Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Novelists -- Fiction; Secretaries -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction; West Indies -- Fiction
"You'll get into the state that Don did last winter," he said, half
jestingly, "if you keep on. He began with just a plain, ordinary attack
of the blues, and see where it landed him. Yes, you certainly must go to
see Chambers. I never knew you like this before, and there's nothing on
earth to cause it."
When I mentioned, soon after we rose from the table, that I had an
engagement at my rooms--a fiction, by-the-by--Tom said if I was going to
walk he would go part way with me. I was glad to breathe the pure cold
air of December and listen to the chatter of the honest fellow, while at
the same time escaping from that house, that had nearly sent me again
into the doldrums.
CHAPTER V.
MEETING MISS MARJORIE.
The next morning was an awfully long one. I had decided to call on Miss
May in the afternoon, "between the hours of two and four," as she had
stipulated. Although I had never seen her and had no description of what
she was like, I already hoped she would be the One to make my coming
journey agreeable. I had the old impetuosity, you will see, that absence
of calm deliberation that had sent me to a Sanitarium and nearly to my
grave.
If I intended to take a train scheduled to start for any given point at
ten I was always in the station without fail at half past nine, stamping
my feet at the closed gate, with alternate glances at my watch. If I had
an engagement of special interest for a Friday, the Tuesdays, Wednesdays
and Thursdays dragged horribly.
It had been explained to me fully by Dr. Chambers that I must reform
this by my own exertions and that drugs could but assist me in a slight
degree. Still breaking away from the habits of years is not an easy
thing, and in spite of all I could do I had the old nervousness that
day.
At about eleven o'clock, having exhausted the charms of breakfast, the
morning papers and several cigars, I thought of a plan to get rid of an
hour or more, and taking my coat, hat and cane, I walked down to Cook's
office to see if anything new had transpired with regard to the trip of
the "Madiana." There was a rumor in the Journal that yellow fever had
broken out in Jamaica, one of the points where I wanted to touch, and
although the source of the news did not particularly recommend it, I
thought it well to inquire what the agent had heard in relation to the
matter.
As I entered the office my attention was attracted by a quiet appearing
man of about thirty, dressed in black and wearing a white tie, who was
evidently contemplating the same journey as myself. Now a man wearing a
white tie may be either a clergyman, a gambler or a confidence man, and
I had no faith in my ability to decide which of those eminent
professions this particular person was most likely to adorn. He glanced
up from a prospectus which he was examining, as I entered, and made way
for me at the counter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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