Stranleigh's Millions Author:Robert Barr General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1909 Original Publisher: Eveleigh Nash 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 of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can s... more »elect from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: STRANLEIGH'S MILLIONS THE RISE OF THE BENDALE STORES Two workmen walked down Piccadilly together; one a grim, soured, pessimistic, elderly man, the other a cheerful, humorous person who seemed to be enjoying the Vanity Fair exhibited by this celebrated street of wealth and fashion, whose pavements were crowded by well-dressed, leisurely promenaders, and whose roadway gave forth a gentle purr of expensive automobiles, punctuated by the sharp click-click of hoofs belonging to highbred horses drawing, in elegant vehicles, no less high-bred ladies, or otherwise, as the case might be. The elder workman spoke with some bitterness in an aggressive, independent tone of voice as one caring not who hears. " Now, look at that brainless, conceited fop! What's he good for, I'd like to know? Never did a hand's turn of useful work in his life, I daresay, and yet it's the likes of me has to support the likes of him." "Ah, go on!" scoffed the younger. "Support the likes of him? Why, all you'd earn in six months wouldn't buy that suit of clothes ! " If the person alluded to in such uncomplimentary terms heard what had been said, his serene face gave no indication that the opinion expressed disturbed his equanimity. He strolled on indolently, unheeding. But the observations were audible to a middle-aged woman, whose rusty black costume and whose anxious, care-seamed face gave token that she occupied a position in the social ladder little higher than that on which these labourers' wives stood. She glanced at the impassive mask of the young man who had been called brainless, then ...« less