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Title: The Trembling of a Leaf
Little Stories of the South Sea Islands

Author: William Somerset Maugham

Release Date: October 9, 2008 [EBook #26854]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE TREMBLING
OF A LEAF

_Little Stories of the South Sea Islands_

BY
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

AUTHOR OF "THE MOON AND SIXPENCE,"
"OF HUMAN BONDAGE," ETC.

NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1921,

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

* * * * *

TO
BERTRAM ALANSON

* * * * *

_L'extreme felicite a peine separee par
une feuille tremblante de l'extreme
desespoir, n'est-ce pas la vie?_

SAINTE-BEUVE.

* * * * *

CONTENTS

I THE PACIFIC

II MACKINTOSH

III THE FALL OF EDWARD BARNARD

IV RED

V THE POOL

VI HONOLULU

VII RAIN

VIII ENVOI

THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF

I

_The Pacific_

The Pacific is inconstant and uncertain like the soul of man. Sometimes
it is grey like the English Channel off Beachy Head, with a heavy swell,
and sometimes it is rough, capped with white crests, and boisterous. It
is not so often that it is calm and blue. Then, indeed, the blue is
arrogant. The sun shines fiercely from an unclouded sky. The trade wind
gets into your blood and you are filled with an impatience for the
unknown. The billows, magnificently rolling, stretch widely on all sides
of you, and you forget your vanished youth, with its memories, cruel and
sweet, in a restless, intolerable desire for life. On such a sea as this
Ulysses sailed when he sought the Happy Isles. But there are days also
when the Pacific is like a lake. The sea is flat and shining. The flying
fish, a gleam of shadow on the brightness of a mirror, make little
fountains of sparkling drops when they di