FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   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   >>   >|  
ul and frank, the other's more beautiful but with less expression--windows lit with dazzling light, but through which one saw--nothing. "A new admirer, Annabel? But what has that to do with your going to England?" "Everything! He is Sir John Ferringhall--very stupid, very respectable, very egotistical. But, after all, what does that matter? He is very much taken with me. He tries hard to conceal it, but he cannot." "Then why," Anna asked quietly, "do you run away? It is not like you." Annabel laughed softly. "How unkind!" she exclaimed. "Still, since it is better to tell you, Sir John is very much in earnest, but his respectability is something altogether too overpowering. Of course I knew all about him years ago, and he is exactly like everybody's description of him. I am afraid, Anna, just a little afraid, that in Paris I and my friends here might seem a trifle advanced. Besides, he might hear things. That is why I called myself Anna." "You--you did what?" Anna exclaimed. "Called myself Anna," the girl repeated coolly. "It can't make any difference to you, and there are not half a dozen people in Paris who could tell us apart." Anna tried to look angry, but her mouth betrayed her. Instead, she laughed, laughed with lips and eyes, laughed till the tears ran down her cheeks. "You little wretch!" she exclaimed weakly. "Why should I bear the burden of your wickedness? Who knows what might come of it? I shall permit nothing of the sort." Annabel shrugged her shoulders. "Too late, my dear girl," she exclaimed. "I gave your name. I called myself Anna. After all, what can it matter? It was just to make sure. Three little letters can't make a bit of difference." "But it may matter very much indeed," Anna declared. "Perhaps for myself I do not mind, but this man is sure to find out some day, and he will not like having been deceived. Tell him the truth, Annabel." "The truth!" There was a brief but intense silence. Anna felt that her words had become charged with a fuller and more subtle meaning than any which she had intended to impart. "The truth!" It was a moment of awkwardness between the two sisters--a moment, too, charged with its own psychological interest, for there were secrets between them which for many months had made their intercourse a constrained and difficult thing. It was Annabel who spoke. "How crude you are, Anna!" she exclaimed with a little sigh. "Sir John is not at all t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

exclaimed

 

Annabel

 

laughed

 

matter

 

afraid

 

charged

 

moment

 

called

 

difference

 
declared

wretch
 
letters
 

cheeks

 
permit
 

burden

 
wickedness
 
shrugged
 

weakly

 

shoulders

 

interest


psychological

 

secrets

 
impart
 
awkwardness
 

sisters

 

months

 

difficult

 

intercourse

 

constrained

 

intended


deceived

 

fuller

 

subtle

 

meaning

 

intense

 

silence

 

Perhaps

 
dazzling
 

windows

 

quietly


softly

 

unkind

 
earnest
 

respectability

 

expression

 

Everything

 
Ferringhall
 
stupid
 

England

 
admirer