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   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   >>   >|  
unknown. Clive arrived from Italy after the funeral. The meeting between him and his wife was faultless. He hung about the splendid country place for a while, and spent much time inside the chapel, and also outside, where he directed the planting of some American evergreens, hemlock, spruce, and white pine. But the aromatic perfume of familiar trees was subtly tearing him to tatters; and there came a day when he could no longer endure it. His young wife was playing billiards with Lord Innisbrae, known intimately as Cinders, such a languid and burnt out young man was he, with his hair already white, and every lineament seared with the fires of revels long since sunken into ashes. He watched them for a while, his hands clenched where they rested in his coat pockets, the lean muscles in his cheeks twitching at intervals. When Innisbrae took himself off, Winifred still lounged gracefully along the billiard table taking shots with any ball that lay for her. And Clive looked on, absent-eyed, the flat jaw muscles working at intervals. "Well?" she asked carelessly, laying her cue across the table. "Nothing.... I think I'll clear out to-morrow." "Oh." She did not even inquire where he was going. For that matter he did not know, except that there was one place he could not go--home; the only place he cared to go. He had already offered her divorce--thinking of Innisbrae, or of some of the others. But she did not want it. It was, perhaps, not in her to care enough for any man to go through that amount of trouble. Besides, Their Majesties disapproved divorce. And for this reason alone nothing would have induced her to figure in proceedings certain to exclude her from one or two sets. "Anything I can do for you before I leave?" he asked, dully. It appeared that there was nothing he could do for his young wife before he wandered on in the jolly autumn sunshine. So the next morning he cleared out. Which proceeding languidly interested Innisbrae that evening in the billiard-room. * * * * * That winter Clive got hurt while pig-sticking in Morocco, being but an indifferent spear. During convalescence he read "Under Two Flags," and approved the idea; but when he learned that the Spahi cavalry was not recruiting Americans, and when, a month later, he discovered how much romance did not exist in either the First or Second Foreign Legions, he no longer desired dangers incognit
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   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Innisbrae

 

billiard

 

intervals

 

longer

 

muscles

 

divorce

 

induced

 

figure

 
exclude
 

matter


proceedings

 

disapproved

 

trouble

 

amount

 

thinking

 

Besides

 

reason

 
Anything
 

offered

 

Majesties


proceeding
 

learned

 

cavalry

 

Americans

 

recruiting

 

approved

 

convalescence

 

During

 

Legions

 

Foreign


desired

 

dangers

 

incognit

 
Second
 

discovered

 
romance
 

indifferent

 

sunshine

 

morning

 

cleared


autumn

 
appeared
 
wandered
 
languidly
 

sticking

 

Morocco

 
evening
 

interested

 

winter

 

looked