The Project Gutenberg eBook, Paul Patoff, by F. Marion Crawford

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Title: Paul Patoff

Author: F. Marion Crawford

Release Date: October 3, 2007 [eBook #22879]

Language: English

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PAUL PATOFF

by

F. MARION CRAWFORD

Author of "A Roman Singer," "To Leeward," "An American
Politician," "Saracinesca," Etc.

New York
The MacMillan Company
London: MacMillan & Co., Ltd.
1911

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1887,
by F. Marion Crawford.

Copyright, 1892,
by F. Marion Crawford.

First published elsewhere. Reprinted with corrections, April,
1893; June, 1894; June, 1899; July, 1906; January, 1912.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

PAUL PATOFF.

My dear lady--my dear friend--you have asked me to tell you a story, and
I am going to try, because there is not anything I would not try if you
asked it of me. I do not yet know what it will be about, but it is
impossible that I should disappoint you; and if the proverb says, "Needs
must when the devil drives," I can mend the proverb into a show of
grace, and say, The most barren earth must needs bear flowers when an
angel sows the seed.

When you asked for the story I could only find a dry tale of my own
doings, which I detailed to you somewhat at length, as we cantered down
into the Valley of the Sweet Waters. The south wind was warm this
afternoon, though it brought rain with it and wetted us a little as we
rode; it was soft and dreamy, and made everything look sleepy, and
misty, and a little uncertain in outline. Baghdad sniffed it in his deep
red nostrils, for it was the wind of his home; but