The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Veldt Vendetta, by Bertram Mitford

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Title: A Veldt Vendetta

Author: Bertram Mitford

Release Date: June 19, 2010 [EBook #32895]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VELDT VENDETTA ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

A Veldt Vendetta, by Bertram Mitford.

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A VELDT VENDETTA, BY BERTRAM MITFORD.

CHAPTER ONE.

A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY.

I had not a friend in the world.

My own fault? No doubt. It is usually said so, at any rate, so of
course must be true. For I, Kenrick Holt, who do this tale unfold, am
not by nature and temperament an expansive animal, rather the reverse,
being constitutionally reticent; and, is it not written that the world
takes you at your own valuation? Still, I had managed to muddle on
through life somehow, and gain a living so far--which was satisfactory,
but in an uncongenial and sedentary form of occupation--which was not.
Incidentally I owned to the ordinary contingent of acquaintances, but at
the period of which I write I had not a friend in the world--only
brothers.

Of these, one owned an abominable wife, the other a snug country living,
which combination of circumstances may account for the fact that we had
rather less to do with each other on the whole than the latest
conjunction of club acquaintances. Incidentally, too, I owned
relatives, but for ordinary reasons, not material to this narrative,
they didn't count.

"Great events from little causes spring" is a truism somewhat shiny at
the seams. In the present instance the "little cause" took the form of
an invite from the last-mentioned of my two brethren--he who drew
comfortable subsidy for shepherding a few rustics in the national creed
to wit--to run down and get through a week with him at his vicarage.

I was out of sorts and "hipped," not so much through overwork as through
remaining in town too long at a stretch: for, except a day off now and
then up the river, I had stuck to my office all through t