United States or Dominican Republic ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"What is it that you don't understand, Cesare?" she asked. "Some infernal joke or foolishness!" "It is no joke, signore," Mochales responded; "and it is better, perhaps, for your wife to leave us." Orsi turned to Lavinia. "He gives me back this necklace of Gheta's," he explained; "he says that he has every right.
It might suit Gheta, who had wrinkles, to encourage such men as Cesare Orsi; their wealth might appeal to cold and material minds, but they could never hope to inspire passion; no one would ever cherish for them a hopeless lifelong love. "Do you know," Orsi declared with firm conviction, "you are even handsomer than your sister!" "Fool! fool! fool!"
It wasn't Abrego y Mochales' courage that appealed to her most, although that had afforded her an exquisite thrill, but his powerful grace, his absolute physical perfection. Orsi was heated again and his tie had slipped up over the back of his collar. She recalled the first talk she had had with him about Mochales and the manner in which she had masked her true feeling for the latter.
Anna Mantegazza turned to the younger with a new veiled scrutiny. Her gaze rested for an instant on Orsi and then moved contemplatively to Gheta and Abrego y Mochales. It was evident that her thoughts were very busy; a faint sparkle appeared in her eyes, a fresh vivacity animated her manner.
In the early neolithic period in Sicily, called by Orsi the Sicanian Period, rock-hewn tombs seem not to have been used. It is only at the beginning of the metal age that they begin to appear. In this period, the so-called First Siculan, the tomb-chamber was almost always circular or elliptical, entered by a small door or window in the face of the rock.
"He resembles a juggler." Lavinia elaborately masked her hot resentment at this fresh stupidity. She must not, she felt, allow Orsi to discover her feeling for Abrego y Mochales; that was a secret she must keep forever from the profane world. She would die, perhaps at a terribly advanced age, with it locked in her heart. But if Gheta married him she would go into a convent.
It was like turning a knife in her wound to agree apparently with Cesare Orsi rather, she wanted to laugh at him coldly and leave him standing alone; but she must cultivate her defenses. There was, too, a sort of negative pleasure in misleading the banker, a sort of torment not unlike that enjoyed by the early martyrs. Cesare Orsi regarded her with new interest and approbation.
"The attendant, a new man, started the car too soon and caught Mochales " She sank down upon her knees in an attitude of prayer, and Cesare Orsi stood reverently bowed. "The will of God!" he muttered. A long slow shiver passed over Lavinia, and he bent and lifted her in his arms. He was the younger of two brothers, in his sixteenth year; and he had his father's eyes a tender and idyllic blue.
She was annoyed by the implied criticism, his entire lack of response to her new being. He had grown blind staring at his stupid old coins. A step sounded behind her; she turned hopefully, but it was only Cesare Orsi. "The others have gone outside," he told her, and she noticed that the piano had stopped.
They were at breakfast, on the wine-red tiling of a pergola by the water, and he had shaken his fist, with a rueful curse, in the direction of Naples. Before him lay an open letter with an engraved page heading. "I said," Lavinia repeated impatiently, "that Gheta will probably be here the last of the week." "The sacred camels!" Orsi exclaimed; then: "Oh, Gheta good!"
Word Of The Day