Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 8, 2025
Zanti drew near to Peter as though he were going to confide in him but he never said anything, only laughed. Once he mentioned Stephen. "You know where he is?" Peter broke in with an eager whisper. "Ah, ha that would be telling," and Mr. Zanti winked his eye. Peter's heart warmed under the friendliness of it all.
That evening, just as he was going up to bed, Mr. Zanti came in and greeted him with his accustomed cheerfulness. "Going to bed, Peter? Ah, good boy." Peter stopped, hesitating, by the door. "Oh, I wonder " he said and stopped. "Yes?" said Mr. Zanti, looking at him. "Oh well it's nothing " Then he blurted out "I saw a letter I couldn't help it a letter from Stephen this afternoon.
And then the bright blue suit, the white spats, were reassuring. As if one could ever take such a child seriously about anything! Mr. Zanti shook his head, ruefully. "No, not ezackly a fortune! There was a place I 'eard of, right up in the Basque country 'twas an old deserted garden, where zey 'ad buried treasure, centuries ago I 'ad it quite certainly from a friend.
Zanti still wiping his forehead, but confusedly, and staring at Clare in a shocked hushed way, as though he were a small boy who had been detected with his fingers in a jam-pot. Stephen saw her at last. He put the baby down and came slowly across the floor. Peter spoke: "Why, Clare! You're back early. We've been having such a splendid time with Stephen let me introduce my friends to you Mr.
"Oh! it is ze little friend my friend 'ow are you, young gentleman? It is a real delight to be with you again." Mr. Zanti swung Peter's hand up and down as he would a pump handle and laughed as though it were all the best joke in the world. Curiously enough Peter did not resent this rapturous greeting. It moved him strongly.
Peter wondered for what purpose Stephen had come there, because he sat looking at the fire with his brown hands spread out over his great knees, thinking apparently all his own thoughts. Then suddenly there came a moment. The London gentleman, Mr. Emilio Zanti, turned round quite quickly and said, like a shot out of a gun: "And what does our little friend think of it?"
Zanti grew very grave indeed, and his eyes were very large, and he put a finger mysteriously to his nose. Then he leant right over Peter and almost whispered in his ear. "And you shall of course you shall. You shall come to London and 'ave adventures 'eaps and 'eaps and 'eaps. Oh, yes, bless my soul, shan't he, Mr. Tan? Dear me, yes London, my young friend, is the most wonderful place.
His whole life came to him the scenes at Scaw House, Dawson's, the bookshop, Brockett's, Bucket Lane, Chelsea, that last awful scene there ... all the people that he had known passed before him Stephen Brant, his grandfather, his father, his mother, Bobby Galleon, Mr. Zanti, Clare, Cards, Mrs. Brockett, Norah, Henry Galleon, Mrs. Rossiter, dear Mrs. Launce ... these and many more.
"You've made a conquest right away, Zanti," Peter said laughing. It was indeed instantly to be perceived that Mr. Zanti was in his right element. Any pretence of any kind of age fell away from him, his arms curved towards young Stephen as young Stephen's curved towards him. He was making noises in his throat that exactly resembled the noises that the baby made.
Zanti to be considered.... Anyway, what did it all mean? "I can't go," he said at last, "unless Zanti says something to me. But what are they all up to?" "Seven years," said Herr Gottfried darkly, "has the Boy been in the shop of so little enquiring a mind is he." And he would say nothing further. Peter followed Herr Lutz' huge body into the street.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking