FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   53   54   55   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   >>   >|  
d." Clementina did not understand all the implications, but she was willing to take Mr. Hinkle's fun on trust. "I don't believe you'll convince Mrs. Landa that Mr. Belsky's alive and well, till you bring him back to say so." "Is that so!" said Hinkle. "Well, we must have him brought back by the authorities, then. Perhaps they'll bring him, anyway. They can't try him for suicide, but as I understand the police, here, a man can't lose his hat over a bridge in Florence with impunity, especially in a time of high water. Anyway, they're identifying Belsky by due process of law in Rome, now, and I guess Mr. Gregory"--he nodded toward Gregory, who sat silent and absent "will be kept under surveillance till the whole mystery is cleared up." Clementina responded gayly still, but with less and less sincerity, and she let Hinkle go at last with the feeling that he knew she wished him to go. He made a brave show of not seeing this, and when he was gone, she remembered that she had not thanked him for the trouble he had taken on her account, and her heart ached after him with a sense of his sweetness and goodness, which she had felt from the first through his quaint drolling. It was as if the door which closed upon him shut her out of the life she had been living of late, and into the life of the past where she was subject again to the spell of Gregory's mood; it was hardly his will. He began at once: "I wished to make you say something this morning that I have no right to hear you say, yet; and I have been trying ever since to think how I could ask you whether you could share my life with me, and yet not ask you to do it. But I can't do anything without knowing--You may not care for what my life is to be, at all!" Clementina's head drooped a little, but she answered distinctly, "I do ca'e, Mr. Gregory." "Thank you for that much; I don't count upon more than you have said. Clementina, I am going to be a missionary. I think I shall ask to be sent to China; I've not decided yet. My life will be hard; it will be full of danger and privation; it will be exile. You will have to think of sharing such a life if you think--" He stopped; the time had come for her to speak, and she said, "I knew you wanted to be a missionary--" "And--and--you would go with me? You would"--He started toward her, and she did not shrink from him, now; but he checked himself. "But you mustn't, you know, for my sake." "I don't believe I quite u
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   53   54   55   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Gregory

 

Clementina

 

Hinkle

 
missionary
 
wished
 

understand

 
Belsky
 

living

 

subject

 

morning


distinctly
 

sharing

 

stopped

 

privation

 

danger

 
wanted
 

started

 

shrink

 

checked

 
decided

drooped

 
answered
 

knowing

 

Anyway

 

impunity

 

Florence

 

bridge

 
identifying
 

nodded

 

process


brought

 

convince

 

authorities

 

suicide

 

police

 

Perhaps

 

silent

 

absent

 

account

 

trouble


thanked

 

remembered

 

quaint

 

drolling

 

sweetness

 

goodness

 
mystery
 

cleared

 

surveillance

 

implications