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THE HERO

BY

WILLIAM SOMERSET MAUGHAM

AUTHOR OF
"LIZA OF LAMBETH," "THE MAKING Of A SAINT," "ORIENTATIONS"

London.....
HUTCHINSON & CO.
Paternoster Row. 1901


      "Rule, Britannia!
  Britannia, rule the waves;
  Britons never will be slaves."
        _"Alfred": a Masque. By James Thomson._

  "O Sophonisba, Sophonisba, O!"
     _"Sophonisba": a Tragedy. By the same Author._


To

MISS JULIA MAUGHAM






THE HERO




I


Colonel Parsons sat by the window in the dining-room to catch the last
glimmer of the fading day, looking through his _Standard_ to make sure
that he had overlooked no part of it. Finally, with a little sigh, he
folded it up, and taking off his spectacles, put them in their case.

"Have you finished the paper?" asked his wife

"Yes, I think I've read it all. There's nothing in it."

He looked out of window at the well-kept drive that led to the house,
and at the trim laurel bushes which separated the front garden from the
village green. His eyes rested, with a happy smile, upon the triumphal
arch which decorated the gate for the home-coming of his son, expected
the next day from South Africa. Mrs. Parsons knitted diligently at a
sock for her husband, working with quick and clever fingers. He watched
the rapid glint of the needles.

"You'll try your eyes if you go on much