THE DEVIL'S KITCHEN ^^ 



to Mr Harrison, but the bailiff is staying on as a 

 guest. Mr French gets me at night, sometimes, 

 to help him in his accounts. He tells me aU his 

 affairs and money worries. His affairs are simply 

 appalHng, and he has a mad scheme for running 

 a horse next spring in a big Enghsh race — the 

 Suburban something or other — by which he hopes 

 to make a fortune. WHien I point out the im- 

 possibiUty of the thing he closes up his account- 

 books and says there is no use in meeting troubles 

 haK-way. 



" Effie is a bright httle thing, but there is some- 

 thing about her I can't quite understand. She 

 has a secret which she tells me she is going to tell 

 me some day, but what it is I can't make out. 

 Now I must stop. Oh! but I forgot. How 

 shall I say it? — how shall I tell it? I have an 

 admirer. He is a little mad — a cousin of IMr 

 French's. You remember those pictures of Sunny 

 Jim we used to admire on the posters? Well, he 

 is not like that — much stouter and more serious- 

 looking, and yet there is a family resemblance. 

 He has taken to haunting me. Mr French has 

 warned me not to mind him. He says he is sure 

 to propose to me, but that I'm not to be offended, 

 as it's a disease ' the poor creature is afflicted with, 

 just as if he had epileptic fits,' and that he would 

 make eyes at a broomstick with a skirt on it if he 

 could get nothing else ; aU of which is interesting 

 but scarcely complimentary! Things are so dull 

 just at present that I really think I must lead him 



