FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   >>   >|  
playful, then she gave a short little laugh. And then only she turned to Ursula, who, with all the class, had been watching the little scene between the lovers. 'How do you do, Miss Brangwen,' sang Hermione, in her low, odd, singing fashion, that sounded almost as if she were poking fun. 'Do you mind my coming in?' Her grey, almost sardonic eyes rested all the while on Ursula, as if summing her up. 'Oh no,' said Ursula. 'Are you SURE?' repeated Hermione, with complete sang froid, and an odd, half-bullying effrontery. 'Oh no, I like it awfully,' laughed Ursula, a little bit excited and bewildered, because Hermione seemed to be compelling her, coming very close to her, as if intimate with her; and yet, how could she be intimate? This was the answer Hermione wanted. She turned satisfied to Birkin. 'What are you doing?' she sang, in her casual, inquisitive fashion. 'Catkins,' he replied. 'Really!' she said. 'And what do you learn about them?' She spoke all the while in a mocking, half teasing fashion, as if making game of the whole business. She picked up a twig of the catkin, piqued by Birkin's attention to it. She was a strange figure in the class-room, wearing a large, old cloak of greenish cloth, on which was a raised pattern of dull gold. The high collar, and the inside of the cloak, was lined with dark fur. Beneath she had a dress of fine lavender-coloured cloth, trimmed with fur, and her hat was close-fitting, made of fur and of the dull, green-and-gold figured stuff. She was tall and strange, she looked as if she had come out of some new, bizarre picture. 'Do you know the little red ovary flowers, that produce the nuts? Have you ever noticed them?' he asked her. And he came close and pointed them out to her, on the sprig she held. 'No,' she replied. 'What are they?' 'Those are the little seed-producing flowers, and the long catkins, they only produce pollen, to fertilise them.' 'Do they, do they!' repeated Hermione, looking closely. 'From those little red bits, the nuts come; if they receive pollen from the long danglers.' 'Little red flames, little red flames,' murmured Hermione to herself. And she remained for some moments looking only at the small buds out of which the red flickers of the stigma issued. 'Aren't they beautiful? I think they're so beautiful,' she said, moving close to Birkin, and pointing to the red filaments with her long, white finger. 'Had you never not
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Hermione

 

Ursula

 

fashion

 

Birkin

 

pollen

 

repeated

 

intimate

 

produce

 

flowers

 

replied


strange
 

coming

 

flames

 
turned
 

beautiful

 

looked

 

pointing

 

filaments

 
moving
 

bizarre


picture

 

fitting

 
finger
 

Beneath

 

inside

 
trimmed
 

lavender

 

coloured

 

figured

 

remained


murmured
 

fertilise

 
producing
 
catkins
 

closely

 

danglers

 

Little

 

receive

 

collar

 

noticed


flickers
 

stigma

 

issued

 

pointed

 
moments
 

mocking

 

summing

 

complete

 

rested

 
sardonic