The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lalage's Lovers, by George A. Birmingham

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Title: Lalage's Lovers
1911

Author: George A. Birmingham

Release Date: January 23, 2008 [EBook #23946]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LALAGE'S LOVERS ***

Produced by David Widger

LALAGE'S LOVERS

By George A. Birmingham

Copyright, 1911 By George H. Doran Company

CHAPTER I

I had, I suppose, some reason for calling on Canon Beresford, but I have
totally forgotten what it was. In all probability my mother sent me to
discuss some matter connected with the management of the parish or the
maintenance of the fabric of the church. I was then, and still am,
a church warden. The office is hereditary in my family. My son--Miss
Pettigrew recommended my having several sons--will hold it when I am
gone. My mother has always kept me up to the mark in the performance of
my duties. Without her at my elbow I should, I am afraid, be inclined
to neglect them. I am bored, not interested as a churchwarden should
be, when the wall of the graveyard crumbles unexpectedly. I fail to
find either pleasure or excitement in appointing a new sexton. Canon
Beresford, our rector, is no more enthusiastic about such things than
I am. He and I are very good friends, but when he suspects me of paying
him a business visit he goes out to fish. There are, I believe, trout
in the stream which flows at the bottom of the glebe land, but I never
heard of Canon Beresford catching any of them.

It must have been business of some sort which took me to the rectory
that afternoon, for Canon Beresford had gone out with his rod. Miss
Battersby told me this and added, as a justification of her own
agreeable solitude, that Lalage was with her father. Miss Battersby is
Lalage's governess, and she would not consider it right to spend the
afternoon over a novel unless she felt sure that her pupil was being
properly looked after. In this case she was misinformed. Lalage was not
with her father. She was perched on one of the highest branches of a
horse-chestnut tree. I heard her before I saw her, for the chestnut tree
was in full leaf and Lalage