NOVELS BY HUGH WALPOLE
_STUDIES IN PLACE_
THE WOODEN HORSE
MARADICK AT FORTY
THE GODS AND MR. PERRIN
_TWO PROLOGUES_
THE PRELUDE TO ADVENTURE
FORTITUDE
_THE RISING CITY_
1. THE DUCHESS OF WREXE
2. THE GREEN MIRROR
(_In preparation_)
MARADICK
AT FORTY
_A Transition_
BY
HUGH WALPOLE
Author of the “Fortitude” “The Duchess of Wrexe” etc.
. . . . Bless us, all the while
How sprucely we are dressed out, you and I!
A second, and the angels alter that.
_How it strikes a contemporary._
NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
TO THE
MARQUIS D’ALCEDO
CONTENTS
PART I
THE ROOM OF THE MINSTRELS
I The Place 11
II In Which Our Hero and the Place Meet
Once Again 13
III In Which the Admonitus Locorum Begins to
Have Fun with Two Entirely Respectable
Members of Society 28
IV In Which the Aforesaid Admonitus Leads
the Aforesaid Members of Society a Dance 53
V Maradick Makes a Promise and Meets an
Itinerant Optimist 79
VI Supper with Janet Morelli 103
VII Maradick Learns that “Getting a View”
May Have Its Dangers as Well as Its
Rewards 125
VIII They All Eat Chicken in the Gorse and Fly
Before the Storm 136
PART II
PUNCH
IX Morelli Breaks Some Crockery and Plays a
Little Music 167
X In Which Everyone Feels the After Effect
of the Picnic 196
XI Of Love—and Therefore to be Skipped by All
Those Who are Tired of the Subject 216
XII Our Middle-aged Hero is Burdened by Responsibility
but Boldly Undertakes the Adventure 230
XIII More of the Itinerant Optimist; Alice du
Cane Asks Maradick a Favour 256
XIV Maradick in a New Rôle—He Afterwards
Sees Tony’s Face in a Mirror 279
XV Why It Is to be the Twenty-seventh, and
what the Connexion was Between Janet’s
Being Frightened and Toby’s Joining
the Great Majority 297
PART III
THE TOWER
XVI Mrs. Lester, Too, Would Like It to be the
Twenty-seventh, but Maradick Is Afraid
of the Devil 325
XVII Morning and Afternoon of the Twenty-
seventh—Tony, Maradick, Janet, and Miss
Minns Have a Ride After the Wedding 343
XVIII Afternoon and Evening of the Twenty-
seventh—Maradick Goes to Church and
Afterwards Pays a Visit to Morelli 368
XIX Night of the Twenty-seventh—Maradick and
Mrs. Lester 387
XX Maradick Tells the Family, Has Breakfast
with His Wife, and Says Good-bye to Some
Friends 402
XXI Six Letters 421
XXII The Place 427
PART I
THE ROOM OF THE MINSTRELS
CHAPTER I
THE PLACE
The grey twilight gives to the long, pale stretches of sand the sense of
something strangely unreal. As far as the eye can reach, it curves out
into the mist, the last vanishing garments, as it were, of some fleeing
ghost. The sea comes, smoothly, quite silently, over the breast of it;
there is a trembling whisper as it catches the highest stretch of sand
and drags it for a moment down the slope, then, with a little sigh,
creeps back again a defeated lover.
The sky is grey, with an orange light hovering on its outer edges, the
last signal of the setting sun. A very faint mist is creeping gradually
over the sea, so faint that the silver circle of the rising moon shines
quite clearly through the shadows; but it changes the pale yellow of the
ghostly sand into a dark grey land without form and void, seeming for a
moment to be one with sea and sky, and then rising again, out of
obscurity, into definite substance.
There is silence here in the creek, save for the rustling and whisper of
the sea, but round the bend of the rocks the noises of the town come
full upon the ear.
The town is built up from the sand on the side of the hill, and rises,
tier upon tier, until it finds its pinnacle in the church tower and the
roofs of the “Man at Arms.”
Now, in the dusk, the lights shine, row upon row, out over the sand.
From the market comes the sound of a fair—harsh, discordant tunes
softened by the distance.
The church clock strikes eight, and a bell rings stridently somewhere in
the depths of the town.
There is a distant rumble, a roar, a flash of light, and a train glides
into the station.
But the sea pays no heed, and, round the bend of the creek, the sand
gleams white beneath the moon, and the mist rises from the heart of the
waves.