United States or Suriname ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I could have satisfied their queries as to the subject and character of the picture, for Mac and I had seen it only a few days before, but Clarian expected us to be secret about it; so I only listened and smiled, while the eager talk ran on, and a thousand conjectures were hazarded.
When he came, he would talk freely, and give us but too plain evidence of the change and confusion that were taking place in him. Mac never spared him at these times, and on one occasion, only a fortnight previous to the exhibition of the picture, fairly drove the boy into a passion. "Well, Mr. Whitewash," said he, as Clarian came in, "how are you at this present writing?
Then, as he read on and painted the king and murderer together, while his voice waxed stronger and fuller, we saw Clarian step forward to the salver and busy with its lambent flame, till it blazed up with a broad, red light, that, shedding a weird splendor upon all around, and lending a supernatural effect to the room's deep shadows, the picture's funereal aspect, and the unearthly pallor of the boy's countenance, startled our eyes like the painful glare of midnight lightning.
"Clarian," said Mac, after a pause, when we were again on our feet, he laid his hands on the boy's shoulders, as he spoke, and looked into his eyes, "Clarian, would it have happened, if you had not taken that foul drug?" Clarian shuddered, and covered up his face in his hands. "Do not ask me, dear Mac! do not ask me!
"See here, Sir," said he in his deepest bass voice, which his dark frown made still more ominous, "do you mean us to infer that you have been making that child Clarian the victim of any of your infernal jokes, as you style them?" Buckhurst stared a moment, and then, seeming to comprehend the drift of Mac's words, burst into a hearty laugh.
As soon as Hullfish saw him, he came forward with something like a sigh of relief, and said, "Ah, Doc, you here? 'Tar'n't a hoax, then, though I was mightily 'feared it was. Them students is the Devil for chivying of a feller, beggin' your pardon, Mr. Blount. Have you got him yonder, Doctor?" said he, his keen eye noticing Mac and Clarian in the back room. "What do you mean, Hullfish?
"Either some cruel trick has been played upon the boy, or he has been guilty of some act of madness" "Impossible!" cried we in a breath; "Clarian is as pure as Heaven." "Look at him, Thorne!" said my good chum, "look at the child's baby-face, so frank and earnest! look at him! You dare not say an impure thought ever awoke in that brain, an impure word ever crossed those lips." Dr.
Perhaps there was impertinence in their curiosity, very likely their presence hindered him; but, nevertheless, it was by no means like the sweet-tempered Clarian to show irritability and petulance, and finally, closing his door obstinately against all comers, to elect for solitude and silence at his work.
Hence, when Clarian came to college, he knew very little of life indeed, and, moreover, he cherished not a few ascetic notions, deeming this world "all a fleeting show," from whose vain illusions it was one's chief duty to shield one's self. He had never read a novel, save "some of Scott's," nor ever seen or read a play, not even of Shakspeare's.
Oh, yes!" cried Clarian, while his cheek glowed warmer, his eye flamed brighter, and his voice flowed on with a rhythmic throb, "oh, yes, I know it all, now! The Idea is awake, and dwells in my soul, at once master there and slave.
Word Of The Day