FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   140   141   >>   >|  
" Hazen, who could hardly tear his eyes from her face, fell slowly back as she painfully and conscientiously returned to her task. "Good God!" he murmured, as his eye sought Ransom's. "What a likeness!" Then he looked again at the girl, at the wave of her raven black hair breaking into little curls just above her ear; at the smooth forehead rendered so distinguished by the fine penciling of her arching brows; at the delicate nose with nostrils all alive to the beating of an over-anxious heart; at the mouth, touching in its melancholy so far beyond her years; and lastly at the strong young figure huddled on the little stool; and bending forward again, he uttered two or three quick sentences which Ransom could not catch. His persistence, or the near approach of his face to hers, angered her. Rising quickly to her feet, she vehemently cried out: "Go away from here. It is not right to keep on talking to a deaf girl after she has told you she cannot hear you." Then catching sight of Ransom, who had advanced a step in his sympathy for her, she gave a little sigh of relief and added querulously: "Make this man go away. This is the landlady's room. I don't like to have strangers talk to me. Besides--" here her voice fell, but not so low as to be inaudible to the subject of her remark, "he's not pretty. I've seen enough of men and women who are--" At this point Ransom drew Hazen out into the hall. "What do you think now?" he demanded. Hazen did not reply. The room they had just left seemed to possess a strange fascination for him. He continued to look back at it as he preceded Ransom down the hall. Ransom did not press his questions, but when they were on the point of separating at the head of the stairs, he held Hazen back with the words: "Let us come to some understanding. Neither of us can desire to waste strength in wrong conclusions. Can that woman be other than your own sister?" "No." The denial was absolute. "She is my sister." "Anitra?" emphasized Ransom. The smile which he received in reply was strangely mirthless. "I never rush to conclusions," was Hazen's remark after a moment of possibly mutual heart-beat and unsettling suspense. "Ask me that same question to-morrow. Perhaps by then I shall be able to answer you." CHAPTER XX BETWEEN THE ELDERBERRY BUSHES "No." The word came from Ransom. He had reached the end of his patience and was determined to have it out with this man
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   140   141   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Ransom

 

conclusions

 

sister

 
remark
 
questions
 

stairs

 
preceded
 

subject

 

separating

 

inaudible


demanded
 

pretty

 

fascination

 

strange

 

possess

 
continued
 

question

 

morrow

 

Perhaps

 
suspense

possibly

 
moment
 

mutual

 

unsettling

 

answer

 

reached

 

patience

 
determined
 

BUSHES

 

CHAPTER


BETWEEN

 

ELDERBERRY

 

desire

 

strength

 

Neither

 

understanding

 

emphasized

 

received

 

strangely

 

mirthless


Anitra

 

denial

 

absolute

 

nostrils

 

beating

 

delicate

 
distinguished
 

penciling

 

arching

 

anxious