Free electronic library

I shall only
just catch my boat."
"Your boat?"
"I am going to Algiers."
"Where will you be staying, Monsieur? I ask in no spirit of vulgar
curiosity."
I raised a protesting hand, and with a smile named my hotel.
"I arrived here from Algiers yesterday afternoon," he said, "and I
proceed there again to-morrow."
"I regret," said I, "that you are not coming to-day, so that I could
have the pleasure of your company on the voyage."
My polite formula seemed to delight Professor Anastasius Papadopoulos
enormously. He made a series of the most complicated bows, to the joy
of the waiters and the passers-by. I shook hands with him and with
the stolid Monsieur Saupiquet, and waving my hat more like an excited
Montenegrin than the most respectable of British valetudinarians, I
drove off to the Quai de la Joliette, where I found an anxious but
dogged Rogers, in the midst of a vociferating crowd, literally holding
the bridge that gave access to the _Marechal Bugeaud_.
"Thank Heaven, you've come, sir! You almost missed it.


Pages:
182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206