Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/214

 Meantime, Captain the Honorable D'Arcy Muir rolls in and out of the house—more often than not in that state of drunken combativeness which finds a vent in assaulting mantelpiece ornaments and the lighter articles of furniture—and Mrs. D'Arcy Muir reads novels, or, studying personal ease before appearance, slouches about the house in soft felt slippers and loosely fitting garments which frequently lack a sufficiency of buttons and hooks.

In spite of such surroundings "Boy" remains a very lovable little fellow until he goes to school. Then Miss Letty and the Major lose sight of him for a long period, for he is sent to a school in Brittany. The Major deplores the fact: "You must say good-bye to 'Boy' forever! Don't you see? The child has gone—and he'll never come back. A boy will come back, but not the boy you knew. The boy you knew is practically dead The poor little chap had enough against him in his home surroundings, God knows!—but a cheap foreign school is the last straw on the camel's back. Whatever is good in his nature will go to waste; whatever is bad will grow and flourish!"

As it happens, "Boy" stays in France only a year, but during that period Miss Letty, the Major, and the Major's niece go to America and settle