You had
to bite it and imbibe it at the same time. To me there has
always been something charming and mystic in the thought of
that delicate velvet globe of fruit, slowly ripening and
warming to perfection through the long summer days and
perfumed nights, and then coming suddenly athwart my life in
the supreme moment of its existence. I can never forget it,
even if I wished to. And when I had devoured all that was
edible of it, there still remained the stone, which a
heedless, thoughtless child would doubtless have thrown
away; I put it down the neck of a young friend who was
wearing a very _d
collet_ sailor suit. I told him it
was a scorpion, and from the way he wriggled and screamed he
evidently believed it, though where the silly kid imagined I
could procure a live scorpion at a garden-party I don't
know. Altogether, that peach is for me an unfading and
happy memory---''
The defeated Tarrington had by this time retreated out of
earshot, comforting himself as best he might with the
reflection that a picnic which included the presence of
Clovis might prove a doubtfully agreeable experience.
``I shall certainly go in for a Parliamentary career,''
said Clovis to himself as he turned complacently to rejoin
his aunt.
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