All should be happiness and victory in this
glorious world and he, by the Master's side, should...
He stopped suddenly. The house that had been Henry Galleon's was blank and
dead.
At every window the blinds were down....
CHAPTER IX
WILD MEN
I
To Peter's immediate world it was a matter of surprise that he should take
Henry Galleon's death so hardly. It is a penalty of greatness that you
should, to the majority of your fellow men, be an Idea rather than a human
being. To his own family Henry Galleon had, of course, been real enough
but to the outside world he was the author of "Henry Lessingham" and "The
Roads," whose face one saw in the papers as one saw the face of Royalty.
Peter Westcott, moreover, had not appeared, at any time, to take more than
a general interest in the great man, and it was even understood that old
Mrs. Galleon and Millicent and Percival considered themselves somewhat
affronted because the Master had "been exceedingly kind to the young man.
Taken trouble about him, tried to know him, but young Westcott had allowed
the thing to drop--had not been near him during the last year."
Even Bobby and Alice Galleon were astonished at Peter's grief. To Bobby his
father's death came as a fine ending to a fine career. He had died, full of
honour and of years. Even Bobby, who thought that he knew his Peter pretty
well by now, was puzzled.
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