Page 62 (1/1)

A week after the liner Atlantic had docked at Southaht have been observed--and was observed by various of the residents--sitting on a bench on the esplanade of that repellent watering-place, Bingley-on-the-Sea, in Sussex All watering-places on the South Coast of England are blots on the landscape, but, though I a it I shall offend the civic pride of soley-on-the-Sea The asphalt on the Bingley esplanade is several degreesthan the asphalt on other esplanades The Saiters at the Hotel Magnificent, where Sa incompetence by themselves, the envy and despair of all the other Saiters at all the other Hotels Magnificent along the coast For dreariness of aspect Bingley-on-the-Sea stands alone The very waves that break on the shingle seem to creep up the beach reluctantly, as if it revolted them to co this ozone-swept Gehenna? Why, with all the rest of England at his disposal, had he chosen to spend a week at breezy, blighted Bingley?

Siht relief by slinking off alone to the hted spot he knew, in the saone off to the Rockies to shoot grizzly-bears

To a certain extent the experinificent had not cured his agony, the service and the cooking there had at least done much to take histo London and seeing his father, which, of course, he ought to have done iland

He rose fro back to the hotel to enquire about trains, observed a fa over the counter, in conversation with the desk-clerk

"Hullo, Eustace!" said Sam

"Hullo, Sam!" said Eustace

There was a brief silence The conversational opening had been a little unfortunately chosen, for it reminded both men of a painful episode in their recent lives

"What are you doing here?" asked Eustace

"What are you doing here?" asked Sa his cousin out of the lobby and onto the bleak esplanade A fine rain had begun to fall, and Bingley looked, if possible, worse than ever "I asked for you at your club, and they told me you had come down here"