THE ENGINEER BRUNS
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to Father Theodore : ‘ I must ask you not to fall on your knees in my home.’ ‘ Oh ! my dear lady, my dear lady,’ said Father Theodore plaintively. ‘ Look here ! ’ said Darling indignantly. ‘ I’m not your dear lady. What is it you want ? ’ Father Theodore mumbled something unintelligible, and it was only after many questions that they managed to extract from him that he was asking them, as a special favour, to sell him the suite of twelve chairs on one of which he was sitting at that moment. The engineer was so surprised that he let go of Father Theodore’s shoulders. Father Theodore imme diately flopped down on his knees again and began to crawl round the engineer’s feet like a tortoise. ‘ Why should I ? ’ said the engineer as he tried to escape Father Theodore’s clutching hand. ‘ Why should I sell my chairs to you ? You can go down on your knees as often as you like, but that won’t help matters.’ ‘ But they are my chairs,’ Father Theodore groaned. ‘ What d’you mean, they are your chairs ? How do you make that out ? ’ The engineer turned to his wife : ‘ This man is mad, darling ! ’ ‘ They are mine ! ’ said Father Theodore quietly. ‘ Do you mean to tell me that I’ve stolen them from you ? ’ said the engineer angrily. ‘ Well, have I stolen them from you ? Do you hear what the fellow says ? It’s positively disgusting ! ’ ‘ No ! No ! ’ whispered Father Theodore. ' If I’ve stolen them from you, why don’t you go to court about it instead of creating a disturbance here ? What cheek ! A man can’t even have his dinner in peace ! ’ But Father Theodore did not want to take the matter to court : he certainly did not. He knew that the engineer Bruns would not dream of doing such a thing as steal his chairs. Oh, no ! Such a thought had never entered his head. But those chairs had
