Page:Jepson--The terrible twins.djvu/46

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
30
the terrible twins

gard for her interests. She tried not to hope that he would find marriage with Captain Baster in-
compatible with them.

Captain Baster awoke in less than his usual cheer-
fulness. He thought for a while of the Terror and boots and mud with a gloomy unamiability. Then he rose and betook himself to his toilet. In the middle of it he missed his shaving-brush. He hunted for it furiously; he could have sworn that he had taken it out of his portmanteau. He did swear, but not to any definite fact. There was nothing for it: he must expose his tender chin to the cruel razor of a village barber.

Then he disliked the look of his tweed suit; all traces of mud had not vanished from it. In one short night it had lost its pristine fresh-
ness. This and the ordeal before his chin made his breakfast gloomy; and soon after it he entered the barber's shop with the air of one who has aban-
doned hope. Later he came out of it with his rov-
ing black eye full of tears of genuine feeling; his scraped chin was smarting cruelly and unattractive in patches—red patches. At the door the breath-
less, excited and triumphant maid of the inn ac-

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.