FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136  
137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>   >|  
er a great lilac tree in full purple bloom. She moved to it and sat down, but Nap remained upon his feet, watching her still. The air was laden with perfume--the wonderful indescribable essences of spring. Away in the distance, faintly heard, arose the bleating of lambs. Near at hand, throned among the purple flowers above their heads, a thrush was pouring out the rapture that thrilled his tiny life. The whole world pulsed to the one great melody--the universal, wordless song. Only the man and the woman were silent as intruders in a sacred place. Anne moved at last. She looked up very steadily, and spoke. "It seems like holy ground," she said. Her voice was hushed, yet it had in it a note of pleading. Her eyes besought him. And in answer Nap leaned down with a sudden, tigerish movement and laid his hand on hers. "What have I to do with holiness?" he said. "Anne, come down from that high pedestal of yours! I'm tired of worshipping a goddess. I want a woman--a woman! I shall worship you none the less because I hold you in my arms." It was done. The spell was broken. Those quick, passionate words had swept away her last hope of escape. She was forced to meet him face to face, to meet him and to do battle. For a long second she sat quite still, almost as if stunned. Then sharply she turned her face aside, as one turns from the unbearable heat and radiance when the door of a blast-furnace is suddenly opened. "Oh, Nap," she said, and there was a sound of heart-break in her words, "What a pity! What a pity!" "Why?" he demanded fiercely. "I have the right to speak--to claim my own. Are you going to deny it--you who always speak the truth?" "You have no right," she answered, still with her face averted. "No man has ever the faintest right to say to another man's wife what you have just said to me." "And you think I will give you up," he said, "for that?" She did not at once reply. Only after a moment she freed her hands from his hold, and the action seemed to give her strength. She spoke, her voice very clear and resolute. "I am not going to say anything unkind to you. You have already borne too much for my sake. But--you must know that this is the end of everything. It is the dividing of the ways--where we must say good-bye." "Is it?" he said. He looked down at her with his brief, thin-lipped smile. "Then--if that's so--look at me--look at me, Anne, and tell me that you don't love me!" She made an
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136  
137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
looked
 

purple

 

fiercely

 
stunned
 

demanded

 

sharply

 

lipped

 

radiance

 

unbearable

 

furnace


turned

 
suddenly
 

opened

 
unkind
 
resolute
 

moment

 

action

 

strength

 

averted

 

answered


faintest

 

dividing

 

pouring

 

rapture

 

thrilled

 
thrush
 

flowers

 

silent

 

intruders

 

sacred


wordless

 

pulsed

 
melody
 

universal

 

throned

 

remained

 

watching

 

perfume

 

faintly

 

bleating


distance
 
wonderful
 

indescribable

 

essences

 

spring

 
steadily
 

broken

 
goddess
 
worship
 

battle