English essays -- 20th century; Short stories, English
[Specially written for Economic Pictures, Limited, whose Manager
has had the good fortune to pick up for a mere song (or, to be more
accurate, for a few notes) several thousand miles of discarded cinema
films from a bankrupt company. The films comprise the well-known
"Baresark Basil, the Pride of the Ranch" (two miles long), "The Foiler
Foiled" (one mile, three furlongs, two rods, poles or perches), "The
Blood-stained Vest" (fragment--eighteen inches), "A Maniac's Revenge"
(5,000 feet), "The Life of the Common Mosquito" (six legs), and so
forth.]
Twenty-five years before our film opens, Andrew Bellingham, a young man
just about to enter his father's business, was spending a holiday in a
little fishing village in Cornwall. The daughter of the sheep-farmer
with whom he lodged was a girl of singular beauty, and Andrew's youthful
blood was quickly stirred to admiration. Carried away by his passion for
her, he--
[MANAGER. _Just a reminder that Mr. T.P. O'Connor has to pass this before
it can be produced_.]--he married her--
[MANAGER. _Oh, I beg pardon_.]--and for some weeks they lived happily
together. One day he informed Jessie that he would have to go back to his
work in London, and that it might be a year or more before he could
acknowledge her openly as his wife to his rich and proud parents. Jessie
was prostrated with grief; and late that afternoon her hat and fringe-net
were discovered by the edge of the waters. Realizing at once that she
must have drowned herself in her distress, Andrew took an affecting
farewell of her father and the sheep, and returned to London. A year
later he married a distant cousin, and soon rose to a condition of
prosperity. At the time our film begins to unwind, he was respected by
everybody in the City, a widower, and the father of a beautiful girl of
eighteen called Hyacinth.
[MANAGER. _Now we're off. What do we start with?_]
I
On the sunny side of Fenchurch Street--
[MANAGER. _Ah, then I suppose we'd better keep back the Rescue from the
Alligator and the Plunge down Niagara in a Barrel_.]
--Andrew Bellingham was dozing in his office. Suddenly he awoke to find a
strange man standing over him.
"Who are you?" asked Mr. Bellingham. "What do you want?"
"My name is Jasper," was the answer, "and I have some information to give
you." He bent down and hissed, "_Your first wife is still alive_!"
Andrew started up in obvious horror. "My daughter," he gasped, "my little
Hyacinth! She must never know."
"Listen. Your wife is in Spain--
[MANAGER. _Don't waste her. Make it somewhere where there are sharks_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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