United States or Kiribati ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Who's there?" he heard Olga's voice. "Is Nadyezhda Fyodorovna at home?" "No, she has not come in yet." "Strange . . . very strange," thought Atchmianov, feeling very uneasy. "She went home. . . ." He walked along the boulevard, then along the street, and glanced in at the windows of Sheshkovsky's. Laevsky was sitting at the table without his coat on, looking attentively at his cards.
"Don't come if you don't want to, you know." She laughed half-reluctantly, conscious of a queer desire to please him. Olga's words were running in her brain. He had fed on dust and ashes. Yet still she hesitated. "Will you wait for me?" "Till doomsday," said Nick obligingly. And drawn by a power that would not be withstood, she went down, still smiling, and joined him in the garden.
Couldn't you open the prison-door before he comes again, and let me slip through? I've never been a prisoner before. I've always come and gone as I liked. And now twice over he has dragged me back from the Gate of Paradise. Oh, Allegro, I shall never get there unless you help me. Quick, dear, quick! Help me now!" She had turned in Olga's arms. She raised an imploring face.
Max is going to put up with us now," she told Daisy, with a smile that pleaded with her friend to be lenient. Daisy's hand still held hers. "That is nice, dear," she said. "I must be getting back to Peggy. Is your fiancé coming to the regimental dance to-night?" "Oh, Max," Olga's eyes shone upon him, "you will, won't you? But of course you will. Noel will have settled that."
"Fan, do you remember that woman in `The Three Musketeers'? The hellish woman, that all men loved and loathed? Well, Olga's like that. I'm not whining. I'm not exaggerating. I'm just trying to make you understand. And yet I don't want you to understand. Only you don't know what it means to have you to talk to. To have some one who" he clutched her hand, fearfully "You do love me, don't you, Fanny?
John drew the needle from his coat lapel and wedged it carefully in the joint between his desk and the back of Olga's seat. A glance at Miss Brown found her watching Billy Silvey closely in the belief that he was the miscreant. The time for his crowning bit of persecution had arrived. Suddenly a nerve-wracking, ear-piercing vibration filled the room. Miss Brown's face went white with rage.
Hannaford, though a mother's reasons set her against him, had felt this seductive quality in Olga's lover, and liked though she could not approve of him. Powers of fascination in a man very often go together with lax principle, if not with active rascality; Kite was an instance to the contrary. He had a quixotic sensitiveness, a morbid instinct of honour.
Strange that she who knew him so intimately should never have seen him in such a mood! But did she know him after all? It was a question she had asked herself many times of late. She remembered how he had lightly told her that he had a reverse side. But had she ever really seen it, save for those brief glimpses by Olga's bedside, and as it was reflected in the child's whole-souled devotion to him?
"Noel," cut in the high, baby voice, "isn't that an ugly man? Who's that ugly man, Noel?" Noel squeezed Olga's hand and set it free to lift the small questioner to his knee. "That handsome gentleman, Peggy, is my brother, and he is going to marry this pretty lady whom you know. Any more questions?" Peggy stared at Olga very seriously. "Do you want to marry him, Miss Ratcliffe?" she asked.
"How can I?" she said, in hurried tones, "It's all wrong oh! you know that it's all wrong." Errington shrugged his shoulders. "I'm afraid we can never see eye to eye," he answered. "Let us, then, be philosophical over the matter and agree to differ." Olga's green eyes flamed with sudden anger, but she abstained from making any reply, turning away from him abruptly.
Word Of The Day