The Argosy — page 149: what you’re looking at

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

136 The Channei Islands. quiries at our first doubtful point. It seemed more dignified to ask for the Marine Hotel than for the circus, and I entered a shop with a gravity befitting a professor’s chair. It did not answer. Nothing ever does with some people, except the downright, straightforward course, even in the most trifling matters. I speak with authority, and from personal experience. Some people have only to sneeze, and if they particularly wish it kept secret, in less than a week the news will have laughed to scorn the great wall of China, and penetrated into the interior. So “‘the lady who kept the shop”—as schoolboys say—was too clever for us. Dissipation was writ upon our faces, and our artfully- concealed purpose was to her as clear as daylight. ‘I suppose you lhe 4, Wa 4 Z 7 S4d . GIF > 2 ¥ a Fn - : +4 yr % vs 4 Chea = +F-: , ft ~ 7 fr ‘he SALSA 7. Sf” all a - .& ee + se J . do os - E-< -—? 7 A f ’ AY se “ - 4 - ‘4 ~>s 4 SS $ KF 1 ff ppg A at Si ee ‘LS; . 4 e 7 Ate’ d x . a... & sae — ~ . i ~ VE £ - es * ‘5° \\* ' ~s* aa et Sy ee toe —e a> -s es ee oe Ef. -3. 2 nt ed en 2. oe - ; Fe > “a y “A an te an on LEA CD As 7, 1 r LTS erie ADB ue Py shel ett i aot Ahh fag, Ad ita ae eet! Ste a, )t #5 : od Pe etd BOULEY BAY. want the circus,” she said, without any point of interrogation, and with a condescending tone it was impossible to resent ; and we confessed her a woman of discernment. ‘Then followed directions to turn nine times to the right and eight times to the left, and cross a square at right angles, and go straight down past the hospital, and we should in time reach the esplanade and the show. Flaring torches, a brass band, and a gaping, wide-mouthed, waddling crowd would announce its precise locality. We worked out this problem mathematically, and were rewarded : more than ever thankful for having pitched our tent in Bree’s Hotel. All round about, it was a species of Bedlam broken loose, with the disadvantage of its continuing, since there were no keepers to restore order. One swallow is very much like another swallow, and the rule applies to circuses. But not every circus erects a throne for a Gomichbooks.com