Prev | Current Page 273 | Next

Bouton, John Bell

"Round the Block"

Good
joke, that!"
Marcus drew back a little at the joke; but Wesley Tiffles had proved so
great a relief to his low spirits, that he determined to keep on taking
him, and expressed his ardent desire to see the panorama.
The couple, arm in arm, sauntered into Broadway, and down that
thoroughfare. Tiffles nodded to a great many acquaintances, and Wilkeson
to a very few. People whom Tiffles did not know personally, he had short
biographies of, and he entertained Marcus with an incessant string of
anecdotes and memoranda of passers by. The walk was leisurely and
uninterrupted, with two exceptions, when Wesley Tiffles broke suddenly
from his companion, rushed into the entry of a photographic
establishment, and examined numerous square feet of show portraits with
profound interest. Marcus explained these impulsive movements on the
supposition that Tiffles sought to escape from approaching duns. He
noticed that that individual, while observing people who streamed by him
on either side, kept one eye, as it were, about a block and a half
ahead. In some parts of the world, Marcus might have objected to walking
publicly with a man of such an eccentric demeanor.


Pages:
261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285