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Words: 15911 in 8 pages
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THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL.
HOW I COME TO HEAR OF THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL.
The words of the song seemed strangely out of place in that heathen land, so many thousand miles removed from Costerdom. But the wail of the music had quite a different effect. The singer's voice was distinctly a good one, and he used it with considerable ability:
"She wears an artful bonnet, feathers stuck all on it, Covering a fringe all curled; She's just about the neatest, prettiest, and sweetest Donna in the wide, wide world. And she'll be Mrs. 'Awkins, Mrs. 'Enry 'Awkins, Got her for to name the day. We settled it last Monday, so to church on Sunday, Off we trots the donkey shay.
"Oh, Eliza! Dear Eliza! If you die an old maid You'll only have yourself to blame. D'ye hear Eliza--dear Eliza! Mrs. 'Enry 'Awkins is a fust-class name."
Half a dozen other voices took up the chorus, and sent it rolling away over the litter of sampans alongside the wharf, out to where the red and blue funnel boats lay at anchor half a mile distant. The two players chalked their cues and stopped to participate.
"Oh, Eliza! Dear Eliza! If you die an old maid You'll only have yourself to blame. Oh, Eliza! Dear Eliza! Mrs. 'Enry 'Awkins is a fust-class name."
The music ceased amid a burst of applause.
"Sixee, sixee--sevenee-three," repeated the marker mechanically.
"Give me the rest, you almond-eyed lubber," cried Peckle with sudden energy; "we'll return to business, for I'll be hanged if I'm going to let myself be beaten by the bo'sun tight and the midshipmite of a bottle-nosed, unseaworthy Chinese contraband."
Maloney knocked the ash off his cigar on his chair-arm and said, by way of explanation, "Our friend Peckle, gentlemen, chowed last night at Government House. He hasn't sloughed his company manners yet."
Benwell sent the red whizzing up the table into the top pocket, potted his opponent into the right-hand middle, by way of revenge, and then gave the customary miss in baulk.
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