Civil service -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction
He had felt of what nature was the sort of love with which Katie
Woodward had inspired his heart; and he felt also what was that other
sort of love to which the charms of Norah Geraghty had given birth.
Norah was a fine girl, smart enough in her outward apparel, but apt
occasionally to disclose uncomfortable secrets, if from any accident
more than her outward apparel might momentarily become visible. When
dressed up for a Sunday excursion she had her attractions, and even on
ordinary evenings, a young man such as Charley, after imbibing two or
three glasses of spirits and water, and smoking two or three cigars,
might find her to be what some of her friends would have called 'very
good company.' As to her mind, had Charley been asked about it, he would
probably have said that he was ignorant whether she had any; but this
he did know, that she was sharp and quick, alert in counting change, and
gifted with a peculiar power of detecting bad coin by the touch. Such
was Norah Geraghty, whom Charley was to marry.
And then that other portrait was limned with equal accuracy before his
eyes. Katie, with all her juvenile spirit, was delightfully feminine;
every motion of hers was easy, and every form into which she could twist
her young limbs was graceful. She had all the nice ideas and ways which
a girl acquires when she grows from childhood to woman's stature, under
the eye of a mother who is a lady. Katie could be untidy on occasions;
but her very untidiness was inviting. All her belongings were nice; she
had no hidden secrets, the chance revealing of which would disgrace her.
She might come in from her island palaces in a guise which would call
down some would-be-censorious exclamation from her mother; but all
others but her mother would declare that Katie in such moments was more
lovely than ever. And Katie's beauty pleased more than the eye--it came
home to the mind and heart of those who saw her. It spoke at once to the
intelligence, and required, for its full appreciation, an exercise of
the mental faculties, as well as animal senses. If the owner of that
outward form were bad or vile, one would be inclined to say that Nature
must have lied when she endowed her with so fair an index. Such was
Katie Woodward, whom Charley was not to marry.
As he turned down Norfolk Street, he thought of all this, as the
gambler, sitting with his razor before him with which he intends to cut
his throat, may be supposed to think of the stakes which he has failed
to win, and the fortune he has failed to make. Norah Geraghty was
Charley's razor, and he plunged boldly into the 'Cat and Whistle,'
determined to draw it at once across his weasand, and sever himself for
ever from all that is valuable in the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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