SO the curate went away, but not to London. He was sent instead to a
great manufacturing town in the north, where the work was equally hard,
and where Anglican and Roman and Salvationist fought grimly side by side
against the powers of drink and disease and crime. During these days,
which ultimately rolled into years, the curate lost his boyish freshness
and his unfortunate tendency to put on flesh. He grew thin and lathy;
and, though his smile was as ready and as magnetic as ever, he seldom
laughed.
He never failed, however, to write a cheerful letter to Eileen every
Monday morning. He was getting a hundred and twenty pounds a year now;
so his chances of becoming a millionaire had increased by twenty per
cent.
Meantime his two confederates, Excalibur and Eileen, continued to reside
at Much Moreham. Eileen was still the recognized beauty of the district,
but she spread her net less promiscuously than of yore. Girl friends she
always had in plenty, but it was noticed that she avoided intimacy with
all eligible males of over twenty and under forty-five years of age. No
one knew the reason for this except Excalibur. Eileen used to read
Gerald's letters aloud to him every Tuesday morning; sometimes the
letter contained a friendly message to Excalibur himself.
In acknowledgment of this courtesy Excalibur always sent his love to
the curate--Eileen wrote every Friday--and he and Eileen walked
together, rain or shine, on Friday afternoons to post the letter in the
next village. Much Moreham's post office was too small to remain
oblivious to such a regular correspondence.
The curate was seen no more in his old parish. Railroad journeys are
costly things and curates' holidays rare. Besides, he had no overt
excuse for coming. And so life went on for five years. The curate and
Eileen may have met during that period, for Eileen sometimes went away
visiting. As Excalibur was not privileged to accompany her on these
occasions he had no means of checking her movements; but the chances are
that she never saw the curate, or I think she would have told Excalibur
about it. We simply have to tell some one.
Then, quite suddenly, came a tremendous change in Excalibur's life.
Eileen's brother-in-law--he was Excalibur's master no longer, for
Excalibur had been transferred to Eileen by deed of gift, at her own
request, on her first birthday after the curate's departure--fell ill.
There was an operation and a crisis, and a deal of unhappiness at Much
Moreham; then came convalescence, followed by directions for a sea
voyage of six months. It was arranged that the house should be shut up
and the children sent to their grandmother at Bath.
"That settles everything and everybody," said the gaunt man on the
sofa, "except you, Eileen? What about you?"
"What about Scally?" inquired Eileen.
Her brother-in-law apologetically admitted that he had forgotten Scally.
"Not quite myself at present," he mentioned in extenuation.
"I am going to Aunt Phoebe," announced Eileen.
"You are never going to introduce Scally into Aunt Phoebe's
establishment!" cried Eileen's sister.
"No," said Eileen, "I am not." She rubbed Excalibur's matted head
affectionately. "But I have arranged for the dear man's future. He is
going to visit friends in the north. Aren't you, darling?"
Excalibur, to whom this arrangement had been privately communicated
some days before, wagged his tail and endeavored to look as intelligent
and knowing as possible. He was not going to put his beloved mistress to
shame by admitting to her relatives that he had not the faintest idea
what she was talking about.
However, he was soon to understand. The next day Eileen took him up to
London by train. This in itself was a tremendous adventure, though
alarming at first. He traveled in the guard's van, it having been found
quite impossible to get him into an ordinary compartment--or, rather, to
get any one else into the compartment after he lay down on the floor. So
he traveled with the guard, chained to the vacuum brake, and shared that
kindly official's dinner.
When they reached the terminus there was much bustle and confusion. The
door of the van was thrown open and porters dragged out the luggage and
submitted samples thereof to overheated passengers, who invariably
failed to recognize their own property and claimed someone else's.
Finally, when the luggage was all cleared out, the guard took off
Excalibur's chain and facetiously invited him to alight for London Town.
Excalibur, lumbering delicately across the ribbed floor of the van,
arrived at the open doorway. Outside on the platform he espied Eileen.
Beside her stood a tall figure in black.
With one tremendous roar of rapturous recognition, Excalibur leaped
straight out of the van and launched himself fairly and squarely at the
curate's chest. Luckily the curate saw him coming.
"He knows you, all right," said Eileen with satisfaction.
"He appears to," replied the curate. "Afraid I don't dance the tango,
Scally, old man; but thanks for the invitation, all the same!"
Excalibur spent the rest of the day in London, where it must be admitted
he caused a genuine sensation--no mean feat in such a blasé place.
In Bond Street the traffic had to be held up both ways by benevolent
policemen, because Excalibur, feeling pleasantly tired, lay down to
rest.
When evening came they all dined together in a cheap little restaurant
in Soho and were very gay, with the gayety of people who are whistling
to keep their courage up. After dinner Eileen said good-bye, first to
Excalibur and then to the curate. She was much more demonstrative toward
the former than toward the latter, which is the way of women.
Then the curate put Eileen into a taxi and, having with the aid of the
commissionaire extracted Excalibur from underneath--he had gone there
under some confused impression that it was the guard's van again--said
good-bye for the last time; and Eileen, smiling bravely, was whirled
away out of sight.
As the taxi turned a distant corner and disappeared from view, it
suddenly occurred to Excalibur that he had been left behind. Accordingly
he set off in pursuit.
The curate finally ran him to earth in Buckingham Palace Road, which is
a long chase from Soho, where he was sitting on the pavement, to the
grave inconvenience of the inhabitants of Pimlico, and refusing to be
comforted. It took his new master the best part of an hour to get him to
Euston Road, where it was discovered they had missed the night mail to
the north. Accordingly they walked to a rival station and took another
train.
In all this Excalibur was the instrument of Destiny, as you shall hear.