jonathan, is at last reached — let the boy go to Oxford, and let his bills come in to me.

I can well afford to pay them, and remain, — Your affectionate brother, Aske L. Aske. Aske L. Aske. "'P.S.— A damnable sort of fog has been hanging about the last two days, and my throat is a bit touched. Ruby sends her love to the boy — mine too.'" When this roundabout epistle was con cluded, the subject of it made an attempt F'aneswood. 21 to speak, but his father put up his hand, and himself continued, " Your first thought is naturally to jump at the idea. Now, my boy, whilst I am finishing this soup, which, I fear, is almost cold, help yourself to some of that sirloin, and consider your uncle's proposal. Then let your answer be brief and decisive, after which I shall have a few words to say." With a slash at the beef, that completely ruins the point of the knife upon a splinter of bone lurking beneath, Roger does anything but consider.

" Well, Roger have you decided ? " " Rather, pater ; go like a shot." The boy's respect for his father appeared to be completely obliterated. His father smiled at the nervously worded answer, and, with deliberation, and in an unusually paternal manner, continued, Faneswood, 22 " Having myself taken my degree at Oxford, I have, consequently, acquired ?, considerable insight into the ways of that curious genus 'undergraduate.' You will arrive at the University with preconceived ideas. In a few months you will have become completely metamorphosed. You will willingly merge your individuality in the body of which you find yourself a member. You will think as they do, and scout the notion of any one holding different ideas. This is only natural and boyish, and I should not wish it otherwise. But you will also find yourself thrown in the way of various temptations.

Avoid debts of all sorts, especially debts consequent on extravagance of taste and dress. Live well within your allowance, which, I doubt not, judging by youruncle's usual liberality, will be liberal. Lastly, let me give you this Faneswood. 23 piece of sound advice. : keep on good terms with those in authority." To all this Roger listened respectfully, and when his father had concluded, recommended a freshly -cut Stilton near him. ,

Chapter IV

It was young Aske's third term, and he had made many friends. He had for lodgings certain well-known rooms in the High, and for a landlady a nice-looking quaint old body, who had seen better days, and heard more refined sounds than those which emanated from our hero's nightly carousals. This old lady, and certain relatives who lived with her, were the quaintest party that the Cherwell ever bore upon its meandering stream, as they laboriously punted towards the lashers beneath Mag delan Bridge every summer afternoon. The entire party, male and female, was Faneswood. 25 dressed in grey flannel, and the grey flannel was always spotlessly clean. One morning, about eleven o'clock, Roger wras in the middle of his usual after-breakfast cigarette, when the old oak door sud denly resounded with a loud knock, and without o-iving the owner of the rooms time to invite admittance, there immediately entered the most extraordinary minded and handsomest man of our hero's acquaintance.

" 'Mornin'," old chap," he began ; " what are you up to ? Oh yes, working for smalls, as usual. Cigarettes ad lib., Maraschino in easy reach on right, best Turkish on left, and the most comfortable armchair underneath ! Hope you'll pass all right ! Goodmorning ! " "I say, Chesney," Roger shouted after him, "what the deuce are you going for?" Faneswood. "To tell the truth," Chesney replied, "I came in search of breakfast, but you seem to have been up and doing for hours. The daily round, the common task, Will furnish all / need to ask, and a d — d sight more in my case," he added sententiously. " Well, what'll you have ? Bread and milk ? Cold porridge ? All going ! " "Thanks! I say, just ask Mrs Whats her-name to do me half-a-dozen of these anchovies on some thin toast, and put half a glass of rum into this milk, will you ?

" Here Chesney broke in to the landlady* who came rushing upstairs for the fifteenth time that morning in response to her lodger's bell. "Oh Mrs— er?' "Bullock!" she thrust iu, albeit panting from her climb. Faneszvood. 27 " Yes, Mrs Bullock, Mr Aske wishes you to do half-a-dozen of these anchovies on some toast — cut thin you know- — er — that's all, I think." " By Jove, Aske," he continued, we had rare sport last night. You know Paddy Duquesne, the best fellow in the 'Varsity, bar none ; well, he and Wells-Brown, and Bury and myself, were all dining at the Mitre, and having swilled down about a gallon of fizz, we were just getting a trifle merry — three of us having been ploughed that morning " — here he stopped to have a pull at his rum-and-milk — " when all of a sudden Brown swore that Paddy was as drunk as a dog, aud Paddy took his oath that no dog could be one-half so drunk as Brown ; whereat Brown pelted him with some fresh rolls — you know, nice and handy for chucking — and, in throwing' one Faneswood. overbalanced himself; whereupon Paddy takes a leisurely seat on the top of him, and between the two they pull the cloth off.

Aske, my boy, you never heard such a devil of a din as those wine glasses, plates, and dessert dishes made. Brown got badly cut about the face, but Paddy said he didn't care a d — n, and promptly sent his stick crashing through the pier glass, and thus brought the whole establish ment about our ears." " Go on," his companions said, very much amused. " ' Get out,' roars Paddy, as the old bumble-footed waiter enters the room. ' I've paid for the room, and I'll have the room ! ' " ' Yes, sir,' said the waiter, parleying with the enemy until reinforcements should arrive. " ' D— d if I don't,' says Paddy. Faneszvood. 29 " ' Yes, sir,' says the waiter, pursuing the same line of tactics. " ' Get out of the room, you son of a ,' roars Paddy. " ' Yes, sir,' says the waiter, but merely glances uneasily towards the passage.

" Oh, Aske, my boy," here Chesney turned to his companion, "you never have seen such a sight as old Paddy was then. He was simply perfect. So buzzed, that he could only stand with the aid of the table ; he blurted out to the wretched waiter, ' Bring'sh chair, you old id j ut. ' " Thomas brings a chair, and Paddy falls into it with his face towards the door, which was about a yard in front of him, when who the deuce should come in but the proctor and three bulldogs." Here Chesney exploded with laughter, in which Roger joined. Faneswood. 30 "Oh, Paddy's face at the sight of those new-comers was a sight for a smug. It cooled him, but he was too far gone to understand anything. Whether he thought they were some chums of his, whose faces he couldn't quite recall, I can't say, but he staggered up from his chair as if he were doing host. ' Glad'sh to shee you, old chap ; been 'shpecting you all evening.' " Dead silence.

Proggins busted with as tonishment. " ' Waitah ! f Paddy continued. " ' Sir ? ' responded Thomas. _.' 'Just bring'sh chairs for these gentlemen, and lay four more plaches at table'sh.' " ' Sir, I really — ' began the proctor. " ' Oh, don't 'pologise ; not'sh a bit late— rather early, on contrary. 'Specting lot'sh more.' Faneszvood. 31 ' ' Sir, is this conduct — ' " ' Never mind'sh the conduct — I've said it doeshn't matter being late a bit ; come in, come in, do come in — Why, what'sh this ? Cap and gown' on thish time o' night ! Why—' " The proggins by this time was getting a little less confused. " ' Will you four gentlemen call at the senior proctor's rooms, at Lincoln College, to-morrow, at half - past nine punctually ? Yours names are ? ' " ' Stephens,' says I. " ' Of—? ' asks the proctor.

" ' Magdalen Hall,' says I. " ' And yours, sir ? ' to Wells-Brown. " ' Stephenson ! ' chirrups old Brown. Couldn't for the life of him, he told me this morning, think of anything else less like mine. Faneswood. 32 « < of ? ' " ' Magdalen, sir,' answers Brown. " ' And your name, sir ? ' turning to Bury. " ' Ste-vens, sir,' says Bury. Couldn't either he, too, think of anything less like ours ? " ' Of — ? ' says the proctor, seeing through it all. " ' Of — ? ' repeats Bury, falling of his chair. " ' Your college, sir ? ' sharply demanded the old boy. " ' Find'sh it on his under-linen,' contri butes Paddy, who didn't understand a bit what was going on. " Then, by Jove, the old proggins did freeze up. " ' Will you four gentlemen call at — ' " ' Sho shomebody shaid shorne time shince.' This from under the table — Paddy.

" ' You will hear more of this, gentlemen.' Faneswood. 33 And, by Jove, we all did this morning," finished up Chesney, as he left the room, leaving Roger in roars of laughter. Years afterwards, when Roger Aske looked back and compared the merry Chesney of those days with the man he then knew him to be, he found resemblance difficult indeed to trace. It was in bitter grief that he would think of him ; in sorrow that he recalled all his ways and looks, his extraordinary character self-blasted, and career unpiloted. At times noble-minded ; with the good, good ; with the evil, evil ; now plunged in the deepest melancholy, now careering along in the best of good spirits ; unstable when not great ; when great, equal to the best ; when debased, lower than all in his intel lectual depravity. c Faneswood. 34 A complex character, needing the firmest self-discipline — a character with a multi plicity of fine distinctions — a sad, sad paradox.

Chapter V

The end of term was fast approaching. Roger is to go to Faneswood Hall for the vacation, and his uncle has included in the invitation any friend that his nephew likes to bring with him. The invitation had come by that morning's post, so Roger goes as soon as possible to Chesney's rooms in Brasenose. Chesney is in, and upon Roger's entrance, he points to a table covered with what looks like bills, then he triumphantly draws his visitor's attention to something that he is holding in his hand. "What is it?" Roger asks. Faneswood. " Nothing less, old fellow, than my first receipted bill," Chesney replies with proper pride. " For how much ? " " One pound eleven and threepence ! " " Whew ! " Roger ejaculates, pretending to be overcome with its magnitude. " Oh, its not so much the amount as the abstract idea of having a bill actually paid and receipted that makes me so consumedly glad ; but never mind — " "Why, what are these?" his friend suddenly asks, as he catches sight of about half a-dozen notes — evidently answers to unfortun ate creditors — and selects as a sample : — " Mr Henry Chesney, of Brasenose College, Oxford, having already received numerous copies of the enclosed, begs to return the same to — " Faneswood. 37 "The enclosed" was a bill for some £80.

"My dear fellow," Aske remonstrates, "this is madness. For God's sake treat these fel lows respectfully, or you will have the deuce to pay. How long have you been up ? " About ten terms, I believe." And your entire bills amount to — ? " I really don't quite know, but I think it's a case for champagne or suicide," Chesney answers with a laugh. " When are you going down ? " " Chesney, you are a rum chap, but listen to this. You have heard of my uncle. Well, I received this letter from him this morning. I'll read it : — " ' Dear Roger, — It must be somewhat near the end of term, and I ought to have written long before, but I have been somewhat worried by troubles with farm labourers, and Faneswood. 38 what with rheumatism and Ruby's cold, time seems to have occupied itself. " ' Your father left us this day last week, but Ruby managed to squeeze a consent out of him to your coming to Faneswood for Christmas.

So come, my boy, and what's more, bring any friend you think of with you. " ' This is a dullish place for a young fellow7 like yourself to be at alone ; but you can find plenty of amusement if you have a companion — so bring one. Rue is a fine, girl, and I hope you'll like her. She is alwa}7s talking about you, and starting extraordinary ideas about ways of enter taining you ; but the child is a bit out of gear with the chill I speak off. A cold's a cold, and it's no use laughing at it. I do firmly believe that a chill is the foundation of half-a-hundred maladies, and Rue and yourself are the only youno- Faneszvood. 39 people I have to care for ; so look after your health, my boy, and, when the term is over, bring down here any friend you like, and believe me, — Your affectionate uncle, Aske L. Aske.

"'P.S. — There is a train leaving Oxford at 11 "45, and another some time in the afternoon, which would get you here in time for dinner. There will be a lot of luggage, so the omnibus shall meet the train. Ruby has just come in, and says the hunters are in tip-top condition.'' A few days later the two young men were speeding away from Oxford in the most luxurious first-class carriage that that young Sybarite, Henry Chesney, had been able to find. The all-absorbing topic of conversation was the visit they were both about to Faneswood. 40 pay to Faneswood, and speculation was rife as to the capacities of Mr Aske's stables. " You see," said Roger, as a sort of apology for the little information he was able to give about his uncle's horses, " I haven't been there lately, and the dear old uncle is such a rum chap ; you never can tell to-day what he'll do to-morrow.