United States or Sweden ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
As he looked down at Gemma, smiling with half-shut eyes, in the subtle, sphinx-like way that gave him the look of a Leonardo da Vinci portrait, the instinctive distrust with which he inspired her deepened into a sense of unreasoning fear.
And we can have our wedding much sooner than I had anticipated! 'When must you go? asked Gemma. 'To-day, in an hour's time; my friend has ordered a carriage he will take me. 'You will write to us? 'At once! directly I have had a talk with this lady, I will write. 'This lady, you say, is very rich? queried the practical Frau Lenore.
How had the garnet cross given Sanin by Gemma existed till now, why had he not sent it back, how had it happened that he had never come across it till that day?
The handwriting of the address on the envelope was English.... He did not recognise it, and there was a pang at his heart. He could not at once bring himself to break open the envelope. He glanced at the signature Gemma! The tears positively gushed from his eyes: the mere fact that she signed her name, without a surname, was a pledge to him of reconciliation, of forgiveness!
Was it possible she would not come? A shiver of cold suddenly ran through his limbs. The same shiver came again an instant later, but from a different cause. Sanin heard behind him light footsteps, the light rustle of a woman's dress.... He turned round: she! Gemma was coming up behind him along the path. She was wearing a grey cape and a small dark hat.
Gemma quickly dropped down on a bench beside her and did not stir again, only from time to time she put a finger of one hand to her lips with the other hand she was holding up a pillow behind her mother's head and said softly, 'sh-sh! with a sidelong look at Sanin, if he permitted himself the smallest movement.
He muttered, 'Don't disturb me! gave a kick, and fell asleep, like a baby. Sanin once more scanned his clumsy figure, his head, his neck, his upturned chin, round as an apple, and going out of the hotel, set off with rapid strides to the Rosellis' shop. He had to let Gemma know. He found her in the shop with her mother.
'I would ask you to bring me back some good Astrakhan lambskin for a cape, said Frau Lenore. 'They're wonderfully good, I hear, and wonderfully cheap! 'Certainly, with the greatest pleasure, I will bring some for you and for Gemma! cried Sanin. 'And for me a morocco cap worked in silver, Emil interposed, putting his head in from the next room.
THE next five weeks were spent by Gemma and the Gadfly in a whirl of excitement and overwork which left them little time or energy for thinking about their personal affairs.
Once, when Pasht was a kitten and his mistress too ill to think about him, he had come from England under Martini's care, tucked away in a basket. Since then, long experience had convinced him that this clumsy human bear was no fair-weather friend. "How snug you look, you two!" said Gemma, coming into the room. "One would think you had settled yourselves for the evening."
Word Of The Day