The Pennycomequicks (Volume 3 of 3)

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Baring-Gould Sabine. The Pennycomequicks (Volume 3 of 3)

CHAPTER XXXIV. A DESOLATE HOUSE

CHAPTER XXXV. OFF

CHAPTER XXXVI. DEPOSED

CHAPTER XXXVII. ON THE LAKE

CHAPTER XXXVIII. IN HÔTEL IMPÉRIAL

CHAPTER XXXIX. TWO WOMEN

CHAPTER XL. TWO MEN

CHAPTER XLI. ONE POCKET-HANDKERCHIEF

CHAPTER XLII. THE GAUNTLET DANGLED

CHAPTER XLIII. THE GAUNTLET CAST

CHAPTER XLIV. AND PICKED UP

CHAPTER XLV. OBER-ALP

CHAPTER XLVI. ARTEMISIA

CHAPTER XLVII. EDELWEISS

CHAPTER XLVIII. TRAPPED

CHAPTER XLIX. TÊTE-À-TÊTE

CHAPTER L. IN THE HOSPICE

CHAPTER LI. AGAIN HYMEN

CHAPTER LII. THE DEVIL'S KNELL

Отрывок из книги

When I was a boy I possessed a pet owl. It was a source of amusement to me to feed that owl with mice. When the trap had caught one of these night disturbers, I took it to the solemn owl, who sat blinking in the daylight, half awake and half asleep. The owl at once gulped down the mouse, and then went fast asleep with the mouse in her inside, but with the end of the tail protruding from her beak. About an hour later I went to the owl, took hold of the end of the mouse's tail and pulled it, whereupon up the throat of the owl came the mouse, backwards, and the bird of wisdom was roused to wild wonder and profound puzzlement to account for the sudden disgorging of her meal. Mrs. Sidebottom had bolted Uncle Jeremiah, and was doing her best to digest him and his fortune, when, unexpectedly, her meal came to life again, and she sat gulping, blinking, bemused in her sitting-room, waiting for the return of Lambert from the billiard-table, to communicate to him the news that had reached her. Anyone who had seen my owl would perceive at once that the case of Mrs. Sidebottom was analogous.

The consternation could hardly have been greater on Quilp reappearing when a posse of wives was sitting discussing him, esteemed dead; and yet Jeremiah was no Quilp. But it is not Quilps alone who would produce dismay were they to return to life. Imagine the emotions produced in a hospital which has received a bequest of ten thousand pounds, and has spent fifteen guineas on the portrait of the benefactor, should the benefactor descend from the frame, declare himself alive, and require the return of his thousands. Think of the junior partner, who has been waiting till a senior shuffled off his mortal coil to make room for him; how would he feel were the dead to return to life? Think of the curate waiting for the living, the next presentation to which is for him, should the old rector, after having laid himself down in his grave, change his mind and get out and resume his benefice for another fifteen years!

.....

'Then why recommend such a marriage?'

'Because we must consider ourselves, not the unborn possibilities. However, to return to the subject that now most occupies me. My condition is desperate. You must marry. I can support you no longer.'

.....