# Frank Sydall — Short Fiction character guide

> Frank Sydall in Short Fiction by M. R. James.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Francis, Mr. Arthur Francis, old Francis, Frank, This Frank

**First appearance:** 0029-i

## Snapshot

An orphaned boy raised in Dr. Ashton's household, he becomes the willing companion of the strange young Viscount Saul and the first to feel the house change around him.

## Who they are

Frank is eleven or twelve, adopted into a wealthy childless clergyman's family and accustomed to being useful and overlooked. When Lord Saul arrives from Ireland, Frank teaches him games and shadows him through the minster, flattered by the attention of an older, smoother boy. His eagerness to please and his position between servant and son make him the natural witness to Saul's oddities, and the natural target of whatever the viscount is quietly cultivating in that house.

## Links

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