FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   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   >>   >|  
ers, and thickheaded farmers, was to her a bewilderment and annoyance. She could not understand it, and she resented it. The real Iden she knew was the man of thought and old English taste, who had told her so much by the fireside of that very Shakespeare whom in features he resembled, and of the poets from Elizabethan days downwards. His knowledge seemed to be endless; there was no great author he had not read, no subject upon which he could not at least tell her where to obtain information. Yet she knew he had never had what is now called an education. How clever he must be to know all these things! You see she did not know how wonderful is the gift of observation, which Iden possessed to a degree that was itself genius. Nothing escaped him; therefore his store was great. No other garden was planted as Iden's garden was, in the best of old English taste, with old English flowers and plants, herbs and trees. In summer time it was a glory to see: a place for a poet, a spot for a painter, loved and resorted to by every bird of the air. Of a bare old farmhouse he had made a beautiful home. Questions upon questions her opening mind had poured upon him, and to all he had given her an answer that was an explanation. About the earth and about the sea, the rivers, and living things; about the stars and sun, the comet, the wonders of the firmament, of geology and astronomy, of science; there was nothing he did not seem to know. A man who had crossed the wide ocean as that Ulysses of whom he read to her, and who, like that Ulysses, enjoyed immense physical strength, why was he like this? Why was he so poor? Why did he work in the rain under a sack? Why did he gossip at the stile with the small-brained hamlet idlers? It puzzled her and hurt her at the same time. I cannot explain why it was so, any better than Amaryllis; I could give a hundred reasons, and then there would be no explanation--say partly circumstances, partly lack of a profession in which talent would tell, partly an indecision of character--too much thought--and, after all said and done, Fate. Watching him from the network window, Amaryllis felt her heart drooping, she knew not why, and went back to her drawing unstrung. She worked very hard, and worked in vain. The sketches all came back to her. Some of them had a torn hole at the corner where they had been carelessly filed, others a thumb-mark, others had been folded wrongly, almost all smelt of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

English

 

partly

 

garden

 
worked
 
things
 

explanation

 
thought
 

Ulysses

 

Amaryllis

 

brained


explain
 

idlers

 

puzzled

 

hamlet

 

immense

 
crossed
 

science

 

wonders

 

firmament

 
geology

astronomy

 
enjoyed
 

gossip

 

physical

 

strength

 

Watching

 

sketches

 
drawing
 

unstrung

 

corner


folded

 

wrongly

 

carelessly

 

drooping

 

circumstances

 

profession

 

talent

 

hundred

 

reasons

 

indecision


character

 

network

 

window

 

called

 

education

 

obtain

 
information
 

clever

 

observation

 

possessed