The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight by Elizabeth von Arnim
page 44 of 302 (14%)
page 44 of 302 (14%)
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seen that Fritzing had seized his handful very much at random.
He paid the boy without heeding his earnest suggestions that he should try _Tit-Bits_, the _Saturday Review_, and _Mother_, to complete, said the boy, in substance if not in words, his bird's-eye view over the field of representative English journalism, and went back to the Princess with a lighter heart than he had had for months. The detective, apparently one of Nature's gentlemen, picked up the scattered papers, and following Fritzing offered them him in the politest way imaginable just as Priscilla was saying she wanted to see what tea-baskets were like. "Sir," said the detective, taking off his hat, "I believe these are yours." "Sir," said Fritzing, taking off his cap in his turn and bowing with all the ceremony of foreigners, "I am much obliged to you." "Pray don't mention it, sir," said the detective, on whose brain the three were in that instant photographed--the veiled Priscilla, the maid sitting on the edge of the seat as though hardly daring to sit at all, and Fritzing's fine head and mop of grey hair. Priscilla, as she caught his departing eye, bowed and smiled graciously. He withdrew to a little distance, and fell into a reverie: where had he seen just that mechanically gracious bow and smile? They were very familiar to him. As the train slowly left the station he saw the lady in the veil once more. She was alone with her maid, and was looking out of the window |
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