'"
Binkie found the night air tickling his whiskers and sneezed
plaintively.
Binkie found the night air tickling his whiskers and sneezed
plaintively.
Kipling - Poems
The chambers stood much higher than the other houses,
commanding a hundred chimneys--crooked cowls that looked like sitting
cats as they swung round, and other uncouth brick and zinc mysteries
supported by iron stanchions and clamped by 8-pieces. Northward the
lights of Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square threw a copper-coloured
glare above the black roofs, and southward by all the orderly lights of
the Thames. A train rolled out across one of the railway bridges, and
its thunder drowned for a minute the dull roar of the streets. The
Nilghai looked at his watch and said shortly, "That's the Paris
night-mail. You can book from here to St. Petersburg if you choose. "
Dick crammed head and shoulders out of the window and looked across the
river. Torpenhow came to his side, while the Nilghai passed over quietly
to the piano and opened it. Binkie, making himself as large as possible,
spread out upon the sofa with the air of one who is not to be lightly
disturbed.
"Well," said the Nilghai to the two pairs of shoulders, "have you never
seen this place before? "
A steam-tug on the river hooted as she towed her barges to wharf. Then
the boom of the traffic came into the room. Torpenhow nudged Dick.
"Good place to bank in--bad place to bunk in, Dickie, isn't it? "
Dick's chin was in his hand as he answered, in the words of a general
not without fame, still looking out on the darkness--"'My God, what a
city to loot!
'"
Binkie found the night air tickling his whiskers and sneezed
plaintively.
"We shall give the Binkie-dog a cold," said Torpenhow. "Come in," and
they withdrew their heads. "You'll be buried in Kensal Green, Dick,
one of these days, if it isn't closed by the time you want to go
there--buried within two feet of some one else, his wife and his
family. "
"Allah forbid! I shall get away before that time comes. Give a man room
to stretch his legs, Mr. Binkie. " Dick flung himself down on the sofa
and tweaked Binkie's velvet ears, yawning heavily the while.
"You'll find that wardrobe-case very much out of tune," Torpenhow said
to the Nilghai. "It's never touched except by you. "
"A piece of gross extravagance," Dick grunted. "The Nilghai only comes
when I'm out. "
"That's because you're always out. Howl, Nilghai, and let him hear. "
"The life of the Nilghai is fraud and slaughter, His writings are
watered Dickens and water; But the voice of the Nilghai raised on high
Makes even the Mahdieh glad to die!
commanding a hundred chimneys--crooked cowls that looked like sitting
cats as they swung round, and other uncouth brick and zinc mysteries
supported by iron stanchions and clamped by 8-pieces. Northward the
lights of Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square threw a copper-coloured
glare above the black roofs, and southward by all the orderly lights of
the Thames. A train rolled out across one of the railway bridges, and
its thunder drowned for a minute the dull roar of the streets. The
Nilghai looked at his watch and said shortly, "That's the Paris
night-mail. You can book from here to St. Petersburg if you choose. "
Dick crammed head and shoulders out of the window and looked across the
river. Torpenhow came to his side, while the Nilghai passed over quietly
to the piano and opened it. Binkie, making himself as large as possible,
spread out upon the sofa with the air of one who is not to be lightly
disturbed.
"Well," said the Nilghai to the two pairs of shoulders, "have you never
seen this place before? "
A steam-tug on the river hooted as she towed her barges to wharf. Then
the boom of the traffic came into the room. Torpenhow nudged Dick.
"Good place to bank in--bad place to bunk in, Dickie, isn't it? "
Dick's chin was in his hand as he answered, in the words of a general
not without fame, still looking out on the darkness--"'My God, what a
city to loot!
'"
Binkie found the night air tickling his whiskers and sneezed
plaintively.
"We shall give the Binkie-dog a cold," said Torpenhow. "Come in," and
they withdrew their heads. "You'll be buried in Kensal Green, Dick,
one of these days, if it isn't closed by the time you want to go
there--buried within two feet of some one else, his wife and his
family. "
"Allah forbid! I shall get away before that time comes. Give a man room
to stretch his legs, Mr. Binkie. " Dick flung himself down on the sofa
and tweaked Binkie's velvet ears, yawning heavily the while.
"You'll find that wardrobe-case very much out of tune," Torpenhow said
to the Nilghai. "It's never touched except by you. "
"A piece of gross extravagance," Dick grunted. "The Nilghai only comes
when I'm out. "
"That's because you're always out. Howl, Nilghai, and let him hear. "
"The life of the Nilghai is fraud and slaughter, His writings are
watered Dickens and water; But the voice of the Nilghai raised on high
Makes even the Mahdieh glad to die!
