Your
father was a schoolboy of fifteen, and one day he saw the most wonderful
little girl riding a polo pony out of the Park. Her mother was riding
with her. And he lost his head, and ran after her until she rode into
the Academy stables. And in he went, headlong, after her, and found her
dismounted and standing with her mother; and he took off his hat, and he
said to her mother: 'I've run quite a long way to tell you who I am: I
am Colonel Gerard's son, Austin. Would you care to know me?'
"And he looked at the little girl, who had curls precisely like yours,
and the same little nose and mouth. And that little girl, who is now
your mother, said very simply: 'Won't you come home to luncheon with us?
May he, mother? He has run a very long way to be polite to us.'
"And your mother's mother looked at the boy for a moment, smiling, for
he was the image of his father, who had been at school with her. Then
she said: 'Come to luncheon and tell me about your father. Your father
once came a thousand miles to see me, but I had started the day before
on my wedding-trip.
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