Page:Henry rideout--The siamese cat.djvu/53

This page has been validated.

CHITS AND CATS

Dear Mr. Scarlett:

My aunt and I go with the guide to the ruins at Ayuthia on Thursday morning, and come back by launch in the evening. If you can come too, we shall be very glad. The Admirable Bearer will bring your answer by word of mouth. I hope you can come.

Yours sincerely,

Laura Holborrow.

Can't you help us buy a Siamese cat this afternoon? We pick up the A. B. at your hotel, four o clock.


"You'll come?" said Borkman, who seemed to have grasped the situation completely. He gave the young man a benignant smile, and the faintest flutter of a wink,—at once impudent and paternal. "That's good. The ladies will be pleased, eh?" He rose with the air of one who ends an audience. "Thursday, then? Train at 7:40, you know. Right-oh! Good-bye, my boy." And he swaggered off across the clean sand of the little garden.

Scarlett was left to discover that this pernicious waister had hobnobbed with him, patron-

[ 39 ]