FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89  
90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   >>   >|  
f he thought about it. "I believe they are the best people I know," he went on. "Perhaps it is because they have been so kind to me; but they are kind to each other, too; kind, good people----" "I know," she said, nodding--a flower on the gauzy hat set to vibrating in a tantalizing way. "I know. There are fat women who rock and rock on piazzas by the sea, and they speak of country people as the 'lower classes.' How happy this big family is in not knowing it is the lower classes!" "We haven't read Nordau down here," said John. "Old Tom Martin's favorite work is 'The Descent of Man.' Miss Tibbs admires Tupper, and 'Beulah,' and some of us possess the works of E. P. Roe--and why not?" "Yes; what of it," she returned, "since you escape Nordau? I think the conversation we hear from the other windows is as amusing and quite as loud as most of that I hear in Rouen during the winter; and Rouen, you know, is just like any other big place nowadays, though I suppose there are Philadelphians, for instance, who would be slow to believe a statement like that." "Oh, but they are not all of Philadelphia----" He left the sentence, smilingly. "And yet somebody said, 'The further West I travel the more convinced I am the Wise Men came from the East.'" "Yes," he answered. "'From' is the important word in that." "It was a girl from Southeast Cottonbridge, Massachusetts," said Helen, "who heard I was from Indiana and asked me if I didn't hate to live so far away from things." There was a pause, while she leaned out of the window with her face aside from him. Then she remarked carelessly, "I met her at Winter Harbor." "Do you go to Winter Harbor?" he asked. "We have gone there every summer until this one, for years. Have you friends who go there?" "I had--once. There was a classmate of mine from Rouen----" "What was his name? Perhaps I know him." She stole a glance at him. His face had fallen into sad lines, and he looked like the man who had come up the aisle with the Hon. Kedge Halloway. A few moments before he had seemed another person entirely. "He's forgotten me, I dare say. I haven't seen him for seven years; and that's a long time, you know. Besides, he's 'out in the world,' where remembering is harder. Here in Plattville we don't forget." "Were you ever at Winter Harbor?" "I was--once. I spent a very happy day there long ago, when you must have been a little girl. Were you there in--" "Listen!" she crie
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89  
90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Winter

 

Harbor

 

people

 
Perhaps
 

Nordau

 

classes

 

friends

 

summer

 
window
 

Indiana


Southeast

 
Cottonbridge
 

Massachusetts

 
remarked
 

carelessly

 

leaned

 

things

 
remembering
 

harder

 

Besides


forgotten

 
Plattville
 

Listen

 

forget

 

person

 

fallen

 
glance
 

looked

 
moments
 

Halloway


classmate

 

Martin

 

favorite

 

family

 
knowing
 
Descent
 
possess
 

Beulah

 

admires

 

Tupper


country

 

nodding

 
flower
 

thought

 

piazzas

 

vibrating

 
tantalizing
 

smilingly

 

sentence

 

Philadelphia