FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   160   161   162   >>   >|  
upon the Spanish landscape. "Too many, too many," said he, at length, musingly, shaking his head and without addressing me. He feared, I thought, that he had too much impracticable property elsewhere to own so much in Spain: so I asked:-- "Will you tell me what you consider the shortest and safest route thither, Mr. Bourne? for, of course, a man who drives such an immense trade with all parts of the world will know all that I have come to inquire." "My dear sir," answered he, wearily, "I have been trying all my life to discover it; but none of my ships have ever been there--none of my captains have any report to make. "They bring me, as they brought my father, gold-dust from Guinea, ivory, pearls, and precious stones from every part of the earth; but not a fruit, not a solitary flower, from one of my castles in Spain. "I have sent clerks, agents, and travellers of all kinds, philosophers, pleasure hunters, and invalids, in all sorts of ships, to all sorts of places, but none of them ever saw or heard of my castles, except a young poet, and he died in a madhouse." "Mr. Bourne, will you take five thousand at ninety-seven?" hastily demanded a man whom, as he entered, I recognized as a broker. "We'll make a splendid thing of it." Bourne nodded assent, and the broker disappeared. "Happy man!" muttered the merchant, as the broker went out; "he has no castles in Spain." "I am sorry to have troubled you, Mr. Bourne," said I, retiring. "I'm glad you came," returned he; "but, I assure you, had I known the route you hoped to ascertain from me I should have sailed years and years ago. People sail for the Northwest Passage, which is nothing when you have found it. Why don't the English Admiralty fit out expeditions to discover all our castles in Spain?" Yet I dream my dreams and attend to my castles in Spain. I have so much property there that I could not in conscience neglect it. All the years of my youth and hopes of my manhood are stored away, like precious stones, in the vaults; and I know that I shall find everything elegant, beautiful, and convenient when I come into possession. As the years go by, I am not conscious that my interest diminishes. Shall I tell a secret? Shall I confess that sometimes when I have been sitting reading to my Prue "Cymbeline," perhaps, or a "Canterbury Tale," I have seemed to see clearly before me the broad highway to my castles in Spain, and, as she looked up from
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   160   161   162   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
castles
 

Bourne

 

broker

 

discover

 

precious

 
property
 
stones
 

nodded

 
assent
 

disappeared


English

 

Admiralty

 
Northwest
 

expeditions

 
ascertain
 

assure

 
troubled
 
retiring
 

returned

 

Passage


merchant

 

sailed

 

People

 

muttered

 

manhood

 

confess

 

sitting

 

reading

 

secret

 

diminishes


conscious

 
interest
 

Cymbeline

 

highway

 

looked

 
Canterbury
 

possession

 
neglect
 

conscience

 
dreams

attend
 

stored

 
elegant
 
beautiful
 

convenient

 

vaults

 
invalids
 

immense

 
thither
 

drives