In company with these gentlemen, my cousin and I,
preconcertedly paid uncle Rumgudgeon a visit on the afternoon of
Sunday, October the tenth,- just three weeks after the memorable
decision which had so cruelly defeated our hopes. For about half an
hour the conversation ran upon ordinary topics, but at last, we
contrived, quite naturally, to give it the following turn:
CAPT. PRATT. "Well I have been absent just one year.- Just one
year to-day, as I live- let me see! yes!- this is October the tenth.
You remember, Mr. Rumgudgeon, I called, this day year to bid you
good-bye. And by the way, it does seem something like a coincidence,
does it not- that our friend, Captain Smitherton, here, has been
absent exactly a year also- a year to-day!"
SMITHERTON. "Yes! just one year to a fraction. You will remember,
Mr. Rumgudgeon, that I called with Capt. Pratol on this very day, last
year, to pay my parting respects."
UNCLE. "Yes, yes, yes- I remember it very well- very queer indeed!
Both of you gone just one year. A very strange coincidence, indeed!
Just what Doctor Dubble L. Dee would denominate an extraordinary
concurrence of events. Doctor Dub-"
KATE. [Interrupting.] "To be sure, papa, it is something strange;
but then Captain Pratt and Captain Smitherton didn't go altogether the
same route, and that makes a difference, you know.
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