Struck by Lightning; The Comedy of Being a Man (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV AT three o'clock the next morning the Lieutenant- Governor's key turned the latch in Birney's front door?Birney thought with marked hesitation, as he listened. Aubrey rather fancied his knack of reading large and subtle meanings from these tiny tokens. The tardy home-comer dropped his straw hat with a light?but to Aubrey a very significant?bang on the marble top of the radiator in the hall, and strode with a guilty grin into the library, where he found Aubrey languishing in a Demarara chair and staring into the light zephyrs from a silent electric fan. In a moment the wing chair which stood nearest gave forth a faint whistle as Fellowes let his weight sink into it. Both men puffed in silence at their cigarettes for a space. And then Birney growled simply: "Struck by lightning, begad!" The Lieutenant-Governor laughed; whereat Birney turned full upon him his large black eyes, which ordinarily seemed like an electric lamp turned low except at moments, such as this, when they took on a look of X-ray penetration. "What do you mean by staying up to this hour?" Birney demanded. "You with your business on hand for Sunday! And I wanted to know how you fared at your lunch and this afternoon. Go to bed." "In a minute," laughed Fellowes. "I had to takeMrs. Bennington and her ward home in Newton, and " "They live in Chestnut Hill. That's how much you were alive to your surroundings!" "Well, anyhow, the damned taxi broke down, and " "That's a lie," Birney interrupted. "Struck by lightning. It's in your eye. There's a siphon and a fresh bottle of Scotch on the sideboard. Help yourself; and go to bed; and sleep it off. On a stand beside your bed you'll find a thermos of hot milk and two bromide tablets, in case you can't sleep. And if you haven't forgot that gi...