In a steamer chair, and other shipboard stories — John Shaqi
In a steamer chair, and other shipboard storiesBarr, Robert
General
In a steamer chair, and other shipboard stories
Barr, Robert
Ocean travel -- Fiction; Sea stories; Short stories
“Now, Miss Earle, I hope that you will like this chutney sauce. You see
there is some difficulty in getting it, and that of itself ought to be
a strong recommendation for it.”
“It is a little too hot to suit me,” answered the young lady, trying
the Indian sauce, “still, there is a pleasant flavour about it that I
like.”
“Oh, you are all right,” said Morris, jauntily; “you will be a victim
of the chutney habit before two days. People who dislike it at first
are its warmest advocates afterwards. I use the word warmest without
any allusion to the sauce itself, you know. I shall now try some
myself.”
As he looked round the table for the large bottle, he saw that it had
been whisked away by steward number two, and now stood on the other
table. Miss Earle laughed.
“Oh, I shall have it in a moment,” said the young man.
“Do you think it is worth while?”
“Worth while? Why, that is the excitement of a chutney fight. It is not
that we care for chutney at all, but that we simply are bound to have
it. If there were a bottle of chutney at every table, the delights of
chutney would be gone. Steward,” said Morris, as that functionary
appeared, “the chutney, please.”
The steward cast a rapid glance at the other table, and waited until
steward number two had disappeared. Then Morris had his chutney.
Steward number two, seeing his precious bottle gone, tried a second
time to stealthily obtain possession of it, but Morris said to him in a
pleasant voice, “That’s all right, steward, we are through with the
chutney. Take it along, please. So that,” continued Mr. Morris, as Miss
Earle rose from the table, “that is your first experience of a chutney
fight—one of the delights of ocean travel.”
Fourth Day
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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