and Mrs.
P. Farrell" on the passenger-list. Jimmy had found a good girl, and
as pretty almost as she was good, and yet imprudent enough to consent
to marry him. This had the effect of rendering him at once and
surprisingly prudent. As the poet puts it, "he had found out a flat
for his fair," and as he himself put it, "We have heard the chimes at
midnight, Master Shallow: but be-shrew me, we never thought of making
my bank-manager one of the party, to break him in to our ways;
the consequence being that Elinor's maid will have to stick a
bedroom-suite priced five-pounds-ten, while the other domestics,
unless dividends improve, sleep (poor souls, insecurely) upon
bedsteads liable to be spirited from under them at any moment by a
Hire System that knows no bowels. . . . By George!" sighed Jimmy.
"If we hadn't let Farrell slip through our fingers! Do you know,
Otty, I've an idea," he announced. "Why shouldn't I take the
Tottenham Court Road to-morrow, visit Farrell's old place of
business, and kill two birds with one stone?"
"It sounds a sporting proposition," I agreed, "though sketchily
presented.
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