Berry And Co. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 363 pages of information about Berry And Co..

Berry And Co. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 363 pages of information about Berry And Co..

The house and park which I had seen we were unable to identify, and the Post Office Guide was silent as to the whereabouts of Colt.  But the excitement which Daphne’s production of a tape-measure aroused was only exceeded by the depression which was created by our failure to discover anything unusual about the chest.

We measured the cornice and we measured the plinth.  We measured the frame and we measured the drawers.  But if the linear measurements afforded us little satisfaction, the square measurements revealed considerably less, while, since no one of us was a mathematician, the calculation of the cubic capacity proved, not only unprofitable, but provocative of such bitter arguments and insulting remarks that Daphne demanded that we should desist.

“All right,” said Berry, “if you don’t believe me, call in a consulting engineer.  I’ve worked the blinking thing out three times.  I admit the answers were entirely different, but that’s not my fault.  I never did like astrology.  I tell you the beastly chest holds twenty-seven thousand point nine double eight recurring cubic inches of air.  Some other fool can reduce that to rods, and there you are.  I’m fed up with it.  Thanks to the machinations of that congenital idiot with the imitation mustachios, I’ve paid more than four times its value, and I’m not going to burst my brains trying to work out which drawer would have had a false bottom if it had been built by a dipsomaniac who kept fowls.  And that’s that.”

Tearfully Miss Childe announced that it was time for her to be going, and I elected to escort her as far as the garage.  As we stepped on to the pavement—­

“I know a lot more about you than you think,” said I.  “I never told you half what I dreamed.”

“What do you know?”

“Oh, nothing momentous.  Just the more intimate details of your everyday life.  Your partiality to mushrooms, your recognition of Love, your recklessness, pretty peculiarities of your toilet——­”

“Good Heavens!” cried Miss Childe.

“But you wouldn’t tell me your name.”

“False modesty.  Seriously you don’t mean to say——­”

“But I do.  Nothing was hid from me.  Your little bare feet——­”

A stifled scream interrupted me.

“This,” said Miss Childe, “is awful.”  We turned into the mews.  “What are you doing to-morrow?”

“Dictating.  You see, there’s a dream I want recorded.”

“I shall expect you at half-past one.  We can start after lunch.  I’ve a beautiful hand.”

“I know you have.  Two of them.  They were bare, too,” I added reflectively.

With a choking sound, Miss Childe got into the car.

“Half-past one,” she said, as she slid into the driver’s seat.

“Without fail.”  I raised my hat.  “By the way, who shall I ask for?”

Miss Childe flung me a dazzling smile.

“I’ve no sisters,” she said.

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Project Gutenberg
Berry And Co. from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.