Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man — John Shaqi
Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle ManLewis, Sinclair
General
Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man
Lewis, Sinclair
Courtship -- Fiction; Love stories; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Middle-aged men -- United States -- Fiction
Stretching out their legs under a table glorified with toasted Sally
Lunns and Melton Mowbrays, served by a waitress who said “Thank _you_”
with a rising inflection, they gazed at the line of mirrors running
Britishly all around the room over the long lounge seat, and smiled
with the triumphant content which comes to him whose hunger for dreams
and hunger for meat-pies are satisfied together.
CHAPTER V
HE FINDS MUCH QUAINT ENGLISH FLAVOR
Big wharves, all right. England sure is queen of the sea, heh? Busy
town, Liverpool. But, say, there is a quaint English flavor to these
shops…. Look at that: ‘Red Lion Inn.’… ‘Overhead trams’ they call the
elevated. Real flavor, all right. English as can be…. I sure like to
wander around these little shops. Street crowd. That’s where you get
the real quaint flavor.”
Thus Morton, to the glowing Mr. Wrenn, as they turned into St. George’s
Square, noting the Lipton’s Tea establishment. _Sir_ Thomas
Lipton—wasn’t he a friend of the king? Anyway, he was some kind of a
lord, and he owned big society racing-yachts.
In the grandiose square Mr. Wrenn prayerfully remarked, “Gee!”
“Greek temple. Fine,” agreed Morton.
“That’s St. George’s Hall, where they have big organ concerts,”
explained Mr. Wrenn. “And there’s the art-gallery across the Square,
and here’s the Lime Street Station.” He had studied his Baedeker as
club women study the cyclopedia. “Let’s go over and look at the
trains.”
“Funny little boxes, ain’t they, Wrenn, them cars! Quaint things. What
is it they call ’em—carriages? First, second, third class….”
“Just like in books.”
“Booking-office. That’s tickets…. Funny, eh?”
Mr. Wrenn insisted on paying for both their high teas at the cheap
restaurant, timidly but earnestly. Morton was troubled. As they sat on
a park bench, smoking those most Anglican cigarettes, “Dainty Bits,”
Mr. Wrenn begged:
“What’s the matter, old man?”
“Oh, nothing. Just thinking.” Morton smiled artificially. He added,
presently: “Well, old Bill, got to make the break. Can’t go on living
on you this way.”
“Aw, thunder! You ain’t living on me. Besides, I want you to. Honest I
do. We can have a whole lot better time together, Morty.”
“Yes, but—Nope; I can’t do it. Nice of you. Can’t do it, though. Got to
go on my own, like the fellow says.”
“Aw, come on. Look here; it’s my money, ain’t it? I got a right to
spend it the way I want to, haven’t I? Aw, come on. We’ll bum along
together, and then when the money is gone we’ll get some kind of job
together. Honest, I want you to.”
“Hunka. Don’t believe you’d care for the kind of knockabout jobs I’ll
have to get.”
“Sure I would. Aw, come on, Morty. I—”
“You’re too level-headed to like to bum around like a fool hobo. You’d
dam soon get tired of it.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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