|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 56
'Oh, I have debts, as well as you.'
'What have debts to do with the question?'
'I owe something to my reputation.'
'If we're going to consider our reputations, what of mine?'
'Yours has preceded you into the country,' she said, and drew from her
pocket a small, thin volume, bound in grey cloth, with a gilt design.
'Oh, heavens!' cried Paul. 'This is how one's past finds one out.'
'Oh, some of them aren't bad,' she said. 'Wait, I'll read you one.'
'Then you know English?'
'A leetle. Bot the one I shall read is in Franch.'
And then she read out, in an enchanting voice, one of his own French
sonnets. 'That isn't bad,' she added. 'Do you think it hopelessly
bad?'
'It shows promise, perhaps--when _you_ read it.'
'It is strange, though, that it should have been written by a man who
had never been in love.'
'Imagination! Upon my word, I never had been. Besides, the idea is
stolen. It's almost a literal translation from Rossetti. What with a
little imagination and a little ingenuity, one can do wonderfully well
on other people's experience.'
'I don't believe you. You have been in love a hundred times.'
'Never.'
'Never? Not even with H�l�ne de la Granjolaye de Ravanches?'
'Oh, I don't count my infancy. Never with anybody else.'
'It's very strange,' she said. 'Tell me some more about her.'
'Oh, bother her.'
'I suppose when they carried you off to Paris you had a tearful
parting? Did you kick and scream and say you wouldn't go?'
'Why do you always make me talk about the Queen?'
'She interests me. And when you talk about the Queen, I rather like
you. It is nice to see that there _was_ a time when you were capable
of an emotion.'
'You fancy I'm incapable now?'
'Tell me about your leave-taking, your farewells.'
'Bother our farewells.'
'They must have been heart-rending?'
'Probably.'
'Don't you remember?'
'Oh, yes, I remember.'
'Go on. Don't make me drag it from you by inches. Tell it to me in a
pretty melodious narrative. Either that, or--' she touched her
whistle.
'That's barefaced intimidation.'
She raised the whistle to her lips.
'Stay, stay!' he cried, 'I yield.'
'I wait,' she answered.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|