FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77  
78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   >>   >|  
e was so far from regretting his former interventions that at the first junction where his train stopped he employed the time in exploring the freight-house in the vain hope of finding it there, and urging the road to greater speed in its delivery to Miss Desmond. He was now not at all ashamed of the stand he had taken in the matter at former opportunities, and he was not abashed when a man in a silk cap demanded, across the twilight of the freight-house, in accents of the semi-sarcasm appropriate in addressing a person apparently not minding his own business, "Lost something?" "Yes, I have," answered Gaites with just effrontery. "I've lost an upright piano. I started with it from Boston ten days or a fortnight ago, and I've found it everywhere I've stopped, and sometimes where I didn't stop. How long, in the course of nature, ought an upright piano to take in getting to this point from Boston, anyway?" The man obviously tasted the sarcasm in Gaites's tone, and dropped it from his own, but he was sulkier if more respectful than before in answering: "'D ought a come right through in a couple of days. 'D ought a been here a week ago." "Why isn't it here now, then?" "Might 'a' got off on some branch road, by mistake, and waited there till it was looked up. You see," the man continued, resting an elbow on the tall casing of a chest of drawers, and dropping to a more confidential level in his manner, "an upright piano ain't like a passenger. It don't kick if it's shunted off on the wrong line. As a gene'l rule, freight don't complain of the route it travels by, and it ain't in a hurry to arrive." "Oh!" said Gaites, with a sympathetic sneer. "But it ain't likely," said the man, who now pushed his hat far back on his head, in the interest of self-possession, "that it's gone wrong. With all these wash-outs and devilments, the last fo't-night, it might a' been travellin' straight and not got the'a, yet. What d'you say was the address?" "Lower Merritt," said Gaites, beginning to feel a little uncomfortable. "Name?" persisted the man. "Miss Phyllis Desmond," Gaites answered, now feeling really silly, but unable to get away without answering. "That ain't your name?" the man suggested, with reviving sarcasm. "No, it isn't!" Gaites retorted, angrily, aware that he was giving himself away in fine shape. "Oh, I see," the man mocked. "Friend o' the family. Well, I guess you'll find your piano at Lower Merritt,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77  
78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Gaites

 

upright

 

sarcasm

 

freight

 

answered

 

Boston

 
Merritt
 

answering

 
stopped
 
Desmond

pushed

 
interest
 
devilments
 

possession

 
interventions
 

shunted

 
junction
 

passenger

 
confidential
 

manner


arrive

 
travels
 

complain

 

sympathetic

 

travellin

 

retorted

 

angrily

 

reviving

 

suggested

 

giving


family

 

mocked

 

Friend

 
address
 
regretting
 

dropping

 

straight

 

beginning

 

feeling

 

unable


Phyllis

 

persisted

 
uncomfortable
 

fortnight

 
started
 
ashamed
 

nature

 
delivery
 
effrontery
 

addressing