Part 3

“That will do, Perdita,” he said, whereupon the senhora found relief in tears.

The wall about Mr. Inglefield’s villa was so hard and uneven, and Mr. Keegan was becoming so cramped in his position, that he was thinking of letting himself down on the inside when Jennings was heard returning. He was accompanied by two or three Portuguese from the convent, but, to Mr. Keegan’s great relief, was without the sled. When the circumstance of the liberty party became known to Mr. Inglefield, he said a great many things Mr. Keegan expected him to say, but he added a few remarks about Pennington which Mr. Keegan had not anticipated. Finally the denunciation of that gentleman became so vigorous that Mr. Keegan could stand it no longer.

“He is a sneaking scoundrel!” declared Mr. Inglefield.

Here Mr. Keegan slid down from the wall, and approached the irate but astonished father with a somewhat rolling but easy gait. He carefully looked him over, from force of habit perhaps, before accosting him.

“Mr. Inglefield,” he began, very much as if he were addressing a water-butt, “I took your feelin’s into account before comin’ for’ard, sir; but I ain’t goin’ to stand by and listen to no such things about Mr. Pennington as you was givin’ vent to.”

Mr. Inglefield managed to recover himself sufficiently, during the interval occupied by Mr. Keegan in transferring his tobacco to the other cheek, to exclaim angrily:--

“Who the deuce are you, sir, and what are you doing on my wall?”

“I know this here come rather suddin,” Mr. Keegan went on, without taking the trouble to answer the question; “but I want to say right now there ain’t no finer young man anywhere, and that this here business wasn’t his fault.”

“Wasn’t his fault!” roared Mr. Inglefield.

“No, sir,” said Mr. Keegan, coolly; “it was me what fixed the thing up. It was me what got your daughter to consent to it, and brought Mr. Pennington up here to get her; and if you ain’t blessin’ me for it some day I’m a sergeant of marines.”

“You!” repeated Mr. Inglefield, in a species of stupefaction.

Now it so happened that the master-at-arms, who had remained concealed some distance down the hill, heard the commotion, and became possessed with the idea that his friend Mr. Keegan was getting into trouble. He arrived on the scene just at this instant.

“Now, Mr. Inglefield,” Mr. Keegan continued, glancing around at the faces about the lantern, “this here ain’t no place to talk private matters; but if you’ll take the trouble to step inside with us, me and Chimmy’ll try to give you a loocid report of this here, sir.”

“Come inside, by all means, if you can throw any light on this rascally business,” said Mr. Inglefield, picking up the lantern, and leading the way to the house. The others followed.

“Dennis,” said the master-at-arms to Mr. Keegan, pulling him by the sleeve, “there ain’t no use of my goin’ in there; you knows how to handle the old one. I’ll be payin’ the seenora that little call I missed this afternoon.”

* * * * *

Mr. and Mrs. Pennington, or the master-at-arms, for that matter, never knew precisely how Mr. Keegan “handled the old one” during the half-hour he was closeted with him. Mr. Keegan, of course, would never tell. All he could be induced to say, when questioned on the subject by the master-at-arms, was:--

“He went in like a lion and come out like a lamb, didn’t he, Chimmy?”

The master-at-arms admitted that he did.

“Well, Chimmy,” he would reply, solemnly blinking his little eyes, “that there’s all there is to it.”

In the service journal, which is published in New York, there appeared the following item:--

“A most interesting and novel wedding took place on Thursday, October 31, at Funchal, Madeira, on board the steamer _Southampton_ of the Union Line. Ensign John R. Pennington, U.S.N., married Miss Eleanor Inglefield, daughter of Robert Inglefield, Esq., of Ravenside, long and eminently connected with the British diplomatic service. The bride and groom left immediately for England. In consequence of Mr. Pennington’s hurried departure, the wedding was a surprise even to his brother officers of the _Denver_. The young couple are now at Newport, where Ensign Pennington is stationed; and it is understood that the bride’s father will spend the winter with them.”

* * * * *

The report was true, for before the Denver left Funchal the Inglefield villa was closed, and the senhora reigned supreme there; and Mr. Inglefield had gone to see his new son-in-law at Newport, and to pay his first visit to the United States.

As for Mr. Keegan, he now owns a large gold chain, attached to a large gold watch, of which he is very proud, and which he wears on all occasions. On the outside of the case is the monogram “D.K.,” very handsomely engraved, and on the inside a mysterious inscription, the purport of which Mr. Keegan has never disclosed, but which is thought to be expressive of the everlasting gratitude of two people.

Nor has his friend the master-at-arms been forgotten.

MR. WINSTON CHURCHILL, like Mr. WISTER and Mr. CRAWFORD, has a deeper claim than residence and choice of subjects give, to the name of “American author,” since New England blood dating back on both sides to the sixteen hundreds, Southern birth, and a training in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis were united in his equipment. But after only a brief service in the navy he resigned his commission and definitely followed the leading of his literary tastes. He was for a short period with _The Army and Navy Journal_, during which time his first short story, “Mr. Keegan’s Elopement,” was published in _The Century Magazine_. Mr. CHURCHILL became an editor of _The Cosmopolitan Magazine_, but left that again, to be more free for continuous original work than the routine duties connected with a monthly magazine permit.

His first book appeared in 1897,--“The Celebrity,” written in a vein of the liveliest comedy; but even then the first of his series of novels, which cover characteristic phases of American social development and will when completed present a picture of national life such as is not only unequalled, but has never been even attempted in its breadth and entirety, was well under way.

Certainly “The Celebrity,” although recognized as--

“an extremely clever piece of work that is likely to be popular as it deserves” (_Boston Transcript_), as “such a piece of inimitable comedy in a literary way, as has not appeared for years; the purest, keenest fun” (_Chicago Inter-Ocean_), as “a humorously sensational novel of a rather unusual kind, decidedly original and entertaining, one of the best pieces of construction that has appeared in a long while ... an altogether clever and out-of-the-way sort of book” (_Philadelphia Evening Telegraph_),

did not lead the critics to prophesy any such a second novel as Mr. CHURCHILL’S “Richard Carvel,” which was described as--

“seldom if ever surpassed by an American romance, in breadth of canvas, massing of dramatic effect, depth of feeling, and rare wholesomeness of spirit.”--_Chicago Tribune._

“‘Richard Carvel’ is one of the most brilliant works of imagination of the decade. It breathes the spirit of true romance in a way that is truly fascinating.”--_Philadelphia Press._

“The charm of the book, which is very great, lies in the vividness of its pictures of the life of London and the colonies in those picturesque days when the spirit of revolution was slowly but surely developing.”

--_Washington Times._

Coming just a year later, Mr. CHURCHILL’S next great novel, “The Crisis,” dealt as effectively with the questions and scenes of the Civil War as did the earlier story with the struggle between the colonies and the mother country. Of the qualities which have made it rarely valuable, Mr. HAMILTON MABIE wrote:--

“‘The Crisis’ is distinctly the most carefully studied and the most convincing novel which has yet been written on the Civil War; no other story brings the reader so close to some of the great figures in the struggle; no other brings before the imagination so distinctly the terrible experiences which befell those who stood in the centre of the storm. ‘The Crisis’ is a footnote to American history, as well as a stirring and moving novel.

“As a study of the plain, substantial stuff of which American citizenship is largely made up, ‘The Crisis’ has deep and abiding interest. It ought to be read by those students of American life beyond the sea who are anxious ‘neither to laugh nor to weep, but to understand’; for it brings out the heroic fibre of the best American stock, its quick responsiveness to the educational power of opportunity, its resourcefulness, its unassuming dignity and force.”

--_The Times Saturday Review._

“It is a high office to give a new generation of Americans their first vivid conception of the struggle in which the nation was reborn.”

--_Review of Reviews._

The Macmillan Little Novels

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PHILOSOPHY FOUR A STORY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY =By Owen Wister= Author of “The Virginian,” etc.

MAN OVERBOARD =By F. Marion Crawford= Author of “Cecilia,” “Marietta,” etc.

MR. KEEGAN’S ELOPEMENT =By Winston Churchill= Author of “The Crisis,” “Richard Carvel,” etc.

MRS. PENDLETON’S FOUR-IN-HAND =By Gertrude Atherton= Author of “The Conqueror,” “The Splendid Idle Forties,” etc.

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