FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>   >|  
omesick." "There are plenty in Italy," his wife suggested. "We must get down there before we go home." "But why did nobody ever tell us that there were no flies in Germany? Why did no traveller ever put it in his book? When your stewardess said so on the steamer, I remember that you regarded it as a bluff." He turned to Burnamy, who was listening with the deference of a contributor: "Isn't Lili rather long? I mean for such a very prompt person. Oh, no!" But Burnamy got to his feet, and shouted "Fraulein!" to Lili; with her hireling at her heels she was flying down a distant aisle between the tables. She called back, with a face laughing over her shoulder, "In a minute!" and vanished in the crowd. "Does that mean anything in particular? There's really no hurry." "Oh, I think she'll come now," said Burnamy. March protested that he had only been amused at Lili's delay; but his wife scolded him for his impatience; she begged Burnamy's pardon, and repeated civilities passed between them. She asked if he did not think some of the young ladies were pretty beyond the European average; a very few had style; the mothers were mostly fat, and not stylish; it was well not to regard the fathers too closely; several old gentlemen were clearing their throats behind their newspapers, with noises that made her quail. There was no one so effective as the Austrian officers, who put themselves a good deal on show, bowing from their hips to favored groups; with the sun glinting from their eyeglasses, and their hands pressing their sword-hilts, they moved between the tables with the gait of tight-laced women. "They all wear corsets," Burnamy explained. "How much you know already!" said Mrs. March. "I can see that Europe won't be lost on you in anything. Oh, who's that?" A lady whose costume expressed saris at every point glided up the middle aisle of the grove with a graceful tilt. Burnamy was silent. "She must be an American. Do you know who she is?" "Yes." He hesitated, a little to name a woman whose tragedy had once filled the newspapers. Mrs. March gazed after her with the fascination which such tragedies inspire. "What grace! Is she beautiful?" "Very." Burnamy had not obtruded his knowledge, but somehow Mrs. March did not like his knowing who she was, and how beautiful. She asked March to look, but he refused. "Those things are too squalid," he said, and she liked him for saying it; she hoped it would not be los
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Burnamy

 

tables

 

newspapers

 

beautiful

 

corsets

 

explained

 

Europe

 

bowing

 
groups
 

favored


effective

 

Austrian

 

officers

 

glinting

 

eyeglasses

 

pressing

 

American

 
obtruded
 

knowledge

 

fascination


tragedies
 

inspire

 

knowing

 

squalid

 

things

 

refused

 

filled

 

glided

 

middle

 

graceful


costume

 

expressed

 

silent

 
tragedy
 

hesitated

 
prompt
 

person

 

contributor

 

turned

 

listening


deference

 
shouted
 
laughing
 
called
 

distant

 

Fraulein

 
hireling
 

flying

 

regarded

 

remember