FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   >>   >|  
id Carlo. 'Oh, street-fighting!' Captain Gambier vented a soldier's disgust at the notion. 'They're not in Paris. Will you step forward?' Just then the tall Greek approached the party of English. The introduction was delayed. He was addressed by the fair lady, in the island tongue, as 'Mr. Pericles.' She thanked him for his extreme condescension in deigning to notice them. But whatever his condescension had been, it did not extend to an admitted acquaintance with the poor speech of the land of fogs. An exhibition of aching deafness was presented to her so resolutely, that at last she faltered, 'What! have you forgotten English, Mr. Pericles? You spoke it the other day.' 'It is ze language of necessity--of commerce,' he replied. 'But, surely, Mr. Pericles, you dare not presume to tell me you choose to be ignorant of it whenever you please?' 'I do not take grits into ze teeth, madame; no more.' 'But you speak it perfectly.' 'Perfect it may be, for ze transactions of commerce. I wish to keep my teez.' 'Alas!' said the lady, compelled, 'I must endeavour to swim in French.' 'At your service, madame,' quoth the Greek, with an immediate doubling of the length of his body. Carlo heard little more than he knew; but the confirmation of what we know will sometimes instigate us like fresh intelligence, and the lover's heart was quick to apprehend far more than he knew in one direction. He divined instantaneously that the English-Austrian spoken of by Barto Rizzo was the officer sitting on horseback within half-a-dozen yards of him. The certainty of the thought cramped his muscles. For the rest, it became clear to him that the attempt of the millionaire connoisseur to carry off Vittoria had received the tacit sanction of the Austrian authorities; for reasons quite explicable, Mr. Pericles, as the English lady called him, distinctly hinted it, while affirming with vehement self-laudation that his scheme had succeeded for the vindication of Art. 'The opera you will hear zis night,' he said, 'will be hissed. You will hear a chorus of screech-owls to each song of that poor Irma, whom the Italian people call "crabapple." Well; she pleases German ears, and if they can support her, it is well. But la Vittoria--your Belloni--you will not hear; and why? She has been false to her Art, false! She has become a little devil in politics. It is a Guy Fawkes femelle! She has been guilty of the immense crime of ingratitude.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Pericles
 

English

 

condescension

 

commerce

 

madame

 
Vittoria
 
Austrian
 

cramped

 
thought
 

connoisseur


received

 

millionaire

 
attempt
 

muscles

 
officer
 

apprehend

 
intelligence
 
instigate
 

direction

 

divined


horseback

 

sitting

 

spoken

 

instantaneously

 

certainty

 

succeeded

 

support

 

German

 

people

 

crabapple


pleases

 
Belloni
 

guilty

 

femelle

 

immense

 
ingratitude
 

Fawkes

 
politics
 

Italian

 
hinted

affirming
 

vehement

 
distinctly
 
called
 

authorities

 

reasons

 
explicable
 

laudation

 
scheme
 

screech