FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   134   135   136   137   138   139   >>   >|  
ord Rockminster to pay his respects to her and leave him with her; won't that do! They have already been introduced at the theatre; and if Rockminster doesn't say much, I have no doubt she will chatter enough for both. And Miss Burgoyne will be quite pleased to have a lord all to herself." "Leo," said Nina, gently, "do you not think you yourself have too much liking for--for that fine company?" "Perhaps I have," said he, with perfect good-humor. "What then? Are you going to lecture me, too? Is Saul among the prophets? Has Maurice Mangan been coaching you as well?" "Ah, Leo," said she, "I should wish to see you give it all up--yes--all the popularity--and your fine company--and that you go away back to Pandiani--" "Pandiani!" he exclaimed. "Here's romance, indeed! You want us both to become students again, and to have the old days at Naples back again--" "No, no, no!" she said, shaking her head. "It is the future I think of. I wish to hear you in grand opera or in oratorio--I wish to see you a great artist--that is something noble, something ambitious, something to work for day and night. Ah, Leo, when I hear Mr. Santley sing 'Why do the nations'--when I see the thousands and thousands of people sitting entranced, then I say to myself, 'There is something grand and noble to speak to all these people--to lift them above themselves, to give them this pure emotion, surely that is a great thing--it is high, like religion--it is a purification--it is--'" But here she stopped, with a little gesture of despair. "No, no, Leo, I cannot tell you--I have not enough English." "It's all very well," said he, "for you to talk about Santley; but where will you get another voice like his?" "Leo, you can sing finer music than 'The Starry Night,'" she said. "You have the capacity. Ah, but you enjoy too much; you are petted and spoiled, yes? you have not a great ambition--" "I'll tell you what I seem to have, though, Nina," said he. "I seem to have a faculty of impressing my friends with the notion that I could do something tremendous if only I tried; whereas I know that this belief of theirs is only a delusion." "But you do not try, Leo," said this persistent counsellor. "No? life is too pleasant for you; you have not enthusiasm; why, your talk is always _persiflage_--it is the talk of the fashionable world. And you an artist!" However, at this moment Lionel suddenly discovered that this leisurely stroll was likely t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   134   135   136   137   138   139   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Pandiani

 

artist

 

people

 
thousands
 
Santley
 

company

 
Rockminster
 

religion

 

capacity

 

surely


Starry
 

purification

 

stopped

 

English

 

respects

 
gesture
 

petted

 

despair

 

persiflage

 
fashionable

enthusiasm

 
counsellor
 

pleasant

 

However

 

stroll

 

leisurely

 

discovered

 
moment
 

Lionel

 

suddenly


persistent

 

impressing

 

friends

 

faculty

 

ambition

 

emotion

 

notion

 

belief

 

delusion

 

tremendous


spoiled

 

exclaimed

 

gently

 

popularity

 

students

 

pleased

 
romance
 

liking

 

lecture

 

prophets