United States or Mauritius ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


In a fever of haste I rushed to the centre of the island. What was the sight that confronted me? A great hollow scooped in the sand, an empty dress-suit case lying beside it, and on a ship's plank driven deep into the sand, the legend, "Saucy Sally, October, 1867."

This time I was thorough, right down the line, from the cabinets that held luxury food and wine to the little drawer where he kept his dress-suit studs; they might have been rutiles, but I had a hunch they were genuine catseyes. He laughed when I finished, and handed me a glass of the first decent wine I'd tasted in months.

"Are you crazy?" "No," said Patty; "only ill." And she went into her bedroom and began slinging things into a dress-suit case. Priscilla stood in the doorway and watched her in amazement. "Are you going to New York?" she asked. "No," said Patty; "to the infirmary." "Patty Wyatt, you're a wretched little hypocrite!" "Not at all," said Patty, cheerfully.

"Oh, I don't skate on waxed floors nor spill tea, nor clutch at my chauffeur in a tight place, but you know what I mean. I feel lonesome in a dress-suit, a butler fills me with gloom, and Well, I'm not one of you, that's all." "Perhaps that's what makes a hit with Marmion. She's used to the other kind." "It seems to me that I have always worked," ruminated the former speaker.

Thomas's dress-suit did not fail to attract immediate attention and equally immediate remarks, and Sylvia, who hated to be conspicuous, felt her cheeks beginning to burn. But more sincerely than Mr. Elliott she decided that it was better to wait until the entertainment was over than to attract further notice by going out at once. Thomas, less sensitive than she, enjoyed himself thoroughly.

Almost at the same moment the being in the dress-suit and the eyeglass, becoming aware of phenomena slightly unusual even in a restaurant, dropped his eyeglass, turned round to the sideboard and received the other waiter's seven dozen plates in the face and on the crown of his head.

On Monday morning, I said to Sergeant Mulholland: "I want to go ashore at once and send some telegrams." The sergeant is one of the detective bureau's "dress-suit men." He is by nature phlegmatic and cynical. His experience has put over that a veneer of weary politeness. We had become great friends during our enforced inseparable companionship.

That greeting was like a Masonic initiation, and henceforward he was the peer of no matter whom. At first he had thought that four hundred eyes would be fastened on him, their glance saying, "This youth is wearing a dress-suit for the first time, and it is not paid for, either!" But it was not so.

On the appointed evening, therefore, he put on his well-brushed dress-suit, spotless linen, and fresh gloves, and presented himself at Elmhurst House as well dressed as any West End noble or city nabob there. He was shown up to the drawing-room by the attentive footman, who opened the door, and announced: "Mr. John Scott."

Bates followed him, and another man, a little wiry chap, carrying a dress-suit case, also entered with them, and got out at the fourth floor. The boy opened the door, and the three men entered the room. The boy turned on the light, and proceeded to lower the shades and the windows, and to do enough fixing to earn his tip.