FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   >>  
say that something important came for ye in the morning mails. She wants ye at once." With a firm and masterly hand he detached Percy and sent him off. Then he turned to Isabelle. "Ye can play tricks on Percy and your other youngsters, but not on me." "I haven't the slightest interest in playing tricks on you," she answered. She sat down, opened a parasol, and planted it in the sand. He threw himself down beside her. "You are a very interesting little girl," he remarked, "but you have a great deal to learn." "Teach me!" she exclaimed, with such ingenuous enthusiasm that he was at a loss to know whether she was making fun of him or not. "I will. First, you mustn't be so pricklish." "It's the only way to protect yourself." "Against what?" "People." "Ye start on the basis that people are your enemies?" "I think they are." "Look here, tell me about yourself. What shall I call you? Do I have to say 'Miss Bryce'?" "My name is Isabelle." "Doesn't suit ye. Have ye no pet name?" "Somebody I liked once called me 'the cricket'." "That's it--Cricket--may I call ye that?" "Yes." "Now, Cricket, tell me all about yourself." She looked at him intently for a moment. He lay stretched out on the sand, his elbow crooked to support his head. He looked frankly back at her. "Go on, as friend to friend," he urged. And she did. She did not touch it up a bit. She made him see her life, her people, the Benjamins, her experience at Miss Vantine's--all--through the eyes of her youth, her wistful youth. She told him about Martin Christiansen; she even confessed the fearful catastrophe with Cartel; and she did not mind when he rolled on his back and sent gusts of laughter up to the clouds. "O ye delicious, crickety Cricket!" he groaned. "Go on." "There isn't any 'on'. That's up to now. Tell me about you." And he did. He told her about his people, his young life near Dublin. How he went to an English University, how he enlisted in the war. He told her about his life in the trenches, about his wounds, about his decoration. He talked as he had talked to no one else about the whole experience of war. She sat tense and still, concentrated on his every word. When he had finished, they sat in silence for several seconds. "And that's up to now, for me." "You've got to go back?--there?" "When I'm well again." Her tell-tale face registered her distress. He laid his hand over her little brown
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   >>  



Top keywords:
Cricket
 

people

 

talked

 
experience
 

Isabelle

 

looked

 

friend

 

tricks

 

catastrophe

 

frankly


Cartel

 
fearful
 

Vantine

 
rolled
 
confessed
 

Benjamins

 

wistful

 

Martin

 

Christiansen

 

laughter


trenches

 

seconds

 

silence

 

finished

 

concentrated

 
distress
 

registered

 

Dublin

 

delicious

 

crickety


groaned

 

wounds

 
decoration
 

support

 

enlisted

 

English

 

University

 

clouds

 

interesting

 

remarked


opened
 
parasol
 

planted

 

enthusiasm

 

ingenuous

 
exclaimed
 

answered

 
playing
 
masterly
 

morning