John Enderby | Page 5

sweep of grass and lawn,
flanked on either side by commendable trees, the sun shining brightly,
the rooks flying overhead, and the smell of ripe summer in the air, he
drew up his horse and sat looking before him.
"To lose it! To lose it!" he said, and a frown gathered upon his
forehead.
Even as he looked, the figure of a girl appeared in the great doorway.
Catching sight of the horseman, she clapped her hands and waved them
delightedly.
Enderby's face cleared, as the sun breaks through a mass of clouds and
lightens all the landscape. The slumberous eyes glowed, the square
head came up. In five minutes he had dismounted at the great stone
steps and was clasping his daughter in his arms.
"Felicity, my dear daughter!" he said, tenderly and gravely.

She threw back her head with a gaiety which bespoke the bubbling
laughter in her heart, and said:
"Booh! to thy solemn voice. Oh, thou great bear, dost thou love me
with tears in thine eyes?"
She took his hand and drew him inside the house, where, laying aside
his hat and gloves and sword, they passed into the great library.
"Come, now, tell me all the places thou hast visited," she said, perching
herself on his arm-chair.
He told her, and she counted them off one by one upon her fingers.
"That is ninety miles of travel thou hast had. What is the most pleasing
thing thou hast seen?"
"It was in Stickford by the fen," he answered, after a perplexed pause.
"There was an old man upon the roadside with his head bowed in his
hands. Some lads were making sport of him, for he seemed so
woe-begone and old. Two cavaliers of the King came by. One of them
stopped and drove the lads away, then going to the old man, he said:
'Friend, what is thy trouble?' The old man raised his melancholy face
and answered: 'Aw'm afeared, sir.' 'What fear you?' inquired the young
gentleman. 'I fear ma wife, sir,' replied the old man. At that the other
cavalier sat back in his saddle and guffawed merrily. 'Well, Dick,' said
he to his friend, 'that is the worst fear in this world. Ah, Dick, thou hast
ne'er been married!' 'Why do you fear your wife?' asked Dick. 'Aw've
been robbed of ma horse and saddle and twelve skeins o' wool. Aw'm
lost, aw'm ruined and shall raise ma head nevermore. To ma wife aw
shall ne'er return.' 'Tut tut, man,' said Dick, 'get back to your wife. You
are master of your own house; you rule the roost. What is a wife? A
wife's a woman. You are a man. You are bigger and stronger, your
bones are harder. Get home and wear a furious face and batter in the
door and say: "What, ho, thou huzzy!" Why, man, fear you the wife of
your bosom?' The old man raised his head and said: 'Tha doost not
know ma wife or tha wouldst not speak like that.' At that Dick laughed
and said: 'Fellow, I do pity thee;' and taking the old man by the
shoulders, he lifted him on his own horse and took him to the village
fair. There he bought him twelve skeins of wool and sent him on his
way rejoicing, with a horse worth five times his own."
With her chin in her hands the girl had listened intently to the story.
When it was finished she said: "What didst thou say was the

gentleman's name?"
"His friend called him Dick. He is a poor knight, one Sir Richard
Mowbray, of Leicester, called at Court and elsewhere Happy Dick
Mowbray, for they do say a happier and braver heart never wore the
King's uniform."
"Indeed I should like to know that Sir Richard Mowbray. And, tell me
now, who is the greatest person thou hast seen in thy absence?"
"I saw the King--at Boston town."
"The King! The King!" Her eyes lightened, her hands clapped merrily.
"What did he say to thee? Now, now, there is that dark light in thine
eyes again. I will not have it so!" With her thumbs she daintily drew
down the eyelids and opened them again. "There, that's better. Now
what did the King say to thee?"
"He said to me that I should be Sir John Enderby, of Enderby."
"A knight! A knight! He made thee a knight?" she asked gaily. She
slipped from his knee and courtesied before him, then seeing the
heaviness of his look, she added: "Booh, Sir John Enderby, why dost
thou look so grave? Is knighthood so big a burden thou dost groan
under it?"
"Come here, my lass," he said gently. "Thou art young, but day by day
thy wisdom grows, and I can