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A few months later Horace's house and garden at Toft End were put
up to auction by arrangement with his mortgagee and his trade-
creditors. And Sidney was struck with the idea of buying the
place. The impression was that it would go cheap. Sidney said it
would be a pity to let the abode pass out of the family. Ella said
that the idea of buying it was a charming one, because in the
garden it was that she had first met her Sidney. So the place was
duly bought, and Sidney and Ella went to live there.
Several years elapsed.
Then one day little Horace was informed that his uncle Horace,
whom he had never seen, was coming to the house on a visit, and
that he must be a good boy, and polite to his uncle, and all the
usual sort of thing.
And in effect Horace the elder did arrive in the afternoon. He
found no one to meet him at the station, or at the garden gate of
the pleasaunce that had once been his, or even at the front door.
A pert parlour-maid told him that her master and mistress were
upstairs in the nursery, and that he was requested to go up. And
he went up, and to be sure Sidney met him at the top of the
stairs, banjo in hand, cigarette in mouth, smiling, easy and
elegant as usual--not a trace of physical weakness in his face or
form. And Horace was jocularly ushered into the nursery and
introduced to his nephew. Ella had changed. She was no longer
slim, and no longer gay and serious by turns. She narrowly missed
being stout, and she was continuously gay, like Sidney. The child
was also gay. Everybody was glad to see Horace, but nobody seemed
deeply interested in Horace's affairs. As a fact he had done
rather well in Germany, and had now come back to England in order
to assume a working partnership in a small potting concern at
Hanbridge. He was virtually beginning life afresh. But what
concerned Sidney and Ella was themselves and their offspring. They
talked incessantly about the infinitesimal details of their daily
existence, and the alterations which they had made, or meant to
make, in the house and garden. And occasionally Sidney thrummed a
tune on the banjo to amuse the infant. Horace had expected them to
be curious about Germany and his life in Germany. But not a bit!
He might have come in from the next street and left them only
yesterday, for all the curiosity they exhibited.
'Shall we go down to the drawing-room and have tea, eh?' said
Ella.
'Yes, let's go and kill the fatted calf,' said Sidney.
And strangely enough, inexplicably enough, Horace did feel like a
prodigal.
Sidney went off with his precious banjo, and Ella picked up sundry
belongings without which she never travelled about the house.
'You carry me down-stairs, unky?' the little nephew suggested,
with an appealing glance at his new uncle. 'No,' said Horace, 'I'm
dashed if I do!'
Read next: PART II - BABY'S BATH: CHAPTER I
Read previous: PART I - The Lion's Share: CHAPTER IV
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