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50 BEADSHAW THE BETKAFEI?.-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
.+. " Oh Doricles ! Your Praises Are Too...
" Have you no other room than this ? " I asked , shivering . " Yes , it is rather chilly" mumbled the Jille de chambre " but
, , Monsieur " Very well can have / 7 said a I fire resi in gnedl the stove y ; " . I " shall be in about nine or ten
, o ' clock . " Three francs a night , and fifty centimes for attendance . Does
Monsieur prefer the bed next the door , or the bed next the fire ?" " Either : if I have but the room to myself . Remember , if you
please , that I pay for both these beds . " " Good : the bed next the door . Monsieur may rely upon it that
everything shall be as comfortable as possible . " And the old woman blinked cunningly to herself , in the full persuasion that she
had not betrayed her deafness by a single blunder . More disconsolate than everI parted from her with a nod and a
, trifling gratuity , and made my way out as quickly as I could , turning my face inland , and leaving the town at my back . But landwards
or seawards , it was all dreary alike I A boat-building yard ; a weir ; the mouth of another poplar-bound canal ; a few heavy ,
roundshouldered trading smacks lying up sideways on the slimy shore ; a knot of barefooted women washing linen ; a rope-walk ; another
miserable cabaret ; and a cluster of fishermen's hovels .... these were all the sights and incidents that I beheld by the way . I went
up to the weir , and sat down upon a line of stone parapet . I looked to the right—land , sand , poplars , a canal , and universal flatness ! I
looked to the left—strand , sand , mud , houses , boats , and universal flatness I I thought of Abbeville with tender regret ; I sighed for
the hotel Tete de Boeuf ; I could have embraced the mouldy waiter ! Then—then I turned to Bradshaw , Bradshaw the Betrayer , and
upbraided him bitterly . " Is this , " I exclaimed , opening the * Continental Railway Gruide , '
page 185 , "is this the ' beautiful and picturesque town of St . Valerysur-Somme , ' which you , and you alone , O faithless one ! have
induced me to visit ? OhBradshaw ! I believed thee true
And , I was blest in so believing ; , But till this hour ... . "
tinue I broke ; and off as it abruptl was by y . this M time y feelin approaching gs would six not o allow ' clock me I rose to con and
went back moodily to dinner . , I have no wish to preserve either a record or a recollection of that
dismal the meal conscience ; but surel of y mine that host bill of of the sixteen Lion d francs 9 Or ! must lie heavily upon
A bottle of indifferent Bordeaux ; a copy of the * Moniteur' four days old ; a couple of cigars ; and a leasant e at billiards in the
pgam public room , with an intelligent young Breton who told me that he
was a commercial traveller , helped to pass away the remainder of
50 Beadshaw The Betkafei?.-
50 BEADSHAW THE _BETKAFEI ? .-
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1858, page 50, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031858/page/50/
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