Short Fiction M. R. James (good book recommendations TXT) đ
- Author: M. R. James
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The post-chaise had brought him from Warwickshire, where, some six months before, he had been left an orphan. Now, owing to the generous offer of his elderly cousin, Mr. Abney, he had come to live at Aswarby. The offer was unexpected, because all who knew anything of Mr. Abney looked upon him as a somewhat austere recluse, into whose steady-going household the advent of a small boy would import a new and, it seemed, incongruous element. The truth is that very little was known of Mr. Abneyâs pursuits or temper. The Professor of Greek at Cambridge had been heard to say that no one knew more of the religious beliefs of the later pagans than did the owner of Aswarby. Certainly his library contained all the then available books bearing on the Mysteries, the Orphic poems, the worship of Mithras, and the Neo-Platonists. In the marble-paved hall stood a fine group of Mithras slaying a bull, which had been imported from the Levant at great expense by the owner. He had contributed a description of it to the Gentlemanâs Magazine, and he had written a remarkable series of articles in the Critical Museum on the superstitions of the Romans of the Lower Empire. He was looked upon, in fine, as a man wrapped up in his books, and it was a matter of great surprise among his neighbours that he should ever have heard of his orphan cousin, Stephen Elliott, much more that he should have volunteered to make him an inmate of Aswarby Hall.
Whatever may have been expected by his neighbours, it is certain that Mr. Abneyâ âthe tall, the thin, the austereâ âseemed inclined to give his young cousin a kindly reception. The moment the front-door was opened he darted out of his study, rubbing his hands with delight.
âHow are you, my boy?â âhow are you? How old are you?â said heâ ââthat is, you are not too much tired, I hope, by your journey to eat your supper?â
âNo, thank you, sir,â said Master Elliott; âI am pretty well.â
âThatâs a good lad,â said Mr. Abney. âAnd how old are you, my boy?â
It seemed a little odd that he should have asked the question twice in the first two minutes of their acquaintance.
âIâm twelve years old next birthday, sir,â said Stephen.
âAnd when is your birthday, my dear boy? Eleventh of September, eh? Thatâs wellâ âthatâs very well. Nearly a year hence, isnât it? I likeâ âha, ha!â âI like to get these things down in my book. Sure itâs twelve? Certain?â
âYes, quite sure, sir.â
âWell, well! Take him to Mrs. Bunchâs room, Parkes, and let him have his teaâ âsupperâ âwhatever it is.â
âYes, sir,â answered the staid Mr. Parkes; and conducted Stephen to the lower regions.
Mrs. Bunch was the most comfortable and human person whom Stephen had as yet met in Aswarby. She made him completely at home; they were great friends in a quarter of an hour: and great friends they remained. Mrs. Bunch had been born in the neighbourhood some fifty-five years before the date of Stephenâs arrival, and her residence at the Hall was of twenty yearsâ standing. Consequently, if anyone knew the ins and outs of the house and the district, Mrs. Bunch knew them; and she was by no means disinclined to communicate her information.
Certainly there were plenty of things about the Hall and the Hall gardens which Stephen, who was of an adventurous and inquiring turn, was anxious to have explained to him. âWho built the temple at the end of the laurel walk? Who was the old man whose picture hung on the staircase, sitting at a table, with a skull under his hand?â These and many similar points were cleared up by the resources of Mrs. Bunchâs powerful intellect. There were others, however, of which the explanations furnished were less satisfactory.
One November evening Stephen was sitting by the fire in the housekeeperâs room reflecting on his surroundings.
âIs Mr. Abney a good man, and will he go to heaven?â he suddenly asked, with the peculiar confidence which children possess in the ability of their elders to settle these questions, the decision of which is believed to be reserved for other tribunals.
âGood?â âbless the child!â said Mrs. Bunch. âMasterâs as kind a soul as ever I see! Didnât I never tell you of the little boy as he took in out of the street, as you may say, this seven years back? and the little girl, two years after I first come here?â
âNo. Do tell me all about them, Mrs. Bunchâ ânow, this minute!â
âWell,â said Mrs. Bunch, âthe little girl I donât seem to recollect so much about. I know master brought her back with him from his walk one day, and give orders to Mrs. Ellis, as was housekeeper then, as she should be took every care with. And the pore child hadnât no one belonging to herâ âshe telled me so her own selfâ âand here she lived with us a matter of three weeks it might be; and then, whether she were somethink of a gipsy in her blood or whatnot, but one morning she out of her bed afore any of us had opened a eye, and neither track nor yet trace of her have I set eyes on since. Master was wonderful put about, and had all the ponds dragged; but itâs my belief she was had away by them gipsies, for there was singing round the house for as much as an hour the night she went, and Parkes, he declare as he heard them a-calling in the woods all that afternoon. Dear, dear! a hodd child she was, so silent in her ways and all, but I was wonderful taken up with her, so domesticated she wasâ âsurprising.â
âAnd what about the little boy?â said Stephen.
âAh, that pore boy!â sighed Mrs. Bunch. âHe were a foreignerâ âJevanny he called hisselfâ âand he come a-tweaking his âurdy-gurdy round and about the drive one winter day, and master âad him in that minute, and ast all about where he came from, and how old he was, and how he
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