The Toys of Peace, and Other Papers

Коллекция текстов · humor

1. A Memoir of H. H. Munro ix
   The Toys of Peace 3 Louise 13 Tea 21 The Disappearance of Crispina Umberleigh 29 The Wolves of Cernogratz 39 Louis 49 The Guests 59 The Pen…
2. “When peace comes,” wrote an officer of the 22nd Royal Fusiliers, the
   regiment in which Munro was a private and in which he rose to the rank of lance-sergeant, “Saki will give us the most wonderful of all the…
3. The Toys of Peace
   “Harvey,” said Eleanor Bope, handing her brother a cutting from a London morning paper of the 19th of March, “just read this about children…
4. Louise
   “The tea will be quite cold, you’d better ring for some more,” said the Dowager Lady Beanford. Susan Lady Beanford was a vigorous old woman…
5. Tea
   James Cushat-Prinkly was a young man who had always had a settled conviction that one of these days he would marry; up to the age of thirty…
6. The Disappearance of Crispina Umberleigh
   In a first-class carriage of a train speeding Balkanward across the flat, green Hungarian plain two Britons sat in friendly, fitful convers…
7. The Wolves of Cernogratz
   “Are there any old legends attached to the castle?” asked Conrad of his sister. Conrad was a prosperous Hamburg merchant, but he was the on…
8. Louis
   “It would be jolly to spend Easter in Vienna this year,” said Strudwarden, “and look up some of my old friends there. It’s about the jollie…
9. The Guests
   “The landscape seen from our windows is certainly charming,” said Annabel; “those cherry orchards and green meadows, and the river winding…
10. The Penance
    Octavian Ruttle was one of those lively cheerful individuals on whom amiability had set its unmistakable stamp, and, like most of his kind,…
11. The Phantom Luncheon
    “The Smithly-Dubbs are in Town,” said Sir James. “I wish you would show them some attention. Ask them to lunch with you at the Ritz or some…
12. A Bread and Butter Miss
    “Starling Chatter and Oakhill have both dropped back in the betting,” said Bertie van Tahn, throwing the morning paper across the breakfast…
13. Bertie’s Christmas Eve
    It was Christmas Eve, and the family circle of Luke Steffink, Esq., was aglow with the amiability and random mirth which the occasion deman…
14. Forewarned
    Alethia Debchance sat in a corner of an otherwise empty railway carriage, more or less at ease as regarded body, but in some trepidation as…
15. The Interlopers
    In a forest of mixed growth somewhere on the eastern spurs of the Karpathians, a man stood one winter night watching and listening, as thou…
16. Quail Seed
    “The outlook is not encouraging for us smaller businesses,” said Mr. Scarrick to the artist and his sister, who had taken rooms over his su…
17. Canossa
    Demosthenes Platterbaff, the eminent Unrest Inducer, stood on his trial for a serious offence, and the eyes of the political world were foc…
18. The Threat
    Sir Lulworth Quayne sat in the lounge of his favourite restaurant, the Gallus Bankiva, discussing the weaknesses of the world with his neph…
19. Excepting Mrs. Pentherby
    It was Reggie Bruttle’s own idea for converting what had threatened to be an albino elephant into a beast of burden that should help him al…
20. Mark
    Augustus Mellowkent was a novelist with a future; that is to say, a limited but increasing number of people read his books, and there seeme…
21. The Hedgehog
    A “Mixed Double” of young people were contesting a game of lawn tennis at the Rectory garden party; for the past five-and-twenty years at l…
22. The Mappined Life
    “These Mappin Terraces at the Zoological Gardens are a great improvement on the old style of wild-beast cage,” said Mrs. James Gurtleberry,…
23. Fate
    Rex Dillot was nearly twenty-four, almost good-looking and quite penniless. His mother was supposed to make him some sort of an allowance o…
24. The Bull
    Tom Yorkfield had always regarded his half-brother, Laurence, with a lazy instinct of dislike, toned down, as years went on, to a tolerant…
25. Morlvera
    The Olympic Toy Emporium occupied a conspicuous frontage in an important West End street. It was happily named Toy Emporium, because one wo…
26. Shock Tactics
    On a late spring afternoon Ella McCarthy sat on a green-painted chair in Kensington Gardens, staring listlessly at an uninteresting stretch…
27. The Seven Cream Jugs
    “I suppose we shall never see Wilfred Pigeoncote here now that he has become heir to the baronetcy and to a lot of money,” observed Mrs. Pe…
28. The Occasional Garden
    “Don’t talk to me about town gardens,” said Elinor Rapsley; “which means, of course, that I want you to listen to me for an hour or so whil…
29. The Sheep
    The enemy had declared “no trumps.” Rupert played out his ace and king of clubs and cleared the adversary of that suit; then the Sheep, who…
30. The Oversight
    “It’s like a Chinese puzzle,” said Lady Prowche resentfully, staring at a scribbled list of names that spread over two or three loose sheet…
31. Hyacinth
    “The new fashion of introducing the candidate’s children into an election contest is a pretty one,” said Mrs. Panstreppon; “it takes away s…
32. The Image of the Lost Soul
    There were a number of carved stone figures placed at intervals along the parapets of the old Cathedral; some of them represented angels, o…
33. The Purple of the Balkan Kings
    Luitpold Wolkenstein, financier and diplomat on a small, obtrusive, self-important scale, sat in his favoured cafe in the world-wise Habsbu…
34. The Cupboard of the Yesterdays
    “War is a cruelly destructive thing,” said the Wanderer, dropping his newspaper to the floor and staring reflectively into space. “Ah, yes,…
35. For the Duration of the War
    The Rev. Wilfrid Gaspilton, in one of those clerical migrations inconsequent-seeming to the lay mind, had removed from the moderately fashi…