The Opal Serpent

CHAPTER I

DON QUIXOTE IN LONDON

Simon Beecot was a country gentleman with a small income, a small estate and a mind considerably smaller than either. He dwelt at Wargrove in Essex and spent his idle hours--of which he possessed a daily and nightly twenty-four--in snarling at his faded wife and in snapping between whiles at his son. Mrs. Beecot, having been bullied into old age...