75 лучших рассказов / 75 Best Short Stories

He had released one of my hands to pass his arm about me again, and I possessed myself of my handkerchief and was drying my eyes and my nose. I would not look up until that was done; he tried in vain to push me a little away and gaze into my eyes. Presently, when it was all right, and it had grown a bit dark, I lifted my head, looked him straight in the eyes, and smiled my best – my level best, dear.

�What do you mean,’ I said, �by “years and years”?’

�Dearest,’ he replied, very gravely, very earnestly, �in the absence of the sunken cheeks, the hollow eyes, the lank hair, the slouching gait, the rags, dirt, and youth, can you not – will you not understand? Gunny, I’m Dumps!’

In a moment I was upon my feet and he upon his.

I seized him by the lapels of his coat and peered into his handsome face in the deepening darkness. I was breathless with excitement.

�And you are not dead?’ I asked, hardly knowing what I said.

�Only dead in love, dear. I recovered from the road agent’s bullet, but this, I fear, is fatal.

’

�But about Jack – Mr. Raynor? Don’t you know—’

�I am ashamed to say, darling, that it was through that unworthy person’s invitation that I came here from Vienna.’

Irene, they have played it upon your affectionate friend,

MARY JANE DEMENT.

P.S. – The worst of it is that there is no mystery. That was an invention of Jack to arouse my curiosity and interest. James is not a Thug. He solemnly assures me that in all his wanderings he has never set foot in Sepoy.

The Coin of Dionysius (Ernest Bramah)[70 - Dionysius (430 BC–367 BC) – a tyrant of Syracuse, an ancient Greek city on the east coast of Sicily]

It was eight o’clock at night and raining, scarcely a time when a business so limited in its clientele as that of a coin dealer could hope to attract any customer, but a light was still showing in the small shop that bore over its window the name of Baxter, and in the even smaller office at the back the proprietor himself sat reading the latest Pall Mall[71 - Pall Mall – Pall Mall Gazette, a British newspaper, one of the “poplars”].

His enterprise seemed to be justified, for presently the door bell gave its announcement, and throwing down his paper Mr. Baxter went forward.

As a matter of fact the dealer had been expecting someone and his manner as he passed into the shop was unmistakably suggestive of a caller of importance.