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Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924

"Chance"

So he said--he had to say something, "Good God! What were you
thinking of, Mr. Smith, to try to . . . " And then he left off. He
dared not utter the awful word poison. Mr. Smith stopped his prowl.
"Think! What do you know of thinking. I don't think. There is
something in my head that thinks. The thoughts in men, it's like being
drunk with liquor or--You can't stop them. A man who thinks will think
anything. No! But have you seen it. Have you?"
"I tell you I have! I am certain!" said Powell forcibly. "I was looking
at you all the time. You've done something to the drink in that glass."
Then Powell lost his breath somehow. Mr. Smith looked at him curiously,
with mistrust.
"My good young man, I don't know what you are talking about. I ask
you--have you seen? Who would have believed it? with her arms round his
neck. When! Oh! Ha! Ha! You did see! Didn't you? It wasn't a
delusion--was it? Her arms round . . . But I have never wholly trusted
her."
"Then I flew out at him, said Mr. Powell. I told him he was jolly lucky
to have fallen upon Captain Anthony.


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