United States or South Africa ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
We are those upon whose shoulders rests chiefly the task of ruling this country. I want to tell you that we have come to a unanimous decision. We say nothing about the moral or the actual guilt of Sir Alfred Anselman.
We regret deeply to announce the death of a very distinguished young officer, Captain Ronald Granet, a nephew of Sir Alfred Anselman. A bomb passed through the roof of his house in Sackville Street, completely shattering the apartment in which he was sitting. His servant perished with him. The other occupants of the building were, fortunately for them, away for the night."
He was bringing dispatches but no one seemed to have thought of providing a destroyer for him." "After all," Lady Anselman murmured, "there is nothing very much more important than our hospitals." The conversation drifted away from Thomson. Granet was making himself very agreeable indeed to Isabel Worth.
The maitre d'hotel apologised to the little groups of people for the commotion they were perhaps to blame for having employed a young man so delicate he was scarcely fit for service. "He seemed to be a foreigner," Lady Anselman remarked, as the man addressed his explanations to her. "He was a Belgian, madam. He was seriously wounded at the commencement of the war.
The little company moved in and took their places at the round table which was usually reserved for Lady Anselman on Tuesdays. "Some people," the latter remarked, as she seated herself, "find fault with me for going on with my luncheons this season. Even Alfred won't come except now and then. Personally, I have very strong views about it.
Lady Anselman stood in the centre of the lounge at the Ritz Hotel and with a delicately-poised forefinger counted her guests. There was the great French actress who had every charm but youth, chatting vivaciously with a tall, pale-faced man whose French seemed to be as perfect as his attitude was correct.
"I am so far serious," Thomson declared grimly, "that an hour ago we succeeded in decoding a message from Holland to Sir Alfred Anselman, advising him to leave London to-day. We are guessing what that means. We may be right and we may be wrong. We shall see. I come to beg you to leave the city for twenty-four hours. I find Granet on the same errand."
"The best thing in the world," he observed drily, as he watched the wine being poured out, "for presentiments." Lady Anselman stood once more in the foyer of the Ritz Hotel and counted her guests. It was a smaller party this time, and in its way a less distinguished one.
"I remember you quite well, sir," he said. "A Belgian waiter, was it not? He has been taken away by a lady this afternoon." "Taken away?" Thomson repeated, puzzled. "The lady who was giving the luncheon Lady Anselman called and saw the manager about an hour ago," the man explained.
"For the rest, I was just thinking what a stranger I felt." "The man who talks French so well," Lady Anselman told him, dropping her voice a little, "is Surgeon-Major Thomson. He is inspector of hospitals at the front, or something of the sort. The tall, fair girl isn't she pretty! is Geraldine Conyers, daughter of Admiral Sir Seymour Conyers.
Word Of The Day