Rachel was quite ready, and she also quite understood that “Mr. Sheston” and “Sheshà” wished to have very little to do with one another.
So she only said, when, half an hour later, the old man left her at Aunt Hester’s door:
“Thank you ever so much. I shall never forget Babylon, and—and—the Hanging Garden, you know. But there are five more Wonders of the World, aren’t there?” She could not help adding this, nor could she help a beseeching glance at Mr. Sheston.
He laughed. “We’ll see about them, perhaps,” he said. But Rachel ran into the house quite satisfied.
THIRD WONDER
THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES
One morning, several days later, Rachel received a long letter from her father, in answer to one she had written to him before making the acquaintance of Mr. Sheston. (Though, indeed, as she remembered, she had even then met him without knowing it!)
“You talk about the British Museum,” he wrote, “and that reminds me of a dear old friend of mine who works there. I don’t think I’ve ever told you about Mr. Sheston, have I? And now I come to think of it I don’t believe I’ve told anyone all he meant to me when I was a little boy, no older than you are now. I’ve never seen him since, but he was better to me then than a thousand beautiful mysterious books. He used to tell me the most wonderful stories, and I’ve never forgotten them. He must be a very old man now. (I thought him very old then, but, of course, he wasn’t really.) I believe he sometimes goes to see your Aunt Hester, and I want you to meet him. Perhaps he will tell you some of the strange things he told me. Perhaps even you will have ‘adventures’ when you’re with him! And perhaps not. Anyhow, if you do have ‘adventures,’ take my advice and don’t talk about them. People as a rule don’t understand Mr. Sheston, and some of them say all sorts of silly things about him, and even think he’s mad. He isn’t. He’s the oldest and the wisest man in the world.”
Rachel folded up the letter feeling very happy. She and “Daddy” were great friends, and she was as she said to herself “frightfully glad” that Dad had known Mr. Sheston when he was a little boy. That hint he gave about “adventures” pleased her very much, as also his remark about Mr. Sheston being the oldest man in the world! Oh, yes, certainly Dad had passed through the same sort of experiences as those she had enjoyed since her meeting with his old friend. That was a splendid thought. And all at once she remembered that Dad also was the seventh child in his family. “So he’s mixed up with sevens too,” was her next reflection. “He’s one of the lucky people—like me. He’ll be awfully interested when he gets my last letter to say I’ve met Mr. Sheston already!”