Stories by English Authors: Africa (Selected by Scribners)
General
Stories by English Authors: Africa (Selected by Scribners)
Africa -- Fiction; Short stories, English
So much heart-breaking labour under the burning sun thrown away for
nothing; the dreary work to commence afresh, almost from the beginning!
Had the thief been any ordinary one, the denunciation would have
been unbounded; but no one lifted his tongue very loudly against Mary
Musgrave. Yet mounted men were despatched on the three trails to bring
back the booty if possible, and the rest moved dejectedly toward their
old club. The greasy Jew did not attempt to conceal his exultation. He
served his customers with his wicked old face glowing with smiles, and
when a moment’s breathing-time came he observed:
“We all ‘az hour lettle surbrizes in dis wairld, an’ I most confaiss I
am asdonished myself to lairn that Mess Mosgrave is a thief--” But here
a crashing among the glassware announced that Tommy Dartmoor had begun
shooting with his left hand, and Herr Gustave sputtered out from behind
the fingers he held before his face, “Ach Gott! I say nozzing more!”
GREGORIO, By Percy Hemingway
I--AT THE PARADISO
The Cafe Paradiso was full of people, for the inhabitants of Alexandria
had dined, and the opera season was over. The seats at every table were
occupied, and the fumes of smoke from a hundred cigars partly hid the
ladies of the orchestra. As the waiters pushed aside the swing-doors
of the buffet and staggered into the salon with whisky, absinthe, and
coffee, the click of billiard-balls was heard. The windows facing the
sea were wide open, for the heat was intense, and the murmur of the
waves mingled with the plaintive voices of the violins.
Seated by a table at the far end of the hall, Gregorio Livadas hummed
softly an accompaniment to Suppe’s “Poete et Paysan,” puffing from time
to time a cloudlet of blue smoke from his mouth. When the music ceased
he joined in the applause, leaning back happily in his chair as the
musicians prepared to repeat the last movement. Meanwhile his eyes
wandered idly over the faces of his neighbors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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