Good evening. Welcome to the Just Sleep podcast. I'm Tasia, your host.

Every week, I will read you an old story to help you relax of the stressful day behind you and drift off to sleep.

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Tonight, I will be reading

A Short Story by Robert Barr,

The Clue of the Silver Spoons.

So lie down, close your eyes,

and let me read you a story.

When the card was brought into me, I looked upon it with some misgiving,

where I sent it a commercial transaction, and although such cases are lucrative enough, nevertheless I, Eugene Valmont,

formerly high in the service of the French government, do not care to be connected with them.

They usually pertain to sordid business affairs, presenting little that is of interest,

to a man who, in his time, has dealt with subtle questions of diplomacy

upon which the welfare of nations sometimes turned.

The name of Bentham Gibbs is familiar to everyone, connected as it is with the much-advertised

pickles, whose glaring announcements in crude crimson and green, strike the eye throughout

Great Britain and shock the artistic sense were ever seen.

Me, I've never tasted them, and shall not as long as a French restaurant remains open in London.

But I doubt not they are as pronounced to the palate as their advertisement is distressing to the eye.

...