FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   >>   >|  
ewbury; Gyp sitting opposite that Swedish fellow with his greenish wildcat's eyes. Something furtive, and so foreign, about him! A mess--if he were any judge of horse or man! Thank God he had tied Gyp's money up--every farthing! And an emotion that was almost jealousy swept him at the thought of the fellow's arms round his soft-haired, dark-eyed daughter--that pretty, willowy creature, so like in face and limb to her whom he had loved so desperately. Eyes followed him when he left the card-room, for he was one who inspired in other men a kind of admiration--none could say exactly why. Many quite as noted for general good sportsmanship attracted no such attention. Was it "style," or was it the streak of something not quite typical--the brand left on him by the past? Abandoning the club, he walked slowly along the railings of Piccadilly towards home, that house in Bury Street, St. James's, which had been his London abode since he was quite young--one of the few in the street that had been left untouched by the general passion for puffing down and building up, which had spoiled half London in his opinion. A man, more silent than anything on earth, with the soft, quick, dark eyes of a woodcock and a long, greenish, knitted waistcoat, black cutaway, and tight trousers strapped over his boots, opened the door. "I shan't go out again, Markey. Mrs. Markey must give me some dinner. Anything'll do." Markey signalled that he had heard, and those brown eyes under eyebrows meeting and forming one long, dark line, took his master in from head to heel. He had already nodded last night, when his wife had said the gov'nor would take it hard. Retiring to the back premises, he jerked his head toward the street and made a motion upward with his hand, by which Mrs. Markey, an astute woman, understood that she had to go out and shop because the gov'nor was dining in. When she had gone, Markey sat down opposite Betty, Gyp's old nurse. The stout woman was still crying in a quiet way. It gave him the fair hump, for he felt inclined to howl like a dog himself. After watching her broad, rosy, tearful face in silence for some minutes, he shook his head, and, with a gulp and a tremor of her comfortable body, Betty desisted. One paid attention to Markey. Winton went first into his daughter's bedroom, and gazed at its emptied silken order, its deserted silver mirror, twisting viciously at his little moustache. Then, in his sanctum, he sat
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Markey
 

fellow

 

opposite

 

attention

 

London

 

daughter

 
street
 

general

 

greenish

 

Retiring


jerked

 

upward

 

premises

 

motion

 
signalled
 

Anything

 

dinner

 

nodded

 

master

 

meeting


eyebrows
 

forming

 

Winton

 
desisted
 
minutes
 

tremor

 

comfortable

 

bedroom

 

viciously

 

moustache


sanctum

 

twisting

 

mirror

 

silken

 

emptied

 

deserted

 

silver

 
silence
 

tearful

 

crying


understood

 

dining

 
watching
 
inclined
 

astute

 

puffing

 
desperately
 

haired

 
pretty
 

willowy