FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   160   >>   >|  
yet able to enjoy the lovely and loving beneficence of all beautiful and natural things. The scent of the wild thyme growing in prolific patches at his feet,--the more pungent odour of the tall daisies which were of a hardy, free-flowering kind,--the "strong sea-daisies that feast on the sun,"--and the indescribable salty perfume that swept upwards on the faint wind from the unseen ocean, just now hidden by projecting shelves of broken ground fringed with trees,--all combined together to refresh the air and to make the mere act of breathing a delight. After about twenty minutes' walking Helmsley's step grew easier and more springy,--almost he felt young,--almost he pictured himself living for another ten years in health and active mental power. The lassitude and _ennui_ inseparable from a life spent for the most part in the business centres of London, had rolled away like a noxious mist from his mind, and he was well-nigh ready to "begin life again," as he told himself, with a smile at his own folly. "No wonder that the old-world philosophers and scientists sought for the _elixir vitae_!" he thought. "No wonder they felt that the usual tenure is too short for all that a man might accomplish, did he live well and wisely enough to do justice to all the powers with which nature has endowed him. I am myself inclined to think that the 'Tree of Life' exists,--perhaps its leaves are the 'leaves of the Daura,' for which that excellent fellow Matt Peke is looking. Or it may be the 'Secta Croa'!" He smiled,--and having arrived at the end of the path which he had followed from the door of the "Trusty Man," he saw before him a descending bank, which sloped into the highroad, a wide track white with thick dust stretching straight away for about a mile and then dipping round a broad curve of land, overarched with trees. He sat down for a few minutes on the warm grass, giving himself up to the idle pleasure of watching the birds skimming through the clear blue sky,--the bees bouncing in and out of the buttercups,--the varicoloured butterflies floating like blown flower-petals on the breeze,--and he heard a distant bell striking the half-hour after eleven. He had noted the time when leaving the "Trusty Man," otherwise he would not have known it so exactly, having left his watch locked up at home in his private desk with other personal trinkets which would have been superfluous and troublesome to him on his self-imposed journey. Whe
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   160   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Trusty
 

leaves

 

minutes

 

daisies

 

straight

 
dipping
 
stretching
 

sloped

 
highroad
 

descending


exists

 

endowed

 
inclined
 

excellent

 
fellow
 

arrived

 
smiled
 
giving
 

leaving

 

striking


eleven

 

troublesome

 

superfluous

 

imposed

 

journey

 

trinkets

 

locked

 

private

 

personal

 

distant


pleasure

 
watching
 

skimming

 

overarched

 

floating

 
flower
 

petals

 
breeze
 

butterflies

 
varicoloured

bouncing
 

buttercups

 
thought
 
hidden
 

projecting

 

broken

 
shelves
 

perfume

 
upwards
 

unseen