FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   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   >>   >|  
<i>tete-a-tete</i> with her husband's assailant in the press disagreeable and unseemly; and as for Mrs. Alcot, he had disliked her particularly. Kitty looked up unquelled. "''Tis better to have fought and lost Than never to have fought at all--'" she quoted, with one of her most radiant and provoking smiles. "Incorrigible!" cried the Dean, catching up his hat. "I see! Once an Archangel--always an Archangel." "Oh no!" said Kitty. "There may be 'war in heaven.'" "Well, don't take Mrs. Alcot for a leader, that's all," said the Dean, as he held out a hand of farewell. "And now I understand!" cried Kitty, triumphantly. "You detest my best friend." The Dean laughed, protested, and went. Ashe, who had been writing letters while Kitty and the Dean were talking, escorted the old man to the door. * * * * * When he returned he found Kitty sitting with her hands in her lap, lost apparently in thought. "Darling," he said, looking at his watch, "I must be off directly, but I should like to see the boy." Kitty started. She rang, and the child was brought down. He sat on Kitty's knee, and Ashe coming to the sofa, threw an arm round them both. "You are not a bad-looking pair," he said, kissing first Kitty and then the baby. "But he's rather pale, Kitty. I think he wants the country." Kitty said nothing, but she lifted the little white embroidered frock and looked at the twisted foot. Then Ashe felt her shudder. "Dear, don't be morbid!" he cried, resentfully. "He will have so much brains that nobody will remember that. Think of Byron." Kitty did not seem to have heard. "I remember so well when I first saw his foot--after your mother told me--and they brought him to me," she said, slowly. "It seemed to me it was the end--" "The end of what?" "Of my dream." "What <i>do</i> you mean, Kitty!" "Do you remember the mask in the 'Tempest'? First Iris, with saffron wings, and rich Ceres, and great Juno--" She half closed her eyes. "Then the nymphs and the reapers--dancing together on 'the short-grassed green,' the sweetest, gayest show--" She breathed the words out softly. "Then, suddenly--" She sat up stiffly and struck her small hands together: "Prospero starts and speaks. And in a moment--without warning--with 'a strange, hollow, and confused noise'"--she dragged the words drearily--"<i>they heavily vanish</i>. That"--she pointed, shuddering, t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
remember
 

Archangel

 

brought

 
looked
 

fought

 

unseemly

 

slowly

 

disagreeable

 

twisted

 

assailant


embroidered

 
brains
 

morbid

 
resentfully
 
shudder
 

mother

 

Tempest

 

starts

 

speaks

 

moment


Prospero

 

softly

 

suddenly

 

stiffly

 

struck

 
warning
 

strange

 

vanish

 

pointed

 

shuddering


heavily

 

drearily

 
hollow
 

confused

 

dragged

 

breathed

 

saffron

 

closed

 

grassed

 

sweetest


gayest
 
husband
 

nymphs

 

reapers

 

dancing

 
country
 

protested

 
laughed
 
quoted
 

detest