Fancies and Goodnights Read Online Free PDF

her caresses.
    It was at least two hours before they even thought about dinner.
Even then, it took a long time to get the food on the table, there
was so much patting and petting, nibbling at the nape of the neck,
mumbling of ears, kissing, fondling, and foolishness to the
carrying of every single dish.
    When at last the meal was ready, you may be sure they ate with
excellent appetite. Nevertheless, whatever was best on his plate,
he found time to put it on hers, and she was no slower in picking
out some dainty titbit to pop between his eager and rather rubbery
lips.
    After dinner they would sit in one chair, for all the world like
two innocent love-birds in a cage, and he would entertain her with
a detailed catalogue of her charms, which gave her the highest
possible opinion of his taste and judgment. However, these delights
did not endure very long, for they found it necessary to go to bed
at an early hour, in order to rise bright and fresh in the
morning.
    It was a dull and heavy night when he did not wake up once or
twice, and switch on the light to assure himself she was not merely
a delightful dream. She, blinking through the rosy radiance, was
not in the least annoyed at being thus awakened, and they would
have a very delightful little conversation and soon would fall
happily asleep again.
    It is not likely that a husband whose evenings are so
contentedly spent at home will often linger in saloons and barrooms
when the day

OLD ACQUAINTANCE
    The apartment, on a fifth floor in the huiti

THE FROG PRINCE
    Two young men were discussing life. Said the richer of them to
the poorer,

SEASON OF MISTS
    I was ready for anything when I came to the town of
T

GREAT POSSIBILITIES
    There are certain people who do not come to full flower until
they are well over fifty. Among these are all males named
Murchison. A Mr. Murchison is nothing without pink cheeks, white
whiskers, and vintage port. There are no females of this name,
except by accident. In fact, one wonders how the breed is
continued, since bachelorhood is a fourth essential attribute of a
true Murchison. Fortunately, they tend to be lawyers of the
old-fashioned school, and old-fashioned family lawyers know all
sorts of peculiar secrets.
    By keeping at it twenty-four hours a day, and for considerably
more than fifty years, Mr. Benjamin Murchison had succeeded in
becoming a nearly perfect specimen of his race. He was fit to be
stuffed and put in a museum, although there, of course, he could
not have beamed and twinkled so benevolently.
    He was very comfortably off, and could have been really wealthy,
but certain of the more remunerative fields of law were not
entirely to his taste. Indeed, he had become so fastidious that he
would have retired completely, but many of his old friends had died
and had left estates to be divided among their children, and to all
these numerous broods Mr. Murchison was guardian, trustee, adviser,
friend, and uncle.
    Nothing delighted him more than to pay visits to his young
friends, and nothing delighted them more than to have him.
    Although nearly perfect, Mr. Murchison had one little
eccentricity, which he kept extremely private. It was a mere
nothing, a thought, a whim; it seems almost unfair to mention it.
The fact is, he felt that nothing in the world would be nicer than
to set fire to a house and watch it blaze.
    What is the harm in that? Who has not had a similar bright
vision at some time or other? There is no doubt about it; it would be nice, very nice indeed, absolutely delightful. But
most of us are well broken in and we dismiss the idea as
impracticable. Mr. Murchison found that it took root in his mind
and blossomed there like a sultry flower.
    When thoughts of this delightful description occurred to him,
which was increasingly often, he would smile all over his face and
rub his hands together with a zest that was very pleasant to
behold. Having rubbed them, he would spread them out, as if to
enjoy the cheerful blaze of a Christmas