Part 3 (1/2)
”We'll go to Nih
”And now,” said I, as soon as we had started on the right-hand road, ”will you have the kindness to explain?”
”There's nothing to explain,” he cried, gleefully ”Here aood air again I'er Oh, I've had a narrow escape But that's the ith me I always fall on my feet Didn't I tell you I've never lost an opportunity? The lish delivered out of the House of Bondage I took it, and here I aetting out of Aigues-Mortes, when suddenly you--a _Deus ex machina_--a veritable God out of the machine--co over ested that his mode of escape seemed somewhat elaborate and fantastic Why couldn't he have slipped quietly round to the railway station and taken a ticket to any haven of refuge he ht have fancied?
”For the sih, ”that I haven't a single penny piece in the world”
He looked so prosperous and untroubled that I stared incredulously
”Not one tiny bronze sou,” said he
”You seeueux, les gueux, sont des gens heureux_,” he quoted
”You're the first person who has ars”
”In tis,” he retorted ”No
I hadn't one sou to buy a ticket, and Amelie never left me I spent ues-Mortes A no chances Her eyes never left me from the time we started When I ran to your assistance she atching me from a house on the other side of the _place_ She caht I would slip away unnoticed and join you after you had made the _tour des relish friend And then--_voyons_--didn't I tell you I never lost a visiting-card? Look at this?”
He dived into his pocket, produced the letter-case, and extracted a card
”_Voila_”
I read: ”The Duke of Wiltshi+re”
”But, good heavens, ave you”
”I know it isn't,” said he; ”but it's the one I showed to Amelie”
”How on earth,” I asked, ”did you co-card?”
He looked at uishly
”I am--what do you call it?--a--a 'snapper up of unconsidered trifles'
You see I know my Shakespeare I read 'The Winter's Tale' with solish I love Autolycus _C'est un peu moi, hein?_ Anyhow, I showed the Duke's card to Aan to understand ”That hy you called neur'?”
”Naturally And I told her that you were ivepresent if I accoent's at Montpellier, where you could draw the money Ah! But she was suspicious! Yesterday I borrowed a bicycle A friend left it in the courtyard I thought, 'I will creep out at dead of night, when everyone's asleep, and once on nie_' But, would you believe it? When I had dressed and crept down, and tried to mount the bicycle, I found both tyres had been punctured in a hundred places with the point of a pair of scissors What do you think of that, eh? Ah, _la, la!_ it has been a narrow escape
When you invited her to accompany us to Montpellier ht,” I said, ”if she had accepted”
He laughed as though, instead of not having a penny, he had not a care in the world Accustoeometrical conduct of my well-fed fellow-Britons, who map out their lives by rule and line, I had noand inconsequential person In one way he had acted abominably To leave an affianced bride in the lurch in this heartlessOn the other hand, an unscrupulous adventurer would have married the woman for her money and chanced the consequences In the tussle between Perseus and the Gorgon the odds are all in favour of Perseus Mercury and Minerva, thehi of the fact that Perseus starts out by being a notoriously handsoenerally wheedle an elderly, ugly wife into opening her s, and, if successful, leads the enviable life of a fighting-cock It was very much to his credit that this kind of life was not to the liking of Aristide Pujol