The Small World by Max Brand

Author:Max Brand [Brand, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Short Stories
Publisher: Roy Glashan's Library
Published: 2014-10-05T22:00:00+00:00

HE LOOKED at her eyes through the smoke. They seemed more green than gray and a strange chill of apprehension went through Smythe; but at this moment a very odd thing happened. A police dog went by on a leash and the bull terrier got stealthily to his feet and smiled a pink, hungry smile.

“Zipper! Lie down!” said the average girl.

The dog crouched to the floor again.

“Do you know…” began Smythe, a little puzzled.

“I know Zipper pretty well,” she said. “But I didn’t know that my cousin Truman Wilson was your cousin. Did you?”

Somehow Smythe got the bill paid and carted that fifty pounds of white weight out into the fresh air.

At this point I said: “After all, why be so serious? The dog gag is as good as ever.”

He shook his head. There was poetic sorrow in his face.

He said: “No, whenever I take a dog into a crowd, I feel that half the women whose backs are turned to me may be that girl… Half the people in the street look like her… I would hardly know her if I saw her again, but she would know me… When I go out at night, I sort of sneak around, think twice before I speak, and look before I leap. My morale is all gone.”

I saw that old Smythe really was a sensitive soul.

I could only say: “I’m sorry!”

He took another drink, and then breathed out the words: “I come from the West, you know… And I always had a feeling that the world was a pretty big place…”

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