FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   2564   2565   2566   2567   2568   2569   2570   2571   2572   2573   2574   2575   2576   2577   2578   2579   2580   2581   2582   2583   2584   2585   2586   2587   2588  
2589   2590   2591   2592   2593   2594   2595   2596   2597   2598   2599   2600   2601   2602   2603   2604   2605   2606   2607   2608   2609   2610   2611   2612   2613   >>   >|  
red a second transportation of the ships' cargoes unnecessary. The white mansion had not yet been devoted to any other purpose when the owner determined to offer the spacious empty rooms of the ware house to his nephews, the sculptors Hermon and Myrtilus, for the production of two works with whose completion he associated expectations of good fortune both for the young artists, who were his nephews and wards, and himself. The very extensive building which now contained the studios and spacious living apartments for the sculptors and their slaves would also have afforded ample room for his daughter and her attendants, but Daphne had learned from the reports of the artists that rats, mice, and other disagreeable vermin shared the former storehouse with them, so she had preferred to have tents pitched in the large open space which belonged it. True, the broad field was exposed to the burning sun, and its soil was covered only with sand and pitiably scorched turf, but three palm trees, a few sunt acacias, two carob trees, a small clump of fig trees, and the superb, wide-branched sycamore on the extreme outer edge had won for it the proud name of a "garden." Now a great change in its favour had taken place, for Daphne's beautiful tent, with walls and top of blue and white striped sail-cloth, and the small adjoining tents of the same colours, gave it a brighter aspect. The very roomy main tent contained the splendidly furnished sitting and dining rooms. The beds occupied by Daphne and her companion, Chrysilla, had been placed in an adjoining one, which was nearly as large, and the cook, with his assistants, was quartered in a third. The head keeper, the master of the hounds, and most of the slaves remained in the transports which had followed the state galley. Some had slept under the open sky beside the dog kennel hastily erected for Daphne's pack of hounds. So, on the morning after the wholly unexpected arrival of the owner's daughter, the "garden" in front of the white house, but yesterday a desolate field, resembled an encampment, whose busy life was varied and noisy enough. Slaves and freedmen had been astir before sunrise, for Daphne was up betimes in order to begin the hunt in the early hour when the birds left their secret nooks on the islands. Her cousins, the young sculptors, to please her, had gone out, too, but the sport did not last long; for when the market place of Tennis, just between the m
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   2564   2565   2566   2567   2568   2569   2570   2571   2572   2573   2574   2575   2576   2577   2578   2579   2580   2581   2582   2583   2584   2585   2586   2587   2588  
2589   2590   2591   2592   2593   2594   2595   2596   2597   2598   2599   2600   2601   2602   2603   2604   2605   2606   2607   2608   2609   2610   2611   2612   2613   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Daphne

 

sculptors

 

artists

 

contained

 
slaves
 

garden

 

adjoining

 

hounds

 

daughter

 

nephews


spacious

 

assistants

 

Chrysilla

 

quartered

 

remained

 
transports
 

companion

 
keeper
 

master

 

occupied


Tennis

 

colours

 

striped

 

market

 

brighter

 

sitting

 

dining

 

furnished

 

aspect

 

splendidly


encampment

 

islands

 
resembled
 
desolate
 

betimes

 

yesterday

 

sunrise

 

freedmen

 
Slaves
 

varied


secret

 

cousins

 
galley
 

wholly

 

unexpected

 
arrival
 

morning

 
kennel
 

hastily

 

erected