Read "Velvet Ear-Pads" by Edith Wharton online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Professor Loring G. Hibbart, of Purewater University, Clio, N. Y., / settled himself in the corner of his compartment in the / Marseilles-Ventimiglia express, drew his velvet ear-pads from his / pocket, slipped them over his ears, and began to think.
It was nearly three weeks since he had been able to indulge undisturbed / in this enchanting operation. On the steamer which had brought him from / Boston to Marseilles considerable opportunity had in truth been afforded / him, for though he had instantly discovered his fellow-passengers to be / insinuating and pervasive, an extremely rough passage had soon reduced / them to inoffensiveness. Unluckily the same cause had in like manner / affected the Professor; and when the ship approached calmer waters, and / he began to revive, the others revived also, and proceeded to pervade, / to insinuate and even to multiply-since a lady gave birth to twins as / they entered the Mediterranean.