Robert Barr

“ Five candles of various lengths, four in the necks of bottles and one in a jug, scattered their feeble light around a glass retort suspended over a blue flame.
"Still in a rag and bottle shop, Mr. Blair, I see," she said, with a smile.
"It's sufficient, rather than luxurious," admitted the chemist.
"I think," continued the girl, with a laugh, "it must be the landlady's fault. If she clings to her lodger as she does to her railings, no wonder he cannot get away. How do you ever carry on successful experiments in a dungeon like this?" ”

“ When the lady entered, she stood for a few minutes near the door, glancing first at the astonished, tramp-like man before her, and then around at the disorderly room.
"Don't you know me?" she asked at last.
"Why, yes," he stammered. "You're—you're the girl in the glove-shop."
"No, I am not. I am Mrs. Staunton Blair. My husband is a genius in the scientific world, they tell me, sure to become famous. ”

“ Blair was evidently in a quandary once more. He breathed like a man who is running a race. The interval this time was so long that the shop-girl had more and more opportunity to study the stranger on the other side of the counter. ”

“ A thousand pounds will prove scanty enough when that time comes."
Her hand dropped to her side.
"Yes," she said, "I was forgetting my brother."
"Then we will get into a taxicab and go direct to a solicitor, who will draw up the settlement."
"I must go back to the glove-shop."
"Nonsense! On a thousand a year?"
"I must give due notice and buy my liberty."
"I'll see the proprietor and compensate him."
"No; you'd be cheated. I cannot allow anyone to cheat you but myself. This sordid bargain I have made with you is a very model of chicanery." ”

“ Two thousand five hundred pounds a year is too much. You don't need to say you are a poor business man, for anyone can see it. If you'll settle upon me four hundred pounds a year, I'll marry you under those conditions to-morrow, next week, or any time you like."
"My dear girl," said Blair earnestly, "you do not estimate correctly the disability under which you place yourself. You are young and beautiful. ”

“ Customers are sacred and must not be offended. It was her place to serve politely—cringingly, if need be—but on no account to allow that man to leave the shop without having made a purchase. She might smile or flirt or simper, and the Argus eyes to the rear of the place would be blind, so long as something was sold ”

“ You will take four pounds and this address of mine. You will engage a detective, and ask him to learn all he can about me. I don't know where you will find one, but anyone else can tell you. I am really a most harmless person—a tutor of sorts, and a student in chemistry. I know no woman on earth except my landlady. Of course, naturally you distrust a stranger, and I am very awkward so far as women are concerned. You will hear from the detective, however, that I am honest, and that you may quite safely grant me an interview of ten minutes or so. ”

“ When they reached the flat, even his dislike of the popular Professor Marling could not overcome Blair's admiration for the laboratory that celebrity had abandoned. Here were the things he had yearned for, too absent-minded to remember that he possessed the money wherewith to purchase them. He had not yet become acquainted with the fact that he was a rich man. ”

“ Blair pushed towards the girl four sovereigns, but she ignored them, dexterously wrapping up the gloves.
"Shall I send them to this address?"
"No; keep them. I don't want them." But she pushed the little parcel towards him in such a way that the money was shoved before it.
"I do not need the advice of a detective. I can see that you are an honest man. I will meet you to-day where you spoke to me yesterday. Please put the money into your pocket; the gloves also. No; you must not leave them. ”

“ Why, look at this!" she cried, taking up a broad-mouthed jar and shaking it. "You keep your carbide of calcium in a jar with a plain cork! In this moist climate it should have had a glass stopper."
"I know that," pleaded Blair, "but I lost the stopper."
She placed the jar on the table before her, and took out the cork, sniffing a little at the substance within.
"Just as I thought," she said. "It is disintegrated, and nearly useless." She took up a thick bradawl that lay on the table and bored a hole in the centre of the broad cork.
"That will make it worse than ever," objected Blair. ”

“ Go on, please."
"There is nothing much more to say. If you will agree to marry me, I promise faithfully to leave you at the church door. I'll never molest you, and will settle upon you one-half the income, so that you may be as independent as I."
"How much is the income?" she asked, with quite her sales-counter intonation.
"The solicitor said it was about five thousand pounds a year."
"Five thousand pounds! Oh, I should never consent to take half of that."
"Very good; I'll give you more. I don't suppose I shall need so much as four hundred. You may have all the rest." ”

“ If gifted with imagination, it is possible that a third observation might stimulate the fancy that she would be very attractive if she smiled, but it was easy to believe that her lips were strangers to smiles. ”

“ From a shelf behind her she took down a tape measure.
"Please extend your hand."
"Wait a moment; wait a moment. Surely you do not hurry your customers thus? You give them time to choose, select, think, do you not?" ”