The Old Man of the Sea: Ship's Company, Part 11.Jacobs, W. W. (William Wymark)
General
The Old Man of the Sea: Ship's Company, Part 11.
Jacobs, W. W. (William Wymark)
England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Humorous stories, English
Mr. Wright, who was also in his best clothes, led the way to a small
tobacconist's in a side street off the Mile End Road, and, raising his
hat with some ceremony, shook hands with a good-looking young woman who
stood behind the counter: Mr. Kemp, adopting an air of scornful dignity
intended to indicate the possession of great wealth, waited.
"This is my uncle," said Mr. Wright, speaking rapidly, "from New Zealand,
the one I spoke to you about. He turned up last night, and you might
have knocked me down with a feather. The last person in the world I
expected to see."
Mr. Kemp, in a good rolling voice, said, "Good evening, miss; I hope you
are well," and, subsiding into a chair, asked for a cigar. His surprise
when he found that the best cigar they stocked only cost sixpence almost
assumed the dimensions of a grievance.
"It'll do to go on with," he said, smelling it suspiciously. "Have you
got change for a fifty-pound note?"
Miss Bradshaw, concealing her surprise by an effort, said that she would
see, and was scanning the contents of a drawer, when Mr. Kemp in some
haste discovered a few odd sovereigns in his waistcoat-pocket. Five
minutes later he was sitting in the little room behind the shop, holding
forth to an admiring audience.
"So far as I know," he said, in reply to a question of Mrs. Bradshaw's,
"George is the only relation I've got. Him and me are quite alone, and I
can tell you I was glad to find him."
Mrs. Bradshaw sighed. "It's a pity you are so far apart," she said.
"It's not for long," said Mr. Kemp. "I'm just going back for about a
year to wind up things out there, and then I'm coming back to leave my
old bones over here. George has very kindly offered to let me live with
him."
"He won't suffer for it, I'll be bound," said Mrs. Bradshaw, archly.
"So far as money goes he won't," said the old man. "Not that that would
make any difference to George."
"It would be the same to me if you hadn't got a farthing," said Mr.
Wright, promptly.
[Illustration: "It'll do to go on with," he said]
Mr. Kemp, somewhat affected, shook hands with him, and leaning back in
the most comfortable chair in the room, described his life and struggles
in New Zealand. Hard work, teetotalism, and the simple life combined
appeared to be responsible for a fortune which he affected to be too old
to enjoy. Misunderstandings of a painful nature were avoided by a timely
admission that under medical advice he was now taking a fair amount of
stimulant.
[Illustration: "'Ow much did you say you'd got in the bank?"]
"Mind," he said, as he walked home with the elated George, "it's your
game, not mine, and it's sure to come a bit expensive. I can't be a rich
uncle without spending a bit. 'Ow much did you say you'd got in the
bank?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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