Читать книгу A Son of Ishmael. A Novel онлайн

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People talked a good deal about him, for he had an air of mystery which tantalised curiosity. He was tall, well set up, and strikingly handsome—too dark, perhaps, for the conventional Englishman, but so plucky, such a good sportsman, and withal so gay and bright when he pleased, that against his own inclination and against the secret prejudice of most of the neighbours, he was quickly invited to the best houses in the place, and was, in short, a universal favourite.

On a certain night towards the end of a particularly tempestuous November, Rowton was riding home from Andover. He was a reckless horseman, and always rode mercilessly. The beast on which he was sitting this special night was only half broken in. Suddenly he heard himself shouted to by an angry voice.

“Hullo! take care, can’t you; do you want to ride right through my gig?”

Adrian pulled up his horse fiercely, the animal reared, he sprang from its back and exclaimed with a hearty voice:

“A thousand pardons; I never saw you, Dr. Read.”