Tom Gallon

“ Nature had been wiser than it would appear; for she had made Albert Sims that finest and gentlest of all things—a gentleman of her own. Cockney he might be—but he had the real instinct of fineness that nothing can smother. When he met his divinity in a country lane, he knew enough to stand aside and to let her pass, or to open a gate for her, and take off his cap as she went through ”

“ Albert Sims to have done would have been to rouse his mother and the servants: to have had the lady properly dried and looked after, and in all probability put to bed. But Mr. Albert Sims did nothing of the kind. True, for a moment he glanced upwards, as though remembering the stout, comfortable mother who slept above; but that was all. So far as the young lady was concerned, he might have been utterly alone in the house, for any suggestion he made as to feminine help. ”

“ The young lady was Miss Olivia Hartigan, his only child; and she had but recently come from abroad to keep house for her father. That much Albert Sims had learned from his garrulous mother and from the gossip of the little village near at hand. She rode and she drove all over the countryside, and she came with some frequency upon the little, timid man in the knickerbocker suit, wandering aimlessly in the lanes. ”

“ What's the good of all the money? She wouldn't look at you if you was made of gold. Ah, well—I'll get to bed."
He had turned round to extinguish the light, when he stopped suddenly, listening. He had a curious feeling that he had heard a faint cry and a knocking at the door—had heard it above the howling of the storm. A little startled, he passed from the room into the hall and listened again; this time he was certain that someone was at the door, beating softly upon it and calling to be let in. ”

“ Sims, on receiving the news, instantly determined to be a lady, and to make her son, in direct consequence, a gentleman. Which determination showed, on her part, that she had not reckoned with Nature. ”

“ Albert Sims—was of a different order from his mother. He had had leanings towards some sort of culture; had even, in the midst of a mean occupation, been able to attend evening classes and to improve himself generally in a vague and indefinite fashion. True, the mark of the Cockney was upon him, and would not be entirely eradicated ”