FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   >>  
s packing," said their mother; "won't we, girls?" "Hurrah!" said Peggy. "Peggy," I said, "I am sorry to cast a cold shower on your enthusiasm, but there are limits. You and your mother are great and undeniable packers, but your ways are not my ways." "Anyhow," said Helen, "we should do it better than Swabey." "No," I said, "you would do it worse. Swabey has his faults, but I know them. He always forgets white ties and handkerchiefs, but these I can buy, borrow or steal. You would forget white shirts and dress trousers, which mean nothing to you, but are all the world to me. Swabey packs my shaving-brush and my safety razor into my dress shoes, where I come upon them eventually. You would leave them out altogether. I am grateful to you all for your generous offer, but Swabey shall do my packing--that is if I go." It is unnecessary to say that I went. The dinners were, as usual, a great success. We all became young again in our own eyes, and on the whole I was not sorry to have a bedroom in London. But why had it been forced on me against my will? The reason will appear in a letter from Peggy which I received on the second morning of my compulsory freedom;-- "DEAREST DAD,--We are geting on alright. The maids are now in the libary and everything has been put somwere else. A lot of your papers got blown about, but we ran after them and got most of them. Our meels are in your den. Their going into the dining room direckly. The dust is dredfull and the dogs don't like it. It is a spring cleening with love from your loving PEGGY." R. C. L. * * * * * LAID. He was no commonplace suburban spook Content to rap on table-tops; he cherished The memory of days when at his look Princes and peers incontinently perished; Stuck in his heart a jewelled knife dripped red; Flames had been known to issue from his head. The Moated Grange, now ruinous and drear, He roamed, constrained to bitter self-effacement, Until one midnight his enraptured ear Detected mortal accents in the basement. Downstairs he crept; beside the cheerless grate Sat four or five old men in keen debate. Softly he chuckled, "Here's a bit of luck!" And beat a warning rattle on his tabor That once had made the stoutest run amok; Then each old boy sat up and
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   >>  



Top keywords:

Swabey

 

packing

 
mother
 

Content

 

Princes

 

perished

 

incontinently

 

jewelled

 

memory

 

cherished


loving
 

direckly

 

dredfull

 

dining

 

spring

 

commonplace

 

suburban

 

cleening

 

enraptured

 

chuckled


Softly

 

debate

 

warning

 

rattle

 

stoutest

 

cheerless

 

ruinous

 

roamed

 

constrained

 
bitter

Grange

 
Moated
 

Flames

 

effacement

 

basement

 

accents

 

Downstairs

 

mortal

 

Detected

 

midnight


dripped

 

trousers

 

shirts

 

forget

 

borrow

 

shaving

 

eventually

 
altogether
 

grateful

 

safety