Читать книгу Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters - Daniel Stashower, Исмаил Шихлы - Страница 144

Since I can’t get Conny send down Duff. I shall at once put him in buttons when he arrives if I can raise the capital. I might pass him for my eldest son but it would never do to acknowledge such a youngster as a brother—however he and I will arrange that matter between us. Never mind the remainder of D’s quarter—I’ll guarantee to teach him more in a day than ever he will learn at school—for we will have to be in the house together all day. Send down with him a pair of blankets & as many books & odds & ends as you can spare. Anything that will do for an ornament for the mantelpiece would be acceptable. Send him on Tuesday without fail. Never mind the clothes. I’ll manage to rig him out. Let me know what train to expect him by.

When I said I did not want the money I did not say so petulantly. I know you would help me if you could for any success will be yours. Lord knows I am as poor as Job but have a wealth of youth and pluck, so can manage to dispense with help. As for a few shillings to cover Duff’s grub I hope by the end of July that I won’t feel that expense.

What do those people in L mean by not paying—they must have received the money by this time. If the thing is legally ours we must simply demand the coin. In your next to A. A. say that unless it is paid you will put the matter in my hands as the male of the family—I’d soon get it out of them.* I have developed extraordinary business capacities lately, and my energy has electrified landladies, salesmen, house agents & everybody else.

I had a turn up with a tinker in the main street of the town on Coronation night and milled him to the delight of an enthusiastic mob. He had been kicking his wife, and caught me one on the throat when I interfered. It was a splendid advertisement for me. I reckon him to have been my first patient.

Adieu—dont disappoint me on Tuesday. I shall be very lonely in the big empty house until he comes.