The Girl on the Boat - Penn State University

instantly, for Jno. Peters was one of those men who,
once seen, are not easily forgotten. He was smiling a
cruel, cunning smile—at least, she thought he was; Mr.
Peters himself was under the impression that his face
was wreathed in a benevolent simper; and in his hand
he bore the largest pistol ever seen outside a motionpicture
studio.
“How do you do, Miss Milliken?” he said.
P. G. Wodehouse
135
CHAPTER XIII
Shocks All Round
BILLIE HAD BEEN standing near the wall, inspecting a
portrait of the late Mr. Josiah Appleby, of which the
kindest thing one can say is that one hopes it did not
do him justice. She now shrank back against this wall,
as if she were trying to get through it. <strong>The</strong> edge of the
portrait’s frame tilted her hat out of the straight, but in
this supreme moment she did not even notice it.
“Er—how do you do?” she said.
If she had not been an exceedingly pretty girl, one
would have said that she spoke squeakily. <strong>The</strong> fighting
spirit of the Bennetts, though it was considerable fighting
spirit, had not risen to this emergency. It had ebbed
out of her, leaving in its place a cold panic. She had
seen this sort of thing in the movies—there was one