The Greatest Works of Saki (H. H. Munro) - 145 Titles in One Edition. Saki

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СКАЧАТЬ the hastily aroused members of the house-party stampeded out on to the lawn, the Georgian wing was well alight and belching forth masses of smoke, but some moments elapsed before Groby appeared with the half-drowned pianist in his arms, having just bethought him of the superior drowning facilities offered by the pond at the bottom of the lawn. The cool night air sobered his rage, and when he found that he was innocently acclaimed as the heroic rescuer of poor Leonard Spabbink, and loudly commended for his presence of mind in tying a wet cloth round his head to protect him from smoke suffocation, he accepted the situation, and subsequently gave a graphic account of his finding the musician asleep with an overturned candle by his side and the conflagration well started. Spabbink gave HIS version some days later, when he had partially recovered from the shock of his midnight castigation and immersion, but the gentle pitying smiles and evasive comments with which his story was greeted warned him that the public ear was not at his disposal. He refused, however, to attend the ceremonial presentation of the Royal Humane Society’s life-saving medal.

      It was about this time that Groby’s pet monkey fell a victim to the disease which attacks so many of its kind when brought under the influence of a northern climate. Its master appeared to be profoundly affected by its loss, and never quite recovered the level of spirits that he had recently attained. In company with the tortoise, which Colonel John presented to him on his last visit, he potters about his lawn and kitchen garden, with none of his erstwhile sprightliness; and his nephews and nieces are fairly well justified in alluding to him as “Old Uncle Groby.”

      Beasts and Super-Beasts

       Table of Contents

       The She-Wolf

       Laura

       The Boar-Pig

       The Brogue

       The Hen

       The Open Window

       The Treasure Ship

       The Cobweb

       The Lull

       The Unkindest Blow

       The Romancers

       The Schartz-Metterklume Method

       The Seventh Pullet

       The Blind Spot

       Dusk

       A Touch of Realism

       Cousin Teresa

       The Yarkand Manner

       The Byzantine Omelette

       The Feast of Nemesis

       The Dreamer

       The Quince Tree

       The Forbidden Buzzards

       The Stake

       Clovis on Parental Responsibilities

       A Holiday Task

       The Stalled Ox

       The Story-Teller

       A Defensive Diamond

       The Elk

       "Down Pensâ"

       The Name-Day

       The Lumber Room

       Fur

       The Philanthropist and the Happy Cat

       On Approval

      The She-Wolf

       Table of Contents

      Leonard Bilsiter was one of those people who have failed to find this world attractive or interesting, and who have sought compensation in an “unseen world” of their own experience or imagination — or invention. Children do that sort of thing successfully, but children are content to convince themselves, and do not vulgarise their beliefs by trying to convince other people. Leonard Bilsiter’s beliefs were for “the few,” that is to say, anyone who would listen to him.

      His dabblings in the unseen might not have carried him beyond the customary platitudes of the drawing-room visionary if accident had not reinforced his stock-intrade of mystical lore. In company with a friend, who was interested СКАЧАТЬ