North Sea Revolution, A. By WALTER WOOD Notes from the Country of " Adam Bede." BY JOHN HYDE. Oxford. By CECIL J. MEAD ALLEN Paper War, A. By CHARLES K. MOORE Parish Registers. By WILLIAM BRADBROOK, M.R.C.S. Plants, The Brain-Power of. By ARTHUR SMITH. Post Office, The, and the Public in 1837. By W. B. PALEY Record, The, of the Sikhs. By FREDERICK P. GIBBON PEDRICK Shadows. By EMILY CONSTANCE COOK Shakespeare and the Faust Legend. By Prof. REDFORD, M.a. 590 509 By GEORGE MORLEY W. H.-Mr. Wyndham's Edition of Shakespeare's Poems First Performance of a Play of Elizabethan Times-The Elizabethan Stage Society-Jonson's "Sad Shepherd" The River Wharfe-Water Spirits-The Worship of Streams and Wells-In Behalf of Birds-Remedies against the Jonson's "May Lord "The Opening-out of Africa—Pagan Africa-Human Sacrifices-African Cannibalism A Shakespeare Mystery Solved-The Inspirer of Shake- speare's Sonnets-The Real W. H.-A Lame and Im- Tudor Garden, The. By F. G. WALTERS Tunnels and Railway Passengers. By JOHN PENDLETON Walking-Stick, Man and his. By F. G. WALTERS Way, The, China is Governed. By E. H. PARKER White Horse, The Great, of Yorkshire. By HARWOOD BRIERLEY THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, JULY 1898. A STRENGTH THAT FAILED. A TALE OF THE MIDLANDS. BY NEIL WYNN WILLIAMS, AUTHOR OF "THE BAYONET THAT CAME HOME," &C. HE road is a broad one. TH ton Green. white dust. PART I. It sweeps around an edge of MilverWhenever it is dry it is covered with a thick The road is level, and so is the wide green which it bounds. The space of the road and the green is pleasant for the eye to feed upon. By the curving side of the road and opposite to the green are little gardens, amongst whose plum and apple trees stand back cottages. They are poor, those people who live there. But when they look across the green they can see a great red house, whose polished windows often flash golden light through the decrepit branches of most ancient yews. It is a mansion that great red house, and the woods at its side stand stiffly with great trunks of poplar and fir. Towards the sweep of these woods as they proudly measure their height against a low oak paling which bounds the green, curves the road. And where they meet stands back the "Three Fishes," with its massive sign-post. To this inn the road has sent a broad path, ere it rules straightly by the side of the wood to another part of Buckinghamshire. The "Three Fishes" has a roof of reeds. The eaves of this roof draw cosily over windows set in whitewashed walls; and bats have VOL. CCLXXXV. NO. 2011. B made their warm home of it for a hundred years—that is, since the "thekker" first laid it upon the rafters. Strangers say as they enter the porch of the "Three Fishes " by a glass-panelled door, and tread upon the red tiles of a short passage, "Eh! but this is an oldfashioned inn." Very soon they bend their heads to a low doorway. Then they see how comfortable the "Three Fishes" is, with its great rooms and its little rooms, with its big beams heavily hanging, with its open hearth in the flagged taproom, with its barred grate in the parlour. And if the windows of the "Three Fishes are narrow, the darkness which rests against here a plank, there a plaster wall, is warm in the winter and cool in the summer. They say so, those strangers, though they clip their words to Milverton ears. The Birches had been married but a very little while when they heard a rumour that the Walkers were going to give up the management of the "Three Fishes." And a friend of both parties said to Birch, "Garge, there's a chance for yer. Why don't you take on the old inn?" George Birch was a market gardener in a very small way. His hands were rough with hard manual labour. To be landlord at the "Three Fishes"! The idea almost took away his breath. It was such a beautiful home. But he liked a joke! "I am going tew," he answered. Some people do not understand jokes. George's friend told several men that young Birch and his wife were going to take the "Three Fishes." The news spread quickly throughout Milverton. First came one, and then another, and another to George. They treated the matter very seriously-so seriously that it astonished him out of his laughter. And he asked himself, why he should not become landlord of the "Three Fishes?" He had saved a little money, which would go towards the first year's rent. The garden at the back of the inn, it was good soil, it would come in handy to his business. The stable, he could put his pony in it. Dang! but he would work up the trade, and make his fortune. It frightened her. He mentioned the matter to Kitty, his wife. But George was strong; she clung to him, she listened. A while and she spoke. George knew that she would do her best, if hard work could help. George knew how bright she had kept her kitchen when she was in service. George knew how she loved him—but she was happy as she was. George Birch was young and newly married. It was very pleasant to show a manly determination before his wife. Quickly then he placed his pony to his trap, and drove to the brewery at Datchforth Town. The gentleman there asked him many questions. George answered straightforwardly. Soon it was arranged; it would be all right, Mister Birch should have the gentleman's "tied" house-the "Three Fishes” at Milverton. And what would he take to drink? The Walkers were anxious to leave the "Three Fishes." They did not like the business, they told people. George went to Walker, and spoke to him very civilly. "I should like to come in as soon as possible," he said. And his face was very anxious, very eager. Walker was solemn, but very friendly. "I am on the look-out for a grocer's shop in Datchforth," he answered. "As soon as I am suited to my liking, I move at once." Later, Walker had a chat with Mrs. Walker when she returned from market. "George Birch was round this afternoon," he said; "he wants to know when we'll be a moving." "Ah!" exclaimed Mrs. Walker, "wait till 'e 'as been 'ere a twelvemonth. P'raps 'e will be in as much of a hurry to get out as 'e is to get in." She shook her head gloomily. The visit of George to the "Three Fishes" was followed by others at short intervals. Each morning when he awoke he felt anxious to know whether the Walkers had secured a shop at Datchforth, and as the days passed on, and found them still unsuited, he asked their permission to move some of his furniture into the "Three Fishes." It was granted readily enough. Kitty, too, went timidly with her husband. She was commencing to feel the responsibilities of her coming position as landlady. And she wished to take thorough stock of the house and its capabilities for that bright neatness which she determined beforehand should reign within and without. It was a pleasant, though anxious time; and the young couple never wearied of putting questions to the Walkers about the business and its management. Withal, George worked very hard in his gardens. Kitty Birch possessed beautiful eyes. Their colour was hidden amidst a soft light that always shone straightly forth. It was this light which was so beautiful, and whose rays gave pleasures of confidence and kindly feeling. Perhaps these eyes were most beautiful when they were looking wistfully over green fields or yearningly at the high heavens; but they were also lovely when the "Three Fishes" opened its doors to rough and thirsty men. Then they veiled to a mist of shyness. Milverton has other inns besides the "Three Fishes." There are the "Spotted Dog" and the "King's Head." When the Birches opened the "Three Fishes," the customers of the "Spotted Dog" and the "King's Head" suddenly came to them. Men did not reason; they were thirsty, and they felt that they would like to drink at the Three Fishes," where there was the excitement of a great company and new hosts. This was natural. But what a business it brought to George and Kitty! Life grew strangely wonderful to them. It was so full, so varied. And yet they they were the same. George Birch had been very hopeful. "I shall do a two-barrel business a week," he had said to Kitty. He was doing four. Understand then the coming and going from the "Three Fishes," the much laughter, the many voices. By day it was Kitty who served customers, and who rose from meals with food in her mouth, who quitted her work of cooking, of sewing, of cleaning. For George was at work in his gardens. By busier night 'twas both Kitty and George who served customers, and then two pairs of hands were scarcely enough. The country about Milverton is very flat. At no great distance from the village crawls a sluggish river. When the heavy rains of autumn came they grew anxious at the "Three Fishes." Friends said, "The river is rising fast;" and truly they could see it from the back door lapping towards them over the green fields. One night, just before closing hour, the flags of the taproom grew damp. Then George and Kitty made up their minds; they commenced to move their furniture to the upper rooms of the inn. It was very wise; by the morning the broad waters had entered the "Three Fishes." And they were very grateful at the "Spotted Dog" and "King's Head," which stood drily upon higher ground. The water which had entered the "Three Fishes" brought with it a strange silence. Amidst that silence George and Kitty told one another how hard they had been working. For the first time since they had taken the "Three Fishes" they folded their hands and But when the waters fell they were troubled, for the inn remained very damp, and much mud lay. It was now that the "Three Fishes" was very uncomfortable, and that custom sought the dry hearths of the "Spotted Dog" and "King's Head." were content to rest. Autumn gave place to winter. George Birch had become a father. But fortune no longer smiled upon him. To the world he said that But to Kitty he said much credit to men the autumn flood had diverted his custom. that he had made a mistake, that he had given who did not wish to pay, who now drank at the "King's Head" or "Spotted Dog." Kitty was his wife. She made excuses, though her heart was faint with experience. She said: |