In London's Heart Author:George Robert Sims General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1900 Original Publisher: F.M. Buckles 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 se... more »lect from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. MAY ALISON. A Young man of four-and-twenty, whose good- looking, deeply-bronzed face told of long exposure to wind and sun in lands where the summers consist of something more than our traditional three fine days and a thunderstorm, was strolling through the woods near one of the loveliest villages in Lakeland. His companion was a stout, dapper little man of about fifty, with a "theatrical" looking face and a closely- cropped black moustache, tinged with grey. "I can't get over meeting you here, Tom," said the young man, as the pair strolled along together. "I could hardly believe my eyes. At first I didn't think it could be you, because you hadn't got your banjo." "Ah, I don't have that with me when I've a off-day, Mr. Avory, and this is a off-week, you know. My gal Jenny, you see, sir, as you've heard me speak of, as is a Royal Academy of Music scholar, God bless her! and a beautifuller voice you never heard, she's been a bit ailing like lately -- sticking too close to her studies, I expect -- and so her mother says to me, ' Tom,' she says, ' Our Jenny wants the fresh air and a change -- can't you take her away somewhere ?' Jenny wouldn't hear of it at first. She says, ' Oh no, father -- I shall be better soon, it's nothing.' But the missis she fidgeted, and so I made up my mind to givemyself a holiday too, and we've been doin' the lakes, if you please, me an' my gal." "Ah," said Dennis Avory, "that's it, is it? But I should have thought Margate or Brighton would have been more in your line, Tom." Tom Verity looked up at the young man, with a pai...« less