He greeted us with an impudent shout; in a few
moments the door was open, and there stood Parrington, flushed and
dishevelled, with a gimlet in one hand and a wedge in the other.
Within was a scene of eloquent disorder. Drawers had been pulled
out, and now stood on end, their contents heaped upon the carpet.
Wardrobe doors stood open; empty stud-cases strewed the floor; a
clock, tied up in a towel, had been tossed into a chair at the last
moment. But a long tin lid protruded from an open cupboard in one
corner. And one had only to see Lord Thornaby's wry face behind
the lid to guess that it was bent over a somewhat empty tin trunk.
"What a rum lot to steal!" said he, with a twitch of humor at the
corners of his canine mouth. "My peer's robes, with coronet
complete!"
We rallied round him in a seemly silence. I thought our scribe
would put in his word. But even he either feigned or felt a proper
awe.
"You may say it was a rum place to keep 'em," continued Lord
Thornaby. "But where would you gentlemen stable your white
elephants? And these were elephants as white as snow; by Jove,
I'll job them for the future!"
And he made merrier over his loss than any of us could have imagined
the minute before; but the reason dawned on me a little later, when
we all.
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