FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   >>  
hink, Marlow, it was I who had to go and tell Mrs Anthony. They had taken her down below somewhere, first-class saloon. I had to go and tell her! That Flaherty, God forgive him, comes to me as white as a sheet, "I think you are the proper person." God forgive him. I wished to die a hundred times. A lot of kind ladies, passengers, were chattering excitedly around Mrs Anthony--a real parrot house. The ship's doctor went before me. He whispers right and left and then there falls a sudden hush. Yes, I wished myself dead. But Mrs Anthony was a brick. Here Mr Powell fairly burst into tears. "No one could help loving Captain Anthony. I leave you to imagine what he was to her. Yet before the week was out it was she who was helping me to pull myself together." "Is Mrs Anthony in England now?" I asked after a while. He wiped his eyes without any false shame. "Oh yes." He began to look for matches, and while diving for the box under the table added: "And not very far from here either. That little village up there--you know." "No! Really! Oh I see!" Mr Powell smoked austerely, very detached. But I could not let him off like this. The sly beggar. So this was the secret of his passion for sailing about the river, the reason of his fondness for that creek. "And I suppose," I said, "that you are still as `enthusiastic' as ever. Eh? If I were you I would just mention my enthusiasm to Mrs Anthony. Why not?" He caught his falling pipe neatly. But if what the French call _effarement_ was ever expressed on a human countenance it was on this occasion, testifying to his modesty, his sensibility and his innocence. He looked afraid of somebody overhearing my audacious--almost sacrilegious hint--as if there had not been a mile and a half of lonely marshland and dykes between us and the nearest human habitation. And then perhaps he remembered the soothing fact for he allowed a gleam to light up his eyes, like the reflection of some inward fire tended in the sanctuary of his heart by a devotion as pure as that of any vestal. It flashed and went out. He smiled a bashful smile, sighed: "Pah! Foolishness. You ought to know better," he said, more sad than annoyed. "But I forgot that you never knew Captain Anthony," he added indulgently. I reminded him that I knew Mrs Anthony; even before he--an old friend now--had ever set eyes on her. And as he told me that Mrs Anthony had heard of our meetings I wond
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   >>  



Top keywords:

Anthony

 

Powell

 

forgive

 

Captain

 

wished

 

suppose

 

mention

 

audacious

 

overhearing

 
sacrilegious

afraid

 
enthusiastic
 
countenance
 

occasion

 
neatly
 

effarement

 

French

 

expressed

 
testifying
 

modesty


looked

 

caught

 

innocence

 
sensibility
 
falling
 

enthusiasm

 

annoyed

 

bashful

 

sighed

 

Foolishness


forgot

 
meetings
 

friend

 

reminded

 

indulgently

 

smiled

 

flashed

 

remembered

 
soothing
 

allowed


habitation
 
nearest
 

marshland

 

lonely

 

devotion

 

vestal

 

sanctuary

 
reflection
 

tended

 
Really