United States or Senegal ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
He slapped Signora Merani's face twice before every one." "Diavolo! What! a lady?" "Well, if you like to call her so," returned Doro, negligently. "Her husband is an impiegato of the Post-office, or something of the kind." "But why should the Marchese slap her face in the Chiaia?" "Because she provoked him. They took a flat in the house my father owns in the Strada Chiatamone.
"I didn't mean you to go so far as that, you know. And it's over in a minute." Angelica burst into the room at this point, followed by two or three dogs, and immediately took up her favourite position on the arm of her grandfather's chair. "I want some tea," she said. "It's coming," said Diavolo. "You say that because you don't want the trouble of getting up to ring," Angelica retorted.
"I have no patience with you Italians," he said, gruffly; "you bandy words and play with them as if you enjoyed it." Diavolo, thought I, he is angry at my silence. What will he be if I speak? "What do you wish to know, Signor Conte?" I inquired, in suave tones. "I wish to know where my daughter is. Where is she? Do you understand? I am asking a question now, and you cannot deny it."
"You wouldn't dare to thrash him if he were big enough to thrash you back," Angelica shrieked, waltzing round like a tornado; "and it isn't fair to thrash him and not me, for I am much worse than he is. You know I am, papa! and I shall hate you if Diavolo is thrashed, and teach him how to make your life a burden to you for a month, I shall" stamping her foot.
In this costume she had been called by M. de Talbrun the "Fra Diavolo of the Seas," and she never better supported that part, by liveliness and audacity, than she did that evening, when she made a conquest that was envied wildly envied by the three Demoiselles Wermant and the two Misses Sparks, for the handsome Gerard, after his first waltz with Madame de Villegry, asked no one to be his partner but Mademoiselle de Nailles.
"No, oh, no!" she generously responded. "None of us not one of us not even Angelica, suspected for a moment that he was in earnest. It had been his wolf-cry, you know, all his life. Evadne herself has no inkling of the truth." "I hope she never will," I said. "If it rests with Diavolo, she will not," his mother answered, proud of him, and with good cause.
Diavolo nodded his head to one side in intelligent acquiescence. Not being troubled with self-consciousness, he wore the handkerchief with which his head was decorated with the grave dignity of his best behaviour. "I sometimes think, sir," he began, addressing the bishop exactly in his father's precise way, "that there is something remarkable about my grandfather.
"Grandpapa," Diavolo resumed the Heavenly Twins never allowed the conversation to flag "Grandpapa, do you believe there ever was a little boy who never, never, told a lie?" "I hope, sir, you do not mean me to infer that you are mendacious?" the old gentleman sternly rejoined. "Mendacious?" Diavolo repeated; "that's do I tell lies, isn't it? Well, you see, sir, it's like this.
Her terror communicated itself to Diavolo's quick imagination, and he glanced toward the door apprehensively. Then he deliberately arose, put on his dressing gown and slippers, and lit a candle, by which time his face was steadily set. "Come," he said. "I'll see you safely to your room." "Diavolo, you're a real gentleman!" Angelica protested, "for I know you're in as big a fright as I am."
"I regret to say that they hailed it through the dining room window, and plied the driver with raw brandy until his venal nature gave in to their earnestly persuasive eloquence and the contents of their purses, and he consented to let Diavolo 'just try what it was like to sit up on that high box, Angelica having previously got inside, and, of course, the moment the young scamp had the reins in his hands he drove off full tilt."
Word Of The Day