FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
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   >>   >|  
ink and the pith of the great philosophers such as John Oliver Hobbes, Locke, Hume and Earl Spencer; the biting sarcasm of Hiny, the pathos of Peps, the oratorical master-strokes of such men as Gladstone, Demosthenes and Keir Hardie; the romance of Kipling, sir, of Bret Harte and Danty Rossini; the poetry of Kempis a Browning and of Elizabeth Thomas Barrett--all, all are there bound in Persian calf. Among these she seeks for solace. To these she flies in hours of anguish." "Does she indeed?" said the Prophet, feeling thoroughly overwhelmed. "She desires me to take you to her at once, sir, there to confer and"--he lowered his voice and trembled visibly--"to arrange measures for the protection of my life." The Prophet found himself wishing that he had been less precipitate in covertly alluding to Sir Tiglath's long desire of assault and battery, but before he had time to wish anything for more than half a minute, Mr. Sagittarius had guided him ceremoniously across the hall and was turning the handle of a door that was decorated with black and scarlet paint. "Here, sir," he whispered, "you will find Madame surrounded by the authors whom she loves, by their portraits, their biographies and their writings. Here she communes with the great philosophers, sir, the poets, the historians and the humourists of the entire world, from the earliest days down to this very moment--in Persian calf, sir." He gazed awfully at the Prophet, and gently opened the door of this temple of the intellect. The Prophet expected to find himself ushered into a gigantic chamber, lined from floor to ceiling with shelves that groaned beneath their burden of the literature of genius. Indeed he had, in fancy, beheld even the chairs and couches covered with stacks of volumes, the very floor littered with the choicest productions of the brains of the dead and living. His surprise was, therefore, very great when, on passing through the door, he beheld Madame Sagittarius reposing at full length upon a maroon sofa in a small apartment, whose bare walls, were entirely innocent of book-shelves. Indeed the only thing of the sort which was visible was a dwarf revolving bookcase which stood beside the sofa, and contained some twenty volumes bound, as Mr. Sagittarius had stated, in Persian calf, each of these volumes being numbered and adorned with a label on which was printed in letters of gold, "The Library of Famous Literature: Edited by Dr. Carter. Ta
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Prophet
 

Persian

 

Sagittarius

 

volumes

 

shelves

 
philosophers
 
Madame
 

Indeed

 
beheld
 

ceiling


genius

 

chairs

 
literature
 

beneath

 
burden
 

groaned

 
opened
 
entire
 

humourists

 

earliest


historians

 

portraits

 

biographies

 

writings

 

communes

 

moment

 

expected

 

intellect

 

ushered

 

gigantic


temple

 
couches
 

gently

 

chamber

 

surprise

 
contained
 

twenty

 
stated
 

bookcase

 
visible

revolving
 

numbered

 
Edited
 
Literature
 

Carter

 

Famous

 
Library
 

adorned

 
printed
 

letters