FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80  
81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   >>   >|  
lt so roughly with him thus far. He fell from the frying-pan into the fire; he exchanged his servitude for a still worse slavery. When he left the land of Egypt, he fancied he saw the palms of the promised land. Alas! it was not long before he regretted Egypt and Pharaoh! Why was not this woman Portia? why was she neither young nor beautiful?" And he added: "Ah! old fairy, you made him suffer!" It seemed to Count Larinski that this woman, this ugly fairy who had made Samuel Brohl suffer so much, stood there, before him, and that she scanned him from head to foot, as a fairy, whether old or young, might scan a worm. She had an imperious, contemptuous smile on her lips, the smile of a czarina; so Catharine II smiled, when she was dissatisfied with Potemkin, and said to herself, "I made him what he is, and to-morrow I can ruin him." "Yes, it was she, it was surely she," thought Count Larinski. "I cannot mistake. I saw her five weeks ago, in the Vallee du Diable; she made me tremble!" This woman who had taken Samuel Brohl from out of the land of Egypt, and had showered attentions upon him, was a Russian princess. She owned an estate of Podolia, and chance would have it that one day, in passing, she stopped at the tavern where young Samuel was growing up in the shadow of the tabernacle. He was then sixteen. In spite of his squalid rags, she was struck by his figure. She was a woman of intelligence, and had no prejudices. "When he is well washed and cared for," she thought, "when he is divested of his native impurities, when he has seen the world and had communication with honest people, he certainly will be a noble fellow." She made him talk, and found him intelligent; she liked intelligent men. She made him sing, assured herself that he had a voice; she adored music. She questioned him; he told her all his misery, and while he talked she said to herself: "No, I do not mistake; he has a future before him; in two or three years he will be superb. Three years is not long: the gardener who grafts a young tree is often condemned to wait longer than that." When he had ended his narrative, she told him that she was in want of a secretary, that she had had several, but that she had soon tired of them, on account of their not having the desired qualifications; she asked him if he would like to accept the position. He replied only by pointing his finger to his father, who was smoking his pipe on the door-step. A moment later she w
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80  
81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Samuel

 

Larinski

 

suffer

 
mistake
 
intelligent
 

thought

 
fellow
 

honest

 

people

 

assured


adored
 

finger

 

smoking

 

father

 

communication

 
struck
 

figure

 

intelligence

 

squalid

 
sixteen

prejudices

 
native
 

impurities

 

moment

 

divested

 

washed

 

pointing

 
condemned
 

grafts

 

superb


gardener

 

desired

 

longer

 

account

 

narrative

 

qualifications

 

misery

 

talked

 

position

 

replied


questioned

 

accept

 

future

 

secretary

 

Diable

 

beautiful

 
scanned
 

Portia

 

exchanged

 

frying