The Firm of Girdlestone eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 517 pages of information about The Firm of Girdlestone.

The Firm of Girdlestone eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 517 pages of information about The Firm of Girdlestone.

Having left the manager much impressed, the two friends set out for a ready-made clothing establishment.  “I won’t come in,” the major said, slipping ten sovereigns into Von Baumser’s hand.  “Just you go in and till them ye want the best suit o’ clothes they can give you.  They’ve a good seliction there, I know.”

“Gott in Himmel!” cried the amazed German.  “But, my dear vriend, you cannot vait in the street.  Come in mit me.”

“No, I’ll wait,” the old soldier answered.  “They might think I was paying for the clothes if I came in.”

“Well, but so you—­”

“Eh, would ye?” roared the major, raising his cane, and Von Baumser disappeared precipitately into the shop.

When he emerged once more at the end of twenty minutes, he was attired in an elegant and close-fitting suit of heather tweed.  The pair then made successive visits to a shoe-maker, a hatter, and a draper, with the result that Von Baumser developed patent leather boots, a jaunty brown hat, and a pair of light yellow gloves.  By the end of their walk there seemed nothing left of the original Von Baumser except a tawny beard, and an expression of hopeless and overpowering astonishment.

Having effected this transformation, the friends retraced their steps to Verdi’s and did full justice to the spread awaiting them, after which the old soldier won the heart of the establishment by bestowing largess upon every one who came in his way.  As to the further adventures of these two Bohemians, it would be as well perhaps to draw a veil over them.  Suffice it that, about two in the morning, the worthy Mrs. Robins was awakened by a stentorian voice in the street below demanding to know “Was ist das Deutsche Vaterland?”—­a somewhat vexed question which the owner of the said voice was propounding to the solitary lamp-post of Kennedy Place.  On descending the landlady discovered that the author of this disturbance was a fashionably dressed gentleman, who, upon closer inspection, proved to her great surprise to be none other than the usually demure part proprietor of her fourth floor.  As to the major, he walked in quietly the next day about twelve o’clock, looking as trim and neat as ever, but minus the balance of the fifty pounds, nor did he think fit ever to make any allusion to this some what heavy deficit.

CHAPTER XIX.

NEWS FROM THE URALS.

Major Tobias Clutterbuck had naturally reckoned that the longer he withheld this trump card of his the greater would be its effect when played.  An obstacle appearing at the last moment produces more consternation than when a scheme is still in its infancy.  It proved, however, that he had only just levied his blackmail in time, for within a couple of days of his interview with the head of the firm news arrived of the great discovery of diamonds among the Ural Mountains.  The first intimation was received through the Central News Agency in the form of the following telegram:—­

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The Firm of Girdlestone from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.