Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 9, 2025
I want the advice and help of a clever woman together with the sense of permanence and security which, in our imperfect state of civilization, is made possible only by marriage. And I, too, have my secret fear. I am afraid that some day I may be driven in short, I am afraid of Aunt Caroline." Desire's inquiring eyebrows lifted. "A man afraid of his aunt?"
"What a true philosopher she is, my sweet Aizif!" she went on amusedly stroking the creature's head, "Her feminine wit teaches her what the dull brains of men can never grasp, . . namely, that pleasures, no matter how sweet, turn to ashes and wormwood when once obtained, and that the only happiness in this world is the charm of DESIRE! There is a subject for thee, Sah-luma! ... write an immortal Ode on the mysteries, the delights, the never-ending ravishment of Desire! ... but carry not thy fancy on to desire's fulfilment, for there thou shalt find infinite bitterness!
To Desire's surprise the row accepted this seriously. "But as he was a baby and not a frog," she went on hurriedly, "he must have lived with his mother in a house. The name of the country they lived in was Egypt. And Egypt had a wicked King. This wicked King ordered all the little boy babies " She paused, appalled at the thought of telling these infants of that long-past ruthlessness.
Edwards made no reply, and Perez left him to think the matter over, pretty confident of the result. That evening in the family circle, after a gloomy account of the disaster threatening to engulf the family fortunes if the proposed policy of fixing prices were carried out, Edwards spoke of Hamlin's disposition to come to his aid, and his suggestion concerning Desire's presence at the husking.
But what of him? With merciless lucidity Desire's busy brain created the missing acts which might have brought the professor's tragedy of errors to a happy ending. It would have been so simple if Benis had only waited. Even pursuit would not have been required of him. Mary, unpursued, would have come back; unasked, she might have offered. But Benis had not waited.
Burton-Jones' windows immensely but now, windows bored her. In the only window that mattered the blinds were down. Desire's life had narrowed as it broadened. It wasn't life that she wanted any more it was the one thing which could have made life dear. A great impatience of trivialities came upon her.
She had already reached the point when it seemed impossible that anyone should not admire what to her was entirely admirable. Who else could there be compared with Benis? No. It looked, upon the face of it, as if there had been a mistake somewhere. Benis had despaired too soon! This fateful thought had been crouching at the door of Desire's mind ever since Mary had ceased to be an abstraction.
The wave seeped back, receded away from me down its invisible beach. Desire's warning hammered at my mind, striving to burst some barred door to reach the consciousness within that had loitered too long. This was the new peril. This was what I had fled from, unknowing the source of my panic, the night before. This was death.
I found the door through which the Thing had slipped. But it was useless to try to follow. There was no one in the house nor in the moonlit clearing. And Desire and Li Ho were waiting on the trail. I picked up the still sleeping child and blundered down to them. It seemed incredible to hear Desire's laugh. "Good gracious!" she said. "You're carrying him upside down."
No harm had been done. Quite the opposite. Desire's one valid objection had been neatly and effectually disposed of. And now the matter could be dropped. It would be forgotten.... What did it amount to in any case? Other men lied every day saying they had never loved.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking