The postman halted by the foot-bridge
and blew his horn. The sound sent the rabbits
scampering into their burrows; and just as they began
to pop out again, Taffy came charging across the slope.
Whereupon they drew back their noses in disgust, and
to avoid the sand scattered by his toes.
The postman held up a blue envelope
and waved it. “Here, ’tis come,
at last!”
“It may not be good news,”
said Taffy, clutching it, and then turning it over
in his hand.
“Well, that’s true.
And till you open it, it won’t be any news at
all.”
“I wanted mother to be first to know.”
“Oh, very well only, as you say,
it mightn’t be good news.”
“If it’s bad news, I want
to be alone. But why should they trouble to
write?”
“True again. I s’pose now you’re
sure it is from them?”
“I can tell by the seal.”
“Take it home, then,”
said the postman. “Only if you think ’tis
for the sake of a twiddling sixteen shilling a week
that I traipse all these miles every day ”
Taffy fingered the seal. “If you would
really like to know ”
“Don’t ’ee mention
it. Not on any account.” He waved
his hand magnanimously and trudged off toward Tredinnis.
Taffy waited until he disappeared
behind the first sand-hill, and broke the seal.
A slip of parchment lay inside the envelope.
“This is to certify ”
He had passed! He pulled off
his cap and waved it round his head. And once
more the rabbits popped back into their burrows.
Toot toot toot! It
was that diabolical postman. He had fetched a
circuit round the sand-hill, and was peeping round
the north side of it and grinning as he blew his horn.
Taffy set off running, and never stopped
until he reached the Parsonage and burst into the
kitchen. “Mother It’s
all right! I’ve passed!”
Somebody was knocking at the door.
Taffy jumped up from his knees, and Humility made
the lap of her apron smooth.
“May I come in?” asked
Honoria, and pushed the door open. She stepped
into the middle of the kitchen and dropped Taffy an
elaborate courtesy.
A thousand congratulations, sir!”
“Why, how did you know?”
“Well, I met the postman; and
I looked in through the window before knocking.”
Taffy bit his lip. “People
seem to be taking a deal of interest in us all of
a sudden,” he said to his mother.
Humility looked distressed, uncomfortable.
Honoria ignored the snub. “I am starting
for Carwithiel to-day,” she said, “for
a week’s visit, and thought I would look in after
hearing what the postman told me and pay
my compliments.”
She talked for a minute or two on
matters of no importance, asked after old Mrs. Venning’s
health, and left, turning at the door and giving Humility
a cheerful little nod.
“Taffy, you ought not to have
spoken so.” Humility’s eyes were
tearful.
Taffy’s conscience was already
accusing him. He snatched up his cap and ran
out.
“Miss Honoria!”
She did not turn.
“Miss Honoria I am
sorry!” He overtook her, but she turned her
face away. “Forgive me!”
She halted, and after a moment looked
him in the eyes. He saw then that she had been
crying.
“The first time I came to see
you he whipped me,” she said slowly.
“I am sorry; indeed I am.”
“Taffy ”
“Miss Honoria.”
“I said Taffy.”
“Honoria, then.”
“Do you know what it is to feel lonely here?”
Taffy remembered the afternoons when
he had roamed the sand-hills longing for George’s
company. “Why, yes,” said he; “it
used to be always lonely.”
“I think we have been the loneliest
children in the whole world you and I and
George only George didn’t feel it
the same way. And now it’s coming to an
end with you. You are going up to Oxford, and
soon you will have heaps of friends. Can you
not understand? Suppose there were two prisoners,
alone in the same prison, but shut in different cells,
and one heard that the other’s release had come.
He would feel would he not? that
now he was going to be lonelier than ever. And
yet he might be glad of the other’s liberty,
and if the chance were given, might be the happier
for shaking hands with the other and wishing him joy.”
Taffy had never heard her speak at all like this.
“But you are going to Carwithiel, and George
is famous company.”
“I am going over to Carwithiel
because I hate Tredinnis. I hate every stone
of it, and will sell the place as soon as ever I come
of age. And George is the best fellow in the
world. Some day I shall marry him (oh, it is
all arranged!), and we shall live at Carwithiel and
be quite happy; for I like him, and he likes people
to be happy. And we shall talk of you.
Being out of the world ourselves, we shall talk of
you, and the great things you are going to do, and
the great things you are doing. We shall say
to each other, ’It’s all very well for
the world to be proud of him, but we have the best
right, for we grew up with him and know the stories
he used to tell us; and when the time came for his
going, it was we who waved from the door ”
“Honoria ”
“But there is one thing you
haven’t told, and you shall now, if you care
to about your examination and what you did
at Oxford.”
So he sat down beside her on a sand-hill
and told her: about the long low-ceiled room
in the quadrangle of the Bodleian, the old marbles
which lined the walls, the examiner at the blue baize
table, and the little deal tables (all scribbled over
with names and dates and verses and ribald remarks)
at which the candidates wrote; also of the viva
voce examination in the antechamber of the Convocation
House, He told it all as if it were the great event
he honestly felt it to be.
“And the others,” said
she, “those who were writing around you, and
the examiner how did you feel towards them?”
Taffy stared at her. “I
don’t know that I thought much about them.”
“Didn’t you feel as if
it was a battle and you wanted to beat them all?”
He broke out laughing. “Why,
the examiner was an old man, as dry as a stick!
And I hardly remember what the others were like except
one, a white-headed boy with a pimply face. I
couldn’t help noticing him, because whenever
I looked up there he was at the next table, staring
at me and chewing a quill.”
“I can’t understand,”
she confessed. “Often and often I have
tried to think myself a man a man with
ambition. And to me that has always meant fighting.
I see myself a man, and the people between me and
the prize have all to be knocked down or pushed out
of the way. But you don’t even see them all
you see is a pimply-faced boy sucking a quill.
Taffy ”
“Yes?”
“I wish you would write to me when you get to
Oxford.
Write regularly. Tell me all you do.”
“You will like to hear?”
“Of course I shall. So
will George. But it’s not only that.
You have such an easy way of going forward; you take
it for granted you’re going to be a great man ”
“I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. You think
it just lies with yourself, and it is nobody’s
business to interfere with you. You don’t
even notice those who are on the same path.
Now a woman would notice every one, and find out all
about them.”
“Who said I wanted to be a great man?”
“Don’t be silly, that’s
a good boy! There’s your father coming
out of the church porch, and you haven’t told
him yet. Run to him, but promise first.”
“What?”
“That you will write.”
“I promise.”