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Jerome, Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka), 1859-1927

"Tommy and Co."


In '63 divorced the Duke of Warrington. Lord Mount-Primrose, so
far as I can make out, must be her second cousin. I appear to have
married her in '66 at Hastings. It doesn't seem to me that we
could have got together a homelier little party to meet her even if
we had wanted to."
Nobody spoke; nobody had anything particularly worth saying. The
door opened, and the Lady Alexandra (otherwise Tommy) entered the
room.
"Isn't it time," suggested the Lady Alexandra, "that some of you
came upstairs?"
"I was thinking myself," explained Joey, the host, with a grim
smile, "it was about time that I went out and drowned myself. The
canal is handy."
"Put it off till to-morrow," Tommy advised him. "I have asked her
ladyship to give me a lift home, and she has promised to do so.
She is evidently a woman with a sense of humour. Wait till after I
have had a talk with her."
Six men, whispering at the same time, were prepared with advice;
but Tommy was not taking advice.
"Come upstairs, all of you," insisted Tommy, "and make yourselves
agreeable. She's going in a quarter of an hour."
Six silent men, the host leading, the two husbands bringing up the
rear, ascended the stairs, each with the sensation of being twice
his usual weight.


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