FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167  
168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   >>   >|  
ays. But what _did_ he say?" "Well, of course, I oughtn't to tell you this, because I promised not. What he _said_ was that your mother went out to be married to your father in India, and the year after he got a divorce because he was jealous of some man your mother had met on the way out." "How old was I?" "Gracious me, child! how should _I_ know. He only said you were a baby in arms. Of course, you must have been, if you think of it." Laetitia here feels that possible calculations may be embarrassing, and tries to avert them. "Do let's get on to the third movement. We shall spend all the afternoon talking." "Very well, Tishy, fire away! Oh, no; it's me." And the third movement is got under way, till we reach a _pizzicato_ passage which Sally begins playing with the bow by mistake. "That's _pits_!" says the first violin, and we have to begin again at the top of the page, and the Professor in his library wonders why on earth those girls can't play straight on. The Ancient Phoenicians are fidgeted by the jerks in the music. But it comes to an end in time, and then Sally begins again: "I _know_ that story's all nonsense now, Tishy." "Why?" "Because mother told me once that my father never saw me, so come now! Because the new-bornest baby that ever was couldn't be too small for its father to see." Sally pauses reflectively, then adds: "Unless he was blind. And mother would have said if he'd been blind." "He couldn't have been blind, because----" "Now, Tishy, you see! You're keeping back lots of things that old wheezy squeaker said. And you _ought_ to tell me--you know you ought. Why couldn't he?" "You're in such a hurry, dear. I was going to tell you. Major Roper said he never saw him but once, and it was out shooting tigers, and he was the best shot for a civilian he'd ever seen. There was a tiger was just going to lay hold of a man and carry him off when your father shot him from two hundred yards off----" "The man or the tiger? I'm on the tiger's side. I always am." "The tiger, stupid! You wouldn't want your own father to aim at a tiger and hit a man?" Sally reflects. "I don't think I should. But, I say, Tishy, do you mean to say that Major Roper meant to say that he was out shooting with my father and didn't know what his name was?" "Oh, no. He said his name, of course. It was Palliser ... that was right, wasn't it?" "Oh dear, no; it was Graythorpe. Palliser indeed!" "It was tr
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167  
168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

father

 

mother

 

couldn

 

shooting

 

movement

 

Because

 

Palliser

 

begins

 
reflectively

bornest

 
things
 

Unless

 

pauses

 
keeping
 

reflects

 
wouldn
 
stupid
 

Graythorpe


civilian

 

tigers

 

squeaker

 

hundred

 
nonsense
 

wheezy

 
violin
 

calculations

 

Laetitia


embarrassing

 
promised
 

oughtn

 

married

 

Gracious

 

jealous

 

divorce

 

afternoon

 

talking


Professor

 

library

 
wonders
 
straight
 

Ancient

 

Phoenicians

 

fidgeted

 

pizzicato

 

passage


playing

 

mistake