FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   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   >>   >|  
price, was, to all appearance, the happiest of the social group. Grave matters, as well as trivial, were, however, debated that night round the supper-table of the English party; and of the four assembled, as neither had attained the coolness and experience of twenty-six complete summers, and two of the four (the married pair) had forfeited all pretensions to worldly wisdom by a romantic love-match, it is not much to be wondered at that Prudence was scarcely admitted to a share in the consultation, and that she was unanimously outvoted in conclusion. The cabinet council sat till past midnight, yet Walter Barnard was awake next morning, and "stirring with the lark," and brushing the dew-drops from the wild-brier sprays, as he bounded by them through the fields, on his way to----_not_ St Hilaire. Again in the gloaming he was espied by the miller's wife, threading the same path to the same trysting-place--for that it _was_ a trysting-place she had ocular demonstration--and again the next day matins and vespers were as duly said by the same parties in the same oratory, and Dame Simonne was privy to the same, and yet she had not whispered her knowledge even to the reeds. How much longer the unnatural retention might have continued, would have been a curious metaphysical question, had not circumstances, interfering with the ends of science, hurried on an "unforeseen conclusion." On the third morning the usual tryst was kept at the accustomed place, at an earlier hour than on the preceding days; but shorter parley sufficed on this occasion, for the two who met there with no cold greeting, turned together into the pleasant path, so lately traced on his way from the town with beating heart, by one who retraced his footsteps even more eagerly, with the timid companion, who went consentingly, but not self-excused. Sharp and anxious was the watch kept by the miller's wife for the return of the pair, whose absence for the next two hours she was at no loss to account for; but they tarried beyond that period, and Dame Simonne was growing fidgety at their non-appearance, when she caught sight of their advancing figures, at the same moment that the gate of the Manoir swung open, and forth issued the stately forms of Madame and Mesdemoiselles du Resnel! Dame Simonne's senses were well-nigh confounded at the sight, and well they might, for well she knew what one so unusual portended--and there was no time--not a moment--not a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Simonne

 

conclusion

 

trysting

 
appearance
 
moment
 

morning

 
miller
 

greeting

 

turned

 

pleasant


shorter
 

unforeseen

 

hurried

 

science

 

circumstances

 
interfering
 

accustomed

 

parley

 

sufficed

 
preceding

earlier

 
occasion
 

issued

 

stately

 

Manoir

 

caught

 

advancing

 
figures
 

Madame

 

unusual


portended

 

confounded

 

Mesdemoiselles

 

Resnel

 

senses

 

fidgety

 

growing

 

companion

 

consentingly

 

question


eagerly

 

beating

 

retraced

 

footsteps

 

excused

 

account

 
tarried
 

period

 

absence

 

anxious