Page:Jepson--The terrible twins.djvu/42

evenings, bared a length of wrist distressing to a mother's eye.

The fine high spirits of Captain Baster were some-
what dashed by his failure to find his keys and open his portmanteau, since he would be unable to ravish Mrs. Dangerfield's eye that evening by his dis-
tinguished appearance in the unstained evening dress of an English gentleman. After a long hunt for the mislaid keys, in which the harried staff of The Plough took part, he made up his mind that he must appear before her, with all apologies, in the tweed suit he was wearing. It was a bitter thought, for in a tweed suit he could not really feel a con-
quering hero after eight o'clock at night.

Then he put his foot into a dress-boot full of cold water. It was a good water-tight boot; and it had faithfully retained all of the water its lin-
ing had not soaked up. The gallant officer said a good deal about its retentive properties to the mute boot.

At dinner he learned from Mrs. Pittaway that the obliging Terror had himself fetched the cig-
arette-case from his bedroom. A flash of intui-
tion connected the Terror with the watered boot;