Bitterly disappointed, he nevertheless took the matter with the
characteristic Southern philosophy. "This will do for my little
Annarella," he decided. And doubtless the child, arrayed in these
celestial tints, would have been the envy of all her girl companions at
the next festival of the patron saint b for the fact that Mr. Freddy
Parker was strolling on the beach at the very moment of the man's
return to land. By a rare piece of good luck, as he himself phrased it,
his eye fell upon the dripping fabric; by a stroke of intuition not
rare but unique, he divined its worth as a sociological document.
Promising the man a reasonable sum of money (the Commissioner happened
to have no loose change in his pocket just then) he carried the
incrimination morsel in triumph to the Residency, where it was
displayed by his lady, to all and sundry, in corroboration of her
theory.
"That settles it," she used to say. "Unless indeed he dresses up his
cabin-boy as a girl, and in that case . . ."
Mr. Heard, reposing on the rough pumiceous ground with his eye fixed
upon the naughty FLUTTERBY whose virginal whiteness, with declining
day, had assumed a tell-tale crimson blush, pieced together these and
sundry other little bits of information.
Pages:
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358