FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>   >|  
staid of the thinning old guard of ancestor-worshipers, nevertheless, were enthusiastically hailed and eagerly attended by the younger set, and played no small part in the insinuation of "those St. Ledgers" into the realms of the anointed. Thus the winter wore away, and, at all times and in all places Gregory St. Ledger appeared as the devoted satellite of Ethel Manton, who entered the social melee without enthusiasm, but with dogged determination to let the world see that the disappearance of Bill Carmody affected her not at all. She tolerated St. Ledger, even encouraged him, for he amused and offered a welcome diversion for her thoughts. She was a girl of moods whose imagination carried her into far places in the picturing of a man--her man--big, and strong, and clean; fighting bare-fisted among men for his place in the world, and alone conquering the secret devil of desire that he might claim the right to her love. Then it was, curled up in the big armchair in the library, the blue eyes would glow softly and tenderly in the flare of the flickering firelight, and between parted lips the warm breath would come and go in short stabbing whispers to the quick rise and fall of the rounded bosom, and the little fists would clench white in the tense gladness of it. But there were other times--times when the dancing wall-shadows were dark specters of ill-omen gloating ghoulishly before her horror-widened eyes as her brain conjured the picture of the man--battered, broken, helpless, with bloated, sottish features, and bleared eyes--a beaten man drifting heedlessly, hopelessly, furtive-eyed, away from his standards--and from her. At such times the breath would flutter uncertainly between cold, bloodless lips, and the marble whiteness of her face became a pallid death mask of despair. Always in extremes she pictured him, for, knowing the man as she knew him--the bigness of him--the relentless dynamic man-power of his being, she knew that with him there would be no half-way measure--no median line of indifferent achievement which should stand for neither the good nor the bad among men. Here was no Tomlinson whose little sins and passive virtues became the jest of the gods; but a man who in the final accounting would stand four-square upon the merit of his works, and in the might of their right or wrong, accept fearlessly his reward. The days dragged into weeks and the weeks into months--empty months to the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
places
 

Ledger

 

breath

 

months

 

bloodless

 
furtive
 
marble
 

standards

 
flutter
 

uncertainly


bloated

 

gloating

 
ghoulishly
 

horror

 
specters
 

dancing

 
shadows
 
widened
 

bleared

 

features


beaten

 

drifting

 

heedlessly

 

sottish

 

picture

 

conjured

 

battered

 

broken

 

helpless

 

hopelessly


knowing

 
accounting
 

square

 

virtues

 

Tomlinson

 
passive
 

reward

 
dragged
 

fearlessly

 
accept

gladness
 

pictured

 
bigness
 
relentless
 

dynamic

 

extremes

 
Always
 

pallid

 
despair
 

achievement