Piccadilly Jim

, there appeared in the leaden haze a watery patch of blue: and through this crevice in the clouds the sun, diffidently

t-room, played lightly on the partially bald head of Mr. Bingley Crocker, late of New York in the United States of America, as he bent over his morning paper. Mrs. Bingley Crocker, busy across the t

racted the substance from her correspondence with swift glances of her compelling eyes, just as she would have extracted guilty secrets from Bingley, if he had had any. This was a woman who, like her sister Nesta, had been able all her life to accomplish more with a glance than othe

lopes Mrs. Crocker looked up, a smil

hine, Bingley, for her at-

ill absorbed, s

he has influence with the right sort of people. Her brot

U

sk me to look after a stall at her bazaar

uh

listening. What is

ore himself f

report of that cricket game yo

necessity in England. Why you ever made such a fuss about taking it up, I can't th

on Mr. Crocker's face. Women say this sort of thing carelessly, w

the telephone, then the measured tones of Baylis

ss en

ires to speak to you o

r paused, as if recalling someth

es getting

e of the house-maids who passed his door a

reparing to follow her example, was ar

ay

ster's

here a minute. Want

quite himself this morning. There was something a trifle wild, a little haggard, abo

invariably racked him in the earlier Summer months. Ever since his marriage five years previously and his simultaneous removal from his native

ca, and of the miner's dream of home. But the sorrows of the baseball bug, compelled by fate to live three thousand miles away from the Polo Grounds, have been neglected

do you pla

the age, sir. In m

unders

n afternoon at Lord's or the Ov

r questions dealing with the thousand and one problems which the social life of England presented. Mr. Crocker's mind had adjusted itself with difficulty to the niceties of class distinction: and, while he had cured himself of his early tendency to address the butler as "Bill," he never failed to consult him as man to m

folded it back at the sporting pag

ed in England, but yesterday they got the poison needle to work and took me of

erday, sir. A ver

leachers all afternoon, waiting for something to br

smile. This man, he reflected, was but an American and as su

cket yesterday, sir

E

et was st

e ag

cky is the technical term, sir. When the wicket is sticky, the batsmen are obliged to exercise a great deal of caution, as the stickiness of t

s it,

s,

for tell

t all,

pointed to

ore of the game we saw yesterday. If yo

ger rested was headed "Final

RR

t In

ooley, b Car

ut .........

ish, b Field

lder .......

t out ......

out .......

............

our wickets)

ected the ci

ou wish me to

e thing. What'

nable to get across and was thrown out by mid-on. Hayes was the next man in. He went out of his ground and was stumped. Ducat and Hayward made a capital stand considering

athed heavily t

I'd like to have it once again, slowly. Start with these figu

ixty-seven

ven! In o

s,

un Baker cou

iliar with Mr

've never seen

-game

eball

er,

n his emotion to the bad habit of his early

nitely disappeared. His eyes shone wildly and he snorted like a war-horse. He clutched the butler by the sleeve and drew him closer to the

yli

ir

r of an excitable high priest about to

a roll from

s piece of bacon is third. There's your diamond for you. Very well, then. These lumps of sugar are the infield

ir, is what we woul

me. Now here's the box, where I've put this dab

ld be equivalent

y you should call him

n, is the bow

ad! Batter touches second. Third? No! Get back! Can't be done. Play it safe. Stick around the sack, old pal. Second batter up. Pitcher getting something on the ball now besides the cover. Whiffs him. Back to the bench, Cyril! Third batter up. See him

had flung himself into his lecture, Mr. Crocker

ve explained it, sir, that it is familiar to me, though I have always k

r started

n five years here wi

next game

a soft ball and a racquet, and derive considerable enjoyment f

s stared into t

he word came

acqu

s,

dn't say a

s,

s moment had he realised to the full how utterly alone he was in an alien land. Fate had placed him,

was beginning a Salome dance. Watching this person with a cold and suspicious eye, stood another uniformed man, holding poised above his shoulder a sturdy club. Two Maske

ached itself

! Get y'r

r's ample frame. Bayliss the butler gazed down upon

acher seeking to instil into an impecunious and sceptical flock the lesson that money does not of

ome splendour d

lowly thatche

ng gaily, that

that peace of mi

his native land ever reached the stage of intimacy indicated by the poet; but substitute

nt disposition, no money, and one son, a young man of twenty-one. For forty-five years he had lived a hand-to-mouth existence in which his next meal had gen

it took one of the smaller Atlantic liners to sail from Liverpool to New York. Mr. Crocker was on board because he was returning with a theatrical company from a failure in London, Mrs. van Brunt because she had been told that the slow boats were the steadiest. They began the voyage as strangers and ended it as an en

f farewell to a few of his newspaper comrades and which lasted till six in the morning, when it was broken up by the flying wedge of waiters for which the selected restaurant is justly famous, joyfully announced that work and he would from then on be total strangers. He alluded in feeling terms to the Providence which watches over good

ocker's suggestion that they should never speak to each other again as long as they lived: and it was immediately after this that the latter removed husband Bingley, step-son Jimmy, and all her other goods and chattels to London, where they had remained ever since. Whenever Mrs. Crocker spoke of America now, it was in tones of the deepest dislike and contempt. Her friends were English, and every year more exclusively of England's aristocrac

isfaction only one thing militated. That

s hook, she returned to the breakfast-room. Bayliss had silently wi

ord Percy Whipple, is back in England. He has been in Ireland for the past three years, on the staff of the Lord Lieutenant, and only arrived in

"do you know they call baseball Rounders over

s absolutely necessary that he should make

uet," said

was James with an impossible young man in appalling clothes. It was outrageous that James should have been seen in public at all with such a person. The man had a broken nose and talked through it. He was saying in a loud voice that made everybody tu

ractice had made him an adept at say

A certain amount of wildness in a young man is quite proper in the best set, provided that he is wild in the right company. Every one knows that young Lord Datchet was ejected from the Empire Music-Hall on Boat-Race night every year during his residence at Oxford University, but nobody minds. The family treats it as a joke. But James has such low tastes. Professional pugilists! I believe that many years ago it was not unfashionabl

al practice of Mr. Crocker to interrupt his w

ay

ocker f

ord 'Say'! It is such a revolting Americanism. Suppose some day when you are addressing the Hous

lash upon him. Frequently during his sojourn in London he had wondered just why Eugenia had settled there in preference to her own country. It was not her wont to do things without an object, yet until

ying-you aren't working to-you haven't any idea o

e been working fo

? That's what I w

r's fine ey

in terms which I shall never forgive. She affected to look down on you, to think that I was marrying beneath me. So I am going to make you an En

d coffee. His wife stared with glea

o stop on here till they make me

es

back to

we have

l!" said Mr. Crocker, bu

tives during the sinking-in process of her great idea, much as a broad-minded cowboy might listen indulgently to the squealing of a mustang during

om what Lady Corstorphine tells me will be an ideal friend for him. You understand who he is, of course? The second son of the Duke of Devizes, the Premier's closest friend, the man who can practically dictate the Birthday Honours. If Ja

p of pencil from his pocket and

Cro

ingley

ocker o

quis of

n Cr

irst Visco

the frightful words. A

gen

el

he boys at t

," replied his wife,

mb

n't be," said the fu