Ethel Turner

“ Greg begged, almost pitifully, that it might be removed; there was a serge one underneath. "Only girls and women wear silk," he said, with a flushed, beseeching face. But he was forced to wear it, and if anyone had told Mrs. McAlister that she was unkind to her boy she would have been filled with amazement. She even thought she was a good and patient mother, inasmuch as she hardly scolded him at all when he split beyond remedy two pairs of gloves in the bitter getting on of them, and had to be provided with a third pair. ”

“ Mrs. McAlister grew warm all over; she was filled with dread that Greg would come up, gloved and carefully dressed, and put her to shame before this personage whom she had so long admired from afar.
"Have you any boys yourself?" she said, and wondered how she could despatch Flossie to tell Greg he might remove his gloves at least. ”

“ Surely the hardship was not so very terrible just to have those brown, scratched little hands of his covered up while he was in the drawing-rooms of Society (with a capital S) .
There was a lump in Greg's throat. "You don't understand," he said, his voice heavy; "it's the fellows—none of them do. Sometimes they say things about that awful suit even yet, and Wilkinson tells all the new fellows I've only just had my curls cut off. They'd see me stalking round in the blessed things, and being taken calling." ”

“ Mrs. McAlister smiled in a sickly way. "I quite agree with you " she said feebly. "Boys ought to be boys."
Then a perspiration broke out on her brow for just in front of the stand walked Greg, and she saw with sudden horrible clearness how unlike the other lads he looked.
Her ladyship singled him out for her attention and to illustrate her eloquence.
"Look at that unfortunate little mountebank for instance," she said, "there, in that absurd suit and with light gloves on. He will make an excellent tailor or man-milliner in a few years if they don't put him into a profession." ”

“ The incident of the curls was recalled, of the Fauntleroy suit; was he always going to show the boy her powerlessness?
The only concession he could obtain was that the tan subjects of discoid should not be expected to be worn on any but state occasions, and those only in the holidays.
"Though what earthly use you can find in dragging a shy and awkward schoolboy about with you," said the Doctor, "passes my imagination. He will only knock the tables over and tread on the women's toes. Surely Flossie answers the purpose sufficiently—or there is the poodle I bought you." ”

“ He merely scented the fun of it, and, with the catholicity of the schoolboy, wanted his compeers to do the same. They minced along beside him, keeping well behind Mrs. McAlister. They stroked his collar; they begged to be allowed to touch his hands; they affected tears because they had no gloves themselves.
"Avez-voo voo les gong de noter surr;
Wee, jer les voo, Bur Greg McAlis-er,
sang the impromptu poet of the school, and his wit was received with loudest acclaim and delight, and became as a pebble flung into a quiet pond and making ever-widening circles of ripples. ”

“ Bigger boys stood in groups near the palings and laid threepenny and sixpenny odds on the favourites, and swore mild schoolboy swears because the masters were thick on the ground, and they couldn't have the smoke they didn't want. ”

“ But the cook and the housemaid joined in the coalition against him; one placed her substantial person against the gate, one grasped his cream silk collar with work-strong fingers and held him till the coachman came and bore him vanquished into his bedroom. ”

“ The third afternoon, returning home, he met a detachment of "the fellows," going off to football practice. He stuck his hated hands into his pockets, tilted his hat to spoil the bran-newness of his appearance, and had cold sensations down his back at the thought of the cream silk collar. But his enemy, Wilkinson, saw every detail, and conveyed the fact that he had done so to the unhappy lad by mincing along in his walk, and laboriously fitting on and buttoning invisible gloves.
Inside the drawing-room of their own house Mrs. ”