The Arm-Chair at the Inn

Madame leaned forward, picked up her goblet of water, and remarking that walking in the wind always made her thirsty, drained its contents. Then she turned her head to hide her...

"Who's it for?" shouted Louis, who, as godfather to Mignon's romance, had also been watching the little comedy in delight. "All private correspondence read by the cruel parent!...

"Bracing myself, I twisted a reefer around my wrist for better hold, determined, if he moved an inch nearer, to kick him square in the face. But at that instant a sea broke over...

"I say 'poor fellow' too, Louis, but High-Muck has not put his finger on the right spot. It was not the man's pride that was wounded; nor did he die of a broken heart. He died b...

The change was a delightful one to the coterie. As long as the embarrassing situation continued there was no telling what might happen. A question of cuisine could be settled by...

"But Monsieur Brierley is half converted already, my dear Monsieur Louis; he told me the last time I was at his bungalow that he would never kill another deer. He was before his...

"I told him in reply, that it was rather remarkable--about as uncivilized as anything I had ever seen--and was on the point of asking some uncomfortable questions when, noting m...

"So we started to digging, beginning on the side opposite the door--our utensils being a sharpened bone, my pocket-knife, and a bayonet which had dropped from a sentry's scabbar...

"What a dear old woman is Leà, Lemois," she began in casual tones, "and what good care she takes of that pretty child; she is mother and sister and guardian to her. But she cann...

"With this I began to fix certain landmarks in my memory in case I had to make my way back alone. There was no question now in my mind as to the town's character. Half the murde...

"I am happy, monsieur," she whispered as I followed her around the table with the box of knives and forks, "because things are getting brighter. Gaston has a stall now in the ma...

While this was going on, although we did not know it, Lemois was half-way down the slope watching the encroaching sea; calculating the number of minutes which the villa had to l...

What effect madame's story had made upon Lemois became at once an absorbing question. He had listened intently with deferential inclination of the head, and when she had finishe...

"Some of them will," remarked Louis with a ruminating smile. "And it was a good season, you say, Lemois?" he continued; "lots of people shedding shekels and lots of tips for dea...

"No, I see it all! You want some flat-chested apothecary, or some fat clerk, or a notary, or a grocer, or--Oh, I know all about it! Now do you go and get your dinner ready--anyt...

"Ah!--Lemois--the top of the morning to you and yours!" Louis' stentorian voice rings out. "Never saw a better one come out of the skies. Out with you, Herbert. Are we the first...

If I have dared to veil under a thin disguise some of the men whose talk and adventures fill these pages it is because of my profound belief that truth is infinitely more strang...