Second String. Anthony Hope

tion>

       Anthony Hope

      Second String

      Published by Good Press, 2021

       [email protected]

      EAN 4064066205874

Table of Contents

       Chapter I.

       HOME AGAIN.

       Chapter II.

       A VERY LITTLE HUNTING.

       Chapter III.

       THE POTENT VOICE.

       Chapter IV.

       SETTLED PROGRAMMES.

       Chapter V.

       BROADENING LIFE.

       Chapter VI.

       THE WORLDS OF MERITON.

       Chapter VII.

       ENTERING FOR THE RACE.

       Chapter VIII.

       WONDERFUL WORDS.

       Chapter IX.

       "INTERJECTION."

       Chapter X.

       FRIENDS IN NEED.

       Chapter XI.

       THE SHAWL BY THE WINDOW.

       Chapter XII.

       CONCERNING A STOLEN KISS.

       Chapter XIII.

       A LOVER LOOKS PALE.

       Chapter XIV.

       SAVING THE NATION.

       Chapter XV.

       LOVE AND FEAR.

       Chapter XVI.

       A CHOICE OF EVILS.

       Chapter XVII.

       REFORMATION.

       Chapter XVIII.

       PENITENCE AND PROBLEMS.

       Chapter XIX.

       MARKED MONEY.

       Chapter XX.

       NO GOOD?

       Chapter XXI.

       THE EMPTY PLACE.

       Chapter XXII.

       GRUBBING AWAY.

       Chapter XXIII.

       A STOP-GAP.

       Chapter XXIV.

       PRETTY MUCH THE SAME!

       Chapter XXV.

       THE LAST FIGHT.

       Chapter XXVI.

       TALES OUT OF SCHOOL FOR ONCE.

       Chapter XXVII.

       NOT OF HIS SEEKING.

       THE END.

Chapter I.

      HOME AGAIN.

       Table of Contents

      Jack Rock stood in his shop in High Street. He was not very often to be seen there nowadays; he bred and bought, but he no longer killed, and rarely sold, in person. These latter and lesser functions he left to his deputy, Simpson, for he had gradually developed a bye-trade which took up much of his time, and was no less profitable than his ostensible business. He bought horses, "made" them into hunters, and sold them again. He was a rare judge and a fine rider, and his heart was in this line of work.

      However to-day he was in his shop because the Christmas beef was on show. Here were splendid carcasses decked with blue rosettes, red rosettes, or cards of "Honourable Mention;" poor bodies sadly unconscious (as one may suppose all bodies are) of their posthumous glories. Jack Rock, a spruce spare little man with a thin red face and a get-up of the most "horsy" order, stood before them, expatiating to Simpson on their beauties. Simpson, who was as fat as his master was thin, and even redder in the face, chimed in; they were for all the world like a couple of critics hymning the praise of poets who have paid the debt of nature, but are decorated with the insignia of fame. Verily Jack Rock's shop in the days before Christmas might well seem an Abbey or a Pantheon of beasts.

      "Beef for me on Christmas Day," said Jack. "None of your turkeys or geese, or such-like truck. Beef!" He pointed to a blue-rosetted carcass. "Look at him; just look at him! I've known him since he was calved. Cuts up well, doesn't he? I'll have a joint off him for my own table, Simpson."

      "You couldn't do better, sir," said Simpson, just touching, careful not to bruise, the object of eulogy with his professional knife. A train of thought started suddenly in his brain. "Them vegetarians, sir!" he exclaimed. Was it wonder, or contempt, or such sheer horror as the devotee has for atheism? Or the depths of the first and the depths of the second poured into the depths of the third to make immeasurable profundity?

      A