Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Law-Breakers and Other Stories by Robert Grant
page 3 of 153 (01%)
quick-witted fellow, whom his men companions liked, whom women termed
interesting. He was apt to impress the latter as earnest and at the
same time fascinating--an alluring combination to the sex which always
likes a moral frame for its fancies.

It was to a woman that George was unbosoming his distress on this
particular occasion, and, as has been already indicated, his
indignation and disgust were entirely justified. Her name was Miss
Mary Wellington, and she was the girl whom he wished with all his
heart to marry. It was no hasty conclusion on his part. He knew her,
as he might have said, like a book, from the first page to the last,
for he had met her constantly at dances and dinners ever since she
"came out" seven years before, and he was well aware that her physical
charms were supplemented by a sympathetic, lively, and independent
spirit. One mark of her independence--the least satisfactory to
him--was that she had refused him a week before; or, more accurately
speaking, the matter had been left in this way: she had rejected him
for the time being in order to think his offer over. Meanwhile he had
decided to go abroad for sixty days--a shrewd device on his part to
cause her to miss him--and here he was come to pay his adieus, but
bubbling over at the same time with what he called the latest piece of
disregard for public decency on the part of the free-born voter.

"Just think of it. The fellow impersonated one of his heelers, took
the civil-service examination in the heeler's name, and got the
position for him. He was spotted, tried before a jury who found him
guilty, and was sentenced to six months in jail. The day he was
discharged, an admiring crowd of his constituents escorted him from
prison with a brass band and tendered him a banquet. Yesterday he was
chosen an alderman by the ballots of the people of this city. A
DigitalOcean Referral Badge