The coachman will be very sore at losing his
pet, but I'll say a very catching form of mange has broken out in
both cats and we're afraid of it spreading to the kennels."
"But my great discovery!" expostulated Mr. Appin; "after all my
years of research and experiment--"
"You can go and experiment on the shorthorns at the farm, who are
under proper control," said Mrs. Cornett, "or the elephants at the
Zoological Gardens. They're said to be highly intelligent, and
they have this recommendation, that they don't come creeping about
our bedrooms and under chairs, and so forth."
An archangel ecstatically proclaiming the Millennium, and then
finding that it clashed unpardonably with Henley and would have to
be indefinitely postponed, could hardly have felt more crestfallen
than Cornelius Appin at the reception of his wonderful
achievement. Public opinion, however, was against him--in fact,
had the general voice been consulted on the subject it is probable
that a strong minority vote would have been in favour of including
him in the strychnine diet.
Defective train arrangements and a nervous desire to see matters
brought to a finish prevented an immediate dispersal of the party,
but dinner that evening was not a social success.
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