Читать книгу The Peacock Feather. A Romance онлайн

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“Ah!” said the man quietly, watching him.

“There are always the colonies,” went on Peter carelessly. “But somehow I’ve a predilection for England. Of course, in England there is the disadvantage that you’re bound to produce references if you want work—I mean the kind of work that would appeal to me. I dare say I might get taken on as a day labourer on a farm, but even there my speech is against me; it makes people suspicious.”

“But how do you manage?” asked the other curiously.

Peter laughed. He pulled his whistle-pipe from his pocket.

“I pipe for my bread,” he said. “They call me Peter the Piper.”

The other man nodded. “Good,” he said; “I like that. There’s a flavour of romance about it that appeals to me. My name’s Neil Macdonald.”

Peter looked at him. “Then you don’t mind introducing yourself to a jail-bird?” he asked jauntily; but there was an underhint of wistfulness in the words.

“My dear fellow,” responded Neil, “I have some intuition. It’s so absolutely apparent that you must have been shielding some one else, that——”