The Craze of Christina — page 157: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Craze of Christina. 153 *‘What rot it all is,’’ remarked Mr. Clifford irrelevantly. Miss Pratt was paying the cabman and in- structing the porter concerning the labeling of her box. “Yes, I agree with you,”’ she said, turning towards him when she had accomplished these necessary preliminaries; ‘“‘it’s awful rot, but it amuses some women, I suppose, to play at being driveling idiots.”’ ‘“‘Where are you going?’ inquired Clifford glcomily. ‘‘Only as far as London to-day.”’ ‘“‘And then?”’ “Then I think I am going to run over to France; to Calais, I think.” ‘““Geod God! you can’t mean it!” They were walking side by side along the length of the platform, but at this juncture Clifford stood stock-still, and Miss Pratt was obliged to stand still too. He was deadly pale. “Why shouldn’t I mean it, pray?’’ she de- manded airily. ‘‘You can’t mean to place the ocean between us?”’ “If by the ocean you are alluding to the Eng- lish Channel, well, decidedly if I go to France it will in the course of nature flow between the Comichookssco