United States or Saint Pierre and Miquelon ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Ere breakfast was over, Professor Valeyon entered with his slippers, his pipe, and a remarkably benevolent expression for one of such impending eyebrows. "Well, my boy," said he ever since the accident he had addressed Bressant thus "you look in a better humor with yourself this morning.
Professor Valeyon rose from his chair and walked to the window. A mighty host of gray clouds, piled thickly one upon another, and torn and tunneled by feverish wind-gusts, were hastening swiftly and silently across the sky from the west. Beyond, where they were thickest and angriest, a yellowish, lurid tint was reflected against them.
She never ventured to say any thing to her sister on the subject, however. There was a gulf between the two that widened like a river, hour by hour. Toward evening a letter came from the boarding-house, directed to Professor Valeyon. It was in Abbie's handwriting, and must contain some news of Bressant.
A result somewhat similar to this was doubtless what Professor Valeyon aimed at in his plan of developing the emotional and affectional elements of his pupil, albeit he was far from imagining what might be the cost and risk to every thing which he himself held most dear.
Dolly was putting her best foot foremost, and her ears were laid back close to her head: though that, by reason of the darkness, Professor Valeyon could not see. He and Dolly had travelled this road in company so often, however, and every turn and dip was so well known to him, that it never would have occurred to him to feel any anxiety.
It produced an impression at once of cleanliness and disorder, therein bearing a strong analogy to the professor's own person and habits; and the disorder was of such a kind, that, although no rule or system in the arrangement of any thing was perceptible, Professor Valeyon would have been at once and almost instinctively aware of any alteration that might have been made, however slight.
Yet, her pulse still beat regularly, though faintly, and at long intervals, and her breath went and came, though with a motion almost imperceptible to the eye. "Is it a good sign? Will she get well now?" asked Cornelia, as she and her father stood looking down at her. "She'll never get well, my dear," said Professor Valeyon, very quietly.
He was not embarrassed, for it had probably never occurred to him that his deafness was so much a defect as a difference of organization, and he lost no time in explaining matters in his customary way. "I'm deaf; when you talk to me you must speak loud," said he, looking full at Cornelia's disturbed face. Miss Valeyon had never been so thoroughly discomfited.
"Come into the boudoir, Professor Valeyon. You're a stranger." "But that's going to be remedied that's going to be remedied!" rejoined the old gentleman, seating himself, and allowing his hand to wander to the top of his head, to make sure the hair-swathe was safely in position. "Bond of union been established between us, you know."
Professor Valeyon smoked for a while in silence, occasionally casting puzzled and searching glances at the young man, who took up a book from the table it happened to be a volume of Celestial Mechanics and began to read it with great apparent interest.
Word Of The Day