FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39  
40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   >>   >|  
believer like your brother read a Kempis so feelingly, I very nearly lose my faith in Christianity as well. I like him for one other reason, dear, because he is your brother. But that is all! Oh! Jeanne Dessalle says such strange things sometimes--such strange things! I do not understand--I really do not understand. But _warte nur, du Raethsel_, as my governess used to say." "What am I to wait for?" Noemi threw her arm round her friend's neck, "I will drag your soul with so fine a net that it will bring beautiful great pearls to the surface, perhaps some sea-weed as well, and a little mud from the bottom, or even a very tiny _pioeuvre_." "You do not know me," answered Jeanne. "You are the only one of my friends who does not know me." "Of course. You imagine that only those who adore you really know you? Indeed, this belief that everybody adores you is a craze of yours." Jeanne made the little pouting grimace with which all her friends were familiar. "What a foolish girl," she said; but at once softened the expression with a kiss and a half-sad, half-quizzical smile. "Women, as I have always told you, do adore me. Do you mean to say that you do not?" "_Mais point du tout_," exclaimed Noemi. Jeanne's eyes sparkled with mischief and kindness. "In Italian we say: _Si, di tutto cuore_," she answered. The Dessalles, brother and sister, had spent the preceding summer at Maloja. Jeanne striving to make herself a pleasant companion, and hiding as best she could her incurable wound; Carlino searching out traces of Nietzsche in mystic hours round Sils Maria or in worldly moments flitting like a butterfly from one woman to another, frequently dining at St. Moritz, or at Pontresina, making music with a military attache of the German Embassy at Rome, or with Noemi d'Arxel, and discussing religious questions with Noemi's sister and brother-in-law. The two d'Arxel sisters, orphans, were Belgian by birth, but of Dutch and Protestant ancestry. The elder, Maria, after a peculiar and romantic courtship, had married the old Italian philosopher Giovanni Selva, who would be famous in his own country, did Italians take a deeper interest in theological questions; for Selva is perhaps the truest representative of progressive Catholicism in Italy. Maria had become a Roman Catholic before her marriage. The Selvas spent the winter in Rome, the rest of the year at Subiaco. Noemi, who had remained true to the faith of her fathers,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39  
40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Jeanne

 

brother

 

questions

 

answered

 

friends

 
strange
 

Italian

 

understand

 

sister

 

things


Pontresina
 

companion

 

making

 

pleasant

 

striving

 

German

 

Embassy

 
summer
 

preceding

 

attache


Maloja

 

military

 

hiding

 

worldly

 

moments

 

searching

 
Carlino
 
traces
 

Nietzsche

 
flitting

butterfly

 

dining

 

mystic

 
incurable
 

frequently

 

Moritz

 

representative

 

truest

 
progressive
 

Catholicism


theological

 

interest

 

Italians

 

deeper

 

Subiaco

 

remained

 
fathers
 
winter
 

Catholic

 

marriage