FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204  
205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   >>   >|  
inter fire-flies. At one o'clock, hearing Agatha Caithness speak to Leila's maid, he left the window, and sitting down at the desk, telephoned to Desmond's; and he was informed that Mortimer, hard hit, had signified his intention of recouping at Burbank's. Then he managed to get Burbank's on the wire, and finally Mortimer himself, but was only cursed for his pains and cut off in the middle of his pleading. So he wandered up-stairs into Mortimer's apartments, where he tubbed and dressed, and finally descended, to find Agatha Caithness alone in the library, spinning a roulette wheel and whistling an air from "La Bacchante." "That's pretty," he said; "sing it." "No; it's better off without the words; and so are you," added Agatha candidly, relinquishing the wheel and strolling with languid grace about the room, hands on her hips, timing her vagrant steps to the indolent, wicked air. And, "'Je rougirais de men ivresse Si tu conservais ta raison!'" she hummed deliberately, pivoting on her heels and advancing again toward Plank, her pretty, pale face delicate as an enamelled cameo under the flood of light from the crystal chandeliers. "I understand that Mr. Mortimer is not coming with us," she said carelessly. "Are you going to dance with me, if I find nobody better?" He expressed himself flattered, cautiously. He was one of many who never understood this tall, white, low-voiced girl, with eyes too pale for beauty, yet strangely alluring, too. Few men denied the indefinable enchantment of her; few men could meet her deep-lidded, transparent gaze unmoved. In the sensitive curve of her mouth there was a kind of sensuousness; in her low voice, in her pallor, in the slim grace of her a vague provocation that made men restless and women silently curious for something more definite on which to base their curiosity. She was wearing, over the smooth, dead-white skin of her neck, a collar of superb diamonds and aquamarines--almost an effrontery, as the latter were even darker than her eyes; yet the strange and effective harmony was evident, and Plank spoke of the splendour of the gems. She nodded indifferently, saying they were new, and that she had picked them up at Tiffany's; and he mentally sketched out the value of the diamonds, a trifle surprised, because Leila Mortimer had carefully informed him about the condition of the Caithness exchequer. That youthful matron herself appeared in a few moments, very lus
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204  
205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Mortimer

 

Agatha

 

Caithness

 

pretty

 

diamonds

 

finally

 

informed

 

Burbank

 
pallor
 
sensitive

sensuousness

 

definite

 
curious
 

unmoved

 

restless

 

silently

 

provocation

 
transparent
 

voiced

 
beauty

hearing

 
understood
 

strangely

 

alluring

 

lidded

 

curiosity

 

denied

 

indefinable

 

enchantment

 

sketched


mentally
 

trifle

 
Tiffany
 

picked

 

surprised

 

appeared

 

moments

 

matron

 

youthful

 

carefully


condition

 

exchequer

 

indifferently

 

nodded

 

superb

 

collar

 
aquamarines
 

wearing

 

smooth

 

effrontery