Whew! That shoulder WAS a trifle stiff. Yes, and there was a little more
lameness in his ankles and knees than he could have wished. Perhaps,
after all, he would not get up immediately. He would lie there a
little longer and perhaps have the hotel people send up his breakfast,
and--Then he remembered that he was not at the hotel; he was occupying
a room in the house of a total stranger. No doubt they were waiting
breakfast for him. Dear me, dear me!
He climbed stiffly out of bed and began to dress. This statement is not
quite correct; he prepared to begin to dress. Just as he reached
the important point where it was time to put something on he made a
startling discovery: His clothes were gone!
It was true, they were gone, every last item of them with the
unimportant exceptions of crumpled collar and tie. Galusha looked
helplessly about the room and shivered.
“Oh, dear me!” he cried, aloud. “Oh, dear!”
A voice outside his chamber door made answer.
“Be you awake, Mr. Bangs?” asked Primmie. “Here's your things. Doctor
Powers he come up and got 'em last night after you'd fell asleep and me
and Miss Martha we hung 'em alongside the kitchen stove. They're dried
out fine. Miss Martha says you ain't to get up, though, till the doctor
comes. I'll leave your things right here on the floor.... Or shall I put
'em inside?”
“Oh, no, no! Don't, don't! I mean put them on the floor--ah--outside.
Thank you, thank you.”
“Miss Martha said if you was awake to ask you if you felt better.”
“Oh, yes--yes, much better, thank you. Thank you--yes.”
He waited in some trepidation, until he heard Primmie clump downstairs.
Then he opened the door a crack and retrieved his “things.” They were
not only dry, but clean, and the majority of the wrinkles had been
pressed from his trousers and coat. The mud had even been brushed from
his shoes. Not that Galusha noticed all this just then. He was busy
dressing, having a nervous dread that the unconventional Primmie might
find she had forgotten something and come back to bring it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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