THE GODS AND MR. PERRIN
Reading edition
A Tragi-Comedy
By Hugh Walpole
Author Of “Fortitude,” “The Prelude To Adventure,” Etc.
New York George H. Doran Company
1911
“The Way Here Also Was Very Wearisome Through Dirt And Shabbiness: Nor Was There On All This Ground So Much As One Inn Or Victualling-House Wherein To Refresh The Feebler Sort.”—Pilgrim's Progress
TO
PUNCH
My Dear Punch,
There are a thousand and one reasons why I should dedicate this book to you. It would take a very long time and much good paper to give you them all; but here, at any rate, is one of them. Do you remember a summer day last year that we spent together? The place was a little French town, and we climbed its high, crooked street, and had tea in an inn at the top—an inn with a square courtyard, bad, impossible tea, and a large black cat.
It was on that afternoon that I introduced you for a little time to Mr. Perrin, and you, because you have more understanding and sympathy than anyone I have ever met, understood him and sympathized. For the good things that you have done for me I can never repay you, but for the good things that you did on that afternoon for Mr. Perrin I give you this book.
Yours affectionately,
HUGH WALPOLE.
Chelsea, January 1911.
CONTENTS
THE GODS AND MR. PERRIN
CHAPTER I—MR. VINCENT PERRIN DRINKS HIS TEA AND GIVES MR. TRAILL SOUND ADVICE
CHAPTER II—INTRODUCES A CONFUSING COMPANY OF PERSONS, WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON MRS. COMBER
CHAPTER III—CONCERNS ALL THE WONDERFUL THINGS THAT MAY HAPPEN BETWEEN SOUP AND DESSERT
CHAPTER IV—BIRKLAND LOQUITUR
CHAPTER V—A GAME OF FOOTBALL AND A DANCE IN PENDRAGON HAVE THEIR PART IN THE SCHEME OF THINGS
CHAPTER VI—SÆVA INDIGNATIO
CHAPTER VII—THE BATTLE OP THE UMBRELLA; THEY OPEN FIRE
CHAPTER VIII—THE BATTLE OP THE UMBRELLA; CAMPS ARE FORMED—ALSO SOME SKIRMISHING
CHAPTER IX—THE BATTLE OP THE UMBRELLA; WITH THE LADIES
CHAPTER X—THE BATTLE OF THE UMBRELLA; “WHOM THE GODS WISH TO DESTROY....”
CHAPTER XI—MR. PERRIN SEES DOUBLE
CHAPTER XII—MR. PERRIN WALKS IN SLEEP
CHAPTER XIII—MR. PERRIN LISTENS WHILE THEY ALL MAKE SPEECHES
CHAPTER XIV—MR. PERRIN REACHES THE HEART OF HIS KINGDOM
CHAPTER XV—THE GOLDEN VIEW