Piccadilly Jim

ry. It was the fifth evening of the voyage. For five days and four nights the ship had been racing through a placid ocean on her way to Sandy Hook: but in the early hours of this afternoon the wind

a deck that heaved and dipped and shuddered beneath his feet; but he had not expected to have Ann's company on such an evening. But she had

after breakfast on the very first day, a creature with a small black moustache and shining teeth had descended upon Ann and, vocal with surprise and pleasure at meeting her again-he claimed, damn him!, to have met her before at Palm Beach, Bar Harbor, and a dozen other places-had carried her off to play an idiotic game known as shuffle-board. Nor was this an isolated case. It began to be borne in upon Jimmy that Ann, whom he had looked upon purely in the light of an Eve playing opposite his Adam in an exclusive Garden of Eden, was an extremely well-known and popular character. The clerk at the shipping-office had lied absurdly when he had said

a chronically sea-sick aunt, referred to in conversation as "poor aunt Nesta". Sometimes Jimmy saw the little man-presumably her uncle-in the smoking-room, and once he came upon the stout boy rec

clean wind and the bracing scud. Rollo, Clarence, Dwight, and Twombley, not to mention E

yond any doubt or question the only girl on earth. "Poor aunt Nesta doesn't. She was bad enough when

best in the role of ministering angel. He longed to tell her so, but found n

said. She spoke almost reproachfully. "Tell me all abo

e it. In face of her direct demand for information he could not hark back to it now. After all, what did the Rollos matter? They had

ortune, I ho

f her diagnosis. She had deduced this

our father wil

for a moment to sort out his fathers, but an instant's reflec

es

said Ann. "I suppose

ope

America, so as not to disappoint h

idered for

er work,

e you had any

lit

tle aloof, as if her ent

fond of it myself. I've only met one newspaper man in my life,

was t

. He was on an American pa

ered a gap when Jimmy could not have spoken. The shock of the information that

y were under shelter of one of the boat

ly met him for a very short whil

. Nothing came to the surface. Not a gleam of recollection of that early meeting rewarded him. And yet something of importance must have happen

endid part about America is that it is such a land of adventure. There are such millions of c

even a hinted charge, of being def

indignantly. "I'm game to tac

lad of

mate of any member of the opposite sex largely on his capacity for it. She moved in a set, when at

said Jimmy, "

good deal," he

t sounds so tame. Adventure

, at which she would start, look at him quickly, and then ask him haltingly if the words had any particular application. And after that-oh, well, all sorts of things might happen. And now the moment had come. It was true that he had always pictured the scene as taking place by moonlight and at present there was a half-gale blowing, out of an inky sky; also on the present occasion anyt

ggest thing in

?" shrie

bellow

y jutted out and formed a kind of nook where it was possible to hear the ordinary tones of the human voice. He halted here, and Ann did the same, though unwillingly. She was conscious of a

sounded unpleasantly scornful. "I shouldn't have thought that y

id Jimmy

you see in the shop-windows is all about Love. It's as if the whole world were in a conspiracy to persuade themselves that there's a wonderful something just r

, isn't it?"

is S

's out of one of Bernard

ty had crept into Ann's voic

ve heard it bef

ns that you must have associa

was pu

he grouch?

underst

o you feel tha

rly as well as she had supposed. It is trying for a strong-minded,

The whole world has united in making itself imagine that there is something called love which is the most wonderf

a girl who had associated all her life with the Rollos, Clarences, Dwights, and

She had, of course, but only recently: a

are suggesting that there is a type of man in existence who is capable

said Jimmy, w

ther well and trust each other. The right way of looking at marriage is to realise, first of all, that there are no thrills, no ro

ightening his tie, "We

's something? Are you

You've been reading one of these ste

was inaudible, but Jimm

said. "Let'

elf. It was not often that it remain

she said. "You believe that I am posin

ot that wan, sinking feeling that makes you look upon the world and find it a hollow fraud. The

ou can't realise that a pret

took h

ur step. Now, listen to me. I'm glad you've brought up this subject-I

er sai

use I have been thinking a lot along those lines myself, and I have been anxious

like r

d-g

When I was a child all except a few of

he children who criticised Elijah, your little friends were in line for a troupe of tige

They called m

lectrocuted since. Your ey

tance of young men told her that the topic

ike America

t discussi

ful country for a man

u, I should

live o

N

my going there?

in New

ay in New Y

ife. In the course of several seasons at Bar Harbor, Tuxedo, Palm Beach, and in New York itself, she had spent much of her

r staying in about t

he had flung at Ann's feet and carry it away for repairs had once confided to an intimate friend, after the sting had to some extent passed, that the feelings of a man who made love to Ann might be likened to the emotions which hot chocolate might be supposed to entertain on contact with vani

ns and Junes and loves and doves all the time. Then something happened which made me see what a little fool I was. It wasn't pleasant at the time, but it had a very br

Murderous thoughts towards the

uld meet him

ves in England. His name is Crocker. Jim

f the wind cut the sh

to the salo

ightly. "How hungry o

n't you coming do

et," said J