"
He said this just to startle her.
"It will do you all the good in the world," she replied angelically,
but unstartled. "It's just what you need!" And she gazed at him as
though his welfare and felicity were her sole preoccupation.
"I meant I might have to stop there quite a while," he insisted.
"If you ask me," she said, "I think it would do us all good."
So saying, she retired, having expressed no curiosity whatever as to
the nature of the very important business in London.
For a moment, left alone, he was at a loss. Then, snorting, he went to
the table and extinguished the lamp. He was now in darkness. The light
in the hall showed him the position of the door.
He snorted again. "Oh, very well then!" he muttered. "If that's it!...
I'm hanged if I don't go to London!... I'm hanged if I don't go to
London!"
CHAPTER III
WILKINS'S
I
The early adventures of Alderman Machin of Bursley at Wilkins's Hotel,
London, were so singular, and to him so refreshing, that they must be
recounted in some detail.
He went to London by the morning express from Knype, on the Monday
week after his visit to the music-hall. In the meantime he had had
some correspondence with Mr. Bryany, more poetic than precise, about
the option, and had informed Mr. Bryany that he would arrive in
London several days before the option expired.
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