Uncle Chris

“ Have you never suspected that you have never suspected ...” Uncle Chris began to feel that he must brace himself up. Usually a man of fluent speech, he was not at his best tonight. He was just about to try again, when he caught his hostess’ eye, and the soft gleam in it sent him cowering back into the silence as if he wore taking cover from an enemy’s shrapnel.
Mrs Peagrim touched him on the arm.
“You were saying ... ?” she murmured encouragingly.
Uncle Chris shut his eyes. His fingers pressed desperately into the velvet curtain beside him. ”

“ Chris said more calmly, but still gravely; "it's very dan-ger-rus, and it's not sport-man-like."
"Thank you, my darling," she said simply. "Granny will remember another time."
"Shut up, Chris," said Uncle Godfrey laughing, "and don't talk nonsense."
"Well, I want somebody to play with me," he said inconsequently, as he returned to his Uncle's side. "I want someone to play with me very badly." ”

“ Aunt Mildred used to sigh, and look across teasingly at Uncle, and say, ‘When I think of Chris, it almost makes me wish I were younger myself.’ And Uncle would answer, ‘I don’t blame you, my dear, not in the least.’ And then the pair of them would beam upon me their congratulations that I had won the love of a man like you. ”

“ It is that reflection that keeps me so constantly at Mrs Peagrim’s house.” Uncle Chris shivered slightly. “A fearsome woman, my dear! Weighs a hundred and eighty pounds and as skittish as a young lamb in springtime! She makes me dance with her!” Uncle Chris’ lips quivered in a spasm of pain, and he was silent for a moment. “Thank heaven I was once a footballer!” he said reverently.
“But what do you live on?” asked Jill. “I know you are going to be a millionaire next Tuesday week, but how are you getting along in the meantime?” ”

“ In return for your kindness I grant you three wishes!’ And Uncle Chris thought for a moment, and said, ‘I want twenty thousand dollars to send to Jill!’ And the fairy said, ‘It shall be attended to. And the next article?’”
“It is all very well to joke,” protested Uncle Chris, pained by this flippancy, “but let me tell you that I shall not require magic assistance to become a rich man. Do you realize that at houses like Mrs Waddesleigh Peagrim’s I am meeting men all the time who have only to say one little word to make me a millionaire? ”

“ No, Chris. I love to hear you speak to me as you have done. I was only thinking that I wished others were like you.'
'You mean uncle Bryan,' I said, with a quick apprehension of the direction of her thoughts. 'But he takes pains to make people dislike him. Besides, he is at war with everything--he is, Jessie! He never goes to church; he never opens a Bible. ”

“ I think that little beggar,
Would be better for a slap;
If he isn't pretty sharp,
He'll get a nasty rap.
"How do you like that?" he asked, when he had finished.
He was smiling all the while in spite of his severe tone,—very often the way with Uncle Godfrey. But Chris did not see that, and with his little face scarlet, he stood still, struggling with his tears, unable to reply.
His uncle looked at him and relented.
"There, go along with you," he said, laughing and rumpling the boy's golden curls; "and don't you make yourself such a little nuisance." ”

“ Uncle Robert remarked.
“I have already made two attempts upon your life,” Mrs. Grantly read from the paper, which she was going over a second time.
“On my life?” Chris demanded between yawns. “Why, my life hasn’t been attempted even once. My! I am sleepy!”
“Ah, my boy, you are thinking of flesh-and-blood men,” Uncle Robert laughed. “But this is a spirit. Your life has been attempted by unseen things. Most likely ghostly hands have tried to throttle you in your sleep.”
“Oh, Chris!” Lute cried impulsively. “This afternoon! ”

“ The fat one with the yellow mustache seized an armful of rails and began to study the joinings; Bobbert’s father and Uncle Christopher explained the switch-workings eagerly to each other; and Bobbert’s mother flew about wondering how the rugs could stand it, and picturing Bobbert’s joy as the train puffed out from the base of the tree.
“This is great!” Uncle Christopher cried, as the rails went down with wonderful celerity. “Haven’t had such fun in an age! Half the fun’s in getting it ready!”
The fat one with the mustache glanced up and caught Uncle Frank’s eye. ”

“ Uncle Godfrey said, without turning his head, and relaxing into a smile. "What mischief have you been up to this time?"
"I put my hats with your hats, 'cause I liked [Pg 254] them to be with yours, and I didn't want to be a baby and have my hats in the nursery," explained Chris, encouraged by something in his uncle's voice to run to his side and lay his cheek affectionately on his coat-sleeve.
"Then, in future, just you keep your hats where you are told to," Uncle Godfrey said, laughing. "Don't you be such an independent little beggar." ”

“ Mr. Eden is right, Chris. Whatever good fortune comes to you in life, you have only one person in the world to thank for it.'
'I think so too, uncle.' His words softened me towards him, and I went to his side, and said gratefully, 'You have been very good to me, sir, also.'
'Psha!' he said, with an impatient movement of his head. 'Emma, if you will fill my pipe for me, I will smoke it.'
The pipe we had presented to him on his birthday had not yet been used, and my mother took it from the mantelshelf, filled it, and handed it to him. ”

“ Chris said, with satisfaction.
"Granny," he went on eagerly as he entered the hall, "I'm going to shoot some wicked men. Uncle Godfrey says I may."
"With that gun," cried his uncle, without looking up from his writing.
"My darling!" Granny exclaimed, somewhat dismayed at this bloodthirsty ambition. "But you should not wish to hurt anyone; no, no one at all."
"Only wicked men, and only in the legs, so they couldn't run away from the people who catched them," he said comfortingly. "And I'm going to do it with this gun Uncle Godfrey gave [Pg 250] me. Isn't it a beufferfull gun?" ”

“ At these strictures on his conduct Chris pouted and kicked the gravel with some violence, whilst his companion relaxed into a broad smile, which he put up his hand to hide.
"I found this here young gentleman, marm, on his way to Marston," he said, touching his cap. "I came across him quite by a chance, as [Pg 267] you may say, it happening that I was taking a walk in this direction. 'I've come to find you,' he says, ''cause I want to 'list and be a soldier like my Uncle Godfrey,' says he. ”

“ Shall I send for my mother's maid?" he asked with polite sympathy.
"Why, no; she isn't; she isn't a bit ill!" cried the little beggar delightedly, with peals of derisive laughter, as he jumped about and clapped his hands. "She's only a poor, old, lame horse, what has just fallen down and broken his leg...."
CHAPTER VII. CHRIS AND HIS UNCLE.
If ever there was a case of hero-worship it was the worship by Chris of his uncle. To the little beggar, Uncle Godfrey was the ideal of all that was most manly, most noble, most heroic. ”

“ We were still strolling about when we heard the dinner-bell sound from the house.
“Oh dear me, Cousin Charlie, what have I been thinking about! Uncle told me to come out and try to find you, and to bring you back immediately. What will he say?—will he be angry?”
“It’s quite plain, Polly, that you don’t know Uncle Mark. He will only be too glad to see us. I am the most to blame, for I am sure he is anxious to see me, and in the search for your flowers I quite forgot all about him. Let us go back to the house at once.” ”

“ There is plenty of time. He has behaved ill, though I am willing to forgive him for my girl’s sake; but there would be a want [221] of moral propriety in my heaping benefits upon him too suddenly.”
“Perhaps so,” said uncle Dick. “But Charlie grows uneasy and pines for his sweetheart.”
“Quite true,” I answered, and without ceremony left the room.
Theresa received a letter next morning from my father, and a very gorgeous epistle it was—a series of dignified and embroidered congratulations and loftily-expressed good wishes. ”

“ Aunt Philippa was at the tea-table; Sara was flitting about the room from one guest to another. Uncle Brian, who was standing on the hearth-rug, put out his hand to me.
'I am glad to see you back again, Ursula,' looking at me with his cool, penetrating glance. Uncle Brian was never demonstrative. 'I think the work suits you, to judge by your looks. Take that chair by your aunt, child, and she will give you some tea.' And accordingly I placed myself under Aunt Philippa's wing, while Jill and a boy-officer with a budding moustache waited on me. ”

“ Then let them come and stand inside the door—a few at a time."
"They are here, mother," replied Cynthia, choking; and Christopher, glancing round, saw several decrepit Negroes leaning against the wall—Uncle Boaz, Docia (pressing her weak heart) , and blear-eyed Aunt Polly, already in her dotage.
"I wish to tell you good-by while my mind is clear," pursued the old lady in her high, sweet voice. "You have been good servants to me for a long time, and I hope you will live many years to serve my children as faithfully. Always remember, Christopher—is Christopher there?" ”

“ Over and over again I caught my aunt watching me, with a most melancholy expression in her eyes, as if she witnessed in my undissembled enjoyment of Theresa’s society, the dissolution [139] of the last fragment that remained of her pretty hopes.
“Tom,” said uncle Dick, when the dessert was upon the table, and the servants had left the room, “I should like to see Conny. She would take it ill were I to go away without wishing her joy.”
“We’ll walk to Updown after dinner,” replied uncle Tom. “A kindly word is a great help to a young heart, isn’t it, Dick? ”

“ The inner drawing-room had heavy velvet hangings that closed over the archway; on cold evenings the curtains would be drawn rather closely; there would be a bright fire, and a single lamp lighted. Very often Uncle Brian would retire with his book or paper when Sara's valses wearied him or the room filled with young officers. Since Ralph's death he had certainly become rather taciturn and unsociable. Aunt Philippa, who loved gaiety, never accompanied him, but now and then Jill would creep from her corner, when her mother was not looking, and slip behind the ruby curtains. ”

“ Gray?" interposed Grace.
"I hope so, my dear," sighed the old lady. "If he has inherited the beautiful traits of his uncle, his wholesome tastes for the outdoors and nature, he can't help being a fine fellow. But I have not seen my nephew since he was a child. He has been living here and there all these years, sometimes in America and sometimes in England. His mother and father are both dead, and he has been brought up by his mother's unmarried sisters, who are half English themselves. But he must be a nice boy, even if he has only one drop of his uncle's blood in his veins." ”

“ Thoroughly exhausted, Humphrey is lying still again, but now his mind is once more perturbed, for his uncle's figure has disappeared from his vision, and he tries to conjure it before him in vain.
"He is gone!" he exclaims, with a sob, "just as I was going to ask him. Oh, come back, come back, Uncle Charlie!"
Some one kneels by his side, some one lays a hand on his brow and he opens his eyes with a start. The church, the pew, the prayer-book—all are gone—but in their place—his uncle! ”

“ I sometimes think we remember our life in pictures: certainly the very frontispiece of my acquaintance with my cousin Aleck always is, and will be, a distinct mind's eye picture of that party in the carriage, with myself in their midst.
Uncle Gordon sitting in the right hand corner with his arm round me, keeping me very close to himself, so that I might not crowd my aunt, who was leaning back on the other side of me, as though weary with the long journey. ”

“ If she likes you she shall have you. I am quite aware you are poor,—that you are a curate on a hundred and fifty a year; but you are well connected and a gentleman, and as guileless as a young Nathaniel. I could not desire a better husband for my daughter.'
But it was not likely that Uncle Brian would be so quixotic. And I knew that Aunt Philippa was rather ambitious for her children, and it had been a great disappointment to her that Sara had refused a young baronet. ”

“ I’ll live in lodgings. I suppose I shall be fearfully hardworked: but what time I have to myself, I mean to be free in. For anything I can tell, my aunt may hate the smell of tobacco. Perhaps uncle Tom is a one-pipe man, who blows his cloud up the kitchen-chimney. A pleasant look-out for a fellow like me, to find himself in a house, where, after tea, the wife pulls out ‘Emma,’ or ‘Cecilia,’ and reads aloud, whilst the husband snorts in an arm-chair, and the daughter works at an altar cloth! ”

“ The children were busy with Fido, and breakfast went on, but I watched my uncle's face. I had never seen it look just as it looked then. What could that old yellow letter have been? My magnetic sympathy with my uncle told me that he was deeply moved.
At dinner-time my uncle was late, and Aunt Sarah said, with a little less than her usual dignity, "I never did see such a man as Mr. Norton, when he takes a notion in his head. He's been all the morning rummaging in clouds of dust in the garret, to find more of those old letters." ”