The Club of Queer Trades by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
page 20 of 178 (11%)
page 20 of 178 (11%)
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Rupert and the Major were regarding him with a mixture of respect
and pity. The former said "Well, I'm going, anyhow, and shall continue to think--until your spiritual mystery turns up--that a man who sends a note recommending a crime, that is, actually a crime that is actually carried out, at least tentatively, is, in all probability, a little casual in his moral tastes. Can I have that revolver?" "Certainly," said Basil, getting up. "But I am coming with you." And he flung an old cape or cloak round him, and took a sword-stick from the corner. "You!" said Rupert, with some surprise, "you scarcely ever leave your hole to look at anything on the face of the earth." Basil fitted on a formidable old white hat. "I scarcely ever," he said, with an unconscious and colossal arrogance, "hear of anything on the face of the earth that I do not understand at once, without going to see it." And he led the way out into the purple night. We four swung along the flaring Lambeth streets, across Westminster Bridge, and along the Embankment in the direction of that part of Fleet Street which contained Tanner's Court. The erect, black figure of Major Brown, seen from behind, was a quaint contrast to the hound-like stoop and flapping mantle of young Rupert Grant, who adopted, with childlike delight, all the dramatic poses of the |
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