The Double Life Of Mr. Alfred Burton

gton calle

xtraordinary manner' during the last week or so. Everybody drinks too much there. The table-linen isn't clean, and the bar

n his services were not urgently required at the office, at the Golden Lion, and he had been seen on more than one occasion at the theatre and elsewhere

egular customer, ordered a luncheon which, simple though it was, inspired his companion with respect. The waiter withdrew and the

t all means, Burton?" he deman

m sure," he added, a little hesita

congratulation. A spasm, as though of pain, had suddenly p

er in an absolutely indescribable sort of way. There seems to be s

ut of the habit. It's quite easy. I expect very soon you will f

n was incline

," he declared, "but

pretty well up to now,

ssented, but wit

everything I say as a matter of habit. I tell them now that the goods I am offering are not what they should be, because I can't help it, and th

y, "that there might be an opening in the pro

ngton smi

rton," he replied,

red the subjec

murmured, "where instinctive tru

n answered, gloomily. "Besides, I am

eed in letting Idlemay Hou

er-came to me with his wife, very keen to take a house in that precise neighborhood. I asked him the lowest rent to start wi

t he to

to him, and instead of being scared he went to an expert in drains, who advised him that there w

ght be an opening for an honest

gton looke

e no confidence in it. People like to be gulled. They've been brought up to it. They as

ttle dolefully, "it seems as though this change

ed. Even his cough w

ne might venture upon a somewhat personal question, how did you manage to discover a vocation?

red quite by accident the one form in which it is poss

his knife and fork. He

ton murmur

is breath, a little vaguely. The que

aper and had obviously been paid for, and I saw at once that the only point about it was that the man had put down what he s

in, like an office boy reading the Police Gazette. All the time I am in the streets I am looking at the buildings, and, Burton, this is the extraordinary part of it, I know no more about architecture than a babe unborn, and yet I can tell you where they're wrong, every one of them. T

ass of wine from the bottle wh

, "this is a queer thing

will ever believe it. The person who declared that there was not

ned across

g. I went to see what had become of the flower-pot. I found the little roo

ns of embarrassment. He waited

t of those beans,

on shook his

about them yet," he said.

ey are, then?" Burton

neer did n

him to give me that little tree. I simply did not dare to run the risk. It is a painful subject with me, this, because quite thoughtlessly I endeavored

a little bre

before," he declared. "I should

dington

There are only eleven of them and I have not ye

impressively, "have you forg

dington

" he exclaimed. "I

whose life has been spent in domestic service, and part in a suburban dressmaker's establishment. She keeps the house very clean, pins up the oleographs presented to us

. Waddington groane

olor of the rainbow. She loves strong perfumes, and she is strenuous on the subject of the primary colors. We have a table-cloth with fringed borders for tea on Sunday afternoons. She hates flow

rom his forehead and produced a small s

n! I can see what you are

waved i

air and he has a curl which comes over his forehead. I have never known him when his hands were not both sticky and dirty-his hands

re-opened the

" Burton folded them up in a piece of paper an

should not make my appeal to you in vain. Tell

of fiction, and declare that the idea had been used before. I thought of having one of the beans resolved into its constituents by a scientific physician, but I doubt if I'd get any one to treat the matter seriously. Of course," he went on, "if there

have discovered these beans and profited by them, it does rather appear as though they ha

ome respects I feel happier and life seems a much more interesting place. Yet

firmly, "you'll continue the business

Waddington replied. "The trouble is, ho

" Burton declared. "We will not talk a

ngton pai

en Green as quickly as you can. You will excuse me if

n. What magic, after all, could change Ellen! He forgot for one moment the gulf across which he had so miraculously passed. He thought of himself as he was now, and of Ellen as she had been. The memory of that visit to Garden Green seemed suddenly like a nightmare. The memory of the train, underground for part of the way, with its stuffy odors, made him shiver. The hot, dusty, unmade street, with its hideous rows of stucc