His cabby reclined on the turf with a bottle of
Bass and the remains of a pigeon pie. His horse had its head in a
nose-bag.
"Hallo, Jimmy!" I hailed, pausing before the pastoral scene.
"Funeral bake-meats?"
"Hallo!" Jimmy answered, and shook his head very solemnly.
"Sister-in-law this time. It had to be."
"Sister-in-law! Why you haven't one!"
"Course not," said Jimmy. "That's the whole trouble. Ain't I
breaking it to you gently? . . . Case of _angina pectoris_, if you
know what that means. It sounds like a pick-me-up--'try Angostura
bitters to keep up your Pecker.' But it isn't. Angina--short 'i'; I
know because I tried it on the Dean with a long one and he corrected
me. He said that angina might be forgiven, for once, in a young man
bereaved and labouring under strong emotion, but that if I
apprehended its running in the family I had better get the quantity
right. He also remarked rather pointedly that he hoped his memory
was at fault and that my poor brother hadn't really lost his deceased
wife's sister."
"Do you know where bad boys go?" I asked him.
Pages:
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43