England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Love stories; Marriage -- Fiction
There is a shriek of delight at this from Brian, in which Miss Carr
joins, for the great daily joke of the Carr family is now being
enacted.
"Where can it be?" wails Juggernaut. "Under the hearthrug, perhaps?
No, not there! In the blotting-pad? No, not there! _I_ know! I expect
it is behind the coal-box."
Surprising as it may appear, his surmise proves to be correct; and the
triumphant discovery of the missing property scores a dramatic success
which no repetition seems able to stale. (This is about the fiftieth
night of the run of the piece.)
Presently the pipe is filled and lit, Master Carr being permitted to
kindle the match and Miss Carr to blow it out, the latter feat only
being accomplished by much expenditure of breath and a surreptitious
puff from behind her shoulder, contributed by an agency unknown.
"Now, Brian, young fellow," announces Juggernaut, "I will play for ten
minutes. Let me speak to the sister first, though."
He lifts his daughter, whom he has never seen, from her mother's knee,
and exchanges a few whole-hearted confidences with her upon the
subject of her recreations, conduct, dolls, health, and outlook on
life in general. Then he restores her, and shouts--
"Come on, Brian Boroo!"
There is a responsive shriek from his son, and the game begins. It is
not every boy, Master Brian proudly reflects as he crawls on all
fours beneath a writing-table, who can play at blind man's buff with a
real blind man!
Daphne leans back in her chair and surveys her male belongings
restfully. Time was when this husband of hers, at present eluding
obstacles with uncanny facility and listening intently, with the
youthful zest of a boy-scout, for the excited breathing of his quarry,
found life a less hilarious business. There rises before her the
picture of a man led from room to room, steered round corners, dressed
like a child, fed like a baby--shattered, groping, gaunt, but
pathetically and doggedly cheerful. Neither Daphne nor her husband
ever speak of that time now. Not that she regrets it: woman-like, she
sometimes feels sorry it is over and gone. She was of real use to her
man in those days. Now he seems to be growing independent of her
again. Then she smiles comfortably, for she knows that all fears on
that score are groundless. He is hers, body and soul. And she----
A small, unclean, and insistent hand is tugging at her skirt, and Miss
Carr, swaying unsteadily beneath the burden of a bulky and tattered
volume, claims her attention.
"Show me pictures," she commands.
She and her tome are hoisted up, and the exposition begins.
"Where did you find this book, Beloved?" inquires Daphne. The book is
an ancient copy of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' and we have encountered
it once before in this narrative.
"Over there," replies Beloved, indicating the bottom shelf of a
bookcase with a pudgy thumb--"under ze 'Gwaphics.' What's ze name of
that genelman?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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