All in a garden fair; the simple story of three boys ... - University Library

96
ALL LX A GARDEN FAIR,
after a time, and tlien we .^liall make our way.
Don't be afraid, old boy.'
All day long Allen went about his work
expecting to hear some allusions to his father's
fall and suicide. Yet no one said anything
about it, for the simple reason that the whole
thing was forgotten, save by one or two. This
forgetting of things is a natural event which
people concerned in events which should be
forgotten do not consider or expect. I met the
other day a clergyman whom I had not seen
since old days at Cambridge. He accosted me
with something like a maidenly blush, saying,
' They acknowledged afterwards that it was all
my handwriting.' For some time I could not
understand what he meant. Then I remem-
bered that he had been ])lucked for Classical
Honours. It was twenty years ago, but the
sight of me recalled the old shame, and he still
imagined that everybody was talking of it.
This was exactly the case uilh Allen Engledew.
Nobody cared any longer to remember the
misfortunes of his father. They were buried,