FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   >>  
appy when they are near," a little, dark-eyed woman, clad in picturesque robes of brilliant crimson and gold, said rapidly, as she threw herself down on a pile of soft cushions opposite the sweet, pale mother. Lianor sighed, but she could not look sad long with those loved children clasped in her arms. "I cannot understand Manuel," she said, with a puzzled expression in her eyes; "he is so strange, sometimes gay--almost too gay; then he relapses into a gloomy, brooding apathy, from which even the children have no power to rouse him." "But you have. He is never too morose to have a smile for you. I think, sometimes, he feels lonely. You are bound to him, yet your heart is as unresponsive to his passionate love as if you were strangers," Savitre said, thoughtfully. "Do you think so, Savitre? I am indeed sorry; but you know how impossible it is to forget my first love. I like Manuel, but beyond that, affection--except for my darlings--is dead; buried in Luiz's grave." "Hush! here comes Manuel," Savitre whispered, warningly. It was indeed Manuel, older and graver-looking than of yore, with a deep melancholy in his eyes, brought there only by intense suffering. Savitre, on his entrance, softly glided from the room, leaving husband and wife alone. "Lianor," he began, a bright smile lighting up his face as he bent to kiss her fair brow, "I have been thinking, and am resolved to quit India and return to Portugal. I have been here long enough. Don't you think that will be pleasant, dearest?" "Nothing would please me more," Lianor cried, delightedly. "The greatest wish of my life is to see Portugal once more, to show our country to our children," bending to kiss her tiny daughter's face. "Then it will be granted. Prepare to start as soon as possible. Now, I am determined to leave here. Something seems to urge me to go at once." Only too anxious, Lianor began her arrangements. Savitre, who had never cared to leave her friend before, even to become Panteleone's bride, entered into the preparations with unconcealed eagerness. She had faithfully promised her lover that, once in Portugal, she would, with his father's approval, marry him. Lianor felt no regret at leaving India, except for a loved grave--her father's--which she had so carefully tended. Not many days after, Manuel Tonza, his wife, children, Panteleone, and Savitre, accompanied by several faithful servants, including Lalli and Tolla, em
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   >>  



Top keywords:
Savitre
 

Manuel

 

Lianor

 

children

 

Portugal

 
leaving
 
father
 

Panteleone

 
pleasant
 

accompanied


Nothing

 

regret

 
carefully
 

tended

 
dearest
 

lighting

 
bright
 
husband
 

including

 

faithful


return

 

resolved

 

thinking

 

servants

 

approval

 

determined

 

unconcealed

 

preparations

 

entered

 

friend


anxious

 
Something
 

arrangements

 

Prepare

 

promised

 
greatest
 

faithfully

 
daughter
 

granted

 
bending

eagerness
 

country

 
delightedly
 
clasped
 

understand

 

puzzled

 
sighed
 

expression

 
strange
 

apathy