The Innocents Abroad


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both instances we achieved far more aggravation than amusement. We  
expected to fare better here, but we were mistaken. The cushions were a  
good deal higher than the balls, and as the balls had a fashion of always  
stopping under the cushions, we accomplished very little in the way of  
caroms. The cushions were hard and unelastic, and the cues were so  
crooked that in making a shot you had to allow for the curve or you would  
infallibly put the "English" on the wrong side of the hall. Dan was to  
mark while the doctor and I played. At the end of an hour neither of us  
had made a count, and so Dan was tired of keeping tally with nothing to  
tally, and we were heated and angry and disgusted. We paid the heavy  
bill--about six cents--and said we would call around sometime when we had  
a week to spend, and finish the game.  
We adjourned to one of those pretty cafes and took supper and tested the  
wines of the country, as we had been instructed to do, and found them  
harmless and unexciting. They might have been exciting, however, if we  
had chosen to drink a sufficiency of them.  
To close our first day in Paris cheerfully and pleasantly, we now sought  
our grand room in the Grand Hotel du Louvre and climbed into our  
sumptuous bed to read and smoke--but alas!  
It was pitiful,  
In a whole city-full,  
Gas we had none.  
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Page
130 131 132 133 134

Quick Jump
1 187 374 560 747