FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156  
157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   >>   >|  
furnished sufficient accommodation between the two towns, and because they dreaded an incursion of the idle, drunken, and dissolute portion of the Sheffield people as a consequence of increasing the facilities of transit." For a time the opposition was successful but eventually the Lord's Committee yielded to the perseverance of the promoters of the bill. _Sheffield and Rotherham Independent_. REMARKABLE ADVENTURE. A young lady some years ago thus related an adventure she met with in travelling. "After I had taken my seat one morning at Paddington, in an empty carriage, I was joined, just as the train was moving off, by a strange-looking young man, with remarkably long flowing hair. He was, of course, a little hurried, but he seemed besides to be so disturbed and wild that I was quite alarmed, for fear of his not being in his right mind, nor did his subsequent conduct at all reassure me. Our train was an express, and he inquired eagerly, at once, which was the first station we were advertised to stop. I consulted my Bradshaw and furnished him with the required information. It was Reading. The young man looked at his watch. "'Madam,' said he, 'I have but half-an-hour between me and, it may be, ruin. Excuse, therefore, my abruptness. You have, I perceive, a pair of scissors in your workbag. Oblige me, if you please, by cutting off all my hair.' "'Sir,' said I, 'it is impossible.' "'Madam,' he urged, and a look of severe determination crossed his features; 'I am a desperate man. Beware how you refuse me what I ask. Cut my hair off--short, close to the roots--immediately; and here is a newspaper to hold the ambrosial curls.' "I thought he was mad, of course; and believing that it would be dangerous to thwart him, I cut off all his hair to the last lock. "'Now, madam,' said he, unlocking a small portmanteau, 'you will further oblige me by looking out of the window, as I am about to change my clothes.' "Of course I looked out of the window for a very considerable time, and when he observed, 'Madam, I need no longer put you to any inconvenience,' I did not recognise the young man in the least. "Instead of his former rather gay costume, he was attired in black, and wore a grey wig and silver spectacles; he looked like a respectable divine of the Church of England, of about sixty-four years of age; to complete that character, he held a volume of sermon
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156  
157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

looked

 
window
 

Sheffield

 

furnished

 

thought

 

ambrosial

 
immediately
 
newspaper
 

features

 
Oblige

workbag

 

cutting

 

scissors

 

abruptness

 

perceive

 

impossible

 

Beware

 

refuse

 
desperate
 

crossed


severe

 

determination

 

attired

 

silver

 
costume
 

recognise

 
Instead
 

spectacles

 

character

 
complete

volume

 

sermon

 

divine

 

respectable

 

Church

 

England

 
inconvenience
 

Excuse

 

unlocking

 

portmanteau


believing

 

dangerous

 

thwart

 

observed

 
longer
 
considerable
 

change

 

oblige

 
clothes
 

station