FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   >>   >|  
shoulders. "Sickness may come in all places," said she. "If I were a man I do not think I would live alone on Gaster Fell." "I have braved worse dangers than that," said I, laughing; "but I fear that your picture will be spoiled, for the clouds are banking up, and already I feel a few raindrops." Indeed, it was high time we were on our way to shelter, for even as I spoke there came the sudden, steady swish of the shower. Laughing merrily, my companion threw her light shawl over her head, and, seizing picture and easel, ran with the lithe grace of a young fawn down the furze-clad slope, while I followed after with camp-stool and paint-box. * * * * * It was the eve of my departure from Kirkby-Malhouse that we sat upon the green bank in the garden, she with dark dreamy eyes looking sadly out over the sombre fells; while I, with a book upon my knee, glanced covertly at her lovely profile and marvelled to myself how twenty years of life could have stamped so sad and wistful an expression upon it. "You have read much," I remarked at last. "Women have opportunities now such as their mothers never knew. Have you ever thought of going further--or seeking a course of college or even a learned profession?" She smiled wearily at the thought. "I have no aim, no ambition," she said. "My future is black--confused--a chaos. My life is like to one of these paths upon the fells. You have seen them, Monsieur Upperton. They are smooth and straight and clear where they begin; but soon they wind to left and wind to right, and so mid rocks and crags until they lose themselves in some quagmire. At Brussels my path was straight; but now, _mon Dieu_! who is there can tell me where it leads?" "It might take no prophet to do that, Miss Cameron," quoth I, with the fatherly manner which twoscore years may show toward one. "If I may read your life, I would venture to say that you were destined to fulfil the lot of women--to make some good man happy, and to shed around, in some wider circle, the pleasure which your society has given me since first I knew you." "I will never marry," said she, with a sharp decision, which surprised and somewhat amused me. "Not marry--and why?" A strange look passed over her sensitive features, and she plucked nervously at the grass on the bank beside her. "I dare not," said she in a voice that quivered with emotion. "Dare not?" "It is not for me. I have other things to do. Th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

straight

 

picture

 

thought

 
wearily
 
profession
 

Brussels

 
quagmire
 

smiled

 

Upperton

 

smooth


confused
 

future

 

Monsieur

 

ambition

 

venture

 
amused
 

strange

 

surprised

 

decision

 
passed

sensitive

 
emotion
 

quivered

 

things

 

plucked

 

features

 

nervously

 
society
 

Cameron

 

fatherly


manner

 

twoscore

 

prophet

 

learned

 

pleasure

 

circle

 

destined

 

fulfil

 

steady

 

shower


Laughing

 

merrily

 

sudden

 

shelter

 

companion

 

seizing

 
Indeed
 

Gaster

 

braved

 

Sickness