"Allen, Grant - Miss Cayley's Adventures 04 - The Adenture of the Amateur Commission Agent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Allen Grant)

'That's so! You hit it in one, miss! Which will
you take, a cigar or a cocoa-nut?'

I smiled. 'And what do you think you will call
the machine in Europe?'

He gazed hard at me, and stroked his straw-
coloured moustache. 'Well, what do you think of
the Lois Cayley?'

'For Heaven's sake, no!' I cried, fervently.
'Mr. Hitchcock, I implore you!'

He smiled pity for my weakness. 'Ah, high-toned
again?' he repeated, as if it were some natural
malformation under which I laboured. 'Oh, ef you
don't like it, miss, we'll say no more about it. I
am a gentleman, I am. What's the matter with the
Excelsior?'

'Nothing, except that it's very bad Latin,' I
objected.

'That may be so; but it's very good business.'

He paused and mused, then he murmured low to
himself, '"When through an Alpine village passed."
That's where the idea of the Excelsior comes in;
see? "It goes up Mont Blanc," you said yourself.
"Through snow and ice, A cycle with the strange
device, Excelsior!"'

'If I were you,' I said, 'I would stick to the
name Manitou. It's original, and it's
distinctive.'

'Think so? Then chalk it up; the thing's done.
You may not be aware of it, miss, but you are a
lady for whose opinion in such matters I hev a high
regard. And you understand Europe. I do not. I
admit it. Everything seems to me to be verboten in
Germany; and everything else to be bad form in
England.'

We walked down the steps together. 'What a
picturesque old town!' I said, looking round me,
well pleased. Its beauty appealed to me, for I had
fifty pounds in pocket, and I had lunched
sumptuously.