English fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, English
“More embarrassments were to follow. I wasn’t going to let a mere
ordinary flood wash out the memory of that Crown Derby dessert service,
and I intimated to the Bishop that his large bedroom, with a writing
table in it, and his small bath-room, with a sufficiency of cold-water
jars in it, was his share of the premises, and that space was rather
congested under the existing circumstances. However, at about three
o’clock in the afternoon, when he had awakened from his midday sleep, he
made a sudden incursion into the room that was normally the drawing-room,
but was now dining-room, store-house, saddle-room, and half a dozen other
temporary premises as well. From the condition of my guest’s costume he
seemed to think it might also serve as his dressing-room.
“’I’m afraid there is nowhere for you to sit,’ I said coldly; ‘the
verandah is full of goats.’
“’There is a goat in my bedroom,’ he observed with equal coldness, and
more than a suspicion of sardonic reproach.
“’Really,’ I said, ‘another survivor? I thought all the other goats were
done for.’
“‘This particular goat is quite done for,’ he said, ‘it is being devoured
by a leopard at the present moment. That is why I left the room; some
animals resent being watched while they are eating.’
“The leopard, of course, was easily explained; it had been hanging round
the goat sheds when the flood came, and had clambered up by the outside
staircase leading to the Bishop’s bath-room, thoughtfully bringing a goat
with it. Probably it found the bath-room too damp and shut-in for its
taste, and transferred its banqueting operations to the bedroom while the
Bishop was having his nap.”
“What a frightful situation!” exclaimed Annabel; “fancy having a ravening
leopard in the house, with a flood all round you.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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