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Bennett, Arnold, 1867-1931

"The Card, a Story of Adventure in the Five Towns"

Was there another girl in Bursley so smart, so effective,
so truly ornate?
Then he comforted himself with the reflection: "I'm certainly the only
man that ever ended an engagement by just saying 'Rothschild!'" This was
probably true. But it did not help him to sleep.

II
The next morning at 5.20 the youthful sun was shining on the choppy
water of the Irish Sea, just off the Little Orme, to the west of
Llandudno Bay. Oscillating on the uneasy waves was Denry's lifeboat,
manned by the nodding bearded head, three ordinary British longshoremen,
a Norwegian who could speak English of two syllables, and two other
Norwegians who by a strange neglect of education could speak nothing but
Norwegian.
Close under the headland, near a morsel of beach lay the remains of the
_Hjalmar_ in an attitude of repose. It was as if the _Hjalmar_, after a
long struggle, had lain down like a cab-horse and said to the tempest:
"Do what you like now!"
"Yes," the venerable head was piping. "Us can come out comfortable in
twenty minutes, unless the tide be setting east strong. And, as for
getting back, it'll be the same, other way round, if ye understand me.


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