30 лучших рассказов британских писателей / 30 Best British Short Stories

He put the plates down on a sideboard, stuffed the silver in his breast pocket, giving it a bulgy look, and ran like a hare (I heard him coming) till he came to the cloak room. There he had only to be a plutocrat again – a plutocrat called away suddenly on business. He had only to give his ticket to the cloak-room attendant, and go out again elegantly as he had come in. Only – only I happened to be the cloak-room attendant.’

�What did you do to him?’ cried the colonel, with unusual intensity.

�I beg your pardon,’ said the priest immovably, �that is where the story ends.’

�And the interesting story begins,’ muttered Pound. �I think I understand his professional trick. But I don’t seem to have got hold of yours.’

�I must be going,’ said Father Brown.

They walked together along the passage to the entrance hall, where they saw the fresh, freckled face of the Duke of Chester, who was bounding buoyantly along towards them.

�Come along, Pound,’ he cried breathlessly. �I’ve been looking for you everywhere. The dinner’s going again in spanking style, and old Audley has got to make a speech in honour of the forks being saved. We want to start some new ceremony, don’t you know, to commemorate the occasion. I say, you really got the goods back, what do you suggest?’

�Why,’ said the colonel, eyeing him with a certain sardonic approval, �I should suggest that henceforward we wear green coats, instead of black.

�Oh, hang it all!’ said the young man, �a gentleman never looks like a waiter.’

�Nor a waiter like a gentleman, I suppose,’ said Colonel Pound, with the same lowering laughter on his face. �Reverend sir, your friend must have been very smart to act the gentleman.’

Father Brown buttoned up his commonplace overcoat to the neck, for the night was stormy, and took his commonplace umbrella from the stand.

�Yes,’ he said; �it must be very hard work to be a gentleman; but, do you know, I have sometimes thought that it may be almost as laborious to be a waiter.’

And saying �Good evening,’ he pushed open the heavy doors of that palace of pleasures. The golden gates closed behind him, and he went at a brisk walk through the damp, dark streets in search of a penny omnibus.