FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   959   960   961   962   963   964   965   966   967   968   969   970   971   972   973   974   975   976   977   978   979   980   981   982   983  
984   985   986   987   988   989   990   991   992   993   994   995   996   997   998   999   1000   1001   1002   1003   1004   1005   1006   1007   1008   >>   >|  
Laura asked, with wonder in her eyes. "I can't live without you. You said-----" "O bother what I said,"--and the Colonel took up his sword to buckle it on, and then continued coolly, "the fact is Laura, our romance is played out." Laura heard, but she did not comprehend. She caught his arm and cried, "George, how can you joke so cruelly? I will go any where with you. I will wait any where. I can't go back to Hawkeye." "Well, go where you like. Perhaps," continued he with a sneer, "you would do as well to wait here, for another colonel." Laura's brain whirled. She did not yet comprehend. "What does this mean? Where are you going?" "It means," said the officer, in measured words, "that you haven't anything to show for a legal marriage, and that I am going to New Orleans." "It's a lie, George, it's a lie. I am your wife. I shall go. I shall follow you to New Orleans." "Perhaps my wife might not like it!" Laura raised her head, her eyes flamed with fire, she tried to utter a cry, and fell senseless on the floor. When she came to herself the Colonel was gone. Washington Hawkins stood at her bedside. Did she come to herself? Was there anything left in her heart but hate and bitterness, a sense of an infamous wrong at the hands of the only man she had ever loved? She returned to Hawkeye. With the exception of Washington and his mother, no one knew what had happened. The neighbors supposed that the engagement with Col. Selby had fallen through. Laura was ill for a long time, but she recovered; she had that resolution in her that could conquer death almost. And with her health came back her beauty, and an added fascination, a something that might be mistaken for sadness. Is there a beauty in the knowledge of evil, a beauty that shines out in the face of a person whose inward life is transformed by some terrible experience? Is the pathos in the eyes of the Beatrice Cenci from her guilt or her innocence? Laura was not much changed. The lovely woman had a devil in her heart. That was all. CHAPTER XIX. Mr. Harry Brierly drew his pay as an engineer while he was living at the City Hotel in Hawkeye. Mr. Thompson had been kind enough to say that it didn't make any difference whether he was with the corps or not; and although Harry protested to the Colonel daily and to Washington Hawkins that he must go back at once to the line and superintend the lay-out with reference to his
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   959   960   961   962   963   964   965   966   967   968   969   970   971   972   973   974   975   976   977   978   979   980   981   982   983  
984   985   986   987   988   989   990   991   992   993   994   995   996   997   998   999   1000   1001   1002   1003   1004   1005   1006   1007   1008   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Washington

 

Colonel

 

beauty

 

Hawkeye

 

Perhaps

 

Hawkins

 

Orleans

 

comprehend

 

continued

 
George

engagement

 
supposed
 
shines
 

sadness

 
knowledge
 

person

 

terrible

 

experience

 
pathos
 

transformed


mistaken

 

recovered

 

resolution

 
conquer
 
fallen
 

Beatrice

 

fascination

 

health

 

difference

 

Thompson


superintend

 
reference
 

protested

 

living

 

changed

 

lovely

 

innocence

 

neighbors

 
engineer
 

Brierly


CHAPTER
 
caught
 

officer

 

measured

 

marriage

 

raised

 

follow

 
played
 

romance

 
cruelly