Edgar Wallace

“ Jimmy rose with a sigh and loafed back to his own den. He tried to read, but his mind was not upon the page. The phrase “falling in love” is more or less a figure of speech to denote an unusual attraction and interest in a person of the opposite sex, plus an extraordinary sense of loss when they have temporarily gone out of one's life. Delia, from the first moment he saw her, was attractive to him. ”

“ Four o'clock came and brought no word from Jerry. Dawn had broken when Jimmy stepped again into the garden. The rain had ceased, the clouds were dispersing, and there was a promise of a fine day. He walked down the drive to the road and stood smoking. He looked along the road and across the shadowy heath. The only sign of life was the movement of a big, white motor car which was coming from the direction of Woolwich on the park side of the heath. ”

“ It looked as though the world was going to be starved of bread and roots. The thing was kept dark and happily the danger did not materialize, but I say that the public should have been told.”
“What a queer old fish you are, Jerry! Put down your pen and come out and be human. I'm bored stiff, and I've half a mind to go up to London and see a revue. It doesn't start until nine o'clock, and we should only miss half an hour of it.”
“I'm not interested in revues or theaters and nobody knows that better than you, Jimmy,” said the other irritably. ”

“ He had heard something, and now he heard it again—a “tap, tap” on the study window. The sound was muffled by the curtains and the shutters which covered the French casement, but unmistakably it came from the study window. ”

“ Blake, I was sitting under the porch having a quiet pipe before I went to bed, a habit of mine, sir, for thirty years, as you well know.”
“Don't tell me the story of your life, Stephens,” said Jimmy. “Who came for Mr. van Roon?”
“Well, sir, I saw two people coming up the drive. They must have seen the glow of my pipe, because they stopped, and then one of them came on. 'Is this Mr. van Roon's house?' this gentleman asked, and he was a gentleman by his tone. 'Begging your pardon, sir, this is Mr. Blake's house, but Mr. van Roon lives here,' says I.”
Jimmy chuckled at the distinction. ”