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Updated: June 4, 2025
"Well, at any rate, you don't suppose I'm going to select and marry out of the street?" "You might do worse," said Phineas. Then, after a slight pause, he asked: "Have you any news lately from Durdlebury?" "Confound Durdlebury!" said Doggie. Phineas checked him with one hand and waved the other towards a hostelry on the other side of the street.
"You lure him out into the stable yard with a great hunk of pie he adores pie and tell him to sit there and eat it till I come. Tell him I said so." "I'll see what can be done, sir," said Peddle. "I don't mean to be inhospitable," said Doggie, after the butler had gone, "but why do you take this extraordinary person about with you?" "I wanted him to see Durdlebury and Durdlebury to see him.
Alone I did it and it takes some doing in Durdlebury, now that you're away and the Musical Association has perished of inanition. Old Dr. Flint's no earthly good, since Tom, the eldest son you remember was killed in Mesopotamia. So I did it all, and it was a great success. We netted four hundred and seventy pounds.
But Oliver and his pirates laughed with the truculence befitting their vocation, and bowing with ironical politeness, let their victim depart to the parody of a popular song: "Good-bye, Doggie, we shall miss you." From that day onwards Marmaduke was known as "Doggie" throughout all Durdlebury, save to his mother and Miss Gunter. The Dean himself grew to think of him as "Doggie."
And they could say nothing. They had only Doggie's word to go upon; they accepted it unquestioningly, but they knew no details. Doggie had disappeared. Naturally, they contradicted these evil rumours. The good folks of Durdlebury expected them to do so, and listened with well-bred incredulity. To the question, "Where is he now and what is he going to do?" they could only answer, "We don't know."
Trevor, was a mature and comfortable maiden lady of ample means, the only and orphan daughter of a late Bishop of Durdlebury. Never had there been such a marrying and giving in marriage in the cathedral circle. Children were born in Decanal, Rectorial and Canonical homes. First a son to the Manningtrees, whom they named Oliver. Then a daughter to the Conovers.
The Deanery must be informed of his home-coming. As soon as he could secure the services of a nurse he wrote out three telegrams: one addressed "Conover, The Deanery, Durdlebury"; one to Peddle at Denby Hall, and one to Jeanne. The one to Jeanne was the longest, and was "Reply paid." "This is going to cost a small fortune, young man," said the nurse.
By developing a philosophical disquisition on some such lines did Phineas McPhail seek to initiate Doggie into the weird mysteries of the new social life. Doggie heard with his ears, but thought in terms of Durdlebury tea-parties. Nowhere in the mass could he find the spiritual outlook of his Irish poet-warrior. The individuals that may have had it kept it preciously to themselves.
Although of no mean or revengeful nature, he was human enough to feel a little malicious satisfaction when it was proved to Durdlebury that Oliver had gone to the devil. His Aunt Sarah, Mrs. Manningtree, had died midway in the Phineas McPhail period; Mr. Manningtree a year or so later had accepted a living in the North of England, and died when Doggie was about four-and-twenty.
He never questioned his physical incapacity. It was as real a fact as the German guns. He went about pitying himself and seeking pity. The months passed. The regiment moved away from Durdlebury, and Doggie was left alone in Denby Hall. He felt solitary and restless.
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