Part 4 (1/2)
His daughter Millicent was the only person on earth from whom Colonel Butler would accept criticism or reproof. And from her he not only accepted it, but not infrequently acted upon it in accordance with her wish. He had always humored her, because she had always lived with him, except during the time she was away at boarding school; and since the death of his wife, a dozen years before, she had devoted herself to his comfort. But he was fond, nevertheless, of getting into a mild argument with her, and being vanquished, as he expected to be now.
”My dear daughter,” he said, ”I invariably gauge the length of my speech by the importance of the occasion. The occasion to which you refer was an important one, as will be the occasion of the presentation of this flag. It will be necessary for me, therefore, to address the pupils and the a.s.sembled guests at sufficient length to impress upon them the desirability, you may say the necessity, of having a patriotic emblem, such as is the American flag, constantly before the eyes of our youth.”
His daughter laughed a little. She was never awed by his stately manner of speech.
”All the same,” she replied; ”I shall get a seat in the front row, and if you exceed fifteen minutes--fifteen minutes to a minute, mind you--I shall hold up a warning finger; and if you still trespa.s.s, I shall go up and drag you off the platform by your coat tails; and then you'd look pretty, wouldn't you?”
Apparently he did not find it profitable to prolong the argument with her on this occasion, for he laughed and turned again to Pen.
”By the way, Penfield,” he said, ”I missed you at the train the day I left home. I suppose something of major importance detained you?”
Pen blushed a little, but he replied frankly:
”I was awfully sorry, grandfather; I meant to have written you about it. I didn't exactly forget; but I was coasting on Drake's Hill, and there was an accident, and I was very much excited, and it got train-time before I knew it. Then I ran as fast as I could, but it wasn't any use.”
”I see. I trust that no one was seriously injured?”
”No, sir. I bruised my s.h.i.+n a little, and Elmer sc.r.a.ped his knee, and the bobs were wrecked; that's about all.”
Colonel Butler adjusted his gla.s.ses and leaned back in his chair; a habit he had when about to deliver himself of an opinion which he deemed important.
”Penfield,” he said, ”a gentleman should never permit anything to interfere with the keeping of his engagements. If the matter in hand is of sufficient importance to call for an engagement, it is of sufficient importance to keep the engagement so made. It is an elementary principle of good conduct that a gentleman should always keep his word. Otherwise the relations of men with each other would become chaotic.”
”Yes, sir,” replied Pen.
Colonel Butler removed his gla.s.ses and again applied himself to the disposal of his food which had been cut into convenient portions by his devoted daughter.
But his mind soon recurred to the subject of the flag.
”A--Penfield,” he inquired, ”do you chance to know whether any person has been chosen to make a formal response to my speech of presentation?”
Pen felt that the conversation was approaching an embarra.s.sing stage, but there was no hesitancy in his manner as he replied:
”Yes, sir. The boy that got your offer, Aleck Sands, will make the response.”
”H'm! I was hoping, expecting in fact, that you, yourself, would be chosen to perform that pleasing duty. Had you been, we could have prepared our several speeches with a view to their proper relation to each other. It occurred to me that your teacher, Miss Grey, would have this fact in mind. Do you happen to know of any reason why she should not have appointed you?”
For the first time in the course of the conversation Pen hesitated and stammered.
”Why, I--she--she did appoint me.”
”Haven't you just told me, sir, that--”
”But, grandfather, I declined.”
Aunt Millicent dropped her hands into her lap in astonishment.
”Pen Butler!” she exclaimed, ”why haven't you told me a word of this before?”