Barry Pain

“ I care nothing about the coup for its own sake. There are men who seek out the difficult coup just as an artist may intentionally seek difficulties of subject or treatment in a story or picture. I prefer easy work, when I can get it. ”

“ Every miser is a madman. If 1 had taken the hoard that night it is quite possible that he would never have discovered his loss. But if he did, it was also quite likely that suspicion would fall on me. To divert it I should have had to remain in the place for some time longer and to have continued the farce of giving him employment. This would have been very tiresome to me. So I left for London the following morning without the money.
About six weeks later I was stopping at my Brighton house, and I thought that I might as well walk over to Darwen one night. ”

“ He filled his clay pipe and palmed some more of the tobacco, when he thought that he was unobserved. He lit his pipe with a match from the stand, and in an absent-minded way slid a few of the matches into his pocket. Then he turned to the landlord. "And how much am I indebted to you, sir, for this refreshment?"
"Why, nothing, Mr Jacobs. Surely, if I accept your presents, I may offer you a friendly glass."
"If you wish it, let it be so. You are very kind. The world is in many respects better than the cynics would have us believe. There are still great and generous hearts. ”

“ Sometimes he even earned a little money; he was, the landlord said, a scholar, and had written letters for people in the village in cases where a noble and correct style was felt to be worth a penny a page. He had no bank account, and it was supposed that his savings were hidden in his cottage, which he would never leave for more than a quarter of an hour at a time. "Not that he need trouble himself," said the landlord, "for we are all honest in Darwen. ”

“ A week later, finding that Jacobs had never apparently discovered his loss, I walked into Darwen and had a talk with him. He was just going into the Crown, and had a small cauliflower with him. He seemed a little hurt that the landlord did not show more enthusiasm about that cauliflower, but otherwise he was quite happy. I felt that I had done a good action. He was none the worse, and I was two hundred and fifty pounds the better. Money was meant to be used.
In the course of the next year I paid two other nocturnal visits to Mr Jacob's water-butt. ”

“ For years past an annual income of £2000 has satisfied me. I live regularly, and am aware that any sudden increase of means and expenditure with nothing to account for it, is likely to render one an object of suspicion. ”

“ You will find nothing like them in Darwen. And I will trouble you for sixpenny worth of brandy."
The landlord, still grinning, put the apples on a shelf and measured out the old man's drink. Mr Jacobs had with the apples pulled out an empty clay pipe, gazed at it, and then up at the ceiling.
"There is some delicious tobacco being smoked in this room," he said reflectively. "I like to drink in its fragrance for a minute or two before I spoil it with my pipeful of a ranker and cheaper variety. The poor must not expect too much. ”

“ He is not unintelligent. As an Inspector of an Electric Lighting Company he is admirable. He carries a note-book with the right name and address of the Company stamped in gold on its morocco cover, and the book is partly filled with notes and figures that would deceive anybody except an electrician. ”