Frivolities, Especially Addressed to Those Who Are Tired of Being SeriousMarsh, Richard
General
Frivolities, Especially Addressed to Those Who Are Tired of Being Serious
Marsh, Richard
Fiction; Humorous stories, English; Short stories, English
It was a pretty sight--of a kind. The usually deserted Bangley Gardens
was filled with a clamorous crowd. It distinctly comprised all sorts
and conditions of men--and women. Two or three policemen, standing at
the foot of my steps, were doing their best to keep the people back.
It seemed incredible that all this bother could be about a purse. If
ever I found another I would know the reason why.
"I shall have to leave some of my men to keep the people circulating,
and to save you from annoyance. I shouldn't be surprised if you have
them worrying you for several days to come. If you take my advice
you'll put an advertisement in to-morrow's papers, to say that you
have handed the purse to us."
I did put an advertisement in the next day's papers, though it was not
couched in the terms which he suggested. For the joke was that
scarcely had the sergeant turned his back when I took up, half
absent-mindedly, a telegram from the heap which was constantly
arriving, and found it contained this message--a tolerably voluminous
one:
"To 25, Bangley Gardens.
"Referring to advertisement of purse found in to-day's _Times_, Lady
Hester Hammersmith, of Hammersmith House, Grosvenor Square, on
Thursday afternoon, between three and four, dropped, probably outside
Cane and Wilson's, green silk network purse, secured by two gold
rings--emerald in one, sapphire in the other. At one end of the purse
were four ten and one five-pound notes; at the other, about nine
pounds in gold and silver. As Lady Hester Hammersmith values the purse
apart from its intrinsic value, and is greatly troubled at its loss,
if this is the purse found, please wire at once. Reply paid."
I rushed to the door.
"Saunders, where is the boy who brought this message? Run after that
sergeant of police and bring him back again--this is the purse I
found."
It was. And so it came about that the second advertisement which I
inserted was not worded as the sergeant had suggested, but was to the
effect that no further applications need be made to anyone, because
the purse which was found had been restored to its rightful owner.
For One Night Only
"Once I were a waiter. Never again. It was like this here--
"At that time I was fresh from the country--ah! I was fresh--and I was
in a situation along with old Bob Perkins, what kep' a greengrocer's
shop in the 'Ampstead Road. One day Mr. Perkins says to me:
"'Brocklebank,' he says, 'would you like to do a little job of
waiting?' I knew as he went out acting as waiter at private parties
and such like, so I says:
"'I don't mind,' I says; 'not that I knows anything about it, if that
don't make no odds.
"'Lor', no! that don't make no odds,' he says. 'It's only the
cloak-room you'll have to look after, and you'll get 'alf-a-crown and
your grub for doin' it.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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