The Kingdom of the Blind

Book Excerpt: ...by the advent of some acquaintances from an adjoining table, all of whom desired to be presented to Madame Selarne. Major Thomson, set at liberty, made his way at once towards the small table at which Captain Granet and Geraldine Conyers were seated. She welcomed him with a smile."Are you coming to have coffee with us?" she asked?"If I may," he answered. "I shall have to be off in a few minutes."A waiter paused before their table and offered a salver on which were several cups of coffee and liqueur glasses. Captain Granet leaned forward in his place and stretched out his hand to serve his companion. Before he could take the cup, however, the whole tray had slipped from the waiter's fingers, caught the corner of the table, and fallen with its contents on to the carpet. The waiter himself--a small, undersized person with black, startled eyes set at that moment in a fixed and unnatural stare-made one desperate effort to save himself and then fell backwards. Every one turned around, attrac..