[Opendesigns-public] D his experiences at the Court? For al

[Cullens Strobridge]

, I take it, for some big millinery shop in London, and come down here
wi' boxes an' boxes o' bonnets, an' tokes, and all sorts o' female
headgear as women goes about in----" "In short, he was a commercial
traveller," said Austin, very mildly. "You see, my dear Lubin, we have
been talking of different things. I wasn't thinking of a gentleman who
hawks haberdashery. When I said traveller, I meant a man who goes
tramping across Africa, and shoots elephants, and gets snowed up at the
North Pole, and has all sorts of uncomfortable and quite incredible
adventures. They always have faces as brown as an old trunk, and
generally limp when they walk. That's the sort of person I'm looking out
for. You haven't seen anyone like that, have you?" "Nay--nary a one,"
said Lubin, shaking his head. "Would he have been putting up at one o'
the inns, now, or staying long wi' some o' the gentry?" "I haven't the
slightest idea," acknowledged Austin. "Might as well go about looking
for a ram wi' five feet," remarked Lubin. "Some things you can't find
'cause they don't exist, and other things you can't find 'cause there's
too many of 'em. And as you don't know nothing about this gentleman, and
wouldn't know him if you met him in the street permiscuous, I take it
you'll have to wait to see what he looks like till he turns up again of
his own accord. 'Tain't in reason as you can go up to every old
gentleman with a brown face as you never see before an' ask him if he's
ever been snowed up at the North Pole and why he hasn't got a wooden
leg. He'd think, as likely as not, as you was trying to get a rise out
of him. Don't you know what the name may be, neither?" "Oh yes, I do, of
course," responded Austin. "He's a Mr Ogilvie." "Never heard of 'im,"
said Lubin. "Might find out at one o' the inns if any party o' that
name's been staying there, but I doubt they wouldn't remember. Folks
don't generally stay more'n one night, you see, just to have a look at
the old market-place and the church, and then off they go next morning
and don't lea
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