The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hero, by William Somerset Maugham

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Title: The Hero

Author: William Somerset Maugham

Release Date: October 27, 2008 [EBook #27063]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE HERO

BY

WILLIAM SOMERSET MAUGHAM

AUTHOR OF
"LIZA OF LAMBETH," "THE MAKING Of A SAINT," "ORIENTATIONS"

London . . . . .
HUTCHINSON & CO.
Paternoster Row. 1901

"Rule, Britannia!
Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never will be slaves."
_"Alfred": a Masque. By James Thomson._

"O Sophonisba, Sophonisba, O!"
_"Sophonisba": a Tragedy. By the same Author._

To

MISS JULIA MAUGHAM

THE HERO

I

Colonel Parsons sat by the window in the dining-room to catch the last
glimmer of the fading day, looking through his _Standard_ to make sure
that he had overlooked no part of it. Finally, with a little sigh, he
folded it up, and taking off his spectacles, put them in their case.

"Have you finished the paper?" asked his wife

"Yes, I think I've read it all. There's nothing in it."

He looked out of window at the well-kept drive that led to the house,
and at the trim laurel bushes which separated the front garden from the
village green. His eyes rested, with a happy smile, upon the triumphal
arch which decorated the gate for the home-coming of his son, expected
the next day from South Africa. Mrs. Parsons knitted diligently at a
sock for her husband, working with quick and clever fingers. He watched
the rapid glint of the needles.

"You'll try your eyes if you go on much longer with this light, my
dear."

"Oh, I don't require to see," replied his wife, with a gentle,
affectionate smile. But she stopped, rather tired, and laying the sock
on the table, smoothed it out with her hand.

"I shouldn't mind if you made it a bit higher in the leg than the last
pair."

"How high would you like it?"

She went to the win