United States or Bolivia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Through the tower window and the ivy closing round it, the blueness of the summer sky was heavenly fair; soft, and light white clouds floated across the clearness of its sapphire. On this Anne's eyes were fixed with an uplifted tenderness until she broke her silence. "Soon I shall be away," she said. "Soon all will be left behind.
Then, pointing to a cluster of rocks where a jet of steam was being forced out violently, he led the way there, when they had to pass over a tiny stream of hot water, and a few yards farther on, they came to its source, a beautiful bright fount of the loveliest sapphire blue, with an edge that looked like a marble bath of a roseate tint, fringed every here and there with crystals of sulphur.
"In a second he was alert and awake; the next instant he found himself at the panel, reaching tremulously for the concealed spring. "At last he found it; the panel shot back, and the prince, after one searching glance, stood transfixed and uttered a cry of wondering despair. "'The gleaming hoard still shot its varied lightnings. The royal sapphire still crowned its priceless apex.
"These Polar ices," she exclaims, "which no dust has ever stained, as spotless now as on the first day of the creation, are tinted with the vividest colours, so that they look like rocks composed of precious stones: the glitter of the diamond, the dazzling hues of the sapphire and the emerald, blend in an unknown and marvellous substance.
Gold, which is the matter, signified wisdom. The blue of the sapphire, faith. The verdure of the emerald, hope. The redness of the ruby, charity. And splendour of the topaz, good works." While she spoke, she took the ring from her finger, and put it into Jacob's hand, desiring to know if he could make it fit her finger better, as it was rather too large.
And still Norhala's golden chant lured; higher and even higher reached the following wave. Now we were rising upon a steep slope; now the amethystine, gleaming ring was almost overheard. Norhala's song ceased. One breathless, soundless moment and we had pierced the veils. A globule of sapphire shone afar, the elfin bubble of her home. We neared it.
How can one sit on a vine-embowered balcony facing lovely Lake Geneva and think about modern problems, Improved Tenements, Child Labour, Single Tax, Sweat Shops, and the Right Training of the Rising Civilization? Blue Lake Geneva! blue as a woman's eye, blue as the vault of heaven, dropped into the lap of the green earth like a great sparkling sapphire!
Then she went up and dressed herself for dinner with such splendour that her maid thought it necessary to remind her that there was no company coming. "No," she said, with a strange smile; "but I am going out to-night. Give me my sapphire necklace." She sat through dinner, and afterwards went into the drawing-room, and opening a despatch-box, read and burnt a great number of papers.
That was impossible, or he would never have let her take the sapphire Harry, who had seen the ring, the very Crew Idol itself, within the twenty-four hours. "A little heathen god curled round himself with a big blue stone on the top-of his head." Harry hadn't said what sort of stone it was; but Kerr had said it was a sapphire. There was a sapphire on her hand now.
And in the next few days he had sold his sapphire, had added to his clothing, had bought a bright dagger, and had still a pair of gold florins left. But he meant to hoard that treasure carefully: his lodging was an outhouse with a heap of straw in it, in a thinly inhabited part of Oltrarno, and he thought of looking about for work as a porter. He had bought his dagger at Bratti's.
Word Of The Day