May Fair : $b being an entertainment purporting to reveal to gentlefolk the real state of affairs existing in the very heart of London during the fifteenth and sixteenth years of the reign of His Majesty King George the Fifth: together with suitable reflections on the last follies, misadventures and galanteries of these charming people — John Shaqi
May Fair : $b being an entertainment purporting to reveal to gentlefolk the real state of affairs existing in the very heart of London during the fifteenth and sixteenth years of the reign of His Majesty King George the Fifth: together with suitable reflections on the last follies, misadventures and galanteries of these charming peopleArlen, Michael
History
May Fair : $b being an entertainment purporting to reveal to gentlefolk the real state of affairs existing in the very heart of London during the fifteenth and sixteenth years of the reign of His Majesty King George the Fifth: together with suitable reflections on the last follies, misadventures and galanteries of these charming people
Arlen, Michael
Great Britain -- History -- George V, 1910-1936 -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction
“Love,” said the lean young man, “knows every emotion but that of
patience. Mayn’t I come with you, Pamela Wych? Mayn’t we go together to
this George man? Could he do anything but release you?”
“That wouldn’t be fair,” said Miss Wych. “That wouldn’t be fair at all.
Oh, yes, George would release me. But life is not so easy as that. It’s
all very nice and easy to talk and dream, but aren’t there duties too? I
will go to George and tell him I am ready to marry him. I _must_ do
that. But maybe he won’t want to marry me. And then----”
The clock at the Park Gates stood at ten minutes to eight o’clock; and
on this strange enchanted evening, said Miss Wych, she would indulge in
the extravagance of a taxicab. The lean young man stood by the door and
said good-bye, and he said also: “If that George man isn’t there, I
shall know. Or if that George man isn’t worthy of your loyalty, I shall
know. And I will come to you again.”
“If!” sighed Miss Wych. “If! If the world was a garden, and we were
butterflies! If the world was a garden, and God was kind to lovers!
Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye!”
V
There is an eminent school of thought which insists that there is no
such thing in this world as chance. Therefore we may take it that ever
since the beginning of creation there was appointed one small wind to
lurk nearby the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square for the purpose of
blowing an empty paper-bag under a horse’s nose.
The horse belonged to a van, and it was probably bored with the van. It
gave a kick at the paper-bag. It missed the paper-bag. “Woa!” cried the
driver of the van. That got on the horse’s nerves, and it bolted.
Two men cried: “Ho! Woa! Oi!” An old man selling newspapers by the steps
of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields said. “No ’orse can’t bolt far with an
’eavy van.” The driver of the van cried: “----!” An orange-and-banana
merchant leapt for his life from the horse’s hooves, and his oranges and
bananas fell as manna upon Trafalgar Square, and many little children
ran together and gave praise. A large handsome limousine was coming at a
good pace up the slope from the Strand. It had to swerve to avoid
running over the orange-and-banana merchant. As it swerved it crashed
into the side of an ancient taxicab that was bustling round the corner.
The ancient taxicab overturned. There was a scream of smashing glass,
and the two wheels of the taxicab revolved plaintively in the air.
“Bewty!” said the old man selling newspapers, for he was a connoisseur
of accidents. The limousine had stopped. The horse was walking on quite
calmly now. A little boy picked up the paper-bag, blew into it, and made
a noise. A lot of people came to look at the taxicab.
“Stand back, there! Stand back!” cried a young policeman.
The driver of the taxicab crawled from underneath the wreck. There was
blood on his face, and he was so ugly that he looked like several sorts
of animals at once. He stared at the chauffeur of the limousine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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