Arthur Conan Doyle

“ What a perfectly delightful man this must be to know."
"But I can't take his money," said Hector Spurling, looking somewhat ruefully at the note. "A little prize-money is all very well in its way, but a Johnny must draw the line somewhere. Besides it must have been a mistake. And yet he meant to give me something big, for he could not mistake a note for a coin. I suppose I must advertise for the fellow."
"It seems a pity too," remarked Robert. "I must say that I don't quite see it in the same light that you do."
"Indeed I think that you are very Quixotic, Hector," said Laura McIntyre. ”

“ McIntyre, blinking round from side to side.
"He's not come, father. How could you expect him to come on such a night as this? Why, there must be two feet of snow in the glebe field."
"Not come, eh?" croaked the old man, throwing himself down upon the sofa. "Well, well, it only wants him and his father to throw us over, and the thing will be complete"
"How can you even hint at such a thing, father?" cried Laura indignantly. "They have been as true as steel. ”

“ They are all cast in a common mould, the products of a system which teaches early self-reliance, hardihood, and manliness—a fine type upon the whole; less refined and less intellectual, perhaps, than their brothers of the land, but full of truth and energy and heroism. ”

“ In figure he was straight, tall, and well-knit, with keen grey eyes, and the sharp prompt manner of a man who has been accustomed both to command and to obey.
"You had my note?" he said, as he entered the room. "I have to go again, Laura. Isn't it a bore? Old Smithers is short-handed, and wants me back at once." He sat down by the girl, and put his brown hand across her white one. "It won't be a very large order this time," he continued. "It's the flying squadron business—Madeira, Gibraltar, Lisbon, and home. ”

“ Mind you take good care of her, Robert when I am gone. And when I come again, Laura, it will be the last time mind! Hang the money! There are plenty who manage on less. We need not have a house. Why should we? You can get very nice rooms in Southsea at £2 a week. McDougall, our paymaster, has just married, and he only gives thirty shillings. You would not be afraid, Laura? ”

“ It is a very grave res—a very grave respons—a very great risk that you run."
"I hardly touch the stuff," said Robert curtly; "Laura need not provide any for me."
"As a medicine it is invaluable, Robert. To be used, you understand, and not to be abused. That's the whole secret of it. But I'll step down to the Three Pigeons for half an hour."
"My dear father" cried the young man "you surely are not going out upon such a night. ”

“ Yet, as he was wont himself to say, when one thinks that each poor mortal is heir to a legacy of every evil trait or bodily taint of so vast a line of ancestors, lucky indeed is the man who does not find that Nature has scored up some long-owing family debt upon his features. ”