FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129  
130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   >>  
cky. Why, there never was a blacker cat than the one that followed me into my rooms in Bolsover Street the very first night I took them." "Didn't it bring you luck?" I enquired, finding that he had stopped. A far-away look came into his eyes. "Well, of course it all depends," he answered dreamily. "Maybe we'd never have suited one another; you can always look at it that way. Still, I'd like to have tried." He sat staring out of the window, and for a while I did not care to intrude upon his evidently painful memories. "What happened then?" I asked, however, at last. He roused himself from his reverie. "Oh," he said. "Nothing extraordinary. She had to leave London for a time, and gave me her pet canary to take charge of while she was away." "But it wasn't your fault," I urged. "No, perhaps not," he agreed; "but it created a coldness which others were not slow to take advantage of." "I offered her the cat, too," he added, but more to himself than to me. We sat and smoked in silence. I felt that the consolations of a stranger would sound weak. "Piebald horses are lucky, too," he observed, knocking the ashes from his pipe against the window sash. "I had one of them once." "What did it do to you?" I enquired. "Lost me the best crib I ever had in my life," was the simple rejoinder. "The governor stood it a good deal longer than I had any right to expect; but you can't keep a man who is _always_ drunk. It gives a firm a bad name." "It would," I agreed. "You see," he went on, "I never had the head for it. To some men it would not have so much mattered, but the very first glass was enough to upset me. I'd never been used to it." "But why did you take it?" I persisted. "The horse didn't make you drink, did he?" "Well, it was this way," he explained, continuing to rub gently the lump which was now about the size of an egg. "The animal had belonged to a gentleman who travelled in the wine and spirit line, and who had been accustomed to visit in the way of business almost every public-house he came to. The result was you couldn't get that little horse past a public- house--at least I couldn't. He sighted them a quarter of a mile off, and made straight for the door. I struggled with him at first, but it was five to ten minutes' work getting him away, and folks used to gather round and bet on us. I think, maybe, I'd have stuck to it, however, if it hadn't been for a temperance ch
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129  
130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   >>  



Top keywords:
window
 

agreed

 

couldn

 

public

 

enquired

 
governor
 
explained
 

continuing

 
persisted
 

longer


expect

 

mattered

 
result
 

minutes

 
struggled
 

straight

 
temperance
 
gather
 

quarter

 

sighted


animal

 

belonged

 

gentleman

 

travelled

 

gently

 

spirit

 

accustomed

 

business

 

intrude

 

evidently


staring

 
suited
 

painful

 

memories

 

Nothing

 
extraordinary
 

reverie

 
roused
 

happened

 
Street

Bolsover
 

blacker

 
depends
 
answered
 

dreamily

 

finding

 
stopped
 

horses

 
observed
 

knocking