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212520_The_Adve ... _Way_Through_The_World.pdf - OUDL Home

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330 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP<br />

pleasant that music used to be ! <strong>The</strong>re was a sameness in it, I<br />

daresay, but still it was pleasant to hear the air over again. <strong>The</strong><br />

pretty little duet à quatre mains, where the hands cross over, and<br />

hop up and down the keys, and the heads get so close, so close.<br />

Oh, duets, oh, regrets ! Psha ! no more of this. Go downstairs,<br />

old dotard. Take your hat and umbrella and go walk by the seashore,<br />

and whistle a toothless old solo. "<strong>The</strong>se are our quiet<br />

nights," whispers M. de Clanci to the Baynes ladies, when the<br />

evening draws to an end. "Madame's Thursdays are, I promise<br />

ye, much more fully attended." Good-night, good-night. A<br />

squeeze of a little hand, a hearty hand-shake from papa and<br />

mamma, and Philip is striding through the dark Elysian fields<br />

and over the Place of Concord to his lodgings in the Faubourg St.<br />

Germain. Or, stay ! What is that glowworm beaming by the<br />

wall opposite Madame de Smolensk's house !—a glowworm that<br />

wafts an aromatic incense and odour? I do believe it is Mr.<br />

Philip's cigar. And he is watching, watching a window by which<br />

a slim figure flits now and again. <strong>The</strong>n darkness falls on the<br />

little window. <strong>The</strong> sweet eyes are closed. Oh, blessings, blessings<br />

be upon them ! <strong>The</strong> stars shine overhead. And homeward stalks<br />

Mr. Firmin, talking to himself, and brandishing a great stick.<br />

I wish that poor Madame Smolensk could sleep as well as<br />

the people in her house. But care, with the cold feet, gets under<br />

the coverlid, and says, " Here I am ; you know that bill is coming<br />

due to-morrow." Ah, atra cura ! can't you leave the poor thing<br />

a little quiet ? Hasn't she had work enough all day ?

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