The Benefactor A Tale of a Small Circle Author:Ford Madox Ford General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1905 Original Publisher: Brown, Langham Subjects: Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing t... more »ext. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: THE BENEFACTOR. PART III. The Blackening Pearls. George found Mr. Beale of Philadelphia a thoroughly entertaining " type." He entered into his frankness, his brusqueness, his evident intention to get what he wanted. It would be saying too little, to put it that George found the American thoroughly sympathetic ; he found him the sort of man that he himself would have wished to be. At his return from Thwaite's cottage he discovered Mr. Beale standing before the fireplace, reading nervously and intently the manuscript that Thwaite the night before had left on the sofa. " I say, this isn't the thing ? " he immediately attacked George. " I mean the thing that's to fill two continents with awe. The novel that man Hailes was talking about." He brushed his disengaged hand nervously across his red- gold beard. " Oh, but it's there, somewhere. It's not a figment of the imagination." " We'd better breakfast," George said pleasantly. " One can't unravel mysteries fasting." Mr. Beale looked at him a shade savagely ; then he laughed. " You can look at it in that way," he said. He swiftly examined the celebrated dining- room and exclaimed : " So this is where you eat, Mr. Moffat ? It's real fine." He folded his napkin into the opening of his waistcoat and emphasised his remarks with a bacon knife : " Let me tell you all about myself, Mr. Moffat." George, massive and benignantly amused, let the stream pass over him. Mr. Beale explained that he was a business ...« less