United States or Austria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The chair she had taken had a high back, and against this she laid her head, as if too weary to support it. Lack of sleep and appetite had paled her florid colour to a sickly hue, and she looked wan and languid as a dying woman. But still he did not pity her, as he must have done had her face been half as beautiful as Deb's or Francie's.
"No, Miss Pennycuick. I laughed. I said to myself: 'Here is another of Miss Francie's mare's nests. But when I read on she told me so many things they were incredible, but still I felt I had to sift the matter; and since I came up today, other people I've been to Five Creeks and had a talk with Jim Urquhart now I don't know what to think; at least, there is but one thing that I can think."
Here and there, too, lovers not lovers like Francie's, a peculiar breed, but simply lovers trembling, blushing, silent, sought each other by flying glances, sought to meet and touch in the mazes of the dance, and now and again dancing together, struck some beholder by the light in their eyes.
Francie's anger had died down a good deal by the time he reached home. He was, as his father's friend had just said, by no means a bad sort of fellow, only he was full of himself, and therefore of little use to anybody. His mother and he, when not actually at strife, were constantly on the edge of a quarrel. The two must have their own way, each of them.
"He thinks he can get over every difficulty by pulling out his purse. But perhaps Miss Francie might prefer carrying out her charitable work herself." So Maurice Mangan was arrogating to himself, was he, the right of guessing Francie's preferences? "Well, mother, tell me where I am likely to find her. I am going to pull her out of those fever-dens and refuges for cripples.
I was in hopes that it was altogether an invention of Miss Francie's I know of old that she is prone to make reckless statements " "Ah-h Francie!" "She was kind enough to write me a long letter, to congratulate me on my promotion. She told me all the family news. And she said she asked me but really I haven't the cheek to repeat her words " His cold face had become hot, and his manner agitated.
It may as well be said at once that his prevision was soon made good and that in the course of a fortnight old Mr. Probert and his daughters alighted successively at the Hotel de l'Univers et de Cheltenham. Francie's visit with her intended to Mme. de Brecourt bore exactly the fruit her admirer had foretold and was followed the very next day by a call from this lady.
The seven women whom he had addressed broke into a subdued murmur, out of which emerged Francie's, "Really, the Forsytes!" and Aunt Juley's: "He must have his feet in mustard and hot water to-night, Hester; will you tell Jane? The blood has gone to his head again, I'm afraid...."
"She said she was going across the common to old Widow Jackson's," his mother answered him, "and you may find her either there or on the way to the village." "Widow Jackson's?" he repeated, in doubt. "Oh, I know it," Mangan said, cheerfully. And again Lionel was somewhat astonished. How had Maurice Mangan acquired this particular knowledge of Francie's surroundings?
And yet, in spite of the sound common sense which fixed the worth of art at what it would fetch, some of the Forsytes Aunt Hester, for instance, who had always been musical could not help regretting that Francie's music was not 'classical'; the same with her poems. But then, as Aunt Hester said, they didn't see any poetry nowadays, all the poems were 'little light things.
Word Of The Day