The Log of the "Jolly Polly"Davis, Richard Harding
General
The Log of the "Jolly Polly"
Davis, Richard Harding
Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
I appreciated instantly that to be identified as Fletcher Farrell meant
humiliation and disaster. The other Fletcher Farrells would soon return
to New Bedford. They would learn that in their absence I had been spying
upon the home I had haughtily rejected. Besides, one of the chorus
might remember that three years back Fletcher Farrell had been a popular
novelist and might recognize me, and Miss Briggs would discover I was
not an automobile agent and that I had lied to her. I saw that I must
continue to lie to her. I thought of names beginning with “F,” and
selected “Frederick Fitzgibbon.” To christen yourself while your eyes
are shut and your head rests on a curb-stone is not easy, and later I
was sorry I had not called myself Fairchild as being more aristocratic.
But then it was too late. As Fitzgibbon I had come back to life, and as
Fitzgibbon I must remain.
When I opened my eyes I found the first voice belonged to a policeman
who helped me to my feet and held in check the male chorus. The object
of each was to lead me to a drink. But instead I turned dizzily to Miss
Briggs. She was holding my hat and she handed it to me. Her lovely eyes
were filled with relief and her charming voice with remorse.
“I--I can't possibly thank you,” she stammered. “Are you badly hurt?”
I felt I had never listened to words so original and well chosen. In
comparison, the brilliant and graceful speeches I had placed on the lips
of my heroines became flat and unconvincing.
I assured her I was not at all hurt and endeavored, jauntily, to replace
my hat. But where my head had hit the telegraph pole a large bump had
risen which made my hat too small. So I hung it on the bump. It gave me
a rakish air. One of the chorus returned my bag and another the “Log.”
Not wishing to remind Miss Briggs of my past impertinences; I guiltily
concealed it.
Then the policeman asked my name and I gave the one I had just invented,
and inquired my way to the Parker House. Half the chorus volunteered to
act as my escort, and as I departed, I stole a last look at Miss Briggs.
She and the policeman were taking down the pedigree of the chauffeur
of the car that had hit me. He was trying to persuade them he was
not intoxicated, and with each speech was furnishing evidence to the
contrary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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