Frivolities, Especially Addressed to Those Who Are Tired of Being SeriousMarsh, Richard
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Frivolities, Especially Addressed to Those Who Are Tired of Being Serious
Marsh, Richard
Fiction; Humorous stories, English; Short stories, English
He did it at once. Actually! Possibly because the whole affair
appealed keenly to his sense of humour--one never knows! She read the
paper, folded it, and then she said--with such a pout! and with such
malice in her eyes!--
"Now you may kiss me again, if you like."
"I am obliged to you, but the costs in the suit have already been too
heavy."
"Then I'll kiss you!"
And she did--with some want of precision, just over the right eye.
Then she fled to the door. When she was half-way through it she
turned, and waved towards him the hand which held the paper.
"You are my guardian, you know."
A Honeymoon Trip
MRS. GODWIN WRITES TO HER MOTHER
"You know, dear mamma, I was against a compartment being reserved. One
might as well advertise the fact that one is starting on one's
honeymoon. But I was not prepared to find the train so full as it was.
Our carriage was crowded, and not with nice people. They played cards
the whole way down, and, when one is just beginning one's married
life, it was not agreeable to have to listen to some of the language
which was used. Conrad was quite fidgety. You know he is most
particular. But it was no use speaking. One of the men asked him if he
would take a hand. When he observed that he objected to cards being
played in a railway carriage, the person replied that he looked as
though he did. And then the others smiled. This quite upset him. And,
as we were nearing Harwich, he began to feel in his pockets in a way
which, I must say, was annoying. I had refrained from speaking to him
as much as possible, being unwilling to let the others have a chance
of guessing at the situation we were in; but when he stood up and
began to turn his pockets inside out, and altogether to upset the
other passengers, I did ask him what it was that he was looking for.
"'I can't find the tickets.'
"You know how easily he becomes embarrassed, and how the blood flies
to his head. You remember that Geraldine said she thought he must be
apoplectic.
"'You put them in your pocket-book.'
"'But that is gone too.'
"'You will find it when you get on board.'
"All the people were staring at him, he was making such a fuss.
"'I should like to find it before I get on board.'
"'Perhaps,' suggested an old gentleman, who was sitting in the
opposite corner, 'it's in your overcoat.' Conrad took his coat from
the rack and looked to see. It was not there. 'Feel in your pockets
again,' suggested the old gentleman.
"Conrad felt. He did not find the pocketbook, but he found something
else instead. He produced it with an exclamation. It was the first
time I ever heard him swear.
"'Good heavens! It's the key of the safe!'
"His manner was so ludicrous, everybody laughed.
"'My dear Conrad, do sit down!'
"He sat down and stared at me like a man in a dream.
"'But you don't understand. It's the key of the safe. I forgot that I
was going to be married, and I brought it away.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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