Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/215

 down there for a time. "Boy" reappears at the age of sixteen, when he is being educated at an English military school. One of the best-written scenes in the book describes the meeting of "Boy" with Miss Letty, who returns from America about this time. "Boy" has grown into a slim, awkward youth, getting on to six feet in height, callous, listless, and cynical. He has lost his old frankness; he is not, as the Major predicted, the "boy" that Miss Letty knew in the days gone by.

The description of the luncheon party when the four sides of the table are occupied respectively by Miss Letty, the Major, the latter's niece, and "Boy," is exceedingly well done, "Boy's" stolid, blasé replies to the many questions he is asked being exceedingly diverting, although one feels sorry to see into what an automaton he has grown.

"Are you glad you are going to be a soldier?" the Major asks him. "Oh, I don't mind it!" says "Boy." "Are you fond of flowers?" the girl demands of him a little later. "I don't mind them much!" replies "Boy" indifferently. "Well, what do you mind? Anything?" puts in the Major. "Boy" laughed. "I don't know."

This scene—from which we have merely extracted a few remarks—is in its way an excellent bit of comedy, but on behalf of public schoolboys