FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   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   >>   >|  
ies; as I very sweetly assured him, 'I couldn't understand, didn't see the drift, couldn't connect the links.' Leon says ancient history is a fable, and Herodotus a myth, and all because a _woman_ sat upon the tripod at Delphi, and because a _woman_ wore the helmet and carried the shield of wisdom.' 'What's the matter, Harry?' asked Fanny, compassionately, as her small fingers were stretched like infant grid-irons before her eyes, and a silence ensued. 'My new bonnet, Fanny dear, I am wondering what it shall be; we must go down this very morning and decide.' Did you ever think, Narcissus, and you, Gustav, and all of you boys, when you are engaged in your small diplomacies and _coups de main_, and feeling like giants in intellect beside the dear little girls who play polkas for you of evenings and sing sweet ballads, that _pour bien juger les grands, il faut les approcher_? I thought so that morning, as I heard the animated discussion that succeeded Henrietta's monologue; a discussion into which all sorts of delicate conceits of lace and flowers entered largely, and which savored about as much of the preceding elements as last night's Charlotte Russe of this morning's coffee. Since Henrietta's oration, I am more than ever afraid of a Vulcan. It is very plain that our most fashionably cut suits and most delicately perfumed billets are not all powerful,--that the dear creatures are either waking or we have been asleep. _Reveillons!_ '_Aux armes, citoyens!_' Now, while I was writing that last word, a heavy hand was laid on my shoulder, and looking up, I saw--Nap. I love Nap. I have a girlish weakness (let some lady arraign me for this hereafter) for him; so I shouted out and grasped his hands. 'How are the boys?' 'Flourishing. Come to stay? 'Yes, old fellow.' 'Stocks up?' 'To the sky.' 'The governor?' 'All right.' _I_ haven't any governor. Nap has; and one that saw fit to persecute him from twenty to thirty, because he declined to take 'orders.' _Per Bacco!_ Never mind, a fit of paralysis has shaken the opposition out of the old gentleman at last, and Nap is in sunshine in consequence, and rushes around Wall street like a veteran. But I didn't promise to tell you about Nap, or the girls either; it was only a few rays of light I had to dash over 'our beaux;' so where is your mother, belle Beatrice? I must make my adieux. What say you, little one? You like Henrietta; you want to see her a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Henrietta

 

morning

 

discussion

 

governor

 

couldn

 
waking
 

arraign

 

perfumed

 

billets

 
shouted

powerful

 
creatures
 

grasped

 

Reveillons

 

writing

 

shoulder

 

girlish

 

asleep

 

citoyens

 

weakness


promise

 

veteran

 

street

 

consequence

 

sunshine

 

rushes

 

adieux

 

Beatrice

 

mother

 

gentleman


opposition

 
delicately
 

fellow

 

Stocks

 

persecute

 
paralysis
 

shaken

 

orders

 

thirty

 

twenty


declined

 

Flourishing

 

flowers

 

silence

 

ensued

 

fingers

 
stretched
 

infant

 

bonnet

 

wondering