The Captain's Toll-Gate

The Captain's Toll-Gate by Frank R. Stockton

The Captain's Toll-Gate opens on the Glenford turnpike, where retired sea captain John Asher keeps a hospitable toll-gate with the help of old servant Jane. His niece Olive Asher, a well-traveled "navy girl" and daughter of Lieutenant-Commander Alfred Asher, has come to live with him and delights in helping collect toll from passing travelers. Their quiet life is disrupted by Maria Port, a nosy, gossiping spinster who has designs on marrying the captain and takes an instant dislike to Olive. Mrs. Margaret Easterfield, of the nearby estate Broadstone, recognizes Olive as the daughter of an old friend and invites her for a lengthy visit while her husband Tom Easterfield is away on business. Meanwhile, Captain Asher receives a visit from Dick Lancaster, son of his old shipmate Captain Richard Lancaster, now an Assistant Professor of Theoretical Mathematics. The captain is initially unimpressed by Dick's casual attire but grows fond of him. When Olive and Mrs. Easterfield's carriage passes through the toll-gate while Dick is tending it in the captain's absence, Olive is startled and suspicious, and grows convinced her uncle is hiding something from her. At Broadstone, Olive becomes the object of attention from several men: the eccentric poet Claude Locker, who proposes to her repeatedly under an odd daily arrangement; the Austrian diplomat Monsieur Emile Du Brant, who also proposes; and Mr. Rupert Hemphill, a secretary of Mr. Easterfield's, whom Mrs. Easterfield engineers to be sent to Broadstone after learning he may be the "Rupert" Olive worshipped from afar as a schoolgirl. Olive reveals her old infatuation to Hemphill, embarrassing him. A luncheon meeting between Olive, Captain Asher, and Dick Lancaster turns stiff and awkward, leaving both Olive and her uncle wounded and unable to reconcile. Mrs. Easterfield, meanwhile, has taken a strong liking to Dick and begins encouraging a match between him and Olive, confiding in him and asking him to court her properly. Olive then receives devastating news: her father is to remarry, to a former schoolmate, leaving Olive feeling she has lost her only parent. Distraught, she sets off by bicycle to see her uncle, only to find Maria Port sitting intimately with him on the tollhouse porch. Convinced her uncle intends to marry Maria, Olive flees without stopping, taking the rough shunpike back toward Broadstone, exhausted and in tears. She encounters Dick Lancaster on the road, tells him everything, and asks him to carry a message to her uncle and report back. Complications multiply: old Jane misinterprets Maria's familiar manner and the captain's overnight stay at the Ports' house as confirmation of an engagement, and reports this to Dick, who fails to visit Olive as promised, deepening her hurt. Believing herself abandoned by both father and uncle, Olive declares to Mrs. Easterfield her intention to marry quickly and without sentiment, seriously considering Hemphill, Locker, or Du Brant in turn while dismissing Mrs. Easterfield's advocacy for Dick Lancaster because of his connection to the toll-gate household. Mrs. Easterfield, alarmed, extracts a promise from Dick not to propose to Olive until she gives him leave, and enlists her secretary Miss Raleigh to keep the other suitors from Olive's side while she intervenes.

By Frank R. Stockton · First published 1897 · Genre: Romance, Historical Fiction, Drama · 38 chapters · 110,837 words

First lines

A long, wide, and smoothly macadamized road stretched itself from the considerable town of Glenford onward and northward toward a gap in the distant mountains. It did not run through a level country, but rose and fell as if it had been a line of seaweed upon the long swells of the ocean. Upon elevated points upon this road, farm lands and forests could be seen extending in every direction. But there was nothing in the landscape which impressed itself more obtrusively upon the attention of the traveler than the road itself. White in the bright sunlight and gray under the shadows of the clouds, it was the one thing to be seen which seemed to have a decided purpose. Northward or southward, toward the gap in the long line of mountains or toward the wood-encircled town in the valley, it was always going somewhere.

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adventure · mystery · fantasy · humor · satire · narrative · short story · American literature · 19th century · social commentary · character study · dialogue

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