FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94  
95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   >>   >|  
should he do? "Bother the Institute!" he muttered to himself. "It's only bricks an' mortar after all, and I don't know a soul there." He was wrong on both of these points, as we shall see. "What's the use of my going?" he murmured, after a reflective pause. "You promised the ladies of the Portsmouth Institute that you'd go to see it, and report progress," said that extraordinary Something inside of him, which had a most uncomfortable way of starting up and whispering when least expected to do so. "And," added Something, "every gentleman should keep his word." "True," replied Miles, almost angrily, though inaudibly; "but I'm _not_ a gentleman, I'm only a private!" "Goose!" retorted that pertinacious Something; "is not every private a gentleman who acts like one? And is not every gentleman a blackguard who behaves as such?" Miles was silenced. He gave in, and went off at once to visit the Institute. As he walked down the long straight street leading to the Grand Square, which had been almost destroyed by the bombardment, he passed numerous dirty drinking-shops, and wondered that English soldiers would condescend to enter such disgusting places. He was but a young soldier, and had yet to learn that, to men who have been fairly overcome by the power of the fiend Strong Drink, no place is too disgusting, and no action too mean, so that it but leads to the gratification of their intolerable craving. It is said that in two streets only there were 500 of these disreputable drinking-shops. All sorts and conditions of men passed him as he went along: Turks, Greeks, Arabs, Negroes, Frenchmen, Italians, and Englishmen, the gay colours of whose picturesque costumes lent additional brilliancy to the sunny scene. The sight of the dark-skinned men and veiled women of the Arab quarter did more, however, than anything else to convince our hero that he had at last really reached the "East"--the land of the ancient Pharaohs, the Pyramids, the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, and of modern contention! Presently he came upon the piece of waste ground which had been chosen as the site of the new Institute. It was covered with the ruins-- shattered cement, glass, tiles, and general wreckage--of the buildings that had stood there before the bombardment, and on three sides it was surrounded by heaps of stones, shattered walls, and rubbish, some acres in extent. But the place had the great advantage of being close
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94  
95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

gentleman

 

Institute

 

Something

 
private
 
disgusting
 

drinking

 

bombardment

 

passed

 
shattered
 

colours


picturesque
 

Englishmen

 

costumes

 

additional

 

skinned

 

brilliancy

 

Italians

 

streets

 
craving
 

intolerable


gratification

 

surrounded

 

disreputable

 

Greeks

 

Negroes

 

Frenchmen

 

rubbish

 

conditions

 

veiled

 

buildings


Nights

 

Arabian

 
Entertainments
 

modern

 

contention

 

Pyramids

 

Pharaohs

 
ancient
 
Presently
 

ground


extent

 
covered
 

wreckage

 

advantage

 
chosen
 
quarter
 

general

 

reached

 

cement

 

stones