FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237  
238   >>  
" Thus she drew him to the Western Garden, so that for the moment she seemed to have it all in her own hands. For here there were more lights, and even more extravagant and fantastic display of electric jewelry, more garlands of diamond and crystal, illuminating, decorating everything. And there were rubies hanging in strange trees, and at their feet the glamour of light dissolved, half of it perished, gone from the world, drunk up by the earth, half living on where gray walks wound like paths in a dream, between rings of spectral green, islands of dimmed, mysterious red, so transformed, so unclothed and clothed again by glamour, as to be hardly discernible as beds of geraniums in grass. Here they wandered for what seemed an eternity of bliss. "What more do you want?" said Winny. "Isn't this beautiful enough for anybody?" Neither of them had any idea that the beauty and the glamour of it was in their own souls as they drank each other's mystery. "Let's just sit and listen to the band," she said. And they sat and listened to it for another eternity, till Ranny became restless. For thirteen and eleven pence halfpenny was burning in his pocket. The thought of it made him take her to a restaurant where they sat for quite a long time and drank coffee and ate ices. Winny submitted to the ices. They were delicious, and she enjoyed them without a shadow of misgiving. She was, in fact, triumphant, for she looked on ices as the close and crown of everything, and she calculated that out of that sovereign there would be exactly eleven and twopence halfpenny left. "Well--it's been lovely. And now we must go home," she said. "Go home? Not much. Why, we've only just begun." He looked at her. "D'you suppose I don't know what _you're_ up to? You're jolly clever, but you can't take _me_ in, Winky. Not for a single minute." "Well, then, Ranny, let me pay for _something_." And she took out her little purse. After that it was sheer headlong, shameful defeat for Winky. He had found her out, he had seen through her man[oe]uvers, and he and the Exhibition, the destructive and terrible Enchantress, had been laughing at her all the time. A delirious devil had entered into Ranny with the coffee and the ices, urging him to spend. And Winny ceased to struggle. He knew at what point she would yield, he knew what temptations would be irresistible. He got round her with the Alpine Ride; the Joy Wheel fairly undermined her moral being
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237  
238   >>  



Top keywords:

glamour

 

eternity

 

halfpenny

 

looked

 
eleven
 
coffee
 

misgiving

 

delicious

 

suppose

 

enjoyed


shadow
 

triumphant

 
sovereign
 
calculated
 

twopence

 
lovely
 

urging

 

ceased

 
struggle
 
entered

Enchantress

 

terrible

 
laughing
 

delirious

 
fairly
 
undermined
 

irresistible

 
temptations
 
Alpine
 

destructive


Exhibition
 
minute
 

single

 

clever

 

defeat

 

headlong

 

shameful

 

listen

 

living

 

dissolved


perished
 

islands

 

dimmed

 
mysterious
 
spectral
 

lights

 

extravagant

 

moment

 

Western

 
Garden