United States or Lithuania ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Mantegazza knew a man who kept for many years on his desk the skull of his dead mistress, making it his dearest companion. "Some," he remarks, "have slept for months and years with a book, a garment, a trifle. I once had a friend who would spend long hours of joy and emotion kissing a thread of silk which she had held between her fingers, now the only relic of love."
A full and excellent account of the manner in which savages in all parts of the world ornament themselves, is given by the Italian traveller, Professor Mantegazza, 'Rio de la Plata, Viaggi e Studi, 1867, pp. 525-545; all the following statements, when other references are not given, are taken from this work.
You will not be surprised that I differ altogether from you about sexual colours. That the tail of the peacock and his elaborate display of it should be due merely to the vigour, activity, and vitality of the male is to me as utterly incredible as my views are to you. Mantegazza published a few years ago in Italy a somewhat similar view.
The Flower of Spain inhaled a deep breath of smoke, which he expelled in deliberate globes. "Oh, don't! Oh " Lavinia exclaimed, an arm before her eyes. Mochales shifted easily from his seat and apparently in the same instant the bull crushed the stool to splinters. "Bravo! Bravo!" Anna Mantegazza called again, and the man bowed until his extended hat rested on the ground.
"And I missed it for an insufferable affair. He stood under the window " "With a guitar," Lavinia proceeded evenly. "It was very beautiful." "Heavens! Bembo's going to fetch him to the Guarinis' sale, and I forgot and promised Anna Mantegazza to drive out to Arcetri! But Anna won't miss this. It was really a very pretty compliment."
"I knew nothing myself until a little bit ago," Lavinia explained apologetically, filled with a formless pity for Gheta. "Isn't it pretty? Anna Mantegazza gave it to me." She could see, over Gheta's shoulder, Cesare Orsi staring at her in idiotic surprise. "Don't you like it, Gheta?" Anna asked.
At least then she would have some one with whom to recall the pleasant trifles of past years. She would have liked to ask Anna Mantegazza, too; but this she knew was impossible Gheta had not forgiven Anna for her part on the night that had resulted in Orsi's proposal for Lavinia. She wondered, more obscurely, whether Abrego y Mochales was still in Florence.
Gheta glanced at her out of a cool superiority, but Anna Mantegazza nodded vigorously. "He would be a horrid person!" she affirmed. "How silly!" Gheta responded. "It's an art, like the opera; he's an artist in courage. Personally I find it rather fascinating. Most men are so so mild."
He bent and brushed Lavinia's forehead with his crisp mustache, and then returned to the delicate manipulation of a magnifying glass and a small blue bottle of acid. She left him for a deep chair and a surprising French romance by Remy de Gourmont. At a long philosophical dialogue the book drooped, and she thought of Anna Mantegazza and her husband. She wondered whether they were happy.
An overwhelming sense of the mystery of being stabbed, sharp as a knife, at her heart; a choking longing possessed her to experience all all the wonders of life, but principally love. "Look, Bembo!" Anna Mantegazza suddenly exclaimed. "No; there approaching! Who's that singular person in the hired carriage?"
Word Of The Day