London Society (Volume 62)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: H Debt of Ibonour. CHAPTER I. AFTER Colonel Tremaine had fairly settled himself down into a first-class carriage at Marseilles, en route for Cannes, he disturbed himself again to say to the man at the window: Oh, by-the-bye, Alinson, how about hotels ? I don't know these foreign places a bit. I thought of the ' Grand.' Well, you might do worse. The liquor's bad, of course; but the food's tolerable and so is the view. I was there for a couple of nights. But, I say, old fellow, leaning into the window so that his remark was strictly confidential, there are some rum chaps there?a sort of Monte Carlo gang?and there is one old fellow with a daughter Well ? Anything but well, I assure you. All right; thanks. ' In vain is the net spread, ' you know. Not at all; don't be foolhardy, old chap. Most people just wait for the net to be spread to tumble into it headlong. What's she like? Like ! Oh, I don't know; but he's as deep as a well, and no truth at the bottom?when you get there. Is she pretty?smart?attractive ? She's nothing?there, you're off. Be cautious; don't say I didn't warn you. He ran along by the side of the train as it steamed slowly out of the station, until he began to feel the pace quicken, then he fell back, and walked slowly away. Left to himself, Colonel Tremaine wrapped his greatcoat firmly round him, put on a comfortable cap, and settled back into his corner, finally taking an aggressive glance round at the other occupants, who had been so ill advised as to invade his solitude. Opposite to him was a tall foreigner with an unshaven chin and short red hair; next to him a lady and her maid, most distinctively English; and on his own side, only an insignificantchit of a girl in a sailor hat and ...