A Bicycle of Cathay
Cite this book
Citation
Frank R. Stockton. A Bicycle of Cathay. 1900. cyclearchive.com, https://cyclearchive.com/books/a-bicycle-of-cathay-f-stockton-1900/
Page numbers are pages of the PDF, which can differ from the numbers printed on the page.
Contents
- The village schoolteacher sets out on his bicycle from Walford for his vacation, stung that nobody seems sorry to see him go. He stops at the gate of the doctor's daughter, who asks about his route, gives him a box of one-grain quinine capsules, and offers to write up the minutes of his literary society. He tells her he calls his machine a Bicycle of Cathay, after a line of Tennyson.
- On the road the narrator sees a girl on a wheel take a fall and twist her foot. He pushes her along on her machine, giving her advice on wheeling, as rain begins. She explains that she cannot ask him in because her father and mother have quarrelled over the first peas of the garden; he leaves her at her door and rides on into the storm.
- Drenched by the storm, the narrator shelters at a lodge where the gardener John and his wife Maria dry him out and lend him the dressing-gown the Duke of Radford once gave John. Mr. Putney, the wealthy owner of the estate, and his daughter then invite him up to the house for the night, where the servant Brownster looks after him.
- After a night at the Putney house the narrator breakfasts with the family and is shown the grounds, the mushroom houses and the orchid-house by Miss Putney. She warns him off the Holly Sprig Inn, where he meant to stop. Brownster refuses a tip, and the gardener's wife speaks to him at the lodge.
- Riding away past the Putney gate, the narrator is hailed by Miss Putney from behind the estate wall, and they talk across it. He dreams of rescuing her like a knight, then speeds off, passes a scorcher on the road, and stops under a tree to take one of his capsules.
- The narrator reaches the Holly Sprig Inn in the afternoon, is received by a young woman and an elderly one, and registers. After supper he talks with the young woman on the porch and learns that she is addressed as Mrs. Chester.
- Mrs. Chester receives the narrator in the parlor and talks of the inn's past, and next morning he lingers over breakfast. An Italian's dancing bear has eaten the tire off his bicycle, and the Italian then slips away without paying his bill, leaving the bear.
- With the Italian gone, Mrs. Chester and her hostler are afraid of the bear, called Orso. The narrator finds him gentle, feeds him, and decides to lead him to the Cheltenham Hotel, parting from Mrs. Chester at the inn.
- Leading the slow bear down the road, the narrator leaves him tied while he asks his way. A lady's horse, Royal, takes fright at the bear and bolts in a high cart, and the narrator stops it with his bare hands. He explains that the bear is his, and she tells him a sorrowful story about Mrs. Chester.
- The lady taken home in the runaway cart is Edith Larramie, and her family, Mr. and Mrs. Larramie, Walter, Percy and Genevieve, crowd round to thank the narrator. They discuss what to do with the bear, and set out to fetch him, and find the bear gone from where he was tied; he is sighted, bolts, and the whole party chases him across country.
- The chained bear runs into the kitchen of the three McKenna sisters and causes havoc. The narrator leads him out and returns to the Larramies' house for supper. He sits opposite Edith and talks with her at table about games and golf.
- The narrator resolves to avoid more young women, but accepts a wagon ride with Percy Larramie to the Holly Sprig to fetch his repaired bicycle. He is left alone with Mrs. Chester and tries to say something definite, then Percy tells him the inn's boy has been disbelieving the tale of the runaway.
- Percy has gone off with the bicycle to be mended, and the narrator joins the Larramies' family life, with tennis and fishing. A messenger brings a letter and a bill from the Italian bear-keeper, and the narrator and Edith spell out its Italian: the writer confesses that four years ago in New York he stabbed the wrong man, took a paper from his pocket, and fled when he learned the innkeeper's name was the same.
- Edith walks with the narrator under the apple-trees and urges him not to take the Italian's letter and bill to Mrs. Chester himself. She says she will never marry and asks him plainly why he cares for Mrs. Chester. She then drives to the Holly Sprig with Genevieve, and reports that the confession was a relief, since Mrs. Chester's husband had been killed by mistake.
- The narrator travels by train to Waterton in the care of Miss Amy Willoughby, who talks without pause about Edith. At her home he meets her mother and aunt and stays to supper, but declines the guest-room and goes back to his hotel.
- After a wretched night in a hard, varnished Waterton hotel room, the narrator rides back toward Walford, passing a child who falls in the road. He turns back to the Holly Sprig and speaks to Mrs. Chester, who tells him she will not marry him; he asks whether the inn alone is the reason and leaves.
- The narrator turns to the Larramies', who welcome him back early. Edith walks with him, hearing that Mrs. Chester has refused him, and advises him to fall in love with someone else, naming Amy Willoughby and Bertha Putney. She says Miss Putney asked eagerly about him until she heard he got the bear at the Holly Sprig, and urges him to stop at the Putneys' on his way home.
- Riding toward Walford, the narrator stops in the shade, debating whether to call at the Putneys'. Miss Putney passes him on her wheel and looks at him with no sign of recognition. A bell rings behind him and he races on to escape whoever is following.
- Riding hard for Walford, the narrator is stopped by Mrs. Burton, mother of the girl who hurt her ankle on his first day. He dines at the Burtons' house, finds peace in the company of her daughter, and learns of her engagement.
- Back in Walford the narrator calls on the doctor's daughter, Europa, who asks about his cycle of Cathay and about Godfrey Chester, the late owner of the inn. The close tells how Mrs. Chester married her earlier suitor, Amy Willoughby married Walter Larramie, and Miss Putney married an Italian count.