The Man Who Was Thursday Read Online Free PDF Page A

all Catholics now.”
    “Then may I ask you to swear by whatever gods or saints your religion involves that you will
not
reveal what I am now going to tell you to any son of Adam, and especially not to the police? Will you swear that! If you will take upon yourself this awful abnegation, if you will consent to burden your soul with a vow thatyou should never make and a knowledge you should never dream about, I will promise you in return—”
    “You will promise me in return?” inquired Syme, as the other paused.
    “I will promise you a very entertaining evening.”
    Syme suddenly took off his hat.
    “Your offer,” he said, “is far too idiotic to be declined. You say that a poet is always an anarchist. I disagree; but I hope at least that he is always a sportsman. Permit me, here and now, to swear as a Christian, and promise as a good comrade and a fellow-artist, that I will not report anything of this, whatever it is, to the police. And now, in the name of Colney Hatch, what is it?”
    “I think,” said Gregory, with placid irrelevancy, “that we will call a cab.”
    He gave two long whistles, and a hansom came rattling down the road. The two got into it in silence. Gregory gave through the trap the address of an obscure public-house on the Chiswick bank of the river. The cab whisked itself away again, and in it these two fantastics quitted their fantastic town.

CHAPTER 2
T HE S ECRET OF G ABRIEL S YME
    The cab pulled up before a particularly dreary and greasy beer-shop, into which Gregory rapidly conducted his companion. They seated themselves in a close and dim sort of bar-parlour, at a stained wooden table with one wooden leg. The room was so small and dark, that very little could be seen of the attendant who was summoned, beyond a vague and dark impression of something bulky and bearded.
    “Will you take a little supper?” asked Gregory politely. “The
páté de foie gras is
not good here, but I can recommend the game.”
    Syme received the remark with stolidity, imagining it to be a joke. Accepting the vein of humour, he said, with a well-bred indifference—
    “Oh, bring me some lobster mayonnaise.”
    To his indescribable astonishment, the man only said, “Certainly, sir!” and went away apparently to get it.
    “What will you drink?” resumed Gregory, with the same careless yet apologetic air. “I shall only have a
crême de menthe
myself;I have dined. But the champagne can really be trusted. Do let me start you with a half-bottle of Pommery at least?”
    “Thank you!” said the motionless Syme. “You are very good.”
    His further attempts at conversation, somewhat disorganized in themselves, were cut short finally as by a thunderbolt by the actual appearance of the lobster. Syme tasted it, and found it particularly good. Then he suddenly began to eat with great rapidity and appetite.
    “Excuse me if I enjoy myself rather obviously!” he said to Gregory, smiling. “I don’t often have the luck to have a dream like this. It is new to me for a nightmare to lead me to a lobster. It is commonly the other way.”
    “You are not asleep, I assure you,” said Gregory. “You are, on the contrary, close to the most actual and rousing moment of your existence. Ah, here comes your champagne! I admit that there may be a slight disproportion, let us say, between the inner arrangements of this excellent hotel and its simple and unpretentious exterior. But that is all our modesty. We are the most modest men that ever lived on earth.”
    “And who are
we?”
asked Syme, emptying his champagne glass.
    “It is quite simple,” replied Gregory.
“We
are the serious anarchists, in whom you do not believe.”
    “Oh!” said Syme shortly. “You do yourselves well in drinks.”
    “Yes, we are serious about everything,” answered Gregory.
    Then after a pause he added—
    “If in a few moments this table begins to turn round a little, don’t put it down to your inroads into the champagne. I don’t wish