Abroad with the Jimmies
BY
LILIAN BELL,
AUTHOR OF
"THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF AN OLD MAID,""THE EXPATRIATES," ETC.
LONDON:
WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED,
NEW YORK & MELBOURNE.
Lilian Bell
Duogravure
From the Painting by Oliver Dennett Grover
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO My Dear Father, WHOSE HIGH TYPEOF PATRIOTISM, STEADFAST LOYALTY TO THE GOVERNMENT, AND DEVOTION TOHIS FAMILY HAVE TAUGHT ME WHEREIN LIE THE IDEALS OF LIFE.
Preface
If the critical public had cared to snub Mr. and Mrs. Jimmie andBee, I, who am a fighting champion of theirs, would never have runthe risk of boring it by a further chronicle of their travels. Butfrom a careful survey of my mail, I may say that the present volumeof their doings and undoings is a direct result of the friendshipsthey formed in "As Seen by Me," and has almost literally beenwritten by request.
With which statement, as the flushed and nervous singer, whoresponds to friendly clappings, comes forward, bows, sings, andretires, so do I, and the curtain falls on the Jimmies and Bee andme, all kissing our hands to the gallery.
Contents
CHAPTER I
It speaks volumes for an amiability I have always claimed formyself through sundry fierce disputes on the subject with mysister, that, even after two years of travel in Europe with her andMr. and Mrs. Jimmie, they should still wish for my company for ajourney across France and Germany to Russia. Bee says it speaksvolumes for the tempers of the Jimmies, but then Bee is my sister,or to put it more properly, I am Bee's sister, and what woman is aheroine to her own sister?
In any event I am not. Bee thinks I am a creature of feebleintelligence who must be "managed." Bee loves to "manage" people,and I, who love to watch her circuitous, diplomatic, velvety,crooked way to a straight end, allow myself to be so "managed;" andso after safely d