FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43  
44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   >>   >|  
his low voice likewise trembling. "I do." "I would give more than that," he said, tenderly, "to your keeping." "Why," she enquired, with an unsuccessful attempt at displaying wonder, "what is it that you would give to my keeping?" "My heart," the young man answered, his indolent eyes lighting up in the gloaming. She said nothing, but hung her head. The swarthy lover saw that she took no offence at his declaration. Indeed he gathered from the quivering of her red, moist lips, and from the tenderness in her eye, that the avowal had more than pleased her. She continued for a few seconds to look bashfully down at the path; and then she raised her eyes and looked at him. No more encouragement was needed. "My beloved," he said, softly, and her head nestled upon his shoulder. There in the shadow of a small colony of poplars, on the verge of the boundless plain, shining under the full, ripe moon, each plighted troth to the other, and gave and received burning kisses. During the sweet, fast-fleeting hours on the calm plain, in her lover's arms, with no witness but the yellow moon, she took no heed of the barriers that lay between a union with her beloved; nor had he any foreboding of obstacles, but heard and declared vows of love, supremely happy. Woman is a sort of Pandora's Box, the lid whereof is being forever raised, revealing the secrets within. The plighted maiden was flushed of cheek and unusually bright of eye when she returned to her home that evening. She could give her guardian no satisfactory account of her long absence, and told a very confused story about two paths, "you know," that were "very much alike"; but that "one led away around a poplar wood and out upon a portion of the prairie" which she did "not know." Here the sweet pet had got astray, and wandered around, although "it was so silly," till the sound of the bells of St. Boniface tolling ten had apprised her of the hour and also let her know where she was. Her guardian took the explanation, and contented himself with observing that he hoped it would be her last evening upon the prairie, straying around like an elk that had lost her mate. "Jennie," said her sister, when they were alone, "you have not been telling the truth. You did not get astray on the prairie. Somebody has been courting you, and you are in love with him." "I am in love; and it is true that some one has been courting me. I had intended to tell you all about it, m
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43  
44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

prairie

 

keeping

 

astray

 
courting
 
beloved
 

evening

 
plighted
 

raised

 

guardian

 

portion


poplar
 

absence

 

flushed

 

unusually

 

bright

 
returned
 

maiden

 

forever

 

revealing

 
secrets

confused

 
satisfactory
 

account

 

tolling

 

intended

 

Jennie

 

sister

 
straying
 

Somebody

 

telling


observing

 

Boniface

 

wandered

 

apprised

 

explanation

 

contented

 

whereof

 

quivering

 

tenderness

 

gathered


Indeed

 

swarthy

 

offence

 

declaration

 

avowal

 

pleased

 
looked
 

bashfully

 

continued

 

seconds