JOHNNY LUDLOW
Johnny Ludlow
BY
MRS. HENRY WOOD
AUTHOR OF “EAST LYNNE,” “THE CHANNINGS,” ETC.
FIFTH SERIES
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1899
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| Featherston’s Story | 1 |
| Watching on St. Mark’s Eve | 205 |
| Sanker’s Visit | 224 |
| Roger Monk | 245 |
| The Ebony Box | 271 |
| Our First Term at Oxford | 349 |
With songs of sadness and of mirth,
That they might touch the hearts of men,
And bring them back to heaven again.”
Longfellow.
[1]
JOHNNY LUDLOW.
FEATHERSTON’S STORY.
I.
I have called this Featherston’s story, because it wasthrough him that I heard about it—and, indeed, sawa little of it towards the end.
Buttermead, the wide straggling district to whichFeatherston enjoyed the honour of being doctor-in-ordinary,was as rural as any that can be found inWorcestershire. Featherston’s house stood at the endof the village. Whitney Hall lay close by; as didour school, Dr. Frost’s. In the neighbourhood werescattered a few other substantial residences, somefarmers’ homesteads and labourers’ cottages. Featherstonwas a slim man, with long thin legs and a facegrey and careworn. His patients (like the soldier’ssteam arm) gave him no rest day or night.
There is no need to go into details here aboutFeatherston’s people. His sister, Mary Ann, lived inhis house at one time, and for everyday ailments wasalmost as good a doctor as he. She was not at all[2]like him: a merry, talkative, sociable little woman,with black hair and quick, kindly dark eyes.
Our resident French master in those days at Dr. Frost’swas one Monsieur Jules Carimon: a smallman with honest blue eyes in his clean-shaven face,and light brown hair cropped close to his head. Hewas an awful martinet at study, but a genial littlegentleman out of it. To the surprise of Buttermead,he and Mary Featherston set up a courtship. It wascarried on in sober fashio