The Broad Highway

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.