United States or Vietnam ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Well, that's how I generally find her, isn't it?" But Nannie with her eye on the stairs was not going to allow him any lingering in the hall. She led him quickly to the drawing-room, opened it, and closed it behind him. Then she herself retreated into a small smoking-den at the farther end of the hall, and sat there, without a light, with the door open watching.
She had opened the window of his smoking-den and was standing in the entrance with impudent merriment in her eyes. There was triumph also in her pose a triumph that sent a swirl of hot passion through him. He flung aside the cloak and strode towards her. But she was gone on the instant, gone with a tinkle of maddening laughter. He blundered into the darkness of an empty room.
Brentwood to sell her Western Pacific stock even at an advance; might require time, at least. And time, with a Bucks majority tinkering with corporate rights in the Assembly, might well be precious. "Forgive me if I tell Ormsby first," he pleaded. "Afterward, if you care to know, you shall." Miss Van Brock let him go at that, but now the way to the smoking-den on the floor above was hedged up.
He threw open the door of the little smoking-den, and in his loftiest, loudest, most uncompromising voice, announced: "The gentleman, my lord." Then retired, and shut them in. Thomas Carr remained alone. He was not fond of wine, and did not help himself during his host's absence. Five minutes, ten minutes, half-an-hour, an hour; and still he was alone.
"Mounted astride of asses which they have rigged out in chasuble and which they guide with a stole," they halt at each low smoking-den, holding a drinking cup in their hand; the bartender, with a mug in his hand, fills it, and, at each station, they toss off their bumpers, one after the other, in imitation of the Mass, and which they repeat in the street in their own fashion.
"Deuce take it!" testily responded Val, "one can't swing a cat in these cramped hired houses. Show him into my smoking-den upstairs." "Let me go there," said Mr. Carr, "and you can see him in this room." "No; keep to your wine, Carr. Take him up there, Hedges." The butler retired, and Lord Hartledon turned to his guest. "Carr, can you give a guess at the fellow's business?"
Nothing of the male species, as far as I have been able to ascertain, has ever entered these rooms. I once thought I had found a man who had been allowed into his own "Smoking-Den," but on closer examination it turned out he was only a portrait. Sometimes one is given "Vistas." Doors stand open, and you can see right away through "The Nook" into the garden.
Word Of The Day