The Sins of the Children.
by Cosmo Hamilton.
PART ONE
YOUTH
THE SINS OF THE CHILDREN
I
When Peter Guthrie laughed the rooks stirred on the old trees behind the Bodleian and the bored cab-drivers who lolled in uncomfortable att.i.tudes on their cabs in St. Giles perked up their heads.
He threw open his door one morning and leaving one of these laughs of his rolling round the quad of St. John"s College found the rec.u.mbent form of Nicholas Kenyon all among his cushions as usual, and as usual smoking his cigarettes and reading his magazines. The words "as usual"
seemed to be stamped on his forehead.
"What d"you think?" cried Peter, filling the room like a thirty-mile gale.
"You ought to know that I don"t think. It"s a form of exercise that I never indulge in." Kenyon lit a fresh cigarette from the one which he had half-smoked and with peculiar expertness flicked the end out of the window into St. Giles Street, which ran past the great gates of the college. He hoped that it might have fallen on somebody"s head, but he didn"t get up to see.
"Well," said Peter, "I was coming down the High just now and an awful pretty girl pa.s.sed with a Univ. man. She looked at me--thereby very nearly laying me flat on my face--and I heard her ask, "Who"s that?" It was the man"s answer that makes me laugh. He said: "Oh, he"s only a Rhodes scholar!"" And off he went again.
Nicholas Kenyon raised his immaculate person a few inches and looked round at his friend. The Harvard man, with his six-foot-one of excellent muscles and sinews, his square shoulders and deep chest, and his fine, honest, alert and healthy face, made most people ask who he was. "If I"d been you," said Kenyon, "I should have made a mental note of that Univ.
blighter in order to land him one the next time you saw him, that he wouldn"t easily forget."
"Why? I liked it, from a man of his type. I"ve been "only a d.a.m.ned Rhodes scholar" to all the little p.u.s.s.y purr-purrs ever since I first walked the High in my American-made clothes. I owe that fellow no grudge; and if I meet that girl again--which I shall make a point of doing--I bet you anything you like that his scoffing remark will lend a touch of romance to me which will be worth a lot."
"Was she something out of the ordinary?"
"Quite," said Peter.
He hung his straw hat on the electric bulb, threw off his coat, rolled up his sleeves and started to tidy up his rooms with more energy and deftness than is possessed by the average housemaid. He flicked the little pile of cigarette ash, which Kenyon had dropped on the floor, into a corner. He gathered the weekly ill.u.s.trated papers which Kenyon had flung aside and put them on a back shelf, and then he picked up the man Kenyon in his arms, deposited him in a wide arm-chair in front of the fireplace and started punching all the cushions.
Kenyon looked ineffably bored. "Good G.o.d!" he said. "What"s all this energy? You shatter my nervous system."
"My dear chap," said Peter, "you seem to forget that this is Commem. and that my people have come three thousand miles to see their little Peter in his little rooms. I"m therefore polishing up the knocker of the big front door. My mother has a tidy mind and I want my father to gain the impression that I"m methodical and responsible. He has a quick eye. They wired me from London last night to say that they"ll be here at five o"clock to tea. I dashed round to the Randolph early this morning to book rooms for them. Gee, it"s a big party, too! I can"t make out why they want so many rooms. It"ll be like my sister to have brought over one of her school friends. I guess I shall be darned glad to see them, anyway."
There was a touch of excitement in the boy"s voice, and his sun-tanned, excellent face showed the delight that he felt. He had not seen his mother, brother and sister for two years, having spent his vacations in England.
Nicholas Kenyon got up slowly. He did everything slowly. "Well," he said, "I thank G.o.d that my people don"t bother me on these festive occasions. To my way of thinking the influx of fathers and mothers into Oxford makes the whole place provincial. However, I can understand your childish glee. You are pretty badly dipped, I understand, and with the true psychology of the rasping undergraduate you are first going to throw the glamour of the city of spires over your untravelled parent and then touch him for a fairly considerable cheque."
Peter gave a sort of laugh. "Touch my father!" he said. "Not much. I shall put my case up to my mother. She"s the one who does these little things."
Kenyon was faintly interested. Being perennially impecunious himself and unable to raise money even from the loan sharks, he looked to the advent of Peter"s parents to bring him at least fifty pounds. He always borrowed from Peter.
"Oh, I see," he said. "It"s the old lady who carries the money-bags, is it?"
"No, it isn"t," said Peter; "but as a matter of fact I never have gone to my father for anything and I don"t think I ever shall. I don"t know why it is, but none of us have ever been able to screw up courage to say more than "Good-morning" and "Good-night" to the Governor, although of course we all think he is a very wonderful person."
Kenyon yawned. "I see," he said. "Bad luck. I should hate to have such a disagreeable devil for a father--one of the martinet type, who says _don"t_ all the time when he ought to say _do_, and makes home a sort of pocket-h.e.l.l for everybody."
Peter twisted round and spoke quickly and rather warmly. "So should I,"
he said, "but luckily I haven"t. I didn"t want to suggest that my father was that type of man. He"s one of the very best--one of the men who count for something in my country. He"s worked like a dog to give us a chance in life and his generosity makes me personally sometimes feel almost indecent. I mean that I feel that I have taken advantage of him,--but--but, somehow or other,--oh, I don"t know,--we don"t seem to know each other--that"s all. He hasn"t the knack of winning our confidence--or something. So it comes to this: when we want anything we ask mother and she gets it for us. That"s all there"s to it. And look here, Nick, I want you to be frightfully nice to the Governor. Get out of your ice-box and warm up to the old man. I can"t, you see; but as he has come all this way to look me up I want somebody to show some appreciation."
With his eyes to the small relief which the visit of Dr. Hunter Guthrie, of New York City, might bring him, Nicholas Kenyon nodded. "Rely on me,"
he said. "b.u.t.ter shan"t melt in my mouth; and before your father leaves Oxford I"ll make him feel that he"s been created a Baronet and appointed Physician in Ordinary to His Majesty the King. Well, so long, Peter! I"m lunching with Lascelles at the House this morning. I"ll drop in to tea and hand cakes round to your beloved family."
"Right-o," said Peter. "That"ll be great!" And when the door closed and he found himself alone he arranged a certain number of silver cups which he had won in athletics all along his mantel-piece, for his father to see, gazed at them for a moment with a half-smile of rather self-conscious pride, finished tidying his room, gazed affectionately for a few moments at the familiar sight of Pusey House through the leaf-crowded trees that lined the sunny street, and then sat down to his piano and played a rag-time with all that perfect excellence and sense of rhythm which had opened the most insular doors to him during his first days as a fresher.
II
This fine big fellow, Peter Murray Guthrie, who had done immensely well at Harvard in athletics and was by no means a fool intellectually, could afford to be amused at the fact that he had been scoffingly referred to as "only a Rhodes scholar." He had been born under a lucky star and he had that wonderful gymnastic faculty of always falling on his feet. If with all his suspicions aroused he had gone up to Oxford in the same rather timid, self-conscious, on-the-defensive manner of the average Rhodes scholar who expected to be treated as a creature quite different from the English undergraduate, he would have found his way to the American Club and stayed there more or less permanently, taking very little part in the glorious mult.i.tudinous life of the freshmen of his college, and remained a sort of pariah of his own making. Freshmen themselves, the Lord knows, are forlorn enough. Everything is strange to them, too,--society, rules, customs, unwritten laws and faces. They are solitary creatures in the midst of a bustling crowd. If they do not come from one of the great public schools and meet again the men they knew there their chance of making friends is small and for many dull disappointing weeks they must mope and look-on and envy and find their feet alone, suffering, poor devils, from a hideous sheepishness and wondering, with a sort of morbid self-consciousness, what others are thinking of them. But Peter was unafraid. He stalked into Oxford prepared to find it the finest place on earth--with his imagination stirred at the sight of those old colleges whose quadrangles echoed with the feet of the great dead and rang with those of the younger generation to whom life was a great adventure and who might spring from those old stones into everlasting fame. He strode through the gate of St. John"s with his chin high, prepared to serve her with all his strength and all the best of his youth and leave her finally unsullied by his name. He didn"t give a single whoop for all this talk about the sn.o.bbishness and insularity of English undergraduates. He didn"t believe that he would find a college divided and sub-divided into sets; and if the statement proved to be true--well, he intended to break all the barriers down.
Therefore, with such a spirit added to his fine frank, manly personality, irresistible laugh, great big friendly hand and the rumours that came with him of his bull-like rushes on the football field, he became at once a marked man. Second-year and even third-year men nudged each other when he pa.s.sed. "By Jove!" they said. "That"s a useful looking cove! We must get him down to the river." Or, "I wonder if that American can be taught to play cricket?" As for the freshers--all as frightened as a lot of rabbits far away from their warren--they gazed with shy admiration and respect at Peter, who, expecting no rebuffs, received none.
Finding that he could not live in college until he was a second-year man, Peter had looked about him among the freshers for a likely person with whom to share rooms. He had come up in the train with Nicholas Kenyon, whose sh.e.l.l he had insisted upon opening. He, too, was entered at St. John"s and was very ready--being impecunious--to share lodgings with the American whose allowance he might share and whose personality was distinctly unusual. These two then gravitated to Beaumont Street, captured a large sitting-room and two bed-rooms on the ground floor, and from the first evening of their arrival were perfectly at home. Peter at once hired a piano from a music shop in the High which he quickly discovered, bought several bottles of whiskey and a thousand cigarettes, besides several pounds of pipe tobacco, threw open his window, and as soon as dinner was over started playing rag-times.
Kenyon had been interested and amused. He had not expected to find himself "herding," as he put it, with a d.a.m.ned Rhodes scholar. He took it for granted that these "foreigners" would live apart from the ordinary undergraduate, as uncouth people should. He had been quick to notice, however,--psychology being his princ.i.p.al stock in trade,--that Peter had made an instant impression; and as he sat on the window-sill listening with what he had to confess to himself was keen pleasure to Peter"s masterly manipulation of the piano and saw all the windows within near range of their house open and heads poke out to listen, he was able--without any propheticism--to say that Peter would quickly be the centre of a set. He would certainly not be sulking in the American Club.
Very quickly P. M. Guthrie, of St. John"s, became "Peter" to the whole college--and stroke in the freshers" boat. The other Rhodes scholars owed everything that was good to him. He stood by them loyally, made his rooms their headquarters, and all who wanted to know him were obliged to know them. He introduced swipes at the first freshers" concert in the Hall, with enormous success, selecting Forbes Nicholl, of Brasenose; Watson Frick, of Wadham; Baldwin Colgate, of Worcester; and Madison Smith, of Merton, all good Americans, for the purpose. Even Dons stayed to listen on that epoch-making occasion and the fame of their curious and delightful method of singing spread all over the university. It was easy. There was nothing else like it.
Quite unconsciously Peter was for a little while the whole topic of conversation at Dons" dinners. These hide-bound professors were really quite surprised at the remarkable way in which, at one fell swoop, this man Peter Guthrie had managed to weld together the English and American undergraduates for the first time in their knowledge. Some of them put it all down to his piano playing--and were very nearly right. Others conceived his great laugh to be mainly responsible--and were not far short of the mark. But it was Nicholas Kenyon, the psychologist, who put his finger on the whole truth of this swift and unbelievable success. He said that it was Peter"s humanity which had conquered Oxford, and in so doing proved--impecunious only son of an absolutely broke peer as he was--that he would be able to make a very fair living in the future on his wits. It may be said that he never intended to work.
It was part of Peter"s honesty and simplicity to remain American. He made no effort to ape the Oxford manner of speech. He would see himself shot before he got into the rather effeminate clothes affected by the Oxford man. He continued to be natural, to remain himself, and not to take on the colors chameleon-wise of those about him. His Stetson hat was the standing joke of St. John"s. Nevertheless, there was not one man in the college who would not have hit hard if any derogatory remarks had been thrown at the head inside it. His padded shoulders, upholstered ties and narrow belt were all frequently caricatured, but the sound of Peter"s laugh gathered men together like the music of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. It was just that this man Peter Guthrie was a _man_ that made him not only accepted in a place seething with quaint and foolish habits, out-of-date shibboleths and curious unwritten laws, but loved and respected. Here was one to whom merely to live was a joy. To the despondent he came therefore as a tonic. He exuded breeziness filled with ozone. His continuous high spirits infected even those foolish boys who were encrusted with affectation and stuccoed with the petty side and insolence of Eton. He worked hard and played hard and slept like a dog, ate hearty and drank like a thirsty plant. Also he smoked like a factory chimney. He had no crankish views--no tolerance for "isms," and was not ashamed to stride into chapel and say his prayers like a simple boy. In short, "unashamed" was his watchword, and he had been endowed with the rare gift of saying "No," and sticking to it. And to Nicholas Kenyon, who frequented the rooms of the so-called intellectuals--those "little dreadful clever people" who parroted and perverted other men"s thoughts and possessed no originality of their own--it was a stroke of genius on Peter"s part to have nothing but the photographs of his family all over his rooms. He must be a big man, Nicholas said to himself, who could afford, among the very young, to dispense with the female form divine in his frames--the nudes so generally placed in them--in order to convey the impression of being devilish wise and bad. Also it showed, according to this human merchant, a peculiar strength of character on Peter"s part to bolt his door regularly one evening a week so that he might sit down uninterrupted and write a tremendous screed to his mother. However, that was Peter the man-boy--Peter the Rhodes scholar--Peter the Oxford man--who always wound up his musical evenings with the "Star Spangled Banner." And there was just one other side to this big, simple fellow"s character which puzzled and annoyed the bloodless, clever parasite who lived with him and upon him,--women.
Now, Nicholas Kenyon--the Honourable Nicholas Augustus Fitzhugh Kenyon--was a patron of the drama. That is to say, he had the right somehow to enter the stage door of the Theatre Royal at all times, and did so whenever the theatre was visited by a musical comedy company. He was known to innumerable chorus girls as "Boy-dear," and made a point of entertaining them at luncheon and supper during their visits to the university town. He brought choice specimens of this breed to Beaumont Street for tea and t.i.ttle-tattle and introduced them to Peter, who liked them very much and would have staked his life upon their being angels.
But when it came to driving out to small unnoticeable inns, Peter squared his shoulders and stayed at home.
"The devil take it!" said Nicholas one night, with frightful frankness which was devoid of any intentional insolence. "What"s this cursed provincialism that hangs to you? I suppose it comes from the fact that you were born in a shack to the tinkle of the trolley-car!"
Peter"s howl of laughter made the piano play an immaculate tune.
"Wrong," he said. "Gee! but you"re absolutely wrong. The whole thing comes to this, Nick: One of these fine days I"m going to be married. The girl I marry is going to be clean. I believe in fairness. _I"m_ going to be clean. That"s all there is to it."
So that, one way and another, Dr. Hunter G. Guthrie, of New York, as well as St. John"s College, Oxford, had several reasons to be rather proud of this man Peter.
III
One o"clock that afternoon found Peter still hammering on his piano, not only to the intense delight of three snub-nosed tradesmen"s boys who delayed delivery of mutton-chops and soles, which were only plaice, but also of five people who had come quietly into the room. They stood together watching and listening and waiting for him suddenly to discover that he was not alone. One was a tall, rather angular, clean-shaven, noticeably intellectual man whose thin hair was grey and who wore very large gla.s.ses with tortoise-sh.e.l.l frames, through which he looked with pale, short-sighted eyes. He held a grey hat in his thin hand and stood watching the boy--who made his piano do the work of a full band--with a smile of infinite pride on his lips. Another was a little lady, all soft and sweet, with a bird-like face and a curious bird-like appearance. All about her there was a sort of perennial youthfulness, and the goodness of her kind heart gleamed so openly in her eyes that they asked beggars and cripples, itinerant musicians, ragam.u.f.fins, street dogs and all humbugs to come and be helped. At that moment they were full of tears, although little lines of laughter were all about them. Another was a slight, exceedingly good-looking young man whose hair went into a series of small waves and was brushed away from his forehead. He was grinning like a Cheshire cat and showing two rows of teeth which would make a dentist both envious and annoyed. There was a slight air of precocity about his clothes. Two girls made up the rest of the party. Both were young and slim and of average height. Both were unmistakably American in their fearless independence and cleanness of cut. One was dark, with almost black eyebrows which just failed to meet in the middle. Her eyes were amazing and as full of danger as a maxim,--large and blue--the most astonishing blueness. They were framed with long, thick, black lashes.
Her lips were rather full and red, and her skin white. She might have been an Italian or a Spaniard. The other girl was blonde and slim, with large grey eyes set widely apart, a small patrician nose and a lovely little mouth turning up at the corners.
How long all these people would have stayed watching and listening no man can say. Suddenly, in the middle of a bar, Peter sprang up and turned round. His cry of joy and the way in which he plunged forward and picked up the little bird-like woman in his arms was very good to see.
"Mother!" he cried. "Mother! Oh, Gee! This is great!" and he kissed her cheeks and her hands, and then her cheeks again, all the while making strange, small, fond noises like a little boy who comes back home after the holidays.