Peter went daily to school in a dirty quarter of the town at least two
miles from home. The house of the Paragons was upon the borders of the
western or fashionable suburb of Hamingburgh. The school barely escaped
the great manufacturing district to the east and south. It was a branch
school of the great local foundation of King Edward VI. In the phrase of
the local roughs, through whose courts and alleys he passed, Peter was a
"grammar-cat."
He was supposed to go to school by the main road, where he was more or
less under the protection of the police. For between the roughs and the
grammar-cats was perpetual war; and to take the shorter route through
the courts and alleys was an act of provocation. But Peter hankered
after the forbidden road. His father, showing him the way to school, had
stopped at a certain corner:
"This," he said, "is the shortest way; but you had better go round by
the main road."
"Why?" Peter had asked.
"It's a nasty neighbourhood," said Mr. Paragon.
From that moment the shortest route became for Peter a North-West
Passage. He would stand at the fatal corner, looking up the street with
its numberless small entries. Then, on a memorable day, he plunged.
First he had a soaring sense of his audacity. He felt he had left the
laws behind. To win through now must entirely depend on his personal
resource. At the doors of an immense factory men, women, and boys stood
in line, waiting for the signal to blow them into work. Peter felt with
a sinking at the stomach that he was an object of curiosity. He indeed
looked strangely out of place in his neat suit of a small tar, with a
sailor's knot foppishly fastened at the breast. The curious eyes of the
waiting group followed him up the street. He was painfully aware, as he
passed, that jocular remarks in sleepy midland slang were freely
exchanged upon his apparition. Higher up the street a little rough
stopped for a moment and stared, then started into an alley screaming.
The street was suddenly alive. Peter, flinging self-respect to the
winds, started to run. A stone caught him smartly on the heel, and he
thought he was lost. But another cry was almost immediately sounded. The
helmet of a policeman came glinting up the street.
The roughs vanished as quickly as they had appeared.
Peter did not again venture into this district alone. At least a dozen
of his school friends lived in the western suburb. He formed them into
a company, which daily took the forbidden way to school. Such was the
origin of a feud whose deeds and passages would fill a chronicle.
Peter's company was long remembered.
He soon made some striking discoveries. You cannot fight with a
persistent enemy, even though his methods are not your methods, without
touching his good points. It soon became evident that he and the roughs
were less bitterly opposed than either of them was to the police. It was
also clear that the men and women of the factory were "sports." They
encouraged the boys quite impartially, and saw fair play.
Peter particularly remembered one morning of snow and dirt outside the
big factory, when he slipped and fell, squirming with bitter pain of a
snowball hard as ice in his ear. A stalwart woman with naked arms grimed
with lead, picked him up and pressed him in a comfortable and friendly
way against her bosom. She was in that dark hour an angel of strength
and solace. The incident always lived in Peter's memory along with the
faint smell in his nostrils of the factory grime.
On the morning after the transit of Jupiter's third moon Peter was late.
His company had not waited. Peter had to pass his enemies alone.
He still wondered at the change which had come over him yesterday.
Nothing that morning seemed of the least importance save a curious
necessity to be still and inquire of himself what had happened.
He thought only of Miranda, wondering why he saw her now at a distance.
A company of roughs lay between Peter and his friends. He was cut off;
but it did not seem to matter. Everything that morning was unreal. He
walked quite indifferently towards them. They seemed so remote that, had
they vanished into air, he would not have been surprised.
Peter pushed loftily past a handsome young rough.
"Now then," said the fellow.
"Let me pass," said Peter, curiously pedantic beside the other.
"Not so fast."
"Let go of my arm," said Peter.
"Not much," said the enemy.
Peter flew into a rage.
"Funk," he said, without point or reason.
"Say it again."
"Funk."
"Who's a funk?"
"You are."
"Are you calling me a funk?"
"Yes."
"Say it again."
"Funk."
There was a deadlock. Peter must try something else.
"See this face?" he inquired with deadly offensiveness, thrusting
forward his countenance for exhibition.
"Take it away," said the other.
"Hit it," said Peter.
"I shall if you don't take it away."
"Just you hit it."
Peter's enemy did hit it. Immediately a ring was formed. Peter fell back
into his mood of indifference to the world. This fight was a nuisance,
but it had to go on.
They fought three vigorous rounds. From every court and alley spectators
poured. Windows were flung up.
Then a policeman was seen, and in ten seconds the street was empty
again. Peter jogged off to the main road. The roughs scattered into
holes.
Peter, late for school, came up for inspection with a swollen lip and an
eye which became more remarkable as time went on. But pain this morning
meant as little to Peter as reproof. He was unable to take things
seriously. He felt curiously above them.
Home at midday he avoided his family. He felt a necessity to be alone,
to dream and to exult over something that had neither shape nor name. He
went into a secret passage.
This secret passage was intimately bound up with his life of adventure.
The gardens of Peter's road met at the bottom the gardens of a parallel
highway. The two rows were parted by a line of trees and a wall. On the
farther side of the wall a thick hedge, planted a few feet from the foot
of the wall, had been trained to meet it overhead. After many years it
formed a natural green tunnel between the gardens. This tunnel, cleared
of dead shoots and leaves, was large enough for Peter and Miranda to
crawl from end to end of the wall's foot, and gave them access, after
pioneering, to the trees which rose regularly from the midst of the
hedge.
Peter to-day climbed into the secret passage, not for adventure but to
be alone. The old life seemed very remote. Could he really have believed
that the tree against which he leaned was a fortress that had cost him
ten thousand men?
A humble bee bustled into the shade and fell, overloaded with pollen.
Peter watched it closely. Already he found himself seeing little
things--their beauty and a vague impulse in himself to express it.
Peter's indifference to the impertinent call of the things of yesterday
was quite wonderful.
"Hullo!" said Mr. Paragon at dinner, "you've been fighting."
"Yes, father," said Peter.
"Goodness gracious!" Mrs. Paragon exclaimed. "Look at Peter's face!"
"Yes, mother," said Peter.
"Tell us about it, my boy," twinkled Mr. Paragon.
"There's nothing to tell, father."
"Was he a big boy?" Mr. Paragon asked.
"Middling."
"Did you beat him?"
"No, father."
"Did he beat you?"
"No, father."
Mr. Paragon looked at Peter with misgiving.
"Mary," said Mr. Paragon in the late evening, "Peter's growing up."
They were sitting together in the garden, Mr. Paragon smoking a pipe
after supper. It was warm and quiet, with occasional light noises from
the wood and the near houses. It was Mr. Paragon's moment of peace--a
time for minor meditations, softened by the stars and the flowers,
equally his by right of conquest.
Mrs. Paragon sighed. She divined a coming rift between herself and
Peter.
"He is very young," she protested.
"He was always older than his years," said Mr. Paragon; and, after a
silence, he added: "Don't lose touch with the boy, Mary. We have got to
help him over these discoveries. Life's too fine to be picked up
anyhow."
"It's not easy to keep with the young. There's so much to understand."
Mrs. Paragon said this a little sadly, and Mr. Paragon felt bound to
comfort her.
"Peter's a good boy," he said.
Meantime Peter in his attic was not asleep. It was his habit, shut in
his room for the night, to climb through the skylight, and sit upon a
flat and cozy space of the roof by the warm chimney. There he was
frequently joined by Miranda from the attic of the next house.
But Peter sat this evening at the window. The garden was quick with
faint play of the wind; and Peter's ears were sensitive to small noises
of the trees.
There was a faint tapping upon the wall. Peter was instantly alert, and
as instantly amazed at the effect upon himself of this familiar signal.
He had heard it a hundred times. It was thus that he and Miranda
communicated with one another when they went up to their nook by the
chimney.
He looked into the dark room. The signal was repeated, but he sat by the
window like alabaster, his heart beating in his ears.
The knocking ceased, and for a long while Peter sat still as a stone.
Then he sprang at the cord of the skylight window, opened it and crept
out. Miranda was perched between the chimneys. It was quite dark. Peter
could only see that she was staring away from him.
"Miranda!" His voice trembled and broke, but she did not move.
He knew now he had not been dreaming. Miranda, too, was changed. He felt
it in the poise of her averted face and in her silence.
He waited to say he knew not what, and stayed there, a queer figure
sitting astride the slates. Miranda's arm lay along the skylight. He
touched her.
She caught her breath, and Peter knew she was crying.
"Miranda," he called, "why are you crying?"
She turned in the dark and a tear splashed on his hand.
"I'm not crying!" she flashed. "I thought you were never coming," she
added inconsequently.
It was Peter's first encounter with a woman. He was for a moment
checked.
"Miranda!" he said; and again his voice trembled and broke on the name.
Miranda, in a single day as old as a thousand years, vibrated to the
word half-uttered. She dropped her head into her hands, and wept aloud.
Peter held her tight, speaking now at random.
"I always meant to come," he quavered. "You know I always meant to come.
Miranda, don't cry so. I was afraid when first I heard you knocking."
"You'll always love me, Peter."
"For ever and ever."
Every little sound was exaggerated. There was a low mutter of voices in
the garden below. Peter saw the glow of his father's pipe. So near it
seemed, he fancied he could smell the tobacco.
Mr. and Mrs. Paragon, talking of Peter, sat later than usual. Before
going to bed, they went into the attic, and stood together for a while.
Peter had fallen happily asleep. Miranda was comforted, and he was
lifted above all the heroes. The shadow of adolescence lay upon him.
His mother saw it, and, as she kissed him, it seemed as if she were
bidding him farewell upon a great adventure.
V
Peter in common daylight carefully examined his face in the
looking-glass. His left eye was a painter's palette. He ruefully
remembered that the fight had yet to be finished. He was bound to offer
his adversary an opportunity of completing the good work, and he
distinctly quailed. Peter was this morning upon solid earth. The crisis
was past. He knew now that he had quickly to be a man, to get knowledge
and wealth and power.
Boys at Peter's branch of the foundation of King Edward VI could no
higher ascend into knowledge than the binomial theorem. Peter, not yet
fifteen, was already head of the school--the favourite pupil of his
masters, easily leading in learning and cricket. Already it was a
question whether he should or should not proceed to the High School
where Greek and the Calculus were to be had.
Peter's career was already a problem. Mr. Paragon inclined to believe
that the best thing for a boy of fifteen was to turn into business,
leaving Greek to the parsons. Mrs. Paragon had different views. Peter
was yet unaware of this discussion, nor had he wondered what would
happen when the time came for leaving his first school.
Peter's company raised a chorus when they beheld him. They explained to
Peter what his face was like. They were proud of it. A terrible and
bloody fellow was their captain.
When Peter met his adversary each noted with pleasure that the other was
honourably marked.
The handsome rough thrust out a large red hand.
"Take it or leave it," he said.
Peter took it. The bells were calling in a final burst, and he passed
rapidly on with his company. It was peace with honour.
Peter was in a resolute grapple with the binomial theorem when a call
came for him to go into the headmaster's room. Peter, delicately feeling
his battered face, followed the school-porter with misgiving.
"Paragon," said the headmaster, "I don't like your face. It isn't
respectable."
Peter writhed softly, aware that he was ironically contemplated.
"This fighting in the streets," continued the headmaster, "is becoming a
public nuisance. I should be sorry to believe that any of our boys
provoked it. I hope it was self-defence."
"Mostly, sir," said Peter.
"I rely upon you, Paragon, to avoid making the school a nuisance to the
parish."
"I realise my responsibility, sir."
Peter was quite serious, and the headmaster did not smile.
"Now, Paragon," he said, "I want to talk to you about something else. I
have just written to your father. Do you know what you would like to do
when you leave school?"
"No, sir," said Peter.
Peter had, in fancy, invented posts for himself that would tax to the
fullest extent his complicated genius. He had lived a hundred lives.
Nevertheless, bluntly asked whether he had thought about his future, he
as bluntly answered "No," and knew in a moment that the answer was
dreadfully true. His cloud cuckooland of battle and success, magnificent
with pictures of himself in all the great attitudes of history, vanished
at a simple question. He was rapidly growing old.
The headmaster continued, pitilessly sensible.
"I want you to go on with your education," he said. "You have done very
well with us here. I have written to your father urging him to send you
to the High School where it will be possible for you to qualify for the
University. I want you, before you see your father, to make up your mind
what you want to do."
Peter left the headmaster's room with a sense of loss. The glamour had
gone out of life. His future, vast and uncertain, had in a moment
narrowed to a practical issue. Should he go on to another school, or
into some office of the town? These were dreary alternatives. Already he
was fifteen years old, and he had somehow to be the most famous man in
the world within the next five years.
Peter's father went that day to visit his brother-in-law.
Henry Prout, Peter's uncle and godfather, had at this time retired from
the retailing of hardware. He was wealthy, an alderman of the town, and
a bachelor. He took a father's interest in his nephew. There was a
tacit, very indefinite assumption that in all which nearly concerned his
sister's son Henry had a right to be consulted.
When Peter heard his father had gone round to his uncle's house he knew
his career was that evening to be decided.
Henry Prout was a copy in gross of his sister. Mrs. Paragon was queenly
and fair. Henry was large and florid. Mrs. Paragon was amiable and full
of peace. Henry was genial and lazy. Mrs. Paragon equably accepted life
from a naturally perfect balance of character, Henry from a naturally
perfect confidence in the inclinations of his rosy and abundant flesh.
Uncle Henry had one large regret. He had had no education, and he
greatly envied the people who had. His admiration for the results of
education was really a part of his indolence. He admired the readiness
and ease with which educated people disposed of problems which cost him
painful efforts of the brain. Education was for Uncle Henry a royal way
to the settlement of every difficult thing. If you had education, life
was an arm-chair. If you had it not, life was a necessity to think
things laboriously out for yourself.
Uncle Henry had made up his mind that Peter should have the best
education money could buy. Peter, he determined, should learn Greek.
"Well, George," he said in his comfortable thick voice, "what's it going
to be?"
He was not yet alluding to Peter's career, but to some bottles on the
little table between them.
"Half and half," said George.
"Help yourself," said Henry, adding, as Mr. Paragon portioned out his
whisky, "How's sister?"
"Up to the mark every time."
"She's all right. There's not a more healthy woman in England than
sister."
Henry paused a little in reflection upon the virtues of Mrs. Paragon. He
then continued.
"How's the boy?"
"I'll tell you what," said Mr. Paragon, "he's growing up."
"Fifteen next December."
"Old for his age," said Mr. Paragon, nodding between the lines.
Uncle Henry thoughtfully compressed his lips.
"Well," he said, "I suppose the boy will have to find out what he's made
of."
"He's very thick next door," suggested Mr. Paragon with a meaning eye.
"I've noticed her, George. She'll soon be finding out a thing or two for
herself."
"There's a handsome woman there," said Mr. Paragon.
"Well enough."
They paused again in contemplation of possibilities in Miranda.
"I've had a letter," said Mr. Paragon at last. The headmaster's sheet
was handed over, and carefully deciphered.
"Writes a shocking hand," said Uncle Henry. "That's education. Peter's
hand," he added contentedly, "is worse. I can't make head or tail of
what Peter writes."
Henry mixed himself another whisky. "They seem to think a great lot of
him," he said thoughtfully. "That about the Scholarships, for instance.
They say he'll get the £30. Then he goes to the High School and gets
£50, and £80 at the University. Think of that, George."
"I don't hold with it," Mr. Paragon broke out.
"Education," Henry began.
"Education yourself," interrupted Mr. Paragon. "What's the good of all
that second-hand stuff?"
"It helps."
"Yes. It helps to make a nob of my son. It's little he'll learn at the
University except to take off his hat to people no better than himself."
"Can't you trust him?"
"Peter's all right," Mr. Paragon jealously admitted.
"There's no harm in a bit of Greek. You talk as if it was going to turn
him straight off into a bishop."
Uncle Henry paused, and, desiring to make a point, took the hearthrug.
"I can't understand you," he continued, with legs well apart. "If Peter
is going to have my money, he's got to learn how to spend it. Look at
myself. I have had sense to make a bit of money, but I've got no more
idea of spending it than a baby. I want Peter to learn."
"That's all right," said Mr. Paragon. "But what's going to happen to
Peter when he gets into the hands of a lot of doctors?"
"Peter must take his chance."
"It's well for you to talk. You're as blue as they're made, and a
churchwarden of the parish."
Uncle Henry solemnly put down his glass. "George," he said, "it does not
matter to a mortal fool what I am, nor what you are. Peter's got to find
things out for himself. He'll get past you and me; and, whether he comes
out your side or mine, he'll have more in his head."
Uncle Henry ended with an air of having closed the discussion, and,
after some friendly meditation, whose results were flung out in the
fashion of men too used to each other's habit of thought to need
elaborate intercourse, Mr. Paragon rose and went thoughtfully home.
By the time he reached the Kidderminster Road he had definitely settled
the question of Peter's career. Peter should get knowledge. He should
possess the inner fortress of learning. He should be the perfect knight
of the oppressed people, armed at all points. Thus did Mr. Paragon
reconcile his Radical prejudices with his fatherly ambition.
Arrived home, he showed the headmaster's letter to Mrs. Paragon.
She read it with the pride of a mother who knows the worth of her boy,
but nevertheless likes it to be acknowledged.
Mr. Paragon watched her as she read.
"Yes," he said, answering her thoughts, "Peter's all right."
Mrs. Paragon handed back the letter.
"I suppose," suggested Mr. Paragon, airily magnificent, "he had better
go on with his education?"
"Of course," said Mrs. Paragon.
Mr. Paragon knew at once that if he had persisted in taking Peter from
school he would have had to persuade his wife that it was right to do
so. He also knew that this would have been very difficult.
Fortunately, however, he had decided otherwise. He could flatter himself
now that he had settled this grave question himself. It was true, in a
sense, that he had. Mr. Paragon had not for nothing lived with his wife
for nearly seventeen years.