United States or Ethiopia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
He had been an acutely embarrassed spectator of this distressing scene, and had been passing the time by shuffling his feet, playing with his coat buttons and perspiring. "Don't go, Reggie," said Lord Belpher. "Well, what I mean to say is family row and what not if you see what I mean I've one or two things I ought to do " He vanished. Lord Belpher frowned a sombre frown.
The water of Belpher Creek is shallow even at high tide, and when the tide runs out it leaves glistening mud flats, which it is the peculiar taste of the oyster to prefer to any other habitation. For years Belpher oysters had been the mainstay of gay supper parties at the Savoy, the Carlton and Romano's. Dukes doted on them; chorus girls wept if they were not on the bill of fare.
Then he remembered that once in the misty past he had seen Lord Belpher spanked for stealing jam, he himself having acted on that occasion as prosecuting attorney; and the memory nerved him. "I earnestly 'ope that your lordship will not think that I am taking a liberty.
Ours is an old family, I would like to remind you that there were Marshmoretons in Belpher before the War of the Roses." "There were Bevans in Brooklyn before the B.R.T." "I beg your pardon?" "I was only pointing out that I can trace my ancestry a long way. You have to trace things a long way in Brooklyn, if you want to find them." "I have never heard of Brooklyn." "You've heard of New York?"
It had stood by him nobly. With this clue, all was over except getting to the nearest Free Library and consulting Burke's Peerage. He paid his bill and left the restaurant. Ten minutes later he was drinking in the pregnant information that Belpher was the family name of the Earl of Marshmoreton, and that the present earl had one son, Percy Wilbraham Marsh, educ.
There was a typhoid scare quite a passing and unjustified scare, but strong enough to do its deadly work; and almost overnight Belpher passed from a place of flourishing industry to the sleepy, by-the-world-forgotten spot which it was when George Bevan discovered it.
Lord Belpher, who had sunk back on to the pillows at Reggie's entrance and had been listening to his talk with only intermittent attention, shot up in bed. "What!" "Absolutely! My mistake, of course, but there it was. The fellow might have been his double." "But you've never seen the man." "Oh yes, I have. I forgot to tell you. I met him on the links yesterday.
The Belpher connection was wide, straggling over most of England; and first cousins, second cousins and even third and fourth cousins had debouched from practically every county on the map and marched upon the home of their ancestors. The effort of having to be civil to all of these had told upon Percy.
But if George had for the time being done with the British aristocracy, the British aristocracy had not done with him. Hardly had he reached the hall when he encountered the one member of the order whom he would most gladly have avoided. Lord Belpher was not in genial mood.
For it is the abiding hope of Belpher Creek that it may be able to deceive the occasional visitor into mistaking it for the open sea. And presently the tide would ebb. The waste of waters became a sea of mud, cheerfully covered as to much of its surface with green grasses. The evening sun struck rainbow colours from the moist softness. Birds sang in the thickets.
Word Of The Day