The rougher or
Bohemian element, being required to spring an extra shilling, would
doubtless seek other places.
For two days we again filed through mountain gorges of a most awkward
character, reaching Red Gap at dusk. For this I was rather grateful,
not only because of my beard and the overalls, but on account of a hat
of the most shocking description which Cousin Egbert had pressed upon
me when my own deer-stalker was lost in a glen. I was willing to
roughen it in all good-fellowship with these worthy Americans, but I
knew that to those who had remarked my careful taste in dress my
present appearance would seem almost a little singular. I would rather
I did not shock them to this extent.
Yet when our animals had been left in their corral, or rude enclosure,
I found it would be ungracious to decline the hospitality of my new
friends who wished to drink to the success of the U.S. Grill, and so I
accompanied them to several public houses, though with the shocking
hat pulled well down over my face. Also, as the dinner hour passed, I
consented to dine with them at the establishment of a Chinese, where
we sat on high stools at a counter and were served ham and eggs and
some of the simpler American foods.
The meal being over, I knew that we ought to cut off home directly,
but Cousin Egbert again insisted upon visiting drinking-places, and I
had no mind to leave him, particularly as he was growing more and more
bitter in my behalf against Mr.
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