Fancies and Goodnights

LITTLE MEMENTO

A young man who was walking fast came out of a deep lane onto a wide hilltop space, where there was a hamlet clustered about a green. The setting encompassed a pond, ducks, the Waggoner Inn, with white paint and swinging sign; in fact, all the fresh, clean, quiet, ordinary appurtenances of an upland Somerset hamlet.

The road went on, and so did the young man, over to the very brink of the upland, where a white gate gave upon a long garden well furnished with fruit trees, and at the end of it a snug little house sheltered by a coppice and enjoying a view over the vast vale below. An old man of astonishingly benevolent appearance was pottering about in the garden. He looked up as the walker, Eric Gaskell, approached his gate.

«Good morning,» said he. «A fine September morning!»

«Good morning,» said Eric Gaskell.

«I have had my telescope out this morning,» said the old man. «I don't often get down the hill these days. The way back is a little too steep for me. Still, I have my view and my telescope. I think I know all that goes on.»

«Well, that's very nice,» said Eric.

«It is,» said the old man. «You are Mr. Gaskell?»

«Yes,» said Eric. «I know. We met at the vicarage.»

«We did,» said the old man. «You often take your walk this way. I see you go by. Today I thought, 'Now this is the day for a little chat with young Mr. Gaskell!' Come in.»

«Thanks,» said Eric. «I will, for a spell.»

«And how,» said the old man, opening his gate, «do you and Mrs. Gaskell like Somerset?»

«Enormously,» said Eric.

«My housekeeper tells me,» said the old man, «that you come from the East Coast. Very bracing. Her niece is your little maid. You don't find it too dull here? Too backward? Too old-fashioned?»

«We like that part of it best,» said Eric, sitting with his host on a white seat under one of the apple trees.

«In these days,» said the old man, «young people like old-fashioned things. That's a change from my day. Now most of us who live about here are old codgers, you know. There's Captain Felton, of course, but the Vicar, the Admiral, Mr. Coperus, and the rest — all old codgers. You don't mind that?»

«I like it,» said Eric.

«We have our hobbies,» said the old man. «Coperus is by way of being an antiquarian; the Admiral has his roses.»

«And you have your telescope,» said Eric.

«Ah, my telescope,» said the old man. «Yes, yes, I have my telescope. But my principal pastime — what I really plume myself on — is my museum.»

«You have a museum?» said Eric.

«Yes, a museum,» said the old man. «I should like you to have a look at it and tell me what you think.»

«I shall be delighted,» said Eric.

«Then come right in,» said the old man, leading him toward the house. «I seldom have the chance of showing my collection to a newcomer. You must bring Mrs. Gaskell one of these days. Does she find enough entertainment in this quiet part, would you say?»

«She loves it,» said Eric. «She can't see too much of the country here. She drives out almost every day.»

«All by herself in that little red roadster of hers,» said the old man. «Does she like the house?»

«Well, I don't know,» said Eric. «She did when we chose it last spring. She liked it very much.»

«It is a very nice house,» said the old man.

«She finds it a little oppressive lately, I'm afraid,» said Eric. «She says she has to get out to breathe.»

«It is the difference in the air,» said the old man. «After living on the East Coast.»

«Probably it's that,» said Eric.

By this time they had reached the front door. The old man ushered Eric in. They entered a very snug, trim little room, the furniture all well polished and everything meticulously arranged. «This is my little sitting-room,» the old man said. «My dining-room, too, these days. The drawing-room and the little study beyond I have given over entirely to my museum. Here we are.»

He threw open a door. Eric stepped in, looked around, and stared in amazement. He had been expecting the usual sort of thing: a neat cabinet or two with Roman coins, flint implements, a snake in alcohol, perhaps a stuffed bird or some eggs. But this room and the study, seen through the connecting doorway, were piled high with the most broken, battered, frowzy, gimcrack collection of junk he had ever seen in his life. What was oddest of all was that no item in this muddle of rubbish had even the excuse of a decent antiquity. It was as if several cartloads of miscellaneous material had been collected from the village dump and spilled over the tables, sideboards, chairs, and floors of these two rooms.

The old man observed Eric's astonishment with the greatest good humour. «You are thinking,» said he, «that this collection is not the sort of thing one usually finds in a museum. You are right. But let me tell you, Mr. Gaskell, that every object here has a history. These pieces are pebbles rolled and broken by the stream of time as it flows over the villages in our quiet little district. Taken together, they are a — a record. Here is a souvenir from the War: a telegram to the Bristows in Upper Medium, saying their boy was killed. It was years before I could get that from poor Mrs. Bristow. I gave her a pound for it.»

«Very interesting,» said Eric.

«That wheelbarrow,» said the old man, pointing out a splintered wreck, «was the cause of two deaths. It rolled down a bank into the lane here just as a car was coming along. It was in all the papers. 'Local Tragedy.'»

«Extraordinary!» said Eric.

«It all makes up life,» said the old man. «Here is a belt dropped by one of the Irish haymakers when they fought the gipsies. This hat belonged to the man who had Church Farm, near you. He won a prize in the Irish Sweep and drank himself to death, poor fellow! These are bricks from my gardener's cottage. It burned down, you know, and nobody knows how the fire started. This is a snake which somehow got into the church during service last year. Captain Felton killed it. He's a very handsome man, don't you think?»

«Yes. I suppose so. I hardly know him.»

«That's funny. I thought you and Mrs. Gaskell were very great friends of Captain Felton.»

«What gave you that idea?»

«Perhaps it was just my fancy. Here is a rather sad exhibit. These horns came from a bull that Farmer Lawson put into my meadow. Somebody left the gate open; it got out and gored a man on the road.»

«We scarcely know Captain Felton,» said Eric. «We met him when first we came here, but —»

«Quite, quite,» said the old man. «Here is an anonymous letter. We have them now and then in this district, as in most places. Mr. Coperus gave me this.»

«Are they usually well founded, the hints in your local brand of anonymous letters?» asked Eric.

«I believe they are,» said the old man. «Someone seems to know what goes on. Here's something that I fear won't last very long: a giant puffball from the graveyard. They grow larger there than anywhere else. Feel how light it is.»

He thrust it toward Eric. Eric had been fumbling with his pipe and tobacco pouch and now put them down to take the puffball. «Very light, »said he. «Wonderful.»

«Come through here,» cried the old man eagerly. «I was forgetting my boots.» Eric followed him, still carrying the giant fungus. «These boots,» said the old man, «came off a tramp found drowned in a pond. That little pond near Captain Felton's house.»

«What does Felton do?» asked Eric.

«He has an income,» said the old man. «He amuses himself.»

«What is his amusement?» said Eric very casually.

«I'm afraid,» said the old man, with a twinkle, «that Captain Felton is rather one for the ladies.»

«Indeed?» said Eric.

«There are stories,» said the old man. «The Captain is very discreet, but — you know how it is. That big crystal up there — that was found in the quarry half a mile down our little road here. Well now, that quarry has been out of use for many years. You can drive into it from the road, and I'm told the Captain finds it a very secluded rendez-vous. Dear me, I ought not to gossip. But the fact is the shepherd boys have been known to look over the top, and of course stories get around. People love to chuckle over such matters. I'm afraid that some day one of the worthy gentlemen whose domestic relations the Captain has, so to speak, trespassed upon will look over the top and — well, there are some very large stones lying about. Here is a cat I had stuffed. Now there is a very extraordinary story connected with this cat.»

«Tell me,» said Eric, «is Felton here now or is he away?»

«He's here,» said the old man. «I saw his car go by only an hour ago. It's a red car. One doesn't often see a red car, though as a matter of fact another red one came by just after his.»

«I — I think I must be off,» said Eric.

«Must you go?» said the old man. «I was just going to tell you about this unhappy cat.»

«Another time,» said Eric.

«Another time then,» said the old man. «I shall always be delighted. Let me see you to the gate.»

Eric hurried through the gate.

«You are not going back the way you came?» said the old man. «It's quicker.»

«No. No. I have to go round this way,» said Eric.

«That will lead you past the Captain's quarry,» said the old man. «Well, goodbye. Come again soon.»

He watched Eric stride rapidly down the road and even climbed a bank to watch him farther. When he saw him leave the road and strike over the face of the down, toward the up lip of the quarry, he went placidly back to his museum.

There he took up Eric's pipe and tobacco pouch and fondled them with infinite affection. It was quite a long time before he could bring himself to place them carefully on a shelf and return to his pottering in the garden.