Bernard Capes

“ I appeal only to your sense of fair-play. You must have it, Standish, for all your virtuosity. Will you listen while I tell you the facts of the case?”
“Oh! I’ll listen,” he said,
“Very well. Now, I'll explain. That clock was the property of a wretched widow—a woman once in decent circumstances, but at last reduced to the hardest necessity. I’ve come across her in the way of my work on behalf of the Society; and a certain association of guess and inquiry has led me to the truth. Her husband was a Liverpool-Irish “patriot” of ’81. ”

“ No doubt even the worst of us have our little emotional associations. Perhaps it had once stood in his father’s cottage. And so—though from the date of his arrest it had proved useless as a timepiece”— (“Ha!” murmured Standish, with a happy nod to me) —“she stuck to it. Then, at last, hunger and the devil broke her loyalty. Mr. Bull happened on the relic in a professional way, presumed its value, and being for all his sins something better than a collector, didn’t offer to buy it for eighteenpence, but proposed, like an honest man, to include it, with a reserve, in one of his sales.” ”

“ Porcelain, tapestry, enamels, with the cabinets that had enshrined them—all were committed in undistinguishable fragments to a common ruin. Tout vient à qui sait attendre: Everything comes to him that knows how to wait—even a very lively retribution for his sins.
“Standish,” I said (I could only speak in croaks) —“the patriot’s clock, Standish—it must have been set to midday! Standish—you have been a good angel to the bombazine widow!”
Bernard Capes
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”

“ Start your bids, and earn a reputation for gallantry in the Babylonian marriage market.”
“A shillun,” sniggered a sheepish-faced individual at the table.
Mr. Bull snatched off his saucepan and beat it flat on the desk. ”