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The Celibates' Club; Being the United Stories of the Bachelors' Club and the Old Maids' Club
The Celibates' Club Being the United Stories of the Bachelors' Club and the Old Maids' Club Author:Israel Zangwill General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1898 Original Publisher: Heinemann Subjects: Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Fiction / Short Stories Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition ... more »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: CHAPTER I. THE SECOND TICKET. There was always something about me which invited confidence. It was my tongue. When I saw a Bachelor (the capital " B " always denotes the esoteric Bachelor) walking about with a wobegone air, or a new necktie, or taking his drinks irregularly, I made it a point to sympathise with him. It is only thus that I can account for the fact that I was the solitary recipient of the confidences of nearly every member in turn. Osmund Bethel once said that I was the dustbin for thejtshes-ol-Wib. ody's past. But then Osmund always affected cheap epigram, and even that at other people's expense. But let me not speak ill of him. He is beyond our censure now. Little Bethel they called him at the Club; not because he ever had any Methodism in his madness, but because they did not like to set themselves up against the inevitable. Little Bethel was a tall, handsome fellow, with a mass of tawny hair and a pair of sunny eyes. He carried his head high, and a Malacca cane, but that was before the days of his prosperity. No happier journalist breathed or lied in England than Little Bethel till the day when Slateroller, the dramatic critic of the Whirlpool, died suddenly at a matinee of a new play, and the editor called Osmund into thesanctum, and asked him if he would care for the reversion of the post. Osmund's heart gave a great jump, for he felt that this was a great leap forwards for him. He had hitherto been a mere reporter, whose duties were to attend company meetings and review ethic...« less