FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   162   163   164   165   166   >>   >|  
eman, ye gods! Teach a tiger to sit up and beg! He has a most amazing patience, but I guess even he realises by now that the beast is untamable. Mrs. Errol saw it long ago. There's a fine woman for you--A.1., gilt-edged, quality of the best. You know Mrs. Errol, you say?" "Yes, I know her." Anne heard the words, but was not conscious of uttering them. Capper gave her a single straight look. "You wouldn't think, would you," said he, "that that woman carries a broken heart about with her? But I assure you that's so. Nap Errol was the tragedy of her life." That quickened her to interest. She was conscious of a gradual sinking downwards of her dismay till it came to rest somewhere deep in her inmost soul, leaving the surface free for other impressions. "He came out of nowhere," Capper went on. "She never tried to account for him. He was her husband's son. She made him hers. But he's been a tiger's cub all his life, a hurricane, a firebrand. He and Bertie are usually at daggers drawn and Lucas spends his time keeping the peace; which is about as wearing an occupation for a sick man as I can imagine. I want to put a stop to it, Lady Carfax. I speak as one family friend to another. Lucas seems to like you. I believe you could make him see reason if you took the trouble. Women are proverbially ingenious." Anne's faint smile showed for a moment. They had entered the herb garden and were passing slowly down the central path. It was a small enclosure surrounded by clipped yew hedges and intersected by green walks. The evening sunlight slanting down upon her, had turned her brown hair to ruddiest gold. There was no agitation about her now. The grey eyes were gravely thoughtful. She bent presently to pluck a sprig of rosemary. "Will you tell me," she said, "what it is that you want to do?" Capper shot her a keen side-glance. "I want to cure him," he said. "I want to make a whole man of him." "Could you?" she asked. "I could." Abruptly Capper stopped. His yellow face was curiously aglow. "I say I could," he asserted almost fiercely, "if I could choose my conditions. If I could banish that pestilent brother of his, if I could rouse him to something like energy, if I could turn his will in one direction only, I could do it. Given his whole-hearted co-operation, I could do it. Without it, I am powerless. He would simply die of inanition." "It would mean an operation then? A very serious one?" Anne had paused upon
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   162   163   164   165   166   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Capper

 

conscious

 

operation

 

enclosure

 

slanting

 

Without

 

central

 

surrounded

 
intersected
 

sunlight


hedges
 

slowly

 

clipped

 
hearted
 

evening

 
powerless
 
proverbially
 

ingenious

 

trouble

 

paused


showed

 

moment

 
simply
 

garden

 
turned
 

entered

 

inanition

 

passing

 
stopped
 

yellow


Abruptly

 

glance

 

reason

 

curiously

 

choose

 

banish

 

conditions

 

pestilent

 
fiercely
 
asserted

brother

 

gravely

 

thoughtful

 

presently

 

agitation

 

ruddiest

 

energy

 

direction

 

rosemary

 

keeping